Searching for 3D Storyboard SW

ok, so I right clicked on the actor (ctrl click on my mac) and a menu pops up, but I can;t find anything that either changes the color or allows me to repose the actor.

Any insight here?
 
WAIT! Ok, if I select the model with the selector tool (the arrow) I can then go to the colors window and select a color and then paint bucket the selected actor. Good, done.

So now still wondering about the reposing thing
 
oh crap i lost my post.

you can use the other tools on those components, such as the eraser and pencil tool. You'll basically have to modify the components, one by one. May take some time and fiddling, but it's probably worth it, once you get good at it.
 
pmark, I've used Antics Pre-Viz a bit now. It's a fairly nice piece of software with some nice features, but ultimately I because really dissatisfied with the interface. It's very clunky and unpolished, requiring lots more steps and clicks than should be necessary. If they'd go and take a good long look at how something like Maya's camera interface works, and then how something like AE or Motion handles basic sliders and value inputs, and then apply all that knowledge, they'd have a pretty great product. As of now, it's just frustrating to use. But then again I get upset whenever I have to use the mouse in any program.

I will have to check out SketchUp. For now I will throw one more contender into the fray: Realviz StoryViz. I haven't used it yet, but I generally like how Realviz handles their other products, so I'll probably give it a go. The search continues...
 
Hmm, it seems like Antics and Sketchup are sadly opposed here. After playing with Sketchup for a few hours, it's killer for quick modeling and design, but when it comes to actually putting together animatics, it's a bit weak. Antics on the other hand has fairly good controls and presets for moving characters around and getting them to interact with objects, but the rest of the interface pretty much just makes me cringe.

Of course this isn't that huge of a problem. Sketchup can export the models you make to other common 3d formats. So you could do all your set building very quickly in that and then export to StoryViz, C4D, a game engine, or whatever to animate, if you had to. And if you just need traditional storyboards rather than animatics, you've really got no problem at all.
 
I spent the last week trying Sketchup, and I don't think it suits storyboarding very well (especially doing animatics). However, I did a couple architectural drawings that have been burning in my mind for the past few years. :) Great little program.

I've tried Maya (which I know quite well), but it's too slow and clunky for doing quick animatics.

I've just downloaded "Blender" (open-source 3D renderer), which has a built-in game engine and some animation features. When I get some more time I'll check it out.

My other idea is to try the Unreal Tournament 2004 engine, which has an editor to create movie-like animations. It's popular in "Machinima" circles, so should be okay for doing quick animations. As far as I know, Antics uses a game engine.

I'll check out StoryViz as well.
 
I just came across this.

http://www.themoviesgame.com/

I have no idea how it works but apparently you can make little machinima movies fairly easily with it. Since it is a "game" it must be pretty dead simple to use. Might not be that sophisticated but some of the movies people have uploaded seem like they have most of the elements you would need..

Just an idea :)
 
I interviewed to work on that game in the late stages, so I can tell you exactly how it works, and that it probably wouldn't really be suited to this purpose:

there are animation presets that you can drag on to characters. There are supposedly thousands of these, everything from walk cycles to jump rope to talking on the phone, but it's impossible (so they say) to make new ones. So you're stuck with the options you have. You can redress the characters and sets in a lot of different ways, and set up your cameras, but it's fairly simplistic, and the internal editor is very limited when it comes to assembling your sequences. You CAN output video files from it, however, so I'm sure some people will discover how to use it for this sort of purpose. I suppose you could re-edit them in the "real world".
 
I played around with the skectup demo for a bit. Really neat for putting a shot together but right now from what I can tell, the animation side of things sucks a nut. Is there a way to keyframe your moves? Right now I'm just using different "pages" as keyframed shots. Is there another way? Also can you control the speed of the move? I wish I could import the scenes into After Effects.
 
Well, as I mentioned already, you could export to pretty much any 3d program. Unfortunately that means you're really doing your animatics in some 3d program. It seems like there really isn't a good solution to this problem. All the affordable solutions aren't refined enough in terms of interface, and I haven't even bothered with stuff like StoryViz because, well, it costs $3000.
 
Just found this: http://www.reallusion.com/iclone/default.asp
It's only $79.95 for the standard version, and has a trial. Would be interesting to test how it compares to storyviz, antics, sketchup, frameforge etc...
Especially at that price point!
I read some rumors about a future version of frameforge including animation too!
downloading trials...
so far storyviz looks good. Any ideas what the limitations on the trial are?
 
It's funny to see sketchup on this forum. I picked it up a few years back to see if i could do some pre-viz for film and it wasn't really up to snuff. I then happened into doing architectural 3D modeling and then ultimately I design custom homes using it and then just recently I was going to go back and start tweaking the animation settings to use for previz since it's become much more film-centric.

If you have the pro version you can set up PAGES and then set up duration and delays between pages...then you can export the SLIDESHOW as a QT file. I actually export at HD and 15 frames per second and then compress it all in Sorenson. Pretty effective.

I'm going to use it for pre-viz on a couple of upcoming projects. Build the location, which is crazy easy in SKP and then set up dolly shots and camera moves. Export each as a QT and then edit them in Final Cut Pro. It will be a few months out, but knowing that people here would be interested I will post something here.

The nice thing about sketchup is that they are aware of a filmmaing base and will continue to develop the tool. Plus, at $500 it's a steal.

I'm happy to say that I make my living with Sketchp and I'm almost computer illiterate.

I need to figure out how to use Poser and then see if you can export the poser character to 3D studio and then import it into sketchup.

Keep in mind that you can be up and running in a weekend on sketchup and that all the workaround exist to do some interesting things....it just takes time to find the elements.

Also, they have a great user forum so if you have a question there is usually somebody that has and answer.

Best,

J.
 
Has it been mentioned yet on this thread that there's a free version of SketchUp available now that Google bought the company? The film and stage stuff won't work with it though.

I too long for storyboard software that's some magical combination of SketchUp, Grand Theft Auto, and Dr3ver.
 
I'm in the first tutorial on Sketchup and its trying to get me to move a Pencil Line I put down Up, but it can only go horizontal. How do I make it pull up?
 
Are there any free online downloads where you can get like, stick figures to move around in framing to make storyboards quickly?
 
I downloaded the Google sketch, and spent a couple hours trying to set up my first shot... cool tool, but I could likely shoot a feature in less time than it would take to storyboard it. I'll stick to quick sketching it. I took the time to photoshop a sheet with 3 16x9 frames, leaving just enough room to list scene and description.

Man, I really hate storyboarding!
 
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