Storyboarding... How to?

Ricardo · Post by **Ricardo** » Sun Jul 01, 2007 1:51 pm

I was playing with AS trying to do a scene in a single file with different camera angles.
I used some 'ready to load' characters (that has more than one side available) to do it.

Here are some kind of story board:

Here you can download scene (is short):

http://www.mp3doctor.com/animation/dialog_1.anme

Remember im quite new in AS, so maybe some movements, etc are very fast.

This small scene is just a dialog, trying to show that can be swtiching cameras view to give it more rythm.

Rhoel · Post by **Rhoel** » Sun Jul 01, 2007 3:15 pm

Just remember that storyboards are not just pictures, there is the dialogue and action to fill in too, as is the background information - you really do need to know where the horizon line is, how the colour and other background objects interact. And there are the transitions too.

If anyone needs a blank storyboards, there is this one on my server.

dlangdev · Post by **dlangdev** » Sun Jul 01, 2007 7:47 pm

i somehow can't open the anme file, rhoel.

i'll retry later.

Post by **Víctor Paredes** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 1:40 am

dlangdev wrote:i somehow can't open the anme file, rhoel.

i'll retry later.

uhm, i can't see any anme file, just a jpg with rhoel's blank storyboard (which i have saved. thanks, rhoel)

dlangdev · Post by **dlangdev** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 4:19 am

whooopsie, it was ricardo's

http://www.mp3doctor.com/animation/dialog_1.anme

Post by **Víctor Paredes** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 5:39 am

i can see ricardo's file. but as he didn't upload the pictures too, i just can see "broken link" images.
the AS file needs the image files. the option is that you manually re-link each part of each image layer (head, arms, etc) to your anime studio characters included in the content (aya and the girl, or maya and the boy... i don't know).
i think there is an script which make this task easier, but i don't remember where.

PS: when you be working with external files (as images, 3d objects, soundtrack or scripts) it's better to put this files inside the same folder where the .anme file is. in this way, when you want to move your animation, or when you want to share it or whatever, you must just take the entire folder (compressed to zip or rar to share in internet...).

dlangdev · Post by **dlangdev** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 5:57 am

not sure, here's what i'm getting...

anyway, i'm going to skip this file and move on.

thanks for looking into it, really appreciate the effort.

Post by **Víctor Paredes** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 6:12 am

try to download it again. it happened to me too, but i re-download it and works.

Ricardo · Post by **Ricardo** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 2:33 pm

selgin wrote:i can see ricardo's file. but as he didn't upload the pictures too, i just can see "broken link" images.
the AS file needs the image files. the option is that you manually re-link each part of each image layer (head, arms, etc) to your anime studio characters included in the content (aya and the girl, or maya and the boy... i don't know).
i think there is an script which make this task easier, but i don't remember where.

PS: when you be working with external files (as images, 3d objects, soundtrack or scripts) it's better to put this files inside the same folder where the .anme file is. in this way, when you want to move your animation, or when you want to share it or whatever, you must just take the entire folder (compressed to zip or rar to share in internet...).

I dont use any external image, just the AS characters AYA and the Boy. Nothing more.

Ricardo · Post by **Ricardo** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 2:35 pm

dlangdev wrote:not sure, here's what i'm getting...

anyway, i'm going to skip this file and move on.

thanks for looking into it, really appreciate the effort.

That prompt was when you tried to run my file?

Post by **Víctor Paredes** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 2:49 pm

Ricardo wrote:I dont use any external image, just the AS characters AYA and the Boy. Nothing more.

yes, but this images are actually external images.
for example, your characters are in a place like this
"C:\Archivos de programa\E-Frontier\Anime Studio Pro\Library\Anime Characters"
inside this there are folders with all the images. ok, so AS saves your file and write "the image head is in the folder c:\Archivos de programa\E-frontier... etc"
the problem with this is that if you open the file in another computer, this route can be different.
for example, in your computer your folder is called "archivos de programa", because your windows, as mine, is in spanish (i suppose). but when windows is in english, the folder is called "program files", so your .anme file won't found the file when he think it is.
It can happen to if windows would installed in a hard disk different to C:\
all the route can be the same, but if it starts with D:\ instead C:\, the .anme file won't find its images.

In my computer, for example, i haven't the "E-frontier" folder, "Anime Studio pro" is directly in "Archivos de Programa" so my route is different, so i can't see the images.

There are people which delete this images, because actually they are useless if you are familiar of working with bones.

maybe similar info is in the official documentation, i don't know.

Ricardo · Post by **Ricardo** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 5:22 pm

How did people share .anme files? How does they work around this "path" problem?

Post by **Víctor Paredes** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 6:07 pm

Ricardo wrote:How did people share .anme files? How does they work around this "path" problem?

if you save all in the same folder, there won't be a complex path as "c:\program files\e-frontier...".

for example, you have your project folder called "my nice animation", and directly inside this is your file "niceanimation.anme", and inside the same folder is another folder called "my nice images", which contents all the images and stuff.

so you will have something like this

>My nice animation
-----

niceanimation.anme
-----

>my nice images
------------

nice cat.jpg
------------

beauty flower.jpg
------------

horrible monster.jpg

when you do this, AS don't write all the route to get the image, for example, he just look for "my nice images/nice cat.jpg"
so, he doesn't care in which hard disk, pc, folder or whichever the "My nice animation folder" be. he just look for the files inside.
then, if you want to share, just compress "My nice animation folder" to a rar or a zip, and send it. they will uncompress the file in their hard disks and all will be fine.

(it's the same way when you organize the files to make a web page)

knunk · Post by **knunk** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 6:42 pm

Hi chaps
I saw the storyboards thread and admit to posting without reading any of it. Just to say If any of you are interested I can put up some boarding notes that may help you. I've been doing boards for TV and Film for 18 years now so if anyone is serious about it and has any questions give me a shout.
Like animation, boards can/should take a life time to learn... so I can only relate from my experiences.

cheers

dlangdev · Post by **dlangdev** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 7:10 pm

thanks knunk-san, really appreciate your presence here. i'm basically just a hobbyist doing animation on my own time, you're the sensei around here, i guess.

by the way, i did several sketchings of a scene and will post it later, i'm interested in the getting it pasted on a storyboard with the correct/proper timing on it.