7

Toon Boom
Storyboard Pro 7
Release Notes

TOON BOOM ANIMATION INC.

+1 514 278 8666

4200 Saint-Laurent, Suite 1020
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
H2W 2R2

contact@toonboom.com
toonboom.com

Toon Boom Storyboard Pro 7.0.3 Release Notes

Legal Notices
Toon Boom Animation Inc.
4200 Saint-Laurent, Suite 1020
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
H2W 2R2
Tel: +1 514 278 8666
Fax: +1 514 278 2666
toonboom.com

Disclaimer
The content of this document is the property of Toon Boom Animation Inc. and is copyrighted. Any
reproduction in whole or in part is strictly prohibited.
The content of this document is covered by a specific limited warranty and exclusions and limit of liability under

the applicable License Agreement as supplemented by the special terms and conditions for Adobe®Flash ® File
Format (SWF). For details, refer to the License Agreement and to those special terms and conditions.

Trademarks
Toon Boom® is a registered trademark. Storyboard Pro™ and the Toon Boom logo are trademarks of Toon
Boom Animation Inc. All other trademarks of the property of their respective owners.

Publication Date
03-10-2021
Copyright © 2021 Toon Boom Animation Inc., a Corus Entertainment Inc. company. All rights reserved.

1

Table of Contents

Table of Contents
Table of Contents

2

Storyboard Pro 7.0.3 Release Notes

3

Storyboard Pro 7.0.2 Release Notes

4

Storyboard Pro 7.0.1 Release Notes

8

Storyboard Pro 7.0.0 Release Notes

132

Toon Boom Storyboard Pro 7.0.3 Release Notes

Storyboard Pro 7.0.3 Release Notes
Here is the list of changes in Storyboard Pro 7.0.3, build 17.10.3.16542 (2020-11-27):
NOTE
Storyboard Pro does not natively support the new Apple M1 chip. On systems using the newApple M1 chip, Storyboard Pro runs through Apple’s Rosetta 2. This may cause compatibility issues
when running on the new ARM-based macOS systems.

Fixed Issues
The following issues have been fixed in this release:l

Crash on macOS Big Sur when selecting the Tool Properties tab while the Brush, Pencil or Eraser tool isactive. SB-3459l

The marquee selection appears as a black rectangle in the Timeline after a right-click. SB-3995lQuicktime movies created when exporting to EDL/AAF/XML on Windows always use the H.264 codec.
SB-3542lsetMovieConfig() is ignored when exporting movies using the scripting interface and movies arealways created using the H.264/MPEG4 movie format. SB-3472

lStoryboard Pro stops working when creating a new project from a Final Draft file that contains
transitions. SB-3352

lAudio clips disappear from the Timeline when splitting the last panel before empty frames. SB-3349

3

Storyboard Pro 7.0.2 Release Notes

Storyboard Pro 7.0.2 Release Notes
Here is the list of changes in Storyboard Pro 7.0.2, build 17.10.2.16057 (2020-07-06):lTimeline View on page 4lScripting on page 4lPreferences on page 6lFixed Issues on page 6

Timeline View
FeatureDescription

Enhancements

The video track section retains its size when increasing and decreasing theheight of the Timeline. This mimics the behavior from previous versions of
Storyboard Pro.

ScriptingFeatureExport to Storyboard Pro

Shared export settings

Description

The exportToHarmony() method was added to the ExportManager class toexport scenes to Harmony.
A script, TB_ExportToHarmony.js, which contains a usage example of thismethod, has been added to the packaged scripts.
The settings used by the various ExportManager methods are now shared.
For more information, see the Generic export settings section of theExportManager class in the Storyboard Pro Scripting Reference.
Options to burn in a time code have been added to the options that can be set
through scripting in the ExportManager class.
The new options are as follows:

Burn-in time codelsetShowAdditionalDuration()l

setSplitTimeCountMode()lsetSplitTimeCountSplit()lsetShowTimeCode()

For more information, see the Generic export settings section of theExportManager class in the Storyboard Pro Scripting Reference.

4

Toon Boom Storyboard Pro 7.0.3 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

Burn-in captions

Options to burn-in captions are now available in the ExportManager class.
For more information, see the Caption burn-in settings section of the
Storyboard Pro Scripting Reference.

Export destination and filename pattern for exporting FBX
files

The setFBXExportDestination() and setFBXExportNamingPattern()
methods have been added to the ExportManager class. For more
information,see the FBX specific settings section of the ExportManager classdocumentation in the Storyboard Pro Scripting Reference.
The setVideoTrackSelection() method has been added to theSelectionManager() class to select a video track by name. It can also be
used to select the storyboard (panel) track:

Select video track

var sm = new SelectionManager();// Select the video track named V2
sm.setVideoTrackSelection("V2");// Select the Storyboard (panel) tracksm.setVideoTrackSelection("TopLayer");

Blur bitmap layers

The new applyBlurToBitmap(), applyRadialZoomBlurToBitmap() andapplyDirectionalBlurToBitmap() methods were added to theLayerManager class to allow applying blur effects to bitmap layers using thescripting interface.
The new setLayerAnimated() method of the MotionManager class allows
enabling and disabling animation on a layer:

Enable & disable layer
animation

var sb = new StoryboardManager();var mm = new MotionManager();var panelId = sb.panelInProject(6);mm.setLayerAnimated(panelId, 0, false);

Set Expand Render Area to
Scene Camera option

When using the ExportManager class to export a project for XML/AAF
conformation, the Expand Render Area to Scene Camera option can now be
set using the new setExpandRenderAreaToCamera() method.
For more information, see the FCP XML/AAF specific settings section of theExportManager class in the Storyboard Pro Scripting Reference.

