Transforming Drawing Objects

By default, a panel in Toon Boom Storyboard is 5 seconds.

With the Transform tools, you can animate changes in position, rotation and scaling all from one tool. Unlike with the Select tool, your changes do not remain static for the entire panel; you set the image’s position, rotation and scale at the first frame and define its position, rotation and scale at the final frame. Toon Boom Storyboard calculates the position of the drawing object at the frames in between the first and last frame in the panel.

You can also set the position of the first frame to be the same as the last frame, and vice versa.

If you want to animate a motion path, you can use the Transform tool in the Drawing View or Panel View. Another example of a transformation is making an object appear to grow in size by transforming the object and re-scaling it to a larger size.

The Transform tools work with all the drawing objects on a selected layer. To learn more about layers, see Working With Layers.

Unlike a traditional paper-based storyboard, you will be able to see your transformations when you play back your animatic in Toon Boom Storyboard and when you view an enhanced animatic in QuickTime or Flash.

To animate with the Transform tool:

1. Select the layer you want to transform.

2. Select Tools > First Frame Transform.

A blue bounding box appears around all of the drawing objects in the layer.

3. Scale, rotate and position the objects in the selection as you want them to look in the first frame.

4. Select Tools > Last Frame Transform.

5. Scale, rotate and position the objects in the selection as you want them to look in the last frame.

You can reapply a transformation at any time while working on your project. Reset the transformation to its original static position using the Reset Transform command in the Layer Menu.

Tip

To activate these tools, you can also click the First Frame Transform or the Last Frame Transform button from the Tools Toolbar.

To copy a frame position:

  • To copy the position of the last frame from the position of the first frame, select Layer > Copy Layer End Position From Start Position.

    • You can also press the Copy Layer End Position from Start Position button in the Layer Toolbar.

  • To copy the position of the first frame from the position of the last frame, select Layer > Copy Layer Start Position From End Position.

    • You can also press the Copy Layer Start Position from End Position button in the Layer Toolbar.