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Once you have your Storyboarding and Video Editing Workspaces setup and you have a separate Editing Scene assigned to the Sequencer below the Dopesheet then you’re ready to go. Whippet only needs one and is to create custom Whippet Collections for every Scene. These collections will house your cameras, shot layer collections and grease pencil objects if you them to. The add-on has to refer to these specific collections in order to reference them for certain functions.
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The Whippet Collections will be named after the Scene name. Inside the Parent collection, there are three folders:
Not using the Whippet Collections will not allow you to utilize all the features the add-on has to offer so it’s a good first step making sure you have them setup.
The New Scene with (without) Scene Strip buttons will create Whippet Collections for you so you don’t have to. However, if you create a blank Scene then you will need to add them manually.
And that’s it! All you need are the collections and you’re good to start creating cameras and draw!
Video Coming Soon…
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Once your **Scene** and **Whippet Collections** are setup we can jump right into creating cameras!
The Shot duration will set the length of your camera (you can also adjust these values afterwards in the Camera List). The Camera Gap value is used in 2D Storyboard Mode or when you manually want to add empty keyframes using the Add Gap Keys.
Duplicating an active camera will prompt you to enter the keyframe value of where you want the new duplicate camera to fall on the Dopesheet. If you have 2D Storyboard Mode enabled then it will place the new duplicate camera after the active camera by the Camera Gap value and move over all subsequent cameras and keyframes along the timeline.
You can adjust the Active Camera Settings in the menu below. The basic camera settings are available for easy access.
The Camera View Settings menu allow you jump into the active camera, add compositional guides and adjust the area around the camera (Passepartout). The Overlay Buttons will add new gizmos and accessibility features over the 3D Viewport.
Video Coming Soon…
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2D Storyboard Mode prevents cameras from having overlapping frame ranges when adding new or duplicating cameras. The workflow is primarily intended to place GP objects in front of the camera and draw over top of 3D environments. 2D Mode can be used for purely 2D storyboarding with Grease Pencil but also provides a unique ability to draw over 3D sets without having to move GP objects through a set similar to 3D layout.
The basic premise is to use 1-3 GP objects that live in the Scene Whippet GPs collection, set their default position to an initial camera using the Set Location operator in the Whippet GP Tools menu. Then toggle on the Insert GP Keyframes next to the 2D Storyboard Mode button and every time a new camera is added, the camera’s frame in point is automatically placed on the timeline with a gap before and after any cameras based on the Camera Gap field. In addition, any GP object inside the Scene Whippet GPs collection folder will reposition to the new camera and blank GP layer keyframes are inserted as well. This provides the user with flexibility and speed to lay cameras in and draw over a 3D set or to draw 2D storyboards. Using the Whippet GP keyframe operators it is possible to mimic the workflow of Storyboard Pro which is known for its panel to panel speed.
Add a new camera
Add a GP object to the Whippet GPs collection (or add a few if you want foreground and background elements with parallax or an object per character).
Position the GP object(s) near the camera (see image below).
The three GP Objects in the Collection shown on the right are now set just in front of the camera. The camera view has the origin of each GP object located right in the center of the camera view.
Once you’re happy with the default location of each GP object(s), select the GP object(s) and click on Set Location under the Whippet GP Operators > GP Object Tools menu. This will set the default relationship to the first camera as the default position for any camera moving forward. You can always update the default location anytime.
With 2D Storyboard Mode and Insert New GP Keys toggled on, every new camera that is added will auto keyframe the GP object(s) in front of the new camera and insert blank GP layers keyframes for all unlocked layers. This provides a new clean setup for a new shot.
One method is to place GP object(s) just in front of the camera and create 2D storyboards without using any 3D environments or props. The stills below are from my Rain Check project that leveraged the 2D Storyboarding Mode that comes with Whippet. There are only three GP objects in the entire scene (FG, MG, BG) that are placed a little apart in 3D space just 1-2 meters in front of the camera. Each time I created a new camera, the GP objects would snap in front of the new camera providing a clean setup for the next camera. After drawing a few shots, I converted them into Scene Strips and quickly time the shots together. I would go back and forth between the Dopesheet to retime the drawings and how the sequence played back in the Sequencer with the Scene Strips. This cyclic workflow of crafting a shot and seeing how it flows together is very beneficial, even when just producing 2D storyboards. Alternatively, you can scrub the Dopesheet to change the cameras to see how the shots play out or you can export specific keyframes you want as images to share boards that way.
Video Coming Soon…
Video coming soon
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