5

Storyboard Pro 7.0.2 Release Notes

Preferences
FeatureDescription

A hidden preference was added to allow the selection and manipulation ofartwork in hidden layers.
To enable this preference, run the following line in the <<<Sandbox>>> scriptof the Script Editor view, then restart Storyboard Pro.
preferences.setBool( "HIDDEN_LAYER_SELECTABLE", true );Fixed Issues
The following issues have been fixed in this release:l

The selected movie format resets to H.264/MPG4 every time the Export Movie dialog is opened on
macOS. SB-3273

lRenaming panels sequentially for the whole project using the TB_RenamePanelProject.js script,
can result in incorrect panel names if panel and scene names are locked. SB-2077

lRare crash when exporting to Harmony with the Apply Transformation on Drawings option enabled.
SB-3289l

Hidden layers are included in scenes when exporting to Harmony. SB-3269

lRare crash on macOS when using the Select tool in the Stage View or Camera View while the Full Scene
Antialiasing preference is enabled. SB-3267

lExport to Bitmap and Export to Layout commands overwrite files without warning when exporting a
subset of panels. SB-3266lGenerating a PDF using the Preview button in the PDF Export view takes a long time on large projects.
SB-3262l

Storyboard Pro sometimes freezes when stopping playback or scrubbing in the Timeline with audio
enabled. SB-3259

lCaptions written in Japanese don't spread properly when exporting to PDF. SB-3250lCopying a scene changes the Z value if the camera Z position is 1.0 SB-3164

l

The Split Current Scene command is not available in empty frames between panels. SB-2959

l

The addCtrlPointAfterPath3d() method of the FunctionManager class changes the point
before it is inserted. SB-3270l

The scene.saveAs() method does not work properly. SB-2818

6

Toon Boom Storyboard Pro 7.0.3 Release Notesl

Renaming panels using the TB_RenamePanelByScene.js or TB_RenamePanelProject.js scripts,
while panels and scenes names are locked, can result in incorrect panel names. SB-2077

l

Crash may occur when attempting to delete a control point with the Centerline Editor. SB-1750

7

Storyboard Pro 7.0.1 Release Notes

Storyboard Pro 7.0.1 Release Notes
Here is the list of changes in Storyboard Pro 7.0.1, build 17.10.1.15476 (2020-01-31):lAnimatic on page 8lCaptions on page 8lScripting on page 9lEnhancements on page 9lFixed Issues on page 10

Animatic
FeatureDescription

It is now possible to drag and drop panels at any specific position in thetimeline while

Animatic Editing Mode is enabled.

Drag & drop panels in Animatic
Editing Mode

Captions
FeatureDescription

The Text Formatting toolbar and the Format Captions dialog now have a
Background Colour button. This allows you to select a background colour forthe text in your project’s captions.
Background colour

NOTE
The background colour appears around the text, like this, and does
affect the colour of the whole caption field.

The Text Formatting toolbar and the Format Captions dialog now have a
Clear formatting

Clear Formatting button which removes all font, font size, bold, italic,
underline, text colour and background colour formatting from the selected
captions. It does not however affect the alignment of the text.

8

Toon Boom Storyboard Pro 7.0.3 Release Notes

ScriptingFeatureDescription

The new closeSceneAndOpenOffline() method of the scene class willclose the current project and open another.
Close project and open another

NOTE
This method is named as such because it is also used in the Harmony
Stand Alone scripting interface to close a scene and open another.

Lock and unlock layers

The new setLayerLock() and getLayerLock() methods of theLayerManager class allow you to lock or unlock layers as well as to check
whether a specific layer is locked.

Export progress signals

The exportSceneProgress() and exportFrameProgress() signals of theExportManager class can be used while exporting your project using thescripting interface. They are triggered every time a scene and a frame are done
exporting.

Get the name of an act

The new actNameOfScene() method of the StoryboardManager class will
return the name of the act in which a given scene occurs.
The isEmpty() method of the LayerManager class now returns true if theuser has drawn inside the layer and then erased the artwork. Previously, it
would only return true if nothing had ever been drawn in the layer before.

Check if layer is empty

NOTE
This change makes the method slightly slower as it requires loading thelayer’s drawing file to check if it contains no artwork. Also, please notethat the memory used by this method to load the drawing file cannot
be freed afterwards.

Enhancementsl

The distance for the pen stabilizer in the Pen Settings toolbar is now set to 20 by default.

l

The state of the

Loop Playback option is now saved to your preferences and preserved after closing

Storyboard Pro.

9

Storyboard Pro 7.0.1 Release Notes

Fixed Issues
Stabilitylll

Memory leak and crash could occur when rendering QuickTime movies on macOS.
Crash could occur when exporting a project as Harmony scenes while a 3D model is selected with theLayer Transform tool.
Crash could occur when importing an AAF sequence for conformation while the Thumbnail view isdisplayed.

l

If the Override Rotation, Override Zoom Out or Override Zoom In keyboard shortcut was cleared, theStage View and the Camera View would get stuck in Rotate, Zoom In or Zoom Out mode.

Project Creation & SavinglWhen using the Save As command, the Save dialog would not always open in the project’s actual
location and the default project name would not always match the project’s name.

lWhen saving a new version of the project, the old version would remain marked as open which would
result in an error message when opening the old version.

l

Scenes could be imported in the reverse order when creating a project from Harmony scenes.

l

It was possible for the user to save a project even if no changes had been made.

Drawing & LayerslCopying or duplicating layers inside groups would copy layers inside the group twice, once inside thecopied group and once outside the copied group.

l

Scaling or rotating an animation-enabled layer with theLayer Transform tool would not create an

animation keyframe.
Storyboard & Animaticl

It became impossible to draw or manipulate objects in the Stage or Camera view after selecting a soundclip and changing the current frame.

l

It was not possible to select both video and sound clips simultaneously by drawing a rectangle aroundthem with the mouse.

lWhen copying and pasting a movie clip with animation keyframes over itself, only the keyframes in theoriginal clip that were not overwritten by the copy of the movie clip would get copied over.

lWhen adding a panel in a gap between two panels, if the panel was bigger than the gap, subsequent
panels would be offset but not their camera keyframes.

lMoving a scene between two other scenes caused Storyboard Pro to prompt the user to rename thescene.

10

Toon Boom Storyboard Pro 7.0.3 Release Notesl

The Paste command was greyed out when the timeline playhead was in a gap between two panels,
making it impossible to paste panels in a gap.

l

It was previously impossible to delete an audio track that was locked.

lSelecting all panels from a specific point forward by holding Ctrl (Windows) or ⌘ (macOS) + Shift + Alt
and clicking on a panel then deleting the selected panels would occasionally delete sound clips outside of
the selected range and leave sound clips inside the selected range.

