Version 3 Basic Info

Core Version

Professional Version

Stereographic 3D Version

All 4 Expansion Packs

Characters (four ethnicities, adults can be aged anywhere between 20 to 60 years old, can be made fatter; men can be made "buff", women can be made "busty" or "pregnant")

32 Adults 
(with fully redesigned clothing and hair)
32 All New Teenagers
8 Children •  4 Babies

Animal Actors, all of which can be fully posed and are all capable of animal appropriate facial expressions  

Domestic Animals:
3 Cats, 2 Dogs, 8 Horses and 2 Sheep

Wild Animals:
Bear, Wolf and Deer & Elk (in both male & female)

Clothing & Hair Options for Adults & Teenagers

18 hairstyles in 10 hair colors
Over 5,000 different clothing combinations and 27MB of Clothing Textures & Decals

over 45 additional costumes for thousands of new  combinations

Pre-Built Sets

8

49 additional sets

World-Ready Objects™ that know how to interact with one another (excluding Expansion Packs)

1150+

1250+

1252+

over 350 additional major objects

How do the three Versions Compare?
(and yes, these are just the NEW features we've added in Version 3)

Ease of Use / Interface Features & Enhancements

NEW Version 3 Features

Core

Professional

Stereographic 3D

Context-Sensitive Control Orbs™   put all the object controls (Spin, Scale, Tilt, Facial Expressions etc.) right at your fingertips

yes

yes

yes

Character IK allows you to drag an actor's wrists and have the arm automatically follow, while an automatic 90° view makes it easy to see how it's moving in 3D Space

yes

yes

yes

Full Mouse Camera Control using only the two mouse buttons, scroll wheel and ALT & SHIFT keys to control every camera function

yes

yes

yes

Dynamic Scroll Wheel Functionality ensures that whatever screen element the cursor is over is what is controlled by the Mouse's Scroll Wheel.  Put it in the Main View of the control room and it will zoom in/out the currently selected camera; put it over the monitors and it will scroll them left or right (if you have more than will all fit on screen); put it over the object library and it will scroll the section it's over and  so on...

yes

yes

yes

Monitor Labeling makes it even clearer as to which camera is which, and allows you to describe the camera by function or operator or anything else.

yes

yes

yes

New Director's Pad™ (USB Game Pad) functionality allows you to "double-up" the joysticks so they both control camera or object functions, allowing you to dolly with one joystick while panning with the other, for example.

yes

yes

yes

Shot Manager New Features & Enhancements

NEW Version 3 Features

Core

Professional

Stereographic 3D

Collapsible Sequence Hierarchy allows you to more easily deal with full story- boards, letting you view only the ones you want to immediately work with. 

yes

yes

yes

Collapsible Tweens allow you to hide tweens in the shot Manager so you can focus on the main shots

yes

yes

yes

Shift Selection allows you to select a range of SHOTS from the last selected shot to the shot you click while holding SHIFT down (this behavior can be reverted to Version 2 behavior on the Program Options Dialog if desired)

yes

yes

yes

New Text Label Object allows you to add text and/or  dynamic shot data such as Focal Length or Camera Height to a frame or blueprint view

yes

yes

yes

Shot Duration can now be set as low as 1/30th of a second allowing for full 30fps animation if you want it

yes

yes

yes

New Shot Duration "Set All" Button allows you to set the duration of all selected shots with one click

yes

yes

yes

Screen / Display Features & Enhancements
(asterisked features requires an OpenGL Accelerated Graphics Card)

NEW Version 3 Features

Core

Professional

Stereographic 3D

GPU Acceleration with Optimized Polygon Pipeline means the program runs even faster than previous versions

yes*

yes*

yes*

Full Width Live Screen will now be displayed at the largest size supported by your monitor

yes*

yes*

yes*

Full Sun, Ambient and Fill Light Control with  Shadows lets you control the overall scene's lighting, while shadows instantly add depth and tone

yes*

yes*

yes*

On Screen Anti-Aliasing makes the on-screen display much cleaner by removing jagged edges on rounded and diagonal lines

yes*

yes*

yes*

New Selection Glow makes it easier to see what's selected without blocking your view.

yes*

yes*

yes*

Dynamic Down-Sampling of Images allows FrameForge Previz Studio to always run as fast as possible by displaying on-screen images in lower resolution when needed while actively editing on a set, then increasing the resolution when you pause

yes

yes

yes

New Glow Colors give object parts an optional glow color, which is particularly useful for making light bulbs or eyes of cats glow... 

yes

yes

yes

Textures with Alpha Masks are now supported for applying to objects though transparent areas are not rendered as transparent for shadows and lighting

yes

yes

yes

Infinite Plane with Sky Dome allows you to create outdoor environments of unparalleled reality with textured skies and grounds

yes

yes

yes

(includes sky & ground textures plus you can add your own)

New and Improved Render­ing Styles with all New Render Style Designer allow you to choose among over a dozen rendering styles to create boards with the look you want

14

14

14

(with the capabilities of making more)

