Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Tools Of The Trade Part 2

Last time we talked I mentioned a tool called Celtx. Celtx is a script writing software that is free to download and use, but also allows networking features so that your and your collaborators can work together on the same script, for a nominal subscription fee.


In lieu of the subscription fee service provided by Celtx, we here at Imaginos Workshop, opt to use Dropbox, the file archieving and sharing software I spoke about in the last T.O.T.T post. Dropbox and Celtx allowed Nik, who is currently in Chicago, and myself to finish revisions on act one of a script we have most recently been working on. 

One of the coolest things about Celtx is that not only is it formatted for film,play and a number of other types of scripts, outlines and screenplays it also has a very competent COMIC BOOK script format. 

This is a boon for comic writers in that I haven't seen to many other softwares that do as good a job at tackling this format as Celtx does. It allows you to choose and place dialog, pick the type of word balloons and captions and much more.

If you want to give Celtx a try you can download it here.

There is also a cript writing book that I have got to talk about. The first is the J. Michael Straczynski's

THE COMPLETE BOOK OF SCRIPT WRITING!



This book goes in depth, not only concerning the script writing process but also gives a huge amount of insight concerning the business aspect of film, television and animation.


Next I will talk a bit more script writing books and later about digital  imaging and painting tools like Photoshop, Sketchbook Pro and Corel Painter as well as some really cool Japanese image softwares such as Paint Tool Sai and Manga Studio. 

Mark

2 comments:

  1. Glad that you mentioned Celtx, Mark. It's an awesome tool and appears to have had a significant update since I used it last. I will definitely download again.

    One of the most useful things about Celtx is, in my opinion, the Catalogs feature. This allows you to break down any screenplay in to assets (props, sets, characters, etc) quite easily. I had once used this feature to do a cost bid on a proposed animation script for a creative startup. The head of the company had a background in both filmmaking and manufacturing, but little direct experience in bidding for animation projects. He was quite pleased to see this creative product (the screenplay) presented to him as a spreadsheet with hard data to which he could easily assign fixed costs.

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  2. Ah I am sure I will get to use this feature sooner rather than later. Thanks for chiming in Tom.

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