Captionsl

When the Spelling dialog found a misspelled word for which it had no spelling suggestion, the Replace
Once and Replace All buttons would be greyed out, even if the user typed in their own replacement
word in the Replace With field.

lSpelling mistakes at the very end of a caption field did not get highlighted by the spell checker.

ImportlWhen importing multiple video files that contain audio with the Overwrite Existing Clips option, only
one of the video file’s audio streams would get imported.

lAttempting to import a Windows Media Video (.wmv) file on macOS would cause a progress bar to
appear, loop indefinitely and soft-lock the application.
NOTE
Importing WMV files is not supported on macOS.

l

Storyboard Pro only allowed importing TIFF images with the .tif extension, and not with the .tiff
extension.

Exportl

The Movie Settings dialog on macOS had an Alpha option, despite Storyboard Pro not supporting theexport of movies with transparency.

l

An unclear error message would appear when attempting to export a movie in H.264/MPEG-4 (*.mov)format in a resolution that is not supported by this video encoder. Now, a message explaining the issue
appears and prompts the user to export in a supported resolution instead.
NOTE
This video encoder supports resolutions of up to 4096×2304. Each dimension must be amultiple of 16 pixels.

11

Storyboard Pro 7.0.1 Release Notesl

When exporting a movie that included an empty space in the timeline with burnt-in scene and panel
information, the scene and panel information for the next panel would be burnt-in during the empty
space section.

lImporting an AAF sequence for conformation would fail if it only contained audio tracks.

lWhen exporting a PDF in a vertical layout with the Expand Panels and the Spread Captions & Sketch
options, the captions for panels with long horizontal camera movements (which get printed to a row
below the thumbnail) would bleed outside of their respective caption fields.

Project Managementl

The buttons in the Project Management view would disappear when switching to another view thenback to the Project Management view when using the classic (light) stylesheet.

lWhen extracting a project from another project in Storyboard Pro Packed Files (.sbpz) format via thescripting interface, the extracted project would be linked to the original project’s cache rather than theactual project file.

l

No error information would be written to the report field of the Merge Modified Panels dialog box if themerge operation failed.

User InterfacelText in the Sequence, Scene, Panel and Duration fields of the PDF Review workspace was cropped in
High DPI / Retina mode.

lThe

expand andcollapse arrows would not appear in the same size in the Library and 3D Graphviews, depending on the colour theme used and whether Storyboard Pro was running in normal
resolution or in High DPI / Retina mode.

12

Toon Boom Storyboard Pro 7.0.3 Release Notes

Storyboard Pro 7.0.0 Release Notes
Here is the list of changes in Storyboard Pro 7.0.0, build 17.10.0.15295 (2019-11-26):
lDrawing on page 13lDrawing Guides on page 18lAnimatic on page 21lStage and Camera Views on page 22lScript & Captions on page 23

lVideo on page 24l

Audio on page 24

lImages on page 26

lConformation on page 26lExport Movie on page 26lExport PDF on page 27lProject Management on page 27lPreferences on page 28lInstallation & Packaging on page 30lScripting on page 31lEnhancements on page 32

lFixed Issues on page 32

DrawingFeatureDescription

It is now possible to add horizontal and vertical guides to the Stage View and
the Camera View. Alignment guides can be used with thetool as well as various drawing tools such as the

Select,Layer Transform
Contour

Editor,
Perspective,
Brush,
Pencil,Rectangle,
Ellipse andLine tools, to help you position elements and draw along their axes.
Alignment guides

You can add the Alignment Guides toolbar to your workspace by either:l

Right-clicking on any toolbar and select Alignment Guides.

lSelecting Windows > Toolbars > Alignment Guides from the top menu.

You can also add alignment guides by selecting View > Alignment Guides from13

Storyboard Pro 7.0.0 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

the top menu.
You can manipulate alignment guides using theLayer Transform or the

Select tool. You can also make your drawing tool snap to alignment guides byclicking on the

Snapping button in the Tool Properties view and, in the

pop-up menu, select Snap to Alignment Guides.

The brush presets for thell

New & updated brushesl

Pen stabilizer

Brush tool have been updated.

Solid vector brushes are now sorted by size, starting from 5 and goingto 25.

Fine Pencil, Tilting Pencil and Chisel Tip brushes have been added.

Charcoal has been updated, and its alternative, Charcoal Pencil, hasbeen replaced with Dark Charcoal.

The new pen stabilizer can help you draw smooth, stable lines by stabilizing
your drawing strokes as you draw, without having to smooth them afterwards.
It works by letting you draw a stroke without generating a line immediately,
instead it starts generating a line that trails behind your mouse cursor or tablet
pen once it reaches a certain length. By trailing behind your stroke, it cansmooth out the flaws in your drawing gesture and generate a smooth stroke.
There are two different stabilizing methods:lAverage: Storyboard Pro calculates the average direction of all of yourmouse or pen gestures between the end of the actual drawing stroke
and the current position of your mouse cursor or pen tip, and extends

14

Toon Boom Storyboard Pro 7.0.3 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

the stroke in this average direction, effectively evening out jitter androunding sharp turns.

lPulled String: When you start drawing a stroke, Storyboard Pro
positions the drawing tool where your stroke starts. As you move themouse or tablet pen, the drawing tool remains in that position, but a"string" appears, linking your drawing tool to your mouse cursor or pen
tip.

Once a certain maximum length is reached, the string pulls the drawing
tool in the direction of your mouse cursor or tablet pen.

The distance between your mouse cursor or tablet pen and the stroke can becustomized.
This feature can be enabled by adding the Pen Settings toolbar to yourworkspace, and selecting either Average or Pulled String in the toolbar's dropdown menu.
If you have a tablet and pen that support reading the tilt angle of your pen, you
can configure the Brush tool to use this information and draw with a tilted tip.
A tilted tip will be stretched or projected at the angle in which you tilt yourtablet pen, simulating the effect of drawing with a tilted pencil or felt pen.

Pen tilt support

This feature can be used by adjusting the Pen Tilt Sensitivity parameter in the
Brush Properties dialog.

