Redboard is revolutionary technology that lets you plan and manage your 3D animated production very accurately from the storyboard stage, then seamlessly transfer all of the data into Autodesk's Maya, saving you both time and money. Redboard has helped in the creation of over 1000 hours of production, most recently on the latest HiT television series of Fireman Sam, saving the production in excess of £50,000. To answer that question, you need to understand that Redboard is far more than the simple storyboarding application it might at first appear to be. It is a comprehensive production management solution evolved from a 5-year development process with Hibbert Ralph Animation, who, having produced animated films for over 20 years, had a very clear vision of what they required - a single application for their 3D productions that allowed them to create the following:

• a drawn storyboard
• production wide scene and shot data creation from that initial process
• utilise an EDL from a corresponding editing application to translate timing information from Redboard back into Maya
• create a route sheet for every episode

Hibbert Ralph had tried many of the leading storyboard and management applications, but found that, although very good in some areas, the complete solution they needed could not be found in a single package. They all fell short, and here's why: This comes when you interpret a drawn storyboard into a 3D world. Drawings are very hard to match - the storyboard artists had no idea of the distances between characters or other objects when they drew the panels, so they rarely match up to the 3D layout, leaving important decisions to the 3D artist, or requiring the Director's involvement for a second time.

 

Redboard eliminates this problem by providing a simple 3D environment onto which storyboard artists can interactively draw the panels. They have total control over positioning the 3d objects within Redboard, including moving the camera. All that is then required is to draw over the top of the frame any additional information needed for how the characters are to be interpreted. Simply import your 3D data into Redboard and you are ready to go.

 

Once you have completed your panels, Redboard exports all of that data back into Maya, instantly altering the character and camera positions of the Maya scene to exactly match those that were set in Redboard. It also provides an 'onion skin' overlay in the camera, using the relevant storyboard panel, so that the 3D artist knows what the scene should look like..

 

But Redboard’s involvement doesn’t end there. Traditionally the next stage of the production is an animatic – created by an editor from the storyboard panels. Once completed, the timings from this animatic are then passed on to the 3D department to incorporate into their scenes so that everything matches – a manual, time-consuming process, often prone to human error.

Thanks to Redboard, you no longer have to worry about those errors AND the whole process takes a matter of seconds. Here’s how - once the animatic is completed, simply read the standard EDL (edit decision list) from your editing system into Redboard. This gives access to the storyboard panel timings used in the edit allowing Redboard to exactly match them.

 

Remember how Redboard exported all the initial data into Maya, so that the characters and cameras matched up? Well you can do it at this stage too, but the added advantage now is that the 3D scenes are automatically timed to the animatic, with characters moving within Maya between their positions, based on the duration of the corresponding panels that Redboard extracted from the EDL.

And finally, Redboard provides a route sheet that can be read in Excel (or any application that can read a .csv file) - so that you can easily see all of the scene data and keep track of comments and changes.

 

All of these benefits mean that Redboard is ideally suited for working on multi-studio co-productions, where the pre-production is done in one part of the world and the bulk of the production is done in another. Redboard helps manage your production wherever it is! Still not convinced? Why not try Redboard for yourself - you can get a Free, No Obligation Trial Instantly by simply filling out the form below. All trial versions come with a pre-installed 3D set, so you can get started right now. If you want to learn more about the Redboard process, take a look at our 'How Redboard Works' guide. Or, for a more in-depth view, why not have a look at our Redboard Tutorials?