Create a Moving Animatic for Pre-Vis with Adobe Photoshop CS2 and Apple Keynote 3

One fast way to create an alpha channel for an image is to use Photoshop CS2′s Extract tool, which you’ll find under the Filters pull-down menu. You just outline the area that you want to separate, then fill it in. Keep in mind it may take a bit of work to create clean cutout edges in complex images.

When completed, your image with alpha channel should have a transparent checkered background. This image also has a lens flare on top of the lamp post, as well as a few lighting filters to change the original daytime photo into a night time image. Also, when you save off your files, be sure your images are larger than your animatic screen size. This way you can use a background or character image in both a wide shot or close-up.

To simulate depth of field within the animatic, create blurred copies of your images. You can also use the Lens Blur filter, but I tend to like the results you get with the basic Gaussian Blur filter in Photoshop CS2.

Once you’ve collected and cleaned up your images, you need to open Keynote and set your Theme, which is an overall template that applies to each new slide. Just select your choice from the Theme pull-down menu. For best results, I’d avoid the Storyboard theme and use the plain Black theme, which will give you more flexibility in how you set up your animatic show.

Once you’ve selected your Theme, you should pick a page style from the Masters pull-down menu. You’ll get the most flexibility by choosing the Blank page style. Don’t worry about adding onscreen text- you can add script notes in the Notes field later if desired.

To add your image into Keynote, just click and drag the image onto the Keynote Canvas window. Keynote can handle a variety of image formats, but to keep your alpha channel intact, only import Photoshop PSD or.TIFF files.

Once all your images are on the Keynote Canvas area, resize your image to fit the scene by clicking on the image and then dragging to fit. You can also change size by clicking on the Metric tab in the Inspector palette and typing in a new pixel size. To keep your images proportional when using click and drag, make sure you hold down the Shift key while dragging your image to a new size.

Once you have all your images in Keynote, you’ll need to place the elements in the proper order. Generally you’ll just need to move your background to the back, your Foreground element (seen here as the blurred light post) to the front and your character sandwiched in between the two. To do this, select an image, and then select a layer direction from the Front, Forward, Back or Backward options.

Finally you can adjust the transition type, timing and order for each element in your slide. To do this, select an element, and then click on the Build tab in the Inspector palette. Click on "Build In" to add a transition at the beginning, and "Build Out" to select an outgoing transition. Here the Vicki character moves into the scene from the left to right with (Build In 1), while at the same time the lamp blur (Build In 2) and lower background (Build In 3) move in from the right to left. To make all three Build In events happen at once, select an event in the build order, and then select Automatically with build. I moved Vicki out of frame with a Build Out transition.

To print out multiple images of your storyboards, select Print, and then select Keynote from the Print options dialog box. Here you’ll be able to set the number of images per page, as well as how your notes are displayed. If you want to show every single animated move in your storyboard, then click on the option that says "Print Each Stage of Builds."

Erik Holsinger
President/Executive Producer
Media Alchemy

Erik is president and executive producer of Media Alchemy, Inc., an award-winning media production company based in Seattle that creates both broadcast documentaries and custom media for special venues. Media Alchemy created everything from multi-screen HD movies to interactive theme-park rides.

Erik is also a journalist, with four published books and dozens of articles on media production for Film & Video, PC World, Wired, CNET, and others, including his favorite, Studio/monthly.

Erik Says Keep In Mind…

Adding some motion to your storyboard can make a huge difference when planning a shoot and working out script issues. While there are some very expensive storyboarding tools on the market, I prefer to work with what’s on hand. I often use photos of actors or simply create characters with E-Frontier’s Poser 6, and then either use location or stock photos as backgrounds. To create different lighting "looks," I like to adjust images in Photoshop CS2, and then bring everything together in Apple’s Keynote 3 presentation program. The great thing about Keynote is that it keeps alpha channels intact, so you can move characters behind images, or create transitions on separate elements to simulate everything from camera moves to rack-focus effects.

Ultimately, a storyboard is just a tool for communicating your ideas to your creative team, as well as a reference point for when you are in the midst of shooting. Don’t worry about creating great "art"- all you need is just create enough imagery to get your points across.

Media Alchemy, Inc.
www.media-alchemy.com
1617 8th Avenue North
Seattle, WA 98109
ph. 206.783.5669
erik@media-alchemy.com