Using AI

AI Masking

Expand Image

Increase Image Resolution

Analyze Script with AI

Select Character Voice

Generate Scene Length with AI

Through Toon Boom Ember, you have access to a suite of AI-powered tools to enhance your workflow. By opting into Ember, you will be able to utilize the AI tools to automate time consuming and repetitive tasks and enhance visual quality of lower resolution images. Toon Boom has collaborated with AI providers to facilitate the integration of AI into your creative pipeline.

IMPORTANT These service providers will not collect or store your data nor will they use your projects to train AI.

By default the AI features are disabled. In order to be enabled, you will need a license for both Storyboard Pro and Ember as well as to enable the AI features in the Preferences dialog.

TIP The Enable Ember Functionalities option is located in the Advanced tab of the Preferences dialog.

After enabling Ember, you will be required to relaunch the software in order to access the AI tools.

AI Masking

AI Masking allows you to isolate individual elements in an imported image. Once isolated, these elements can be removed and substituted by the AI.

Depending on the sharpness, level of contrast and resolution of the image, the AI can distinguish specific details. The sharper the image and the higher the resolution, the more accurate the AI will be when processing your image.

You can use the following AI Masking tools to apply an AI Mask:

  • AI Mask Selector.

  • AI Mask Brush.

  • AI Mask Eraser.

You can use both the AI Mask Selector and AI Mask Brush to mask your image. The AI Mask Selector will select shapes and objects detected by the AI once an AI Mask has been generated. Meanwhile the AI Mask Brush is a pressure sensitive brush that applies an AI Mask by drawing strokes over your image.

  1. Select the AI Mask Selector tool.

  2. Select your Image Layer.

  3. Open the Tool Properties view.

  4. Click the Generate AI Masks icon.

    A progress bar will appear, uploading your image to the server to be processed by the AI.

Once your AI masks are applied, you can use the AI Erase and Replace operation to remove any elements that are masked and reconstruct the image by replacing the masked elements with whatever the AI processor believes would exist in its place.

  1. Apply masks to your image using the AI Masking tools.

  2. Open Tool Properties.

  3. Select AI Erase and Replace from the Operation options.

    A progress bar will appear as your image is processed with AI.

    Once processed, the AI Erase and Replace dialog will open.

  4. Click OK.

    Once you click OK, a new layer containing the generated image will be created above the original image layer.

TIP You can compare the processed image to the original in the AI Erase and Replace dialog by either pressing Alt or clicking the Show Original Image icon.
IMPORTANT The new layer generated with the AI Erase and Replace operation will be labelled with a “g” for generated. This will indicate that your image has been generated through AI.

Expand Image

The Expand Image operation allows you to enlarge your bitmap images without sacrificing image resolution. Any images that need to be scaled up will be processed with AI to generate an extension to the existing image. The AI operation can also be used to expand an image to fit the boundary of a static or dynamic camera.

You can expand your image the following ways:

  • By Percentage: Scale up your image using a percentage value. When the percentage option is checked, the AI will expand your image based on a percentage of the total resolution of the selected image.

  • Based on the Area Covered by the Camera: Scale up your image using the Based on the Area Covered by the Camera option. This option will expand your image to fit within the camera’s view and apply padding to ensure your image is action safe.

  1. Select your image.

  2. Select Layer from the top of the interface.

  3. Open the AI Operations dropdown menu.

  4. Select Expand Image.

    The Expand Image dialog will appear.

  5. Select one of the following checkboxes:

    1. By Percentage.

    2. Based on the Area Covered by the Camera.

  6. Input the percentage values in the X and Y-axes.

  7. Click OK.

    The Expand Image window will appear.

  8. Review the processed expanded image.

  9. Click OK.

IMPORTANT The new layer generated with the Expand Image operation will be labelled with a “g” for generated. This will indicate that your image has been generated through AI.

Increase Image Resolution

You can increase the resolution of bitmap images on both bitmap and vector layers. However, when an image on a vector layer is processed using this AI operation, the generated image will be a soft rendered texture on a vector layer.

  1. Select your image.

  2. Select Layer from the top of the interface.

  3. Open the AI Operations dropdown menu.

  4. Select Increase Image Resolution.

    The Increase Image Resolution dialog will open.

  5. Select the increase multiplier x2 or x4.

  6. Click OK.

    A progress bar will appear.

IMPORTANT A new layer will be generated for the image with increased resolution. It will be labelled with a “g” for generated. This will indicate that your image has been generated through AI.

Analyze Script with AI

The Analyze Script with AI tool processes unformatted scripts and breaks them down into their basic components. These unformatted scripts are input and converted into panels and scenes in the Panel and Timeline view. In order for the AI to read the unformatted scripts, it must be imported into the Storyboard view.

  1. Import a script file.

    NOTE The script you import should be in .txt of .rtf format.

  2. Select File.

  3. Open the AI Tools dropdown menu.

  4. Click Analyze Script with AI.

    The Script Analysis using AI dialog will appear.

  5. Click Analyze.

    Storyboard Pro will send the script to the server to analyze.

  6. Click Create Scenes or Export to CSV.

Select Character Voice

The Select Character Voice operation will apply an AI voice to the characters in your script to recite dialogue. The Select Character Voice operation will compile a list of the characters in your script from the Panel view. Once compiled, you can apply an AI voice to each character from the list of Predefined Voices in the Select Character Voice dialog. You can use the Select Character Voice to apply an AI voice to your storyboard. This can help to differentiate your different characters and help you time your sequences.

  1. Select File.

  2. Open the AI Tools dropdown menu.

  3. Click Select Character Voices.

    The Select Character Voices dialog will appear.

  4. Select a character from the Name list.

  5. Select an AI voice from the Predefined Voices list.

  6. Click Assign.

  7. Repeat until all your characters have an AI voice assigned.

  8. Click OK.

Generate Scene Length with AI

The Generate Scene Length with AI operation will set the timing of your storyboard panels and scenes based off of the dialogue in your script. Your script will need to be broken down into its individual panels and scenes in both the Panel view and Timeline view.

The Generate Scene Length with AI will extract all the dialogue information from the Panels view and the AI will set the timing based on how it interprets the dialogue when processing.

  1. Select File.

  2. Open the AI Tools dropdown menu.

  3. Click Generate Scene Length with AI.

    The Scene Generation Options dialog will appear.

  4. Select one of the following:

    1. All scenes and panels.

    2. Selected scenes and panels.

      NOTE You will need to select your panels prior.

  5. Select one of the following:

    1. Selected AI voices.

      TIP The Selected AI voices will be the AI Voices assigned in the Select Character Voice dialog.

    2. Default AI voices.

  6. Select Create Rough Tracks if you want audio to be generated.

  7. Select whether or not you would like to add padding to your panels.

  8. Click Generate with AI.