Objects / Library Features & Enhancements

NEW Version 3 Features

Core

Professional

Stereographic 3D

Google® Sketchup® File Importing allows you to import any .SKP file, including those produced by the Free Version of Sketchup® and those found on Google Warehouse

yes

yes

yes

Object Library Tabs give you instant access to five of the most useful features (Actors, Props, Lighting, Select Objects and Depth of Field) with a simple tab click

yes

yes

yes

Object Library Icon Zoom now automatically zooms icons in the Object Library to twice their size when you hover your mouse over them, allowing you to more clearly see what you're selecting

yes

yes

yes

"Billboarded" Trees, Extras and Building Blocks are very low polygon 2D background objects which always face the camera, allowing you to easily build forests or crowds that look "full" from any angle without over-taxing your computer

yes

yes

yes

New Hinges & Sliders allow you to specify exactly where they should be glued, what the name and range of the hinge or slider should be and more, making building user objects even easier and more powerful

yes

yes

yes

New Multi-Alignment Menu allows you apply multiple alignments simultaneously (e.g. left and top) and now also allows you to align objects by height

yes

yes

yes

Free Position Mode New Features & Enhancements

NEW Version 3 Features

Core

Professional

Stereographic 3D

Auto-Zooming Overhead View makes it even easier to see the exact object relationships in 3D Space

yes

yes

yes

Dynamic Rotation/Selection now automatically switches between object selection and view rotation depending on whether you click on an object or just on the set. 

yes

yes

yes

North, South, East, West, and Top buttons will instantly adjust the view to DUE NORTH, DUE SOUTH, etc. at an extremely long focal length to minimize parallax effects

yes

yes

yes

Real-Time Lighting with Multiple Light Sources
(requires an OpenGL Accelerated Graphics Card)

NEW Version 3 Features

Core

Professional

Stereographic 3D

Multiple Light Sources that combine in both intensity and color as per real lights

no

yes

yes

Real-Time Shadows from multiple light sources

no

yes

yes

SmartLights are physical lighting instruments that are the same sizes as their real-world counter- parts and which can be pointed at any object simply by clicking where they should be aimed.

no

yes

yes

Free Floating Lights allow you to quickly create tone and lighting without having to be a gaffer or needing to worry about placing physical lights

no

yes

yes

Practical Lights include lamps, car headlights and more

no

yes

yes

Lighting Mixer where you can control all the on-set lights (SmartLights™, Free Floating and Practical Lights) from a single panel

no

yes

yes

Full Lighting Control lets you change the brightness, color, shadow hardness and angle of spread of any free floating spotlight or lighting instrument.

no

yes

yes

Physical Camera & Grip Equipment

NEW Version 3 Features

Core

Professional

Stereographic 3D

Physical Cameras & Industry Standard Grip Equipment lets you plan your shoot down to the last dolly track and tripod.  And the equipment "knows" how they assemble together so that putting a head on a jib arm is as easy as dragging them together.

no

yes

yes

Auto-Snap Dolly Tracks with automatic Dolly Tracking lets you simply drag a dolly onto tracks and it will take care of following them automatically.

no

yes

yes

Camera Equipment Collision Detection warns you when cameras, jibs or dollies collide with any object on the set.

no

yes

yes

Auto-Generated Equipment Reports can list all the physical camera equipment you have on the set for each shot.

no

yes

yes

Intelligent Tweening Checks will prevent you from tweening specific equipment in ways that cannot be performed on set, such as tweening a crane shot when the camera's on a tripod.

no

yes

yes

Ground Glass & Ground Glass Designer allows you to work as if you were literally looking through your camera.

no

yes

yes

Built-In World Map of Longitude & Latitudes with automatic Daylight Savings Time Calculations for over 41,000 cities worldwide allows you to place your set at the geographic location where you'll be shooting and have the sun track automatically.

no

yes

yes

View Sunrise, Midday & Sunset times for any location at any date

no

yes

yes

Misc. New Functions

NEW Version 3 Features

Core

Professional

Stereographic 3D

New Ruler Objects let you "lay down" a ruler object (that will optionally only print on blueprint view) when you are using the dynamic measurement function

no

yes

yes

Export Animatics/Movies at any size including greater than HD Resolution

no

yes

yes

Export Animatics/Movies with the Blueprint View appended to the left side or as a separate Movie Stream

no

yes

yes

Stereography Functionality

NEW Version 3 Features

Core

Professional

Stereographic 3D

Customizable Stereo Rigs (Side-by-Side & Beam Splitter) allow you to easily match the capabilities and limitations of the rig(s) you’ll be using.

no

no

yes

Stereographic Viewing in Anaglyph on any monitor and in any standard anaglyph color combination, support for interlaced, checkerboard, Zalman and iz3D Polarized Monitors

no

no

yes

Support for any Target Screen Size whether it's a computer or IMAX® screen

no

no

yes

Plan to Shoot Converged or Parallel with Post Image Shift and the program will automatically change its reports to either angulation, screen percent or pixel offset as desired.

no

no

yes

Export Movies in Common Stereo Formats (left/right, top/bottom, anaglyph, and separate left & right movie streams)

no

no

yes

Stereo Verifier will scan a frame for all visible objects and report the minimum and maximum distances, their parallax and on-screen image offset.

no

no

yes

Dynamic Display of Screen Plane and Far Distance Line on Blueprint View (Far Distance Line is the distance beyond which an object will have a divergent screen offset).

no

no

yes

Can Work in a Non-Stereo Mode to "rough out shots" and then go back and fine tune the stereo in a separate pass.

no

no

yes

One Key Switching between stereo and non-stereo display or the Live View and a Full-Screen Stereo View for image checking.

no

no

yes

Option to Print Anaglyph Storyboards  for on-set stereo viewing or 2D Storyboards as desired

no

no

yes

Find any Object's Parallax and on-screen left/right offset (in both percentage and physical distance) just by clicking

no

no

yes

Auto-Calculate the Angulation (Convergence), Image Shift or Interaxial Distance to get the desired parallax at any given distance... assuming it's optically possible

no

no

yes

Report All Camera and Stereo Meta data along with each shot or exported as a Shot List in either RTF Table Format or Tab Delimited (for import into Microsoft Excel or virtually any database)

no

no

yes