These two videos are a good visual overview of the functionality.
Tap on the “Pen” icon to activate the tool. Tap it again bring up the options.
To copy and paste panels, go to the panel overview. Tap “Edit”. Select the panels you want to copy, then press the “Boxed-plus” button. To paste, press the “Clipboard” paste button.
A short video demo:
From the individual canvas panel view, you can press the “Plus”(+) or “boxed-Plus” buttons to either add a new panel or duplicate the current panel, respectively.
From the panel overview, press “Edit” and select a panel. Use either of the “Plus arrow” buttons (<+/+>) to add a blank panel before or after the selected panel.
From the panel overview, press “Edit” and select then panel(s) to delete. Then, press the “Trash can” button. Finally, confirm the selection with another tap.
To select, move, scale, and rotate on the drawing, do the following. Note: This is the first implementation of the feature, and this process is likely to change.
The combination of scene and shot number is the “sequence number”.
Tap the sequence number anywhere to increment the scene number (if numerically possible).
The act of decrementing the scene number (lowering), depends on what view you are in:
There are many ways to change panel timing.
From the panel canvas view, there are three ways:
+ or - to increase or decrease the timing one frame*.From the panel overview, press “Edit”, select the panels to adjust, press the “Stopwatch” button, and enter a value. Decimal values and simple fractions are acceptable.
*A “frame” is defined by the base denominator set in settings.
The easiest way to import images is via drag-and-drop (available on iPad). See the video demo for an example. External images can be ‘dropped’ into the panel overview, onto the canvas itself, or into a specific layer. Panels and layers can be dragged out of the app too.
You can also import images via the “layers” popover. Swipe left on the layer in which to import, then press “Import”. Then choose the image from the popup documents view.
To copy/paste the contents of a layer, first open the layer’s popover. Then, swipe right to access the copy and paste buttons. To copy, tap the blue “Squared Plus” button to copy the contents. To paste into a layer, tap the green “Clipboard” button. (Note: this achieves the same effect as using drag and drop on layers.)
To hide a layer tap on the opacity number (e.g. “100%”). Tap again to unhide. An empty circle indicates when a layer is set as hidden.
To set the opacity, swipe left on the layer, then tap the blue “Opacity” button. Use the slider to set the value. Finally tap the opacity number (e.g. “42%”) to save the change and return the layer view to normal.
Accessible at the bottom layers view (tap the “Layers” button). The Pro upgrade unlocks the full range: -3 to +3 panels. Use these numbers to go set how many panels back (red) and forward (green) you want to see displayed on the current drawing. You can also select from which layer of drawing you want skinned.
Onion skinning is a general animation term that describes the ability to see past (at future) frames at all once, so actions can be animated smoothly. While Storyboard Animator is not necessarily intended for frame-by-frame animation, it can still be a useful tool.
If you find that there is sporadic drawing from your palm resting on the screen and if you are using an Apple Pencil, you can turn on ‘Ignore Finger’ to only accept pencil input for drawing.
Access this view from within a project by tapping on the “Gear” icon. It contains less freqnent board level actions, as well as project information.
To export a board, press the “Share” button from the “Properties” popover. From there, select the format (PDF, video, etc) and options, then press save (at the top). A system share sheet will appear once it completes, from there you can choose where to save it permanently.
Add an audio file to a project. It can play: when editing panels, alongside the timing animation, and will be part of the video export.
Access the configuraion page by tapping the “Waveform” button located in the “Properties” popover. Tapping “Import and Set” will open a document picker where you can navigate to the audio file for import. The file’s name will display once imported. Tap “Play” to preview the file if desired.
When editing a panel in the canvas view, you can play the section of audio correseponding to that boards timing by tapping the “Vinyl Record/Tape Wheel” icon. (This icon that shows up in the bottom right if an audio companion exists). During animation playback, the audio companion will play automatically.
Note: the audio file is copied into the project file, meaning the project file will be larger. This also means that when you share a .stbdx file, the audio companion goes with it. (Feature introduced in v2.16)
The panel overview screen has two scrolling modes: vertical (default, up/down), and horizontal (single line, left/right). Press the “Book” button in the toolbar to switch between these modes.
Press the “Magnifying Glass” button to switch between the default zoom-level, and a more zoomed-out level (to display more panels on the screen at once).
To create a board, press the “Plus” (+) at the top right of the main screen. Many sizes are available, including a custom option (for Pro users).
To import a board, press the “Plus” button on the main screen, then press import.
Alternatively, you can place the (unzipped) .stbdx file into the folder: Files app > On My [iPad/iPhone] > Storyboard
If having trouble importing a file that someone shared with you via email, it may me a “hidden” zip file. Rename it to add the ‘.zip’ extension to then unzip it. Then, you can import the true contents.
Backups are always recommended. (In addition to your normal full device backup). You can export a project as Storyboard Animator files (.stbdx). Or even access the source file in Files app > On my [iPad/iPhone] > Storyboard and copy from there.
Please check that the following two options are disabled:
Sometimes full Pro activation does not occur. To fix this, go into the app’s setting (top-right “gear” button) and tap “Restore”. This will check with Apple servers that it was purchases and then should activate Pro.
Hi, I’m Keely. I made this app when I did not see a simple storyboarding on the App Store that I liked. I am the sole developer working on this app. If you have thoughts or a bug to report, you can contact me here.