Creating Visual Effects Storyboard Panels
Using HyperText Files

HyperText files are terrific for archiving storyboard panels and elements.  Here is a sample of how this can be done. Click here for sample.  There are several steps and parts to creating storyboard files.
 

  1. Scan All of the Boards
  2. Create the actual files and thumbnails
  3. Create the "Panels" HTM (HyperText) file.
  4. Create the actual Shot HTM file.


1.  Scanning All of the Boards -- A page of story boards may have several panels on it.  This makes scanning easy.  Once you have the page on the scanner top, you can reposition the preview crop lines from one image to another and just keep re-scanning.
2.  Saving The Boards -- Be sure to create a special folder for your storyboards.  In the case of our sample, the folder is called "sample_fx".  Remember to only use lower case for all links and file names.  Save your panels using the following convention:

fx-001-01.jpg
and
fx-001-01.gif

Where, "fx" indicates that these are visual effects panels.
Where, "001" is the shot number (presumes no greater than 999 shots in the project).
Where, "01" is the primary board for this shot, subsequent boards to indicate elements or other information can be sequentially numbered as 02, 03, 04, etc.
Where the file extension of .jpg is the full size board (640 wide by whatever height is appropriate for your movie format), and .gif is the thumbnail for that board (200 wide by whatever is appropriate for your movie format).

3.  Creating HTM files -- There are two different types of HTM files to use for storyboards.

  1. The "Panels" HTM file which is the main HTM file that contains thumbnails.  You can usually on get 4 or five shots on a "Panel HTM File".  These files are named like this -  toddlers_panels_001.htm  - You can click on this to see a sample panel.  It is difficult to see, but the file name is actually "toddlers_panels_001.htm".  Because the previous mention of the file name is also a link, it is colored and underlined.  The link underline covers the underscore between the words toddlers, panels and the "Panels" number.  We use leading zeros and three digits to number the "Panels file".  Only use a single name for the project.  If a project has a name with several words, choose the most descriptive name for the file name and be consistent.
  2. The "Shot" HTM file is the main HTM file for the full size storyboard and elements.  Our numbering scheme presumes that there are not more than 9 elements for any shot.  If you have more, you must go back and renumber the file names with two digits.  Never just increase a file name in a series to more digits than the other files in the series.  In our sample we have several "Shot HTM" files.  Take a look at  fx-001-1.htm ,  we don't use underscores in the "Shot HTM" file names as we usually do not use text or words.
The first thing to do is to create your Panels and Shot templates.  These templates will be used over and over again and will save you much time and insure consistency between numerous files.  We have created two templates that can be re-saved to your project specifications.

 panels_template.htm  "panels_template.htm"

and

 shot_template_.htm  "shot_template_.htm"

You can use these templates for any project.  Replace the words "PROJECT NAME" with your projects actual name and change the numbers appropriately.  It makes sense to create your own template for a particular project so that you do not have to keep replacing the words "PROJECT NAME" with your project's name but when you make new copies, you will carry your project information into each file.  The above samples are protected from saving over their original format, so after you make your changes to the template, you must use the "save as" function and rename the file appropriately.  (File, Save AS)