15

Storyboard Pro 7.0.0 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

If you have a tablet and pen that supports reading the rotation angle of yourpen, you can configure the Brush tool to use this information so that therotation of your brush tip is based on how you rotate your tablet pen.

Pen rotation

This feature can be used by enabling the Use Pen Rotation property in the
Brush Properties dialog.
Storyboard Pro now allows you to edit and customize the curve by which itprocesses the amount of pressure you put on your pen tablet to calculate thethickness, flow or opacity of your brush or pencil lines.

Pen pressure feel editor

The Pen Pressure Feel dialog can be accessed by adding the Pen Settings
toolbar to your workspace, then clicking on the

The

Easy Drag

Select and

Pen Pressure Feel button.

Cutter tools now have an Easy Drag mode. Whenenabled, you can click anywhere inside the selection control box to drag theselection. By default, you have to click inside the artwork, which may bedifficult when manipulating line art.
To enable Easy Drag mode, click on the

Easy Drag button in the Tool

Properties view.
In the Tool Properties view, if you set the selection mode for the current tool toLasso/Marquee Selection Mode

eitherLasso orMarquee, the mode will be automatically saved in yourpreferences and will persist after you close and relaunch Storyboard Pro.

16

Toon Boom Storyboard Pro 7.0.3 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

NOTE
The selection mode can be set when using the
Select,Cutter,

Perspective or

Contour Editor,

Transform,

Pencil Editor,

Envelope tools. Setting the selection mode for anyof these tools will change the selection mode for all of these tools.

Keyboard shortcut for Draw
BehindIt is now possible to assign a keyboard shortcut to toggle theDraw Behind

tool property. This shortcut is listed as Draw Behind under the Drawing Tools
section of the keyboard shortcuts list, and has no default assignment.

The

Eraser and now has a

Tip Style option in the Tool Properties view.

This option allows you to select which style of tips will be left over when you
erase part of a pencil line.

Tip Style option for the Eraser
tool

The
Tip Style option for the Contour
Editor tool

Contour Editor tool now has a

Tip Style option in the Tool

Properties view. This option allows you to select which style of tips will be left
over when you select and delete a pencil line segment with the
Editor tool.

17

Contour

Storyboard Pro 7.0.0 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

Drawing Guides
FeatureDescription

Several new drawing guides have been added:ll

The Ruler allows you to position and rotate a simple straight axis, andthen draw a line along that axis, like a regular ruler.

The Isometric Perspective guide helps you draw lines that are parallel
to one of three axes: The x-axis, the y-axis and the z-axis. The angle ofeach axis can be customized as needed.
This type of pseudo-perspective, also referred to as parallel projection,is often used in 2D games, computer graphics and schematics to depict
3D objects and environments without using any actual perspective,
foreshortening or 3D rendering. In 2D animation, it is often used to
draw long panning backgrounds from a low or high angle.

New drawing guidesl

The 3-Point Perspective (Horizontal Pan) guide helps you draw
horizontally panoramic backgrounds, with curvilinear horizontal lines.
A vanishing point is placed in the middle of the horizon line, to help
draw lines on the z-axis, and two vanishing points are placed on thehorizon line outside of the camera field, to define the curve ofhorizontal lines. Vertical lines are made perpendicular to the horizon

18

Toon Boom Storyboard Pro 7.0.3 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

line.
This is useful for drawing backgrounds meant to be panned overhorizontally. Panning the camera horizontally over a background drawn
with a 3-Point Perspective (Horizontal Pan) guide will simulate arotation of the camera on the y-axis.

l

The 3-Point Perspective (Vertical Pan) guide helps you draw verticallypanoramic backgrounds, with curvilinear vertical lines. A vanishingpoint is placed in the middle of the horizon line, to help draw lines on
the z-axis, and two vanishing points are placed above and below thehorizon line, outside of the camera field, to define the curve of verticallines. Horizontal lines are made parallel to the horizon line.
This is useful for drawing backgrounds meant to be panned oververtically. Panning the camera vertically over a background drawn witha 3-Point Perspective (Vertical Pan) guide will simulate a verticalrotation of the camera on the x-axis.

l

The 4-Point Continuous Perspective guide is very similar to the 3 Point
Perspective (Horizontal Pan) guide, except that it is designed to help
draw full 360° panoramic backgrounds.
This guide uses 5 vanishing points. When drawing a horizontal line, it
is curved by arching over one of the vanishing points and reaching
down to the two surrounding vanishing points. This creates aperspective effect where each vanishing point represents one of the
cardinal points, except that the leftmost and the rightmost points
represent the same cardinal point, effectively creating a looping
background. Backgrounds made with the 4-Point Continuous
Perspective guide can be looped horizontally to simulate a full rotationof the camera on the y-axis.

19

Storyboard Pro 7.0.0 Release Notes

FeatureDescriptionl

The 4-Point Perspective (Vertical Pan) is a lot like the 2-Point
Perspective guide, except that its vertical lines are curvilinear, so it canbe used to make vertically panning backgrounds. Two vanishing points
are on the horizon line, outside of the camera field, to help draw lines
on the x-axis and the z-axis, and two vanishing points are placed aboveand below the camera field to define the curve of the vertical lines.
This is useful for drawing backgrounds meant to be panned oververtically, in which cuboid objects are seen from an angle.

l

The 5-Point Perspective (Fish Eye) guide helps you draw backgrounds
that are curvilinear on both the x-axis and the y-axis. It has one central
vanishing point on the horizon line, from which lines on the z-axis are
drawn, two vanishing points at the extremities of its horizon line, todefine the curve of horizontal lines, and two vanishing points aboveand below the horizon line, to define the curve of the vertical lines.
This guide can be used to draw backgrounds with a fisheye-style wide
angle lens effect. It can also be used to draw backgrounds that aremeant to be panned in various directions.

Each guide is available in the20

Add Guide pop-up menu of the Guides view.

