Recommend Storyboarding Animation Software

December 17, 2007 8:47 AM

Can you recommend a good, cheap and/or free tool for storyboarding a stage production I'm about to direct?

Remember the scene in "Topsy Turvy," where Jim Broadbent walks little dolls around a stage mockup to block out a scene from his production? I'm thinking, surely there's a cheap or free animation software that permits this. Pop in a character, experiment with movement, then when you have what you want, save an animation that you can show your actors. I'm thinking this will save lots of time over moving people around on stage without being really sure about what I'm doing.

I'm on Mac OSX. I also own a Windows 2K laptop that could be pressed into service in a pinch. So, I'd prefer references to Mac OSX software.

I don't own any dolls.

posted by bovious to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

Well I am not sure if this will meet your needs but here is Celtx which is free, OS X and has a storyboard function. You will probably have to do work arounds for your particular production needs.
posted by jadepearl at 11:55 AM on December 17, 2007

Response by poster: Thanks, but it's more of an animation type thing that I'm needing. Maybe storyboarding isn't the right word? Animated storyboards?
posted by bovious at 12:22 PM on December 17, 2007

Springboard creates animated storyboards. It's Windows though...
posted by flutable at 3:11 AM on December 18, 2007

Best answer: Self-answerfilter:

Sometimes, simple solutions are better.
posted by bovious at 1:55 PM on January 10, 2008 [1 favorite]