Digital Storyboards Connect Central America with the World

Osvaldo Sequiera

Company
Joint venture between DART Post-Production division and animation company Estudio Flex

Occupation
Animator, Estudio Flex Animation Director

Location
San Jose, Costa Rica, Central America


Biography

Osvaldo Sequiera graduated from the University of Costa Rica, in Fine Arts and Communication Science. Then he co-founded of Estudio Flex.

Toon Boom Storyboard Pro is cost-efficient and time efficient, it takes us less than half the time compared to our old system and it’s easy to use.

How long have you been in this profession? 

Since 1998

What are your most important accomplishments?

The latest awards we have received [are] for projects of social content such as our short, Anna (2006), a combination of 2D/3D and digital HD video that reveals the tragic story of children who live on the streets of Latin American, along with Burópolis, this year’s 3D short satire/social critique of Costa Rica’s institutionalized government bureaucracy. We are also very excited about our current project with Motion Pixel Corporation of Miami, which consists of an animated version of a popular Bollywood movie-our first project using Toon Boom Storyboard Pro.

What kind of projects do you create storyboards for?

Basically web animation, documentaries, movies, shorts, TV series, TV mini-series and TV commercials.

History with Storyboard Pro

Our previous storyboard system was long, tedious and rigid, requiring us to do such things as inserting images and text into a Word document table. To create our animatics we would use an editing program, another big hassle; nobody at our studio wanted to do this job. Vinicio Musmanni, our associate and witness to this grueling process, knew there had to be a better way to accomplish this task. He searched the web and found the answer: Toon Boom Storyboard Pro.

Do you create your storyboards using Toon Boom Storyboard Pro only?

Yes

What are your top five favorite features Toon Boom Storyboard Pro?

1. Integration of video and graphic images
2. One program does it all
3. Easy last-minute changes (inserts, re-numbering)
4. Time and cost-efficient
5. User-friendly

What Toon Boom Storyboard Pro features allow you to distinguish your storyboards and animatics?

Its professional presentation and the possibility of a quicker response from our clients are huge time-savers. The export options facilitate projects for which the parties are located in different countries. Our current project involves Costa Rica, the U.S. and India; we upload our storyboards and animatics to our FTP and obtain immediate feedback!

Did you experience any productivity gains in using Toon Boom Storyboard Pro?

Three people were included in our previous storyboard process, now there’s just one and the job can be completed in less time.

Are you more efficient today compared to your production toolset used previously?

Definitely. It’s cost-efficient and time efficient, it takes us less than half the time compared to our old system and it’s easy to use.

Is it possible to get the same results with other digital animation software?

Not that we know of.

How do you feel about Toon Boom Storyboard Pro?

We can’t imagine working without it!

Equipment used

HP XW9300, Double Opteron 275, 4GB RAM, Windows XP, Dual nVidia Quadro 4500 (SLT), RAID O 5TB Huge Disk Array