Toon Boom Storyboard Pro 7.0.3 Release Notes

FeatureLocking the guide angle

Guide angle display

Description

If you press and hold the Alt key while using drawing guides, the angle of theguide lines will stop following your mouse cursor and lock in position until you
release the Alt key, allowing you to keep the guide lines at the right angle.
By using this feature, you can rework the thickness or length of lines that you
are drawing with a guide. It's also useful if you want to draw a dotted line
along an axis.
When you rotate a guide, its exact angle is displayed in the top-left corner of
the Stage and Camera views.
Some guides can be rotated by moving one of the two points on their horizon
line, which rotates them around the opposite point. If you press and hold theAlt key while moving one of their points, it will rotate the guide around its
centre instead. This works for the following guides:

Rotating guides from centre

l

Ruler

l

2-Point Perspectivel3-Point Perspective (Bird's-Eye View)l3-Point Perspective (Worm's-Eye View)

Animatic
FeatureDescription

It is now possible to create gaps in your animatic when editing its timing,
similarly to editing video clips in a video editing software.

Animatic editing mode
By default, any change you make to your animatic will ripple to subsequent
panels so as to avoid leaving gaps in the timeline. If you want to create gaps,
you must enable Animatic Editing Mode. This can be done by clicking on the
Animatic Editing Mode button in the bottom-left corner of the Timeline
view. You can also temporarily toggle Animatic Editing Mode by pressing andholding the Ctrl (Windows) or ⌘ (macOS) key while changing the duration ofa panel in the Timeline view.

21Storyboard Pro 7.0.0 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

NOTE
Projects with gaps in their timeline cannot be opened in older versionsof Storyboard Pro.

By default, when you offset panels, sound clips and video clips that are cued
during those panels will also be offset to remain synchronized with them.
Enable & disable clip
synchronization by track

You can now disable the synchronization of video and sound clips for each
video and audio track in your project. When synchronization is disabled for a
track, its clips will not offset when you make changes to the timing of youranimatic.
To disable synchronization for a track, click on the

Sync button next to thattrack in the Timeline view.
The Timeline view is now divided in two separate areas:lSeparate video and audio
sectionsl

The video area, which contains your storyboard track, which has yourproject's panels, animations and camera movements, as well as all of
your project's video tracks.
The audio area, which contains all of your project's audio tracks.

It is possible to reposition the divider between these two areas and to scroll
each area vertically without affecting the other area.
Commands to instantly navigate to the previous or the next sequence havebeen added to the Play menu.
Those commands can also be added to the Navigation toolbar, which, by
Navigate to previous and next
sequence

default, only has the

Panel First Frame and thePanel Last Frame

buttons. You can customize this toolbar by right-clicking on it and selecting
Customize.
You can also assign keyboard shortcuts to the Previous Sequence and Next
Sequence commands, in the Play/Navigation section of the Keyboard
Shortcuts dialog.

Stage and Camera Views
FeatureDescription

Overlays

Where you could previously only display the current frame's time code as an

22

Toon Boom Storyboard Pro 7.0.3 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

overlay in the Stage and Camera views, you can now also display the name(number) of the current scene and the current panel, as well as one type of
captions.
You can also customize where this information is displayed, as well as its font,
font size and colour.
To display overlays in the Stage and Camera view, click on theShow

Overlays button in the toolbar at the bottom of either view.
To customize the types of information displayed in the overlays, as well as how
it is displayed, double-click or long-click on
pop-up menu, selectShow Overlays and, in theOverlay Settings.

It is now possible to have several instances of the Camera View in yourworkspace.

Multiple Camera views

For example, you can now add a detached Camera View window to yourworkspace, and position it inside your workstation's second monitor. Yoursecond monitor can then act as a preview and playback monitor.
Each Camera View in your workspace has its own zoom level and angle.
Additionally, the Action Safe Area, Title Safe Area, 4:3 Safe Area, 4:3 Area,
Camera Mask and Show Overlay switches can be toggled independently oneach Camera View.

Script & Captions
FeatureDescription

Storyboard Pro now has spell checker functionality. It checks the spelling ofeach word in your captions and in your project's script and underlines thewords it does not find in its dictionary. It also allows you to go through each
misspelled word in your project so that you can either correct or ignore them.
Spell Checker

By default, automatic spell checking is enabled. To toggle it off, select Caption> Spelling > Check Spelling While Typing from the top menu.
To go through each spelling mistake in your project, or to select which
dictionary to use to check your spelling, select Caption > Spelling > Spell
Check from the top menu.

23

Storyboard Pro 7.0.0 Release Notes

Video
FeatureDescription

Import audio stream

When importing a movie file, you can now import its audio stream into yourproject's audio tracks by checking the Import Audio checkbox in the Import
Videos/Images as Clips dialog.

Video with transparency

Storyboard Pro now supports videos with alpha (transparency).
It is now possible to import WebM files as video clips into your animatic.

Import WebM

NOTE
Importing the audio stream of a WebM file is currently not supported.

Use drawing layer as video clip

Drag & drop movie file

It is now possible to convert a drawing layer into a video clip. To do this,simply click and drag on a drawing layer, and drop it inside a video track.
You can now drag and drop a movie file from your operating system's filebrowser into one of your project's video tracks. This will instantly import themovie into the video track in which you dropped it.

Audio
FeatureDescription

You can now set the volume for a sound clip without creating a volume
keyframe. You can simply click and drag on their volume envelope to adjust
their overall volume.

Sound clip volume

If your sound clip has volume keyframes, you can also click and drag on thesegment between two keyframes to offset both keyframes simultaneously.

24

Toon Boom Storyboard Pro 7.0.3 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

It is possible to add a gain effect to sound clips. To do this, select one orseveral sound clips, then either:Gain effectlRight-click on the selection and select Audio Gain.

l

In the top menu, select Clips > Audio Gain.

Gain is different from volume in that it can actually amplify your sound clip. It isapplied before the volume is applied. It is possible to select several sound clip
and set or offset their gain simultaneously. Hence, if you notice disparities involume between different sound clips, you can quickly even them out.
Audio Gain is an effect which can be adjusted or undone at any time. It is
supported with XML and AAF conformation. This means that if you export
your animatic as an XML or AAF sequence for conformation and import thesequence in Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere and Avid Media Composer, you canadjust the gain on your sound clip in your video editing software, and importthose changes into your Storyboard Pro project.
When setting the volume of a sound clip or of a volume keyframe, the overlaythat displays the volume you're setting it to in decibels now displays decimals.

