USING “TOON BOOM STORYBOARD PRO ” SOFTWARE

Well, let’s see now.

I went to a private party within a club, Saturday night. It was there that I met Mr. Robert Lee, younger brother of my absolute, all time hero, Bruce Lee.  Robert is a very warm and intelligent man, who had no problems discussing his legendary brother, even though Robert is his own person and a gifted (though “retired”) musician.

I also met a great stunt/fight coordinator named Andy Cheng, who to martial arts geeks like me is way up the ladder for having been a former member of Jackie Chan’s stunt team.  Since then, Andy has coordinated and directed second unit on THE RUNDOWN, the first hit movie for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

Back to storyboards, I am starting work with my friend John Singleton.  This has given me the chance to start using (with scant knowledge) a new software I’ve had for months called STORYBOARD PRO from the Canadian company TOON BOOM, which is well known for animation software.

Once I learn how to use it properly, STORYBOARD PRO will allow me to not only continue to do storyboards digitally without paper, but I will also be able to do my own animatics, doing camera moves such as PANS, TILTS and BOOMS.

Tradition storyboards can be done as well, certainly. What I am excited about is the ability to add to certain scenes where the director needs to get a sense of pacing and motion. 

Once the boards are done, they be loaded, shown or sent to a client in various ways, such as a PDF or a QUICKTIME MOVIE.  The latter is great, because in STORYBOARD PRO, you can add sound effects, music and voices.

If you still work on paper, that’s fine. The program will allow you to import storyboard files. You just have to make sure the individual frames are on separate documents and not three or four to a page.

For a direct link, check it out here.

http://www.toonboom.com/products/storyboardpro

It’s worth a look.

DRAWING BRUCE LEE

            

     The past week I had to work on some concepts for some Bruce Lee illustrations. For people that know me, they know that Bruce is my hero whom I loved ever since first seeing THE BIG BOSS (released in the U.S. as “FISTS OF FURY”) some thirty-six years ago.

              First thing I did was to make screen grabs (picture from a dvd) from my copy of ENTER THE DRAGON for reference. I made as many shots as I could.  Even though a Mac comes with a built in program called “GRAB”, you can’t use it on dvd’s.  In that case, there are programs you can purchase that work on dvd’s for image capturing like SCREEN SHOT PRO. 

              Once I had all the images I needed, I started to sketch out some poses and then compositions. I used my Wacom Cintiq to do the job. (see an earlier blog on Wacom Cintiqs) The drawings came out “okay” , but something was missing.  The resemblances were really kicking my ass.

              My friend Lawrence Christmas suggested that I NOT draw everything on my Cintiq from scratch, but that I pencil the initial sketches. I find that using a Cintiq is great, as I draw directly on to the screen and I don’t have to scan drawings. The problem is, there is a textural feeling that cannot (or at least not Larry and myself) be duplicated when working with a pencil first on paper to sketch things out.

 

              Doing resemblances to real people is enough of a task. A pencil can get sharp and yet have tooth. The glass of the Cintiq, is just that, glass. There is no tooth and no feel. There is that finite bit of control when doing something extremely fine that I can’t replicate.

              When I do storyboards, I can do detailed work in terms of the amount of detail I put in.

              When I am doing extremely fine work, (like an illustration)or something that takes an effort like a likeness done in small details, the best thing for me to do was to pencil a few Bruce heads, scan them, and then ink and add them to the bodies I had done on my drawings I had done on the Cintiq in the Photoshop program.

              There are people that can do anything on a Wacom tablet or a Cintiq screen, but for my purposes, I will now start my illustrations with the old fashion paper and pencil.

              Bruce deserves that.

BACK TO BACK STORYBOARDS AND NO SLEEP - PART 2

Okay, I am doing one of those back to back gigs. Actually it is a same time - two gigs as I have been working storyboarding on a PUSSYCAT GIRLS  video at the same time as doing spec boards for a director who has a meeting TOMORROW, so I am sorry that I don’t have time to write and gab. The video job was fun with lots of waiting mixed in with a lot of boards in little time. The other gig is still going on. My good friend Jim Magdaleno pitched in to finish a bunch of pages off my roughs.  My wife Betty just massaged my very sorry drawing hand.  Love her. See ya.

BACK TO BACK STORYBOARDS AND NO SLEEP - PART 2

Okay, I am doing one of those back to back gigs. Actually it is a same time - two gigs as I have been working storyboarding on a PUSSYCAT GIRLS  video at the same time as doing spec boards for a director who has a meeting TOMORROW, so I am sorry that I don’t have time to write and gab. The video job was fun with lots of waiting mixed in with a lot of boards in little time. The other gig is still going on. My good friend Jim Magdaleno pitched in to finish a bunch of pages off my roughs.  My wife Betty just massaged my very sorry drawing hand.  Love her. See ya.