Toonboom Storyboard Pro Licenses at Escape

We're in the process of acquiring some licenses for Toonboom Storyboard Pro to support our third year animation students at Escape Studios.

A number of our third year animation students want to specialise in storyboarding, and to support this we're getting them the leading industry software in this area.

Storyboarding is an important part of the pre-production process, and an area which continues to experience a significant skills shortage here in the UK.

Why do our animators need Storyboard Pro?
Toonboom Storyboard Pro is today one of the leading software packages to support the work of Storyboard artists. It's standard-issue at many studios, and very versatile.

Why can't story artists use pencil and paper?
They can. Storyboarding is, in many ways, done in the same traditional way it always has been, by drawing sequential pictures to tell a story.  But, increasingly, digital tools are speeding up the process, and most professional board artists now use some kind of digital interface to help create an efficient workflow. For example, rather than re-draw a background countless times, Storyboard Pro allows you use layers (like in Photoshop) so you don't have to re-draw panels.

Storyboarder - Free Storyboard software

What other storyboard packages are out there?
Storyboarder is a great free software package that we recommend students download to try out their hand at storyboarding.

Panel Forge
Another great piece of story software that we are teaching at Escape Studios is PanelForge, developed at Blue Zoo Animation, which combines the 2D traditional drawn approach with a 3D Layout pass, enabling artists to get very quick results, and also eliminating the traditional disconnect between the story department and 3D Layout. We use Panel Forge in our storyboarding evening class, taught by Blue Zoo's very own Francesca Adams.

The Escape Studios Animation Blog is a personal view on the art of animation and visual effects. To apply for our new BA/MA starting in September 2019, follow this link.