FrameForge 3D Studio is the first storyboard software tool to create storyboards simulated in popular film sizes(16-70mm), lens aperture settings, and camera shots taken from any angle, height, or proximity in a 3D virtual computer set.

Storyboard software that allows experimentation and exploration of visual ideas before going on location. With a shot-by-shot series of images from FrameForge 3D Studio software you have a blueprint of your production for cast and crew.

Step 1: Define the Set

First you must define the space in which the action of a given scene takes place. In FF3D (FrameForge 3D Studio) this is defined as a Set. A set can be anything from a closed room, to the floor of a house, to a street corner. Each set represents a different scene location in your project and you can have an unlimited number of sets within each storyboard project. With few exceptions a set would be the equivalent to a scene.

Default size for the set is 30' X 30' and can be set for any measurement. The free form set you see here is set at 1' per tile making this Set is approx. 18' X 29.5'.

Step 2: Populate the Set

In order to create the feel of the place you are going to be working with you must populate the set with any walls, doors, tables, actors, etc. For simplicity, all of these things (and people) are collectively called Objects in this overview.

For example, to define a space where a meeting would take place we would have at least 3 walls (one with door or not), table, chairs, desk, plants, pictures on the walls, and two or three actors.

Step 3: Establish the Shots

Once you have a populated location you're ready to place cameras, play out your scenes and store your shots. You do so by moving your actors through their blocking, position your cameras, and store shots as if you were snapping a photograph. And you can always go back to any shot to make changes.

POV, Rotate, Pan, Tilt, Zoom, Dolly, Crane on multiple cameras are all available for every shot. But, if you have production equipment limitations you can tell FF3D wall height, min/max camera height, min/max zoom, and what tile size to use for scaling.

Step 4: Arrange the Storyboard

Once you have stored your shots you can use the FrameForge Shot Manager to view, arrange, and manipulate them. You can add scene and dialogue info, movement arrows, zoom and pan indicators, or paint in details on any stored image desired. You can reorder or delete shots and even view sequences (or the whole movie) as a live slideshow.

FEATURES & BENEFITS

When you plan your shots in FrameForge 3D Studio, you do so from the Control Room on a Virtual 3D Set. Choose film size, aperture setting, and individually place up to eight fully controllable cameras in any position. Build rooms, street corners, exteriors or whatever you need with drag'n'drop simplicity then add props and set dressing, block and pose your actors, and start shooting.

Real World Design

The real world is very 3D, which is why your storyboarding program needs to be too. Want to start a crane shot from twenty feet up, then crane down around a school bus dropping off kids, and end with a push in tight on a doorway? With FrameForge 3D Studio, you can literally shoot all that just as if you were on location. You can even add in location/equipment limitations too. If you know that the room you'll be shooting in has an 8' ceiling, or you only have access to a 35-200mm zoom lens, you can enter those limitations for that set and FrameForge 3D Studio won't let you plan anything you can't actually do.

Simple, Intuitive Interface

FrameForge 3D Studio's two major control areas will make you feel right at home. The Control Room is where you build your sets, place your cameras, and record shots for your storyboard. Then go to the Shot Manager to view and rearrange your stored shots, add movement arrows, shot framing boxes and additional descriptive text, and then even play sequences as slide shows with full control over individual shot duration.

Working in 3D has never been easier!

Precise placement of props, actors, and cameras can all be done in a bird's eye two-dimensional Blueprint View, or switch instantly to any camera's view and move any object or actor around as easily as if you were moving a piece along a chessboard. Additional functions such as tilt, elevate and spin are accessed via easy-to-use multi-throttle controls.

Real World Object Interactions

Pre-established relationships between objects make it even easier. Drag an actor into a chair or onto a motorcycle and he’ll automatically sit appropriately. Or drag a gun over to his ex-girlfriend and she’ll grab it in her hand.

Don’t like that exact pose? No problem; adjust any of the actor’s joints as desired, either with pre-posed full and partial poses (only affects some joints, such as an arm or head), or choose direct joint control with resolution down to individual fingertips to communicate your emotional and visual intent like never before.

If you build a new pose/relationship we haven’t thought of, you can save it, reuse it, share it with other FrameForge 3D Studio users, and even optionally designate it to be automatically applied when those specific objects collide in the future.

