I know I’m not the only director out there with this problem:
I love storyboarding, but I can’t draw.
So I’m always on the lookout for previs software that can help me create storyboards to communicate my ideas more clearly than my badly-scrawled stick figures and arrows.
Of course, if you have the budget to employ a storyboard artist, then maybe you don’t need to use previs software. But if you’re an independent filmmaker working on low-budget projects, a storyboard artist is often one of the first things to get cut from the budget sheet.
About Cine Tracer
I stumbled across Cine Tracer a number of years ago, soon after its first iteration became available on Steam (https://www.cinetracer.com/). Created by Matt Workman, Cine Tracer is real-time cinematography simulator built using Unreal Engine. Matt is himself a cinematographer by profession, and he has developed Cine Tracer to mimic real-world production as closely as possible.
Hence, the simulator includes grip equipment such as dollies and cranes, and lighting equipment such as LED panels and flags, that look and perform exactly how they would on a real set.
Cine Tracer’s focus is definitely geared towards cinematographers who want to previsualise their lighting setups. But I would say that its functions are no less useful for directors.
ANGEL
For the production of my short film ANGEL (a 17-minute psychological thriller about our paranoia surrounding digital assistants and dating), I storyboarded every shot using Cine Tracer, a process that was profoundly useful, and instrumental in helping the shoot go smoothly.
Going into any shoot, the hard questions we all have to face are…
How much time do you have?
How much money do you have?
How many setups do you want to shoot?
In the case of ANGEL, we didn’t have much money, and in any case we could only shoot two days, because of actor and location availability. After spending many hours breaking down the script, combining shots, and compromising by throwing out shots I wanted but could live without, I concluded that the story could not be told by anything less than 60 setups. But this is a lot for two 12-hour days.
There many variables that affect the speed of a shoot. Many that you can control, and many more that you can’t. One thing I was certain of: I didn’t want to be the reason for slowing down the shoot.
Never Enough
In an ideal world, directors would have time on set to experiment, to be inspired by the environment, and respond to the unexpected. We could try out different shots, different blocking or performances, have space to dream a little. But this is a fantasy.
No matter the size of the production, you will never have enough money, or enough time.
The only way to get all 60 setups in the can was to make sure that on set I knew exactly what we had to shoot, and that all of the crew were just as clear. So I took all the time that I might have wasted on set, and instead ‘wasted’ it inside Cine Tracer during pre-production.
Building A Virtual Set In Cine Tracer
ANGEL is a single-location story, and it takes place inside a traditional Taiwanese house. Once we had decided on the location, I measured out the whole house during the tech scout, noting the dimensions all of the rooms and spaces where we would be shooting. Using these measurements, I then built the entire house inside Cine Tracer.
Set Construction
Matt has ingeniously created Cine Tracer in a way that uses a modular system for constructing sets. Walls, ceilings, beams, stairs — all of these elements use standardised dimensions so they can be slotted together like Lego bricks. While the software doesn’t display the actual dimensions, using one of the many built-in human ‘stand-ins’, I was able to eyeball it, and construct a set that was close to the real location’s size.
Lighting
Building the set only took about two hours. The next step was to light it. Cine Tracer has many built-in lights, both film lights and practicals. Using these, I positioned practicals where the location had them, and added a few extra film lights, to create the overall look I had discussed with the DP and Gaffer during the tech scout. Since ANGEL all takes place at night, and taking into account budgetary constraints, we planned to mostly work with practicals in the location, and then augment with a few effects, such as exterior street-lighting coming in through the windows.
Props
While Cine Tracer does come with a lot of props built-in, it doesn’t cover everything. One of ANGEL’s specific needs is Angel herself, the digital assistant that is the focus of the story. Angel has a very specific design, and even if we had a 3D model of the prop we would be constructing for the shoot, it wouldn’t have been possible to import it into Cine Tracer. So this is where I had to get a little creative, using Cine Tracer’s built-in models to stand in for certain props. In this case, Angel’s stand-in was a vase, with a small magenta light positioned at the top, representing the LED light that would be incorporated as part of Angel’s design.
Cameras
Once all of this was done, I now had a virtual set that I could walk around, and in which I could experiment with actor blocking and camera placement. And this is the beauty of Cine Tracer. Its preset cameras and lenses are possibly not 100% accurate, nonetheless, they are very close. And this is what’s important from the standpoint of a director:
Cine Tracer, used correctly, gets you as close to being on set as you can be, before you actually are on set.
I was then able to ‘waste’ entire days in this virtual set, trying out different angles, working out which shots I needed, and which setups I could afford to lose.
Cine Tracer — How It Helped
So, here’s how Cine Tracer benefited pre-production…
It Saved Time On Set
I can’t reiterate enough the joy of being able to play with camera angles and lenses before the shoot. It’s a cliché that directors are indecisive and keep changing their minds, but that’s because sometimes we can be overwhelmed by possibility.
There are many ways to shoot a scene. As David Fincher once said, “it’s not what you do, it’s what you don’t do.” And a great way to work out what you don’t want to do is to spend time in Cine Tracer figuring out which camera angles don’t work for the story you want to tell.
Previs lets you fail quickly, and home in on what is going to serve the story you want to tell.
It Highlighted Technical Problems Before The Shoot
A common mistake all directors make is conceiving of shots that just aren’t possible. Or at least, not possible for your budget.
On ANGEL, there were a number of shots that looked awesome in my head, but when I tried simulating them in Cine Tracer, I discovered that they wouldn’t be feasible. The majority of the time, because it would be impossible to put the camera in that position without digging a hole in the ground, or smashing down a wall.
You don’t want to fall in love with an idea for a shot, only to find out on the day that there is no way to get what you want.
It Helped Communicate The Setups I Wanted
Like any previs software, Cine Tracer lets you take framegrabs of the shots you line up. And since the image quality of Cine Tracer is so high, it’s easy to create a very good-looking storyboard. Far beyond my aforementioned badly-scrawled stick figures.
The closer the frames in your storyboards are to what you want to shoot on the day, the easier it is for everyone to understand your intention, and the easier it is for you to get something closer to what you want. This is an obvious point. But the time this saves cannot be underestimated, because you don’t have to waste time explaining a shot.
If you’ve ever tried explaining a shot or camera move with words and hands alone, you’ll know just how fraught with misunderstanding it can be.
It Helped Communicate The Tone Of The Film
For ANGEL I was working with an extremely experienced and talented DP (Chen Ko-Chin) and Gaffer (Wei Hu-Hsuan). And while I had a specific look in mind for the film, it would have been pointless for me to spend time in Cine Tracer trying out different lighting setups. Lighting is not my strong suit, and I’m in no position to advise the DP and Gaffer where to place lights.
So while I didn’t make full use of Cine Tracer’s very advanced lighting simulation capabilities, I did use it to create something close to the tone I wanted. Specifically, the overall approach I wanted to take with colour in the film. I had decided early on that I wanted Angel to be emitting a magenta light. Therefore, I wanted the house to