How to Create an Animatic

An animatic is the next step in the storyboarding process which involves adding sound, camera movements, animation, and scene transitions.Storyboard Pro has all the tools necessary to synchronize your storyboard with sound, add camera and layer movements, and transitions before you export to the final video format.

About the Timeline View

The Timeline view is where you assemble the timing of a scene’s visuals and sounds. You can add sound track layers, as well as edit audio files imported into the sound tracks. You can also add transitions and control the playback of a selected panel or the entire storyboard from this view.

1 The current timecode (playhead position) is displayed in the top-left corner of the Timeline view. The total duration of the project is displayed the current timecode. You can click and drag the timecode to scroll through your project.
2 The names and beginnings of the different acts are indicated by small flags at the top of the Timeline view.

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Sequences are displayed as blue bars.

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Scenes are represented by grey frames at the top and bottom of the panels.

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Each panel displays a thumbnail.

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Camera movements are displayed as black bars in the Camera track and keyframes as blue diamonds (when selected).

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The audio blocks appear below the scenes.

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The current sequence, scene, and panel names are displayed at the beginning of the panel row.

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Transitions are displayed as blue rectangles between scenes.

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Layer movements are displayed as black bars in the Layer track and keyframes as blue diamonds (when selected).

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The soundtrack names and Mute and Lock icons are displayed at the beginning of the audio rows.

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Sound options are available for manipulating the audio.

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The Zoom tool increases or reduces the width of the frames in the Timeline view. Move the slider right to increase the width or left to reduce it. You can also press 1 and 2. Reset the zoom by click the Reset Zoom button.

Setting the Panel Duration

An accurate way of setting the duration of a panel is to use the Panel view, which will display, among other things, the exact timecode information for the selected panel.

Animating Layers

By default, layers are not animated. To animate a layer, begin by setting a keyframe on the desired position. You can then use the Transform tool to move the layer and set as many keyframes as needed for your animation. You can then edit the keyframes and timing using the layer track controls in the Timeline view.

If you decide to delete the keyframes from a layer, you can clear all of them by clicking the Animate button. Once cleared the keyframes are cleared, the layer remains at the position of the current frame.

Animating the Camera

In order to create any animated camera for a scene, you need at least two keyframes. Create these keyframes before you change the position of the camera if you plan to move it.

NOTE: Enabling the Camera Label in the Stage view can be very helpful when manipulating keyframes. You can do this via the Stage view status bar.

Adding Sound

You can add new audio tracks to your project. To do so, you must work in the Timeline view—see Importing Sound Clips.

Importing a Sound Clip

You can import sound clips (.wav, .aif, .aiff, or .mp3) into an audio track at the first frame or at the current frame. If the sound clip does not already exist in your project, Storyboard Pro copies the file from its present location to the audio folder in your storyboard project folder. You must work in the Timeline view.MP3 files are not recommended for long sequences because it is a compressed file format. For optimal results, use .wav or .aif sound files when working on a long sequence.

Creating a Transition

Adding a transition between scenes is an effective way to move your story along.