NEW FEATURES HOW IT WORKS

FRAME BASED TIMELINE EDITOR

Frame editing as simple as drag and drop. VISUAL TIMELINE With the new frame-based timeline editor in Dragonframe, you can move, delete, copy, hide and make holds with ease. Editing is visual and intuitive—select a range of frames, pick them up, and drop them at the new location, with the option to insert or overwrite. Or use standard keyboard commands to cut, copy and paste.

 

LIP-SYNC SYSTEM[ BACK TO TOP ]

CUSTOM FACE SETS Many studios use replacement mouth sets to animate dialogue. You can create a Dragonframe face set by making a multi-layer Photoshop file. You can even specify shape sounds and hot-keys within the PSD file. SCENE MARKERS Gain maximum efficiency by track reading your entire project at once. Add markers to specify when each scene or take begins. When you are ready to shoot a scene, you can import just that section of the track reading. FULL REVIEW Play back your lip-sync within the audio workspace. Loop through a section, step through it frame by frame, or scrub it with the mouse. When you're ready, export a QuickTime movie for other departments to review.

LIP-SYNC, INTEGRATED Perform full lip-sync for multiple characters with replacement mouth and eye sets, directly within the audio workspace. HEADS UP DISPLAY When you are ready to animate, you can view your track reading information in the animation window via the x-sheet, timeline or heads up character displays. Multi-character track reading with an intuitive interface.

 

TABBED WORKSPACES[ BACK TO TOP ]

Tabbed workspaces allow easy access to every workspace in a single window interface. THE ADVANTAGE OF TABS You'll love the new tabbed layers of our single window system. This makes moving through DF3 organized and efficient whether you are working on a laptop or a dual-screen workstation.

 

CONFIGURABLE X-SHEET[ BACK TO TOP ]

Customize the x-sheet to match your needs. DOCKED X-SHEET The new docked x-sheet opens to the right of your animation window. Now you can organize your columns as you wish—resizing and customizing your x-sheet layout.

 

VECTOR BASED DRAWING TOOLS[ BACK TO TOP ]

VECTOR IS BETTER If you've ever needed to mark the screen for a motion path or registration, you will love the new screen drawing tools in Dragonframe 3. Now you can resize, rotate and adjust drawn objects. Because they are vector-based, they scale perfectly and smoothly. Plot precise motion paths that are adjustable at any time.

 

ADVANCED DMX[ BACK TO TOP ]

Animate up to 99 separate lighting channels. LIGHTING, AUTOMATED Take your lighting to the next level with Dragonframe's exposure-based DMX lighting board. Control up to 99 lighting channels in conjunction with our DDMX-S2 or IOTA Controller. You define your lighting program before you shoot, and then watch as Dragonframe controls your lights during the shot, leaving your animators to focus on animating. KEYFRAME SMOOTHING Define your lighting program with keyframes. Every keyframe can be linear, smooth, or very smooth—giving you a large degree of control while maintaining an efficient programming interface.

 

MOTION CONTROL[ BACK TO TOP ]

Motion Control harnessed within a single workspace, enabling advanced camera moves. ARC MOTION CONTROL The most exciting addition to Dragonframe 3 is the new Arc Motion Control system. With this multi-axis move editor you can quickly program complex camera moves. Jog motors, set keyframes, and run quick move tests that incorporate your lighting program. No more worries about your Moco system communicating with Dragonframe. It all just works.

 

MORE FEATURES[ BACK TO TOP ]

NEW IN DRAGONFRAME 3.0

VIDEO ASSIST LEVELS Adjust video assist levels to compensate for low-light situations. PORTRAIT IMAGE ORIENTATION Switch to portrait orientation for still photography. FLOATING LICENSE SERVER For schools and large organizations, Dragonframe can be configured to use a floating license server. LINKED EXPOSURES Link two or more exposures together, so their settings stay in sync. CINEMATOGRAPHY VIEW MODES Switch the cinematography window to full frame mode.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT	PRODUCTION/SCENE/TAKE NAMING Name your project based on the classic clapboard naming convention. MANAGE MULTIPLE TAKES FOR A SCENE Create multiple takes within the same scene project. This carries over all of your camera settings, exposures, camera moves, notes, etc. CUSTOMIZABLE, PRINTABLE X-SHEET (DOPE SHEET) Manage the project from a dynamic exposure sheet that updates automatically as you add exposures, audio phonemes, camera moves, and change scene length. POP-UP NOTES Enter notes that pop up when it's time to capture a frame. COPY AND RENAME SCENES AND TAKES Duplicate a scene or take from within Dragonframe.

