How to Import Videos

When you create a Storyboard Pro project, the only track intended to contain visuals in your animatic is the storyboard track. However, it is also possible to add video tracks to your project, which can contain still images or video files that will display over or under your animatic. This can be useful if you need to use reference images or videos, to have elements such as logos or backgrounds span over several panels or scenes, or to insert videos, such as opening sequences, credit sequences or live action footage to your animatic.

Contrary to layers in a panel, clips in video tracks can extend over several panels, and are not affected by camera movements.

Adding Video Tracks

Just like sound clips must be added to audio tracks, video clips must be added to video tracks. Hence, before you can add video clips to your animatic, you must create video tracks.

Just like audio tracks, you can add several video tracks to your project and have clips overlap each other. You can also add video tracks above or below the storyboard track, so that videos appear in front of, or behind the animatic.

  1. Do one of the following:
    • In the top menu, select Storyboard > New > New Video Track.
    • In the Timeline view, right-click on an existing video track or in the empty space below the tracks, and select New Video Track.
    • In the Clips and Tracks toolbar, click the New Video Track button.

You can now import or move video clips to the new video track.

  1. If you want the video track to display behind the animatic, right-click on the video track and select Move Track Down.

Importing Video Clips

Once you have a video track, you can import image or video clips to this track.

  1. If you want to import clips into an existing video track, select the video track in which you want to import clips in the Timeline view.
  1. Do one of the following:
    • In the top menu, select File > Import > Videos/Images as Clips.
    • Right-click on the video track in which you want to import clips, then select Import Videos/Images as Clips.
    • Right-click on the empty space below or above the tracks in the Timeline view, then select Import Videos/Images as Clips.

    The Import Video Clips dialog box opens.

  1. Click on the Browse button.
  2. In the file browser, locate and select the image or video file that you want to add to your project, then click on Open.
  3. In the Destination panel, select New Video Track if your project does not have a video track or if you want to import the clip into a new video track, or Current Video Track if you want to import it into the currently selected video track.
  4. If you have selected an image, set the desired duration of the still image in the Still Images Duration field. This determines the amount of frames the image clip will span over in the timeline. For example, if the frame rate of your project is 24 frames per second, and you want the image to span for 1 second, set the Clips Duration to 24.

  5. If you have selected a movie file with transparency, select the proper alpha type for your movie file in the Alpha Type drop-down:

    This option allows you to inform Storyboard Pro of how transparent and semi-transparent pixels in your clip were encoded so that it blends these pixels properly with the other visual elements in your animatic.

    • Ignore Alpha: Display every pixel in the video clip as opaque, without demultiplying their colour values or blending them with other visual elements in your animatic.
    • Premultiplied with Black: The colour values of semi-transparent pixels in the video have been encoded so that the more transparent they are, the closer to black they are. When a video that is premultiplied with black is loaded in a software that does not support transparency, it appears blended with a black background. Select this to make Storyboard Pro reverse this premultiplication so that the video clip blends properly with other visual elements in your animatic.
    • Premultiplied with White: The colour values of semi-transparent pixels in the video have been encoded so that the more transparent they are, the closer to white they are. When a video that is premultiplied with white is loaded in a software that does not support transparency, it appears blended with a white background. Select this to make Storyboard Pro reverse this premultiplication so that the video clip blends properly with other visual elements in your animatic.
    • Straight: The colour of semi-transparent pixels in the image is encoded independently from their transparency. When a video clip that is not premultiplied is loaded in a software that does not support transparency, semi-transparent pixels simply appear fully opaque, making its edges appear pixelated.
    TIP

    If you are not sure about the alpha type of your movie file, select Straight. Then, once your clips are imported, view them in the Stage view. If the semi-transparent pixels in your movie appear too dark, change the clip's Alpha Type to Premultiplied with Black. If the transparent pixels in your movie appear too light, change the Alpha Type of the clip to Premultiplied with White.

    You can change the Alpha Type of a video clip by right-clicking on the clip in the Timeline view, then selecting Alpha Type in the context menu.

  6. If your movie file has an audio track and you wish to import it to your project, check the Import Audio checkbox.

  7. If you checked the Import Audio checkbox, do one of the following:
    • If you want to create a new audio track in your project in which to import the movie's audio track, select New Audio Tracks.
    • If you want to import the movie's audio track into an existing audio track in your project, select Existing Audio Track. Then, in the drop-down below, select which audio track in your project to import the movie's audio track into.

  8. If you selected the Current Video Track option, and if other video clips are present in the target video track, specify what will happen if the imported clip is too long and spans over another existing clips by selecting an Import Rule:

    • Overwrite Existing Clips: If there are existing video clips where the imported clips are inserted, the existing clips will be overwritten.
    • Fill Next Available Frames: If there are existing video clips where the new clips are inserted, the clips will be trimmed just before the existing clips.
  9. Click OK.

    10. The video file will be added to your project as a video clip, in the selected destination video track.

  1. Open an Explorer (Windows) or Finder (macOS) window.
  2. Browse to the location of the video or image files you want to import.

  3. Select all the video or image files you want to import.

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    You can select multiple files by doing one of the following:

    • While pressing Ctrl (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ (macOS), click on each file you want to select.
    • While pressing Shift, click on the first file you want to select, then one the last file you want to select to select every file in-between.
  4. Make sure that both the Storyboard Pro window and the Explorer or Finder window are visible.
  1. In the upper half of the Timeline view, scroll vertically to the video track in which you want to import your clips. Then, scroll horizontally to the point in time where you want to insert these clips.

  2. In the Explorer or Finder window, click and drag on one of the selected files, then drop them in the audio track where you want to import them, at the time where you want them to be imported.

    The selected files will be added as video clips to the target video track, at the point in the timeline where you dropped them.