Documentation · Upshot 1.0

Concepts and layout

The ideas behind the interface, and how it folds on smaller windows.

Concepts

  • Frame and resolution. The frame is what exports; it follows the project resolution set in Project Settings (the gear in the top bar: name, episode, resolution presets from HD to DCI 4K, portrait, square or custom). Changing the resolution re-frames around the center and never rescales your drawing. The canvas itself is unbounded.
  • Sequences, scenes, panels, layers. A storyboard is scenes of panels; every panel has its own layers. Scenes can be grouped into sequences (Toon Boom's grouping above scenes) from the Panel tab. Camera moves belong to the scene and are keyframed on the timeline.
  • Panel codes. A panel is named after its scene and its place in it — 10-1, 10-2 (or 10-A with letters, see Settings). Scenes are numbered 10, 20, 30 so a scene inserted between two takes an in-between name; a custom name is kept as typed. A panel can carry a custom name too, from the Panel tab.
  • Versions. Each storyboard keeps versions (Versions… in the card menu). Make one current, duplicate it, or extract it as a standalone board.
  • Audio. Several tracks; clips on different tracks play together. Muted tracks are left out of exports.
  • Image layers. Photos, files or SVG drawings become a layer of their own, transformable like strokes.
  • Undo. Everything is undoable — strokes, timeline edits, camera moves, layer changes, project settings. Two-finger tap on the canvas undoes, three-finger tap redoes.

Split View and smaller windows

Below about 1000 points of width (Split View, Stage Manager, iPad mini) the Studio folds: the tool rail's clipboard becomes one menu, the timeline's left-hand actions gather under a ⋯ menu, the top bar wraps onto two or three rows and the export button becomes a share icon. The Library folds its top-bar actions into a ⋯ menu below about 820 points. Nothing disappears — it moves into a menu.