Precise volume control

Drag & drop sound file

You can now drag and drop a sound file from your operating system's filebrowser into one of your project's audio tracks. This will instantly import thesound file into the audio track in which you dropped it.

25

Storyboard Pro 7.0.0 Release Notes

ImagesFeatureDescription

You can now drag and drop an image file from your operating system's filebrowser into Storyboard Pro to import it as a layer in a panel, or as an image
clip in a video track.
You can drop the image file into the following areas of the user interface:
Drag & drop image filel

In the Stage View, Camera View or Layers view, which will import it as alayer in the current panel, on top of all the other layers.

ll

In the Thumbnail or Timeline view, over the thumbnail for a panel,
which willimport it as a layer in that specific panel.
In a video track in the Timeline view, which will import it as a static
image clip.

Conformation
FeatureDescription

When importing an XML sequence for conformation, Storyboard Pro will check
Updating sound files

Gaps in timeline

if the sound files linked to your sequence have been changed since they were
exported from your project. If changes have been detected, Storyboard Pro will
import the new sound files into your Storyboard Pro project.
Since it is now possible to create gaps in the timeline of your animatic, it is also
possible to import a sequence containing gaps for conformation. Gaps in yoursequence will be imported into your animatic.

Export Movie
FeatureDescription

It is now possible to export a QuickTime Movie (.mov) file without using Apple
QuickTime, by instead using a simple H.264 (AVC) encoder.

Export in H.264 (AVC)

To do this, when using the Export to Movie or the Export to EDL/XML/AAF
dialog, select H.264/MPEG-4 (*.mov) in the Movie Format drop-down. This
format is available on both Windows and macOS, even if Apple QuickTime is
not installed.
Movies exported using this option have a video stream encoded with the H.264(AVC) video codec, and an audio stream in PCM format.

26

Toon Boom Storyboard Pro 7.0.3 Release Notes

FeatureNew QuickTime movie interface
for macOS

Description

On macOS, Storyboard Pro now uses the Apple AVFoundation framework thatis built into macOS to export movies in QuickTime Movie (.mov) format, insteadof the QuickTime application.
This allows Storyboard Pro to encode video using the H.264, Apple ProRes
442 and or Apple ProRes 4444 codecs built into AVFoundation.

Export PDF
FeatureDescription

Better visual indication ofscenes in Japanese storyboard

When exporting a PDF using one of the Japanese PDF profiles, horizontal lines
are drawn in the CUT and TIME columns to indicate when a scene ends and thenext scene starts.

Project Management
FeatureDescription

It is now possible to save multiple versions of your storyboard without having
to save your entire project as a copy.
By selecting File > Save as New Version from the top menu, you can save yourproject as a different project file, but inside the same project folder.

Versioning

Each project version will preserve their own animations, timing, video tracks,
audio tracks and clip placements. However, the different versions of a single
project will share the same drawing files, video files and audio files, as well as
the same palette.
Project versions will be saved as different .sboard files inside the project
directory. To open a specific project version, simply open the corresponding
project file.
You can also save different project versions when working with Storyboard
Packed Files (.sbpz). If you open a Storyboard Packed File that contains
several project versions, you will be prompted to select which version you
want to open.

Project Management view

The new Project Management view allows you to keep a list of all the projects
that were created by splitting your project or by extracting parts of your project.
When you split your project, or when you extract smaller projects from your27

Storyboard Pro 7.0.0 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

project, you can check the Link extracted project at the bottom of the Split
Storyboard or Extract Storyboard dialog to add the smaller projects to the list in
the Project Management view.
This list displays the name as well as the full path to each project. It also
indicates whether or not the project was modified, as well as if the project
cannot be found in the location where it was extracted.
This view also allows you to remap linked projects that were moved and to
remove linked projects that were deleted, and to link other projects to yours. It
also provides a quick access to all the commands that are available in File >Project Management in the top menu.
Using the new Project Management view, you can select a project in the list of
linked projects, then click on the

Merge Modified Panels from Selected

Project button to import all the changes from the child project into your parent
project.

Merge modified panels

NOTE
The first time you click on this button, you will be prompted to selectsome merging options. Afterwards, merging changes from a linked
project will require a single click.

You can also use the Merge Modified Panels dialog to browse for a project andselect the merging options before you import it.

Preferences
FeatureDescription

It is now possible to select your preferred user interface language in the
Preferences dialog.

User interface language

Storyboard Pro currently supports English, Chinese (Simplified), Japanese andSpanish. In previous versions, Storyboard Pro would always launch in thelanguage of your operating system if supported, or in English otherwise. By
setting this preference, you can make Storyboard Pro launch in a specificsupported language regardless of the language of your operating system.
You can change this preference in the Global UI tab of the Preferences dialog.

Panel number incrementing

The Increment name by preference allows you to configure how new panels arenumbered.

28

Toon Boom Storyboard Pro 7.0.3 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

For example, if you enable this preference and set it to 10 (the default value),
panels in a new scene will be named 10, 20, 30, and so on when created insequence.
Then, if you create a new panel between two existing panels, the new panel
will be named by using the number between the numbers assigned to the twoneighbouring panels, rounded down. For example, if you create a panel
between panel 10 and panel 20, this panel will be named 15. If you create
another panel between panel 10 and 15, this panel will be named 12. When
this option is disabled, if you create a panel between two existing panels, thenew panel will be named based on the number of the previous panel + 1, andsubsequent panels will be renamed to keep their numbers in sequence.
This preference is available in the Naming tab of the Preferences dialog.
A new panel naming rule has been added.
This new panel is very similar to an existing panel naming rule, it uses lettersinstead of digits to number panels, in the following way:
A ... Z, ZA ... ZZ, ZZA ... ZZZ, ZZZA ...

New panel naming rule

However, while the existing naming rule added Zs at the beginning of thepanel's name to count how many times it reached Z, this new rule indicates theamount of Zs it reached using a number, in this way:
A ... Z, ZA ... ZZ, 2ZA ... 2ZZ, 3ZA ...
Hence, panel names always use at most two letters, and are otherwise
preceded by a number.
You can select this naming rule in the Naming tab of the Preferences dialog, in
the Panel Auto-increment Rule drop-down.