Drag'n'Drop Set Building

Quickly and easily create sets that give real world information with stretchable snap-together walls. Add movable, hinged single and double doors that open to any angle, and movable, completely sizable windows. You can give the walls a specific length and height, or build it freehand then read back their measurements for live set construction.

When you're shooting, you can make individual walls invisible for a specific camera in order to get a shot you couldn't otherwise without compromising the integrity of your set (this simulates pulling out a flat on a soundstage). Built sets can be reused in other projects, and shared among other FrameForge 3D Studio users.

More than Interiors

With a number of supplied location "floors" (2d drawn images of streets, grass, city intersections and so on), numerous prop & picture cars, buildings, trees and even topology objects, you can create the exteriors you need in very short order. Or perhaps you'll want to drop in one of the supplied panoramas for a 360 degree backdrop... or even go shoot a 360 panorama of your real location and bring THAT in as your set's backdrop.

FrameForge 3D Studio comes with nearly 300 posable, manipulatable objects common to the home, office and outside world. Everything from school buses, bicycles, computers, guns and knives all the way down to the kitchen sink. They work like their real world counterparts too: Executive Chairs swivel & tilt, tensor lamps lift and bend, desk drawers open and trees even lose their leaves. And as you would expect, most of them can have patterns and colors changed so you can have that neon pink couch in front of the poster of Elvis… or a red convertible instead of a yellow one.

Casting Calls made easy

FrameForge 3D Studio supplies female and male children and adult actors with a variety of hairstyles and ethnicities. Choose the base type you want for each character in your script, then change the hairstyle and color of their lips, hair, pants, tops, etc, to get just the look you need to make them unique. Save them as a new Character and you can simply drag'n'drop that new character into any scene.

And while our actors come with many preset poses, you always have complete pose control of head, body, limb, and hand positioning to communicate your emotional and visual intent. Build and store a whole library of poses you create and share with other users.

Online Script Supervision

FrameForge 3D Studio imports your formatted script from all major script writing packages and word processors including Movie Magic Screenwriter, Final Draft and MS Word. Once imported, FrameForge 3D Studio can automatically generate blank sets for every unique location, and you can associate your stored shots with text in the script on a line-by-line basis, allowing you to visually see your shot coverage like never before.

Ultimate Shot Management

The Shot Manager allows you to view, rearrange, delete and edit any of your stored shots. Decide you want to tighten up a close-up, or give someone more headroom? Just double-click that shot and you'll be taken back to that set, exactly as it was when you first snapped it-including all actors, props and camera positioning. Make any changes you want and snap it again to replace the old version.

You can add movement arrows and camera framing boxes-which designate zoom or pans within a shot-to your shot, then stretch, scale, flip, and tilt these arrows/boxes to create just the look you want.

Unprecedented Shot Information

Because your storyboards are created in a virtual set that supports 16-70mm formats and numerous aperture settings, each shot is stored along with the camera's exact height, focal length and angle of view at the time the shot was snapped.

In addition to the view and settings of a particular camera, the program also stores a bird's-eye blueprint view of the set which gives you set layout, proportions, and camera position for that shot. All this information - including the blueprint view can be exported or printed out along with your storyboards, making your storyboards an even more dynamic tool in planning out set design, equipment needs, and best order of shooting.

Present Your Vision

With FrameForge 3D Studio, it goes a lot beyond just printing. Of course, you can print your storyboards in grayscale or full color in either a quick draft mode or rendered directly to the printer to make best use of your printer's true resolution. But you can also view your shots as a slideshow within the shot manager where you can tailor the duration of each shot down to a fraction of a second.

Or you can export this slide show as a Macromedia Flash animation viewable in any web browser (with appropriate free plug-in). Or perhaps you'll want to post the storyboard on the web or an intranet for your production staff as a collection of automatically generated HTML pages with full shot and textual information.

Or finally, you can even export just the graphics to bring into PowerPoint or FinalCut for other presentation.

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300 MB hard disk space

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"FrameForge is a new category of software that targets the rapidly growing interest in pre-planning movies on the computer. This is a product destined to become the first choice of filmmakers looking to take control of the visual design of their pictures."

-- Steven D. Katz, Author, Film Directing Shot by Shot

"FrameForge expanded my ideas about coverage in a way that traditional storyboarding never has. It also showed me ideas that simply wouldn't work in real-world applications because of the spacing of the room, position of the actors, and so on. I was able to solve many problems without losing a single moment of real production time."

-- Jay Holben, Director of Photography/Cinematographer