Innoventive Software LLC on Friday announced the release of FrameForge 3D, a 3D storyboarding software application that simulates multi-camera control. The software was developed for directors, filmmakers and other visual artists who want to create and manipulate storyboards. While the initial release is for Windows only, Innoventive noted that a Mac version is coming in the fourth quarter of 2003.
FrameForge 3D provides a 3D “virtual film set” complete with posable actors, hills, trees, snap together walls, furniture and other elements that can be clicked and dragged into place. Storyboard shots can be associated with portions of imported scripts (from Final Draft and other software), played as a slideshow, exported to other graphics formats, turned into HTML pages or even run as a Macromedia Flash animation.
What’s more, FrameForge 3D enables users to manipulate shot images as viewed from particular cameras, and offers a complete 2D, top-down blueprint view of all set elements including the camera. You can also adjust camera settings like height, angle of view and zoom to make sure you get the shot you’re looking for.
FrameForge 3D employs a television control room interface metaphor, with monitors at the top of the screen displaying how the set appears through eight different cameras simultaneously, to simplify the framing of shots. You can simulate film sizes from 16 to 70mm and more.
FrameForge 3D costs US$349; it’s also offered at an educational discount for $249 instead. When the software is released for the Mac, system requirements will call for Mac OS X or Mac OS 9.1 or higher, G3/500MHz, 256MB RAM, 65MB hard disk space.