Storyboard Pro provides an export bridge to Animate Pro and Harmony. The export process creates your scenes for you and inserts the necessary data in it, but what happens to your camera motion, scene length and layout? This article answers those questions for you.

How to Export Your Storyboard to Animate Pro or Harmony

Once your storyboard is completed in Storyboard Pro, you can create your Animate Pro or Harmony content via the Export menu. A series of options are available to choose from.

When you export from Storyboard Pro, the export process creates a separate scene from each shot in your storyboard and makes them compatible with Animate Pro or Harmony, depending on your selection. If you are using Harmony, you are able to import a job into the Control Centre with this data.

To export a storyboard to Animate Pro or Harmony

1. In the top menu, select File > Export to > Toon Boom. The Export to Toon Boom dialog box opens.
2. In the Destination Path section, specify the location and name of the folder that will contain the storyboard’s assets in Animate Pro or Harmony. Click the Browse button to display a window to select a location.
3. In the Export Type panel, select the application you want to export to.
4. In the Additional Data section, enable the Rendered Frames checkbox if you want to export your artwork as a layout layer in your Animate Pro or Harmony scenes.
5. Select one of the following options:
   • All Frames: if you want to render out a frame for each frame of your scene.
   • One Frame Each: if you want to render out fewer frames and expose them longer in your scenes. Choosing to render a frame every 4 or 6 frames will result in a lighter and faster export, especially if you only have a few camera moves or layer motions.
6. Next, select the Resolution quality. If you do not need to see a lot of detail you can choose half size or even a quarter size resolution.
7. Select if you want to export your library assets and your soundtracks.
8. In the Export Range panel, select whether to export the entire storyboard, specific shots, or the last panel you selected. Either enter a space between shot names or click the Browse button to display a window to select shots.
9. To view the location and contents of the exported folder when they are ready, enable the Open Folder After Export option.
10. Click Export to confirm your settings and begin the export.

Depending on the size and length of your storyboard, the process can be relatively long and may take several minutes. Make sure to complete the entire export process so that no elements are missing.

Moving On to Animate Pro

On completing the export process, you will find all of your Animate Pro scenes in the export folder which you specified earlier. Each scene is created using the shot name.

If you are using Harmony, import the job into Control Centre. When you open a scene’s folder, you will find:

• The *.digital file allowing you to open the Animate Pro scene
• The element folder containing the sboard layer and all the layout artwork from your storyboard
• If you have sound in your original shot, the audio folder with the corresponding sound

Refer to the Animate Pro User Guide to learn more about the interface and features.

Open a Animate Pro or Harmony scene and you will find the following results:

• The scene length established in Storybaord Pro is the same in Animate Pro.
• In the Timeline view, you can see that the Sound layers correspond exactly to the editing you did in Storyboard Pro.
• You can also see that the Camera layer and the Peg layer recreate the camera moves you did previously. You are able to fine tune them here.
• Finally, you can see the ReadSboard layer containing the artwork that was drawn in Storyboard Pro. The frames are exposed the way you chose during the export process.

Camera Motions

If you created a camera motion in Storyboard Pro, it is reproduced in Animate Pro.

In the Network view, you can see that your ReadSboard artwork layer is hooked to the Camera’s peg. Do NOT disconnect this link.

The artwork layer is hooked to the Camera’s peg for a reason. When the frames were rendered out of Storyboard Pro, the camera motion was already calculated on the output images. If you look at the bitmap image sequence that was imported in the artwork layer, you will see the camera move.

Hooking the artwork layer to the Camera’s peg avoids duplicating the camera motion on the layout. The layout layer always follows the camera motion no matter what happens. This way, your scene looks the same as it was in Storyboard Pro.

This principle is similar to hooking an overlay to the Camera’s peg so that it follows it all the time. For example, you could hook a car to the camera so that when the camera pans the car follows exactly the motion and the road pans behind.

If you do this, then when you start animating in Animate Pro, the characters and props you are animating will follow the camera motion created in Storyboard Pro and this way you will be able to match your elements to your layout layer.

You can read about scene setup and camera motions in the Compositing chapter of the Animate Pro User Guide.

Working With the Layout Layer

When you are matching your background with the layout layer, you may need to see through your layers. To see your reference layer, which is a bitmap image sequence, lock it and use the Show Locked Drawings As Outlines preference.

1. In the top menu, select Edit > Preferences.
2. In the Camera tab, enable the Show Locked Drawings As Outlines preference.
3. Click on the OK button.
4. In the top menu, select View > Locked Drawings Outlines to enable the option.
5. In the Camera view, select the Sboard layer.
6. Right-click (Windows) or [Ctrl]+click on the selection and select Lock > Lock.

Once you are finished matching your elements on your layout, you can dispose of the Sboard layer by either disabling it in the Timeline view or deleting it.