Panel name length

The new Automatically Add Leading Zeroes preference, available in the
Naming tab of the Preferences dialog, allows you to create panels with a
specific amount of digits in their name, by adding leading zeroes as needed.
For example, if you set the minimum amount of characters for panel names to
3, the first panel of a scene will be named 001.

Disable using GPU for effects

When applying a blur effect on a bitmap layer, by default, Storyboard Pro uses
your computer's graphics processing unit (GPU) to generate the blurred image
faster. This may not work as expected on some video cards. If you encounter
this issue, you can now fix it by disabling the Render effects using GPU(OpenCL) preference in the Advanced tab of the Preferences dialog.

Keyboard Shortcuts dialog

The Shortcuts tab of the Preferences dialog is now its own dialog, the29Storyboard Pro 7.0.0 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

Keyboard Shortcuts dialog.
To access this dialog box, in the top menu, select Edit (Windows) or
Storyboard Pro 7 (macOS) > Keyboard Shortcuts.

Create, export, import andswitch between keyboard
shortcuts sets

Export and import preferences

Default preference sets

It is now possible to create your own keyboard shortcut sets. You can also
export your keyboard shortcut sets as XML files and use them as backups or
share them with project collaborators.
You can create, export and import keyboard shortcut sets using the New,
Load... and Save... buttons at the top of the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog.
It is now possible to export your preferences as XML files, and use them asbackups or share them with project collaborators.
You can export and import preferences using the new Load... and Save...
buttons at the top of the Preferences dialog.
Storyboard Pro now comes preloaded with three different sets of default
preferences: Standard, Animatic and 3D. You can quickly switch between
these sets in the Preferences dialog.

Installation & Packaging
FeatureDescription

The Storyboard Pro package for macOS now only contains a single application.
Single application on macOSYou can launch License Wizard by selecting Storyboard Pro 7 > Storyboard
Pro Tools > License Wizard from the top menu.

Easy authorization on macOSThe way Storyboard Pro is packaged for macOS no longer triggers theoperating system's security mechanisms. Hence, it is no longer required toright-click on Storyboard Pro, select Open and authorize the application as auser with administrative privileges to be able to run Storyboard Pro. You will beable to launch Storyboard Pro as soon as it is copied to your Applications
folder.

No more 32-bit executables

All 32-bit executables have been removed from the packaging on macOS toensure that Storyboard Pro can run on macOS 10.15 (Catalina), which dropped
support for 32-bit applications.

30Toon Boom Storyboard Pro 7.0.3 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

IMPORTANTIn previous versions of Storyboard Pro, it was possible to open projects
in the legacy project format created by Storyboard 1 and to convert
them to the new format. This conversion used the 32-bit Sboard2Xml
utility, which is no longer packaged with Storyboard Pro. As such, as ofStoryboard Pro 7, it is no longer possible to open projects in the legacy
Storyboard 1 format.

ScriptingFeatureDescription

In the past, scripts packaged with Storyboard Pro were all automatically copied
to your preferences folder, in the same location as your custom scripts. Now,
scripts packaged with Storyboard Pro are only copied to your preferences if
you make modifications to them. Otherwise, they are stored and executed fromthe Storyboard Pro installation folder.
This solves several problems:lSmart Script Managementll

The scripts folder in your user preferences is now reserved for yourcustom scripts and are no longer cluttered with Storyboard Pro scripts.
In previous versions, when installing a patch update, Storyboard Pro
would not overwrite the scripts in your user preferences with theupdated scripts, as this would risk overwriting one of your user scripts.
This is no longer a problem, except in the rare case where you happen
to have edited a script packaged with Storyboard Pro which was
updated in a patch update.
You can now easily restore the original version of a packaged
Storyboard Pro script after having made changes to it.

Custom Script Folder

You can now set a custom location in which to store scripts. To do this, youmust set the TOONBOOM_GLOBAL_SCRIPT_LOCATION environment variable tothe location where you want to store scripts. The scripts in this location will beavailable in the Script Editor alongside scripts that are packaged with
Storyboard Pro and scripts in your user preferences.

Export to EDL/AAF/XML

It is now possible to export your project as an EDL, AAF or XML sequence
through scripting. You can do this by using the exportToNLE() method of
the ExportManager class.

31

Storyboard Pro 7.0.0 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

The setOneMoviePerPanel() method was also added to the
ExportManager class to support exporting one movie file per panel.

User Interface Responders

The scripting interface now provides you with a list of responders from theStoryboard Pro user interface. You can obtain this list with the
getResponderList() method. You can obtain the list of actions for a given
responder with the getActionList() method.

Convert a coordinate for single
axis between fields andOpenGL coordinates

The following methods were added to the scene class to convert thecoordinate for a single axis from field coordinates to OpenGL coordinates, andfrom OpenGL to field coordinates: toOGLX(), toOGLY(), toOGLZ(),
fromOGLX(), fromOGLY() and fromOGLZ().

Get individual version numbers

The new getMajorVersion(), getMinorVersion(), getPatchVersion()and getBuildNumber() methods of the about class will provide theirrespective values from the currently installed version of Storyboard Pro.

EnhancementslThe

Text tool now remembers the last font you used with it.

lStoryboard Pro now supports True Type Collection (.ttc) fonts. These are font packages containing
several True Type Font (.ttf) files. If you have any TTC font installed on your system, you will be able touse them with the

Text tool, when formatting captions as well as in Burn-in options when exportingyour project.
l

The Terminology Style option was removed from the Japanese localization of Storyboard Pro, asJapanese terminology is the same for animation and live action.

l

The Start Dictation and Emoji and Symbols menu entries have been removed from the Edit top menu.
These entries were automatically added by macOS and were not compatible with Storyboard Pro.

l

Toolbars in the top menu and the context menu are now listed in alphabetical order.

lViews in the top menu are now listed in alphabetical order.

Fixed Issues
The following issues have been fixed in this release:l

Storyboard Pro fails to launch on macOS 10.15 Catalina.

l

Storyboard Pro crashes when undoing changes done with the32

Centerline Editor tool.