CINEMATOGRAPHY AND COMPOSITION	MULTIPLE EXPOSURES (SUB-FRAMES) Shoot multiple passes for each frame for effects like front light/backlight or stereo pairs. GRAPHICAL CAMERA CONTROL Adjust your still camera's shutter speed, aperture, ISO with visual sliders. DEPTH OF FIELD SLIDER Adjust shutter speed and aperture together to affect depth of field without adjusting exposure. EXPOSURE PREVIEW OFFSET Adjust live view exposure simulation to match final shot (Canon EOS only). SAVE CAMERA SETTINGS IN SCENE Dragonframe saves your camera's settings and restores them when you re-open the scene. EXPOSURE LOCK Lock camera settings for each exposure. INTEGRATED TEST SHOT SYSTEM Save test shots separately and view them during any take of a scene. COMPARE IMAGES FROM OTHER SCENES Import any images and view them at full resolution. CLIPPING VIEW Quickly see if you are clipping in the highlights or bottoming in the blacks. DIGITAL DENSITOMETER Compare and match areas of exposure regardless of monitor inconsistencies. ADJUSTABLE BACKGROUND GRAY VALUE Adjust the area around images in Cine widow to give your eyes a rest—or to suit the imagery. ASPECT RATIO MASK Add a standard or custom aspect ratio mask and adjust opacity. SEPARATE MASK AND TV-SAFE OVERLAY Frame for both 16:9 and 4:3 in one view. PUSH-IN MASK Add an adjustable push-in mask for checking TV-safe and framing for pre-planned push-ins. GRID LAYER Add a custom grid to help with horizon line-up and composition. ADVANCED COMPOSITION GUIDES Emulate ground glass with single-screen setup of composition guides.

IMAGE CAPTURE	CAMERA SUPPORT Full integration with the most cameras. Canon, Nikon, HDV, HDMI and more. FOLDER WATCHING Use Dragonframe with many unsupported DSLRs, such as Sony and Panasonic. CAPTURE BLACK-OUT Darken your monitor while capturing to keep its glow from interfering with your lighting. AUTO-DETECT CAMERAS Automatically connect to cameras. AUTOMATIC LIVE VIEW REST Pause live view after configurable period of inactivity to avoid overheating. VIDEO FRAME AVERAGING Average 2-60 frames to reduce video noise. EXTERNAL SHUTTER CONTROL OPTION Capture live view and then wait for external shutter release (for timing motion control shots).

ANIMATION TOOLS	STEP TO LIVE Step directly from captured frames to your live view. AUTO TOGGLE Toggle between live view and captured frames with adjustable speed. TOGGLE One keypress toggles between live and captured frames; then back again when released. NAV-LINE Quickly navigate your animation sequence, as well as select frames for playback. HIGH-RES PLAYBACK Play back either your video assist frames or proxies of your full-resolution captures. SHORT PLAY Play back the last twelve frames (configurable). DRAWING TOOLS Draw paths and lines on screen to assist with animation. ONIONSKIN Blend the live view over any frame in your animation. DIFFERENCE MODE Useful for re-lining up a shot if camera or set is bumped. LIGHTS PROMINENT / DARKS PROMINENT Useful when character is dark and background is light, or visa versa. ROTOSCOPE LAYER Import an image, Dragonframe Scene, or QuickTime movie as a line-up layer for easy double-pass line-ups, chroma key, or onion-skin. CHROMAKEY / GREENSCREEN Use basic chroma key (green screen) pull for line up of effects shots. LAYER POSITION/SIZE/ORIENTATION Adjust rotoscope layer orientation, scale and position. PLAY/LOOP MARKERS Mark in and out points for playback and looping using the Nav-Line. USER-ASSIGNED HOT KEYS Simple interface for re-mapping the default keyboard commands. PUNCH-IN FOR ANIMATION Use Canon or Nikon live view magnification to punch-in to section of video assist image. AUXILIARY MONITOR Send main view to second monitor (video village).

STEREOSCOPIC 3D TOOLS	INTEGRATED 3D SHOOTING Automate 3D shooting with the IOTA 3D Stereoscopic Slider or the Mark Roberts S3 Stereoscopic Stepper. 3D STEREO REVIEW View anaglyphs, set convergence or edge float, and adjust interocular distances. 3D TEST SHOTS Take 3D test shots and use the 3D review tools to evaluate them. 3D PLAYBACK Play 3D sequences using anaglyphs or transparencies in color or black and white. EXPORT STEREO (3D) QUICKTIME Export 3D sequences to QuickTime.

TIME-LAPSE	INTERVAL Set interval in hours, minutes, seconds. START TIME Start time-lapse at a future date/time. END TIME End time-lapse at a future date/time. TOTAL FRAMES End time-lapse after specified number of frames are captured. HIGH PRECISION Capture within 0.1 second of interval with most cameras.

