Storyboard User Guide
- Updating from an existing version
- How to install Storyboard?
- How do I use the Storyboard Photoshop action?
- How can I configure Storyboard for my blog?
- What’s the deal with Photoshop CS3?
- So how do I create these awesome Storyboards?
- What is the vertical compiler all about?
- Workflow tips for Storyboard
Updating from an existing version
- Make a note of your current Storyboard configuration settings, because you will have to reset them.
- Navigate to the existing Storyboard folder you installed in the Photoshop Scripts folder (location listed below)
- Delete the existing Storyboard folder you had installed previously
- Install the new version as if installing from scratch (see below for full instructions)
Installation
After downloading Storyboard you must copy the whole Storyboard folder into your Scripts folder!
Mac OS X:
/Applications/Photoshop (CS3 or CS4 or CS5)/Presets/Scripts/
Windows:
C:Program FilesAdobePhotoshop (CS3 or CS4 or CS5)PresetsScripts
and if running a 64-bit version of Windows:
C:Program Files (x86)AdobePhotoshop (CS3 or CS4 or CS5)PresetsScripts
After copying a script to this folder you’ll need to Quit and then Restart Photoshop before the script appears in the File > Scripts menu.
Video of Installation Process:
Storyboard Actions
Installing the Storyboard action set is optional, but should make opening Storyboard much easier. In your actions palette, click the little arrow on the top right and choose Load Actions. Navigate to where your Storyboard action file is located and press open! Your Storyboard actions are ready to use. Conversely, you can try double clicking on the Storyboard action file to load it.
Configuration
When in Photoshop, you can access the Storyboard configuration by navigating to File > Scripts > Storyboard Configuration. It is here where you will make all the adjustments to make Storyboard rock on your blog. You will see there are 3 main tabs – General, Saving and Compiler. Each tab has configurable settings.
Photoshop CS3
Storyboard is officially supported in Photoshop CS4 & CS5, but we did manage to pack 99.9% of the awesomeness of Storyboard into compatibility with Photoshop CS3. There are two things worth mentioning about Storyboard in Photoshop CS3:
1. The dialog box differs in appearance from CS4 & CS5 (shown below) but still acts in the same way.
2. The option/alt. keyboard shortcut to evoke the re-order dialog does not work. But you can still turn on the re-ordering fuction
withing the configuration window. Storyboard will prompt you to re-order the images everytime when this is enabled.
Using Storyboard
- To launch Storyboard, just navigate to File > Scripts > Storyboard or use the included Photoshop Action
- When the dialog box opens, Storyboard wants you to choose the images for your new layout. You can use any combination of images, any combination of sizes and Storyboard will automagically create a dynamic layout for you.
- Images can be ordered in your storyboards in one of two ways. Automatically by sequential order as they exist in the folder (i.e. sorted by chronologically), or you have a second option which is holding the Option (Mac) or Alt (PC) key when clicking the ‘Open’ or ‘Ok’ button on the window that asks you for your Storyboard images. You will be prompted with a window to re-arrange your images! When you have the image order to your liking, just click done and watch Storyboard continue the magic.
- Storyboard’s are saved in the destination folder you specified in the configuration settings.
Check out this video on how we use Storyboard in our workflow:
Please note, the above video was done using an older version of Storyboard and some settings may have changed. The underlying concept is still the same.
Using Vertical Compiler
- To launch the Vertical Compiler, just navigate to File > Scripts > Vertical Compiler.
- When you run Storyboard Compiler you are presented with the same open dialog box as before. When the dialog box opens, Storyboard Compiler wants you to choose the storyboards that you’ve made for your new compiled layout. Navigate to the folder where you have saved these. Storyboard will build your previous layouts on top of each other ( in the order of the filenames of the layouts) to create a larger more detailed Storyboard.
To read more please check out our blog post on how to use the vertical compiler
Some Workflow Tips
*All you have left to do is upload your newly created boards to your blog or website and publish! You now have a complete, fully justified blog post featuring all your awesome images.
*Even if you are not using the images for a blog post, Storyboard is a poweful script that will save you hours when try- ing to create photo diptychs, triptychs, etc.
*It’s in best practise to start with the highest quality images possible. Since Storyboard does all the resizing for you, start with the highest res file you can and Storyboard will give you a stunning smaller file. What’s that saying, you can’t make chicken soup out of chicken s%@!?
*If you enable re-ordering, Storyboard will always open a small window giving you the opportunity to re-order the images in your layout. This is handy if you always want total control over your image placement. The good thing is, you can turn this prompt off and always have the option to envoke this re-order window on a one-off basis by pressing Option (OS X) or Alt (Windows) when you choose to OPEN your images to be storyboarded.
*If you don’t want to make the actions yourself, just load our Storyboard action set into Photoshop CS3/CS4/CS5. There are 3 actions – Launch Storyboard, Storyboard Configurations and Launch Compiler. Just click any of the ac- tions to open that functionality of Storyboard. Easy!
*You can also assign a keyboard shortcut to launch Storyboard if your into that sort of thing! In Photoshop, head up to File > Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts. Click the File triangle dropdown and scroll down until you see the scripts. When you find Storyboard, you can enter the keyboard shortcut of your choice on the right and make sure you save it.