Toon Boom Storyboard Pro 7.0.3 Release Notesl

On Windows, when drawing a very long brush stroke with a pen tablet then immediately drawing
another stroke, the second stroke starts off with a straight line segment.

l

The Spacebar key can still be used to pan views after the user unsets it as the keyboard shortcut for theFree Pan and Zoom command.

l

Mouse pointer becomes default mouse pointer when a notification appears on macOS.

l

Storyboard Pro fails to import XML sequences exported from OpenTimelineIO for conformation.

lCustom Write node parameters are not exported when exporting Harmony scenes with the Rendered
Animatic option.

l

Exporting a storyboard in PDF format by running a Storyboard Pro script in a command line interface
may cause it to have missing information and garbage text.

lWhen using the

Stamp tool with theDraw Behind tool mode, the different strokes in the stamp's

artwork are laid on the canvas in their reverse order.
l

Using theCutter tool on multiple drawings makes some of the selected artwork turn red.

l

On macOS, attempting to Save As causes Storyboard Pro to freeze if a folder with the same name as
your project name exists in the target directory.

l

Attempting to Save As inside the project folder will cause the ensuing error message to keep
reappearing indefinitely.

l

Storyboard Pro crashes if the user cuts and paste a clip, then undoes and pastes again.

l

Selecting View > Show Tab Bar from the top menu may cause Storyboard Pro to crash on macOS 10.12.

lWhen using the

Rectangle,

Ellipse orLine tool with theSnap and Align tool mode,

scrolling in or out of the drawing space causes the alignment hints to be offset.
lPressing the Del (Windows) or ⌫ (macOS) causes Storyboard Pro to crash in the following
circumstances:l

When moving a camera keyframe.

lWhen adjusting the in-point, out-point of a sound clip, or when moving one of its volume
keyframes.

llWhen moving an animation keyframe in a video clip.

Pressing Del (Windows) or ⌫ (macOS) to delete the selected panel while attempting to resize it resizes
the previous panel.

lAttempting to import a 3D model into a 2D scene while the timeline playhead is past the last panel inthe project, then cancelling, causes Storyboard Pro to crash.

lAttempting to add a scene between two scenes and then cancelling may cause Storyboard Pro to crash
if a custom default panel layout is saved to the user's preferences.

33

Storyboard Pro 7.0.0 Release Notesl

Attempting to import an XML sequence that contains video files instead of images for conformation
causes Storyboard Pro to crash.

lCamera frame in Stage View and Camera View is too thin when using a High DPI (Windows) or Retina(macOS) display.

lWhen duplicating a panel containing vector artwork imported from a PDF, the layers in the duplicate
panel are copied from different panels.

l

In the Timeline view, the zone in which a template can be dropped to insert it as a new panel at the endof the scene is too narrow and is easy to miss.

l

The overlay indicating a volume keyframe's value in dB remains on the screen when dragging the
keyframe outside the sound clip to delete it.

l

Crash may occur when attempting to add a new sequence while the Timeline View playhead is beyond
the last panel.

l

If the user extracts a scene from a project, deletes the extracted project and extracts the same scene in
the same target folder with the same name, the audio in the extracted project will be corrupted.

lMoving panels in the Timeline view has no effect if the Timeline view is not docked to the main
application window.

l

Main application window does not appear if workspace configuration file is invalid or corrupted.

lWhen drawing a closed shape with theAuto Fill tool mode and a custom colour that does not exist in

the project's palette, the shape gets filled with red.
lPlayback skips frames when playing a project for the first time since opening it on macOS.

l

Exporting a Windows Media Video (.wmv) movie at 100% quality creates a corrupted movie file.

l

The value of volume keyframes, displayed in decibels, is slightly inaccurate relative to their actual value,
which is stored in amplitude ratio, in the project file.

lDrawing stroke does not appear until it is completed when drawing with thePencil tool with theDraw Behind tool mode enabled and while using any modifier key.
lThe

Easy Drag mode of theSelect tool does not work when pressing and holding the ⌘ key on

macOS.
l

The

Show / Hide button for a video track does not work properly if the timeline playhead is over avideo clip, but not over a panel.
lLeft and right area of the Timeline view end up scrolled at different positions when clicking anddragging on the timeline playhead up and down to make it scroll vertically.

l

The Export Current Image command does not work when there are video clips but no panel at thecurrent frame.

34

Toon Boom Storyboard Pro 7.0.3 Release Notesl

When making a PDF preview of a panel using the Panel PDF Options view, if the PDF profile has abackground image, it will obscure everything in the PDF preview except for the thumbnails and the
logo.

l

When using Storyboard Pro to run a script in a command line interface, the process does not terminate
and outputs the following error:
QThread: Destroyed while thread is still runningl

Pasting formatted text in a caption field may result in lines temporarily overlapping each other.

lAttempting to open a Storyboard Pro Packed File that was created in Japanese trial mode (.tbpz) in fulllicense mode results in Storyboard Pro attempting and failing to open an empty project.

l

Entry in the Undo menu for updating the position of a 3D model rendered into a 2D layer has no text.

l

It is possible to edit the artwork in a locked or hidden layer using the
Perspective,

Edit Gradient/Texture,layer is selected using theEraser,

Paint orSelect,Cutter,Close Gap tool if the artwork in thisSelect All Drawings in Scene option of theSelect tool or by selecting

the locked or hidden layer among others layers and selecting the artwork with theSelect tool.

l

PDF Export view is not listed in the right alphabetical position in the

Add View menu.

l

No progress bar displays when saving a project on macOS.

l

Checked state of the Remove exported panels from current project checkbox in the Split Storyboard
dialog is saved even if the user clicks Cancel.

lAdding a transition fails if the default panel length is set to 3 frames or less and the Preserve project
length when adding transitions preference is enabled.

lWhen a group layer is selected, its name does not appear in the status bar.

l

Tool tip for the Overwrite Clips button is "Overwrite Sound Clips".

lCentre is misspelled "center" in various user interfaces.

lError message when attempting to open a project created in Japanese trial mode in full license mode is
not localized in languages other than English.

lAdding a transition between two scenes offsets the video and sound clips cued during the second scene
backwards.

l"Brush 1" is missing from theBrush tool presets.

l

The Perspective tool has an Align to Grid tool mode, which should only be available in Harmony.

35