EXPORT

DIRECT ACCESS TO SOURCE RAW/JPG/TIFF FILES Your camera's high-res source files are saved in an easily-accessible directory. EXPORT TO QUICKTIME Create a reference or self-contained movies with many export options. IMAGE SEQUENCE EXPORT Export your frames in different image formats, customize naming, etc. AFTER EFFECTS Import image sequence directly from scene source location. FINAL CUT PRO Create a reference QuickTime and import into your project. RESHOOT FRAMES Do you need to reshoot a few frames in the middle of your scene? Worried about sending the rest of the track off sync with your audio and camera move? NO worries with our Reshoot frames feature. Select those frames and choose 'Reshoot.' The camera icon moves to the first frame and you reshoot. When you've finished, the camera pops back to the end. No accidental frame overwrites and you never lose sync. AUDIO ELEMENTS Configure, with ease, the audio elements you need to work with. View or hide your waveform data, dialogue track, phonetic cues and mouth replacement guides right in the timeline. PERFECT TIMING Quickly adjust timing by creating holds on frames. Drag a thumbnail to extend a hold. You'll be completing pop-through tests in record time. DELETE BIN Do you remember when you deleted those frames, only to realize later that they were the perfect shot? Open the delete bin to find all of your deleted frames, then drag and drop them back into your timeline. Make bold editorial choices with the flexibility to change your mind. JOGPAD Switch to the jogpad mode to gain full control of your rig using the Dragonframe USB Keypad Controller (which already comes included with the software). Large text and a simple keypad interface mean that you can step away from the computer and get near your rig and set. MOVE TESTS Once you've programmed a move, you'll want to test it out. Run a move test within the Arc workspace and see how it looks. The move test captures video assist frames only, in order to speed up the test process. On a long move, you can reshoot just the section you're working on. You'll have the move perfected in record time. MARKERS You can reduce the amount of keyframes by placing visual markers at the positions you would like to hit, then adjusting the existing keyframe handles to hit those points. HARDWARE INTEGRATION Currently the Arc motion control system works with our IOTA Controller or Arduino boards running our DFMoco sketch. More motion control systems may be added in the future. VISUAL PERSPECTIVE Create an onscreen representation of your lighting setup with our new virtual lighting workspace. Place badges for each channel around the live view image. CUSTOM EXPOSURE LIGHTING It's easy to create custom lighting programs for different exposures. You can customize the exposure's lighting program directly, or create a new program for one or more exposures to share. QUICK KEYFRAME ADJUSTMENTS Select multiple keyframes, then click and drag on one to adjust them all together. You can adjust them relative to each other, or have them all set to the same value. BASH LIGHT PROGRAMMING Program a wight tork-lo be on for the animator and turn off before capturing the high-res image. You can even define light settle times to make sure the light is fully off before firing the camera. PREVIEW MOTION PATHS Draw an auto-smoothed polyline to mark the path of a character. Then open the increment editor to add ticks to the line—breaking it up over time. You can adjust the ticks for eases and even test the timing, all before you start animating. VERSATILE SHAPE COLLECTION Draw lines, auto-smoothed polylines, circles, rectangles, or tick marks. You can even draw freehand with the pencil tool. SKETCH PATHS Draw directly on the x-sheet with the pencil and auto-smooth poly-line tools. PRINT A COPY Whether you are using letter, legal, A4, A5, or tabloid paper sizes, you can print beautiful hard copies of your x-sheet. Set your paper type, how many frames per division, and how many divisions per page. EXPORT TO EXCEL Gain full control of your x-sheet data by exporting to CSV for use in Excel, Numbers, or any other spreadsheet program. This includes all of your track reading and Arc motion control move data. MULTIPLE SCREENS You can drag a workspace tab out of its window to give it a new window. Move one or more workspaces onto a second monitor to make the most of your screen real estate. VISUAL CUES Each workspace has a unique icon, and the workspace name appears in the header bar of the program. Choose which workspaces are shown, and in what order. Set up Dragonframe exactly how you want it to be. CUSTOM FACE SETS Many studios use replacement mouth sets to animate dialogue. You can create a Dragonframe face set by making a multi-layer Photoshop file. You can even specify shape sounds and hot-keys within the PSD file. SCENE MARKERS Gain maximum efficiency by track reading your entire project at once. Add markers to specify when each scene or take begins. When you are ready to shoot a scene, you can import just that section of the track reading. FULL REVIEW Play back your lip-sync within the audio workspace. Loop through a section, step through it frame by frame, or scrub it with the mouse. When you're ready, export a QuickTime movie for other departments to review.