Children Storyboards / Discuss

Bonnie@CB Portraits says:

Okay - here is a way not only to create a storyboard, but to create it so that you end up with a template that you can use over and over again - very helpful for a photography business. (I have PS - sorry, I have no idea if it can be done in Elements).
Some of it is pretty basic - but if you don't know how to use "paste into," grid lines, and the transform tool- then read on! :)

1. Create a canvas the size you want your storyboard to be. I chose 10x20. File>New>then plug in your numbers in the height and width categories. Make sure you have it set to "inches" instead of "pixels."

2. Use Grid lines to evenly space your pictures.
*You get your grid lines from the rulers so, make sure you can view your ruler bars (View>Rulers)
*Then, put your cursor on the top ruler and drag it down to get a horizontal blue grid line. Put your cursor on the left ruler bar and drag it to the right to get a vertical grid line.
*Move your grid lines until they are positioned where you want your pictures to be (see image below).

You can see that with the grid lines, I have created 3 evenly spaced
rectangles that will be where my pictures will go.

3. Next, on a SEPARATE layer, you will make a selection the same size as your picture will be, using the grid lines you made. Look at the screen shot below.

The selection you make should "snap" to the grid lines. If not, go to View>snap.

4. Next you will be turning the selection into a color block.
*Use the paint bucket tool to fill in the selection with any color. It doesn't matter what color you make the color blocks - you will not see them when you are finished. After you fill in one color block, follow step 3 above to create another color block for your next picture. Do this for every picture you want to put on your storyboard. Just make sure they are all on a separate layer - this is essential! It should look like this:


And Ta Da! You have just created a template!!! Make sure to save this as a .psd file.

Now, here is how you use your template to create a storyboard...
1. Make sure the pictures you want to use have all been edited.
2. While keeping your storyboard template open in PS, open your first picture. Click Select>All (you will see marching ants around it). Then go to Edit>Copy.
3. Go back to your storyboard. Make sure the layer with the square you want to put the picture on is selected. Right click on the layer and select "select layer transparency." You should see marching ants around the layer on your storyboard.


3. Now, go to Edit>Paste Into (not "paste" - "Paste Into") You should see your picture paste into your color block. This is the cool thing about "paste into" - your picture will always stay the size you created your color block to be!
4. Transform your picture
Your picture probably does not look the way you want it to. So, here's what do do:
*Make sure your picture layer is selected on your layers palette and hit Ctrl+T. This will put a editing selection around your picture.
You will be dragging the CORNERS of your picture in or out, in order to fit it properly. IMPORTANT! In order to keep the ratios the same and not distort your picture - you must hold down the SHIFT key while dragging your picture corners. To undo a transformation hit "Escape." When you have it transformed to the way you want it to, hit "Enter.' You can go back at any time and redo your transformation to a picture by following these steps again.
5. Now go back and follow steps 2-4 to put each picture into its own color block.

Here is my finished template. It is very simple - you can get as creative as you want - your template doesn't have to look anything like mine! :)


To re-use this as a template - delete or hide the previous pictures, make sure you use the "paste into" feature to copy the pictures into the color blocks, resize them using Shift+Crtl+T - and that's it!!!

I hope I didn't leave any steps out. I know this might look complicated at first, but I'd encourage you to learn it. It really isn't complicated - just detailed. Once you have your template done - it only takes minutes to insert your pictures.
This tutorial uses a lot of valuable PS features. Once you know how to use them, they will save you a lot of time in many of your other projects.
Feel free to ask if you don't understand something!
Posted at 6:33AM, 15 April 2008 PDT (permalink)