About Storyboard Pro’s artwork editing tools

This article is about tools that are used to edit artwork in Storyboard Pro. If you would like to read about drawing tools in Storyboard Pro, see About Storyboard Pro’s drawing tools.

Editing tools in Storyboard Pro consist of the following:

• Tools that only edit artwork on vector layers
• Tools that edit artwork on both vector and bitmap layers
• Tools that edit specific types of lines.

If you would like to know about the difference between bitmap and vector artwork in Storyboard Pro, please see About bitmaps and vectors in Storyboard Pro.

Select tool

Icon:	Properties:
	Vector or Bitmap?: Both
	Description: Allows you to select one or many shapes and do overall edits to them such as scaling, moving and rotating.
	Can be used on:  Vector and bitmap artwork created in Storyboard Pro Imported artwork

About the Select tool

When using the Select tool, it will create an orange envelope or box around the object. On vector layers, you will be able to see the outline or centerline of each shape. On bitmap layers, artwork is surrounded by a bounding box that selects all of the flattened art.

After selecting the artwork, you can rotate, scale, or move it. If you want to edit specific points on the artwork, you should use the Contour Editor tool.

Vector lines selected with the Select tool	Bitmap art selected with the Select tool

Contour Editor tool

Icon:	Properties:
	Vector or Bitmap?: Vector only.
	Description: Allows you to select one or many points along a vector line or contour. This gives you detailed control over your editing.
	Can be used on:  Vector artwork created in Storyboard Pro Imported artwork that is vectorised during the import process

About the Contour Editor tool

The Contour Editor can only be used on vector artwork. After drawing a vector line, you can use the Contour Editor to select and edit points on the line to manipulate the shape. The appearance of these vector points and contours will appear differently depending on whether the line was created by a pencil or brush tool, and they will also behave differently when edited. 

Below you can see how the Contour Editor manipulates each of these lines:

Pencil lines	Brush lines

Textured/Hybrid brush line

Cutter tool

Icon:	Properties:
	Vector or Bitmap?: Both.
	Description: Allows you to cut away sections of artwork so that it can be separated or deleted. One of the few tools that allow you to do detailed editing on bitmap artwork.
	Can be used on:  Vector and bitmap artwork created in Storyboard Pro Imported artwork

About the Cutter tool

The Cutter tool can be used to cut away sections of artwork on both vector and bitmap layers, which makes it quite versatile. This is especially helpful for artwork that is one shape or flattened. Selections can be deleted, cut and pasted, or moved, rotated and scaled. You can also use it to cut away overlapping sections of lines.

Below you can see how the Cutter tool manipulates artwork:

Vector artwork	Bitmap artwork

Centerline Editor tool

Icon:	Properties:
	Vector or Bitmap?: Vector brush lines only.
	Description: Allows you to edit a brush stroke using a centerline instead of a contour.
	Can be used on:  Storyboard Pro brush lines only.

About the Centerline Editor tool

The Centerline Editor tool is made specifically for brush lines. This tool works similarly to the Contour Editor, except instead of editing the brush line with an envelope or contour, it allows you to edit the brush line with a spine, similar to how a pencil line is edited. This gives you more control over the overall shape of the line instead of just the outside shape.

Pencil Retouch tool

Icon:	Properties:
	Vector or Bitmap?: Vector pencil lines only.
	Description: Allows you to edit the appearance of specific areas on a pencil line.
	Can be used on:  Storyboard Pro pencil lines only.

About the Pencil Retouch tool

The Pencil Retouch tool is made specifically for pencil lines. This tool allows you to edit the opacity or thickness on isolated sections of a pencil line. This is done by ‘painting’ areas of the line, which gives you controlled manipulation with unique results.

Other editing tools

The following tools are also useful for editing artwork in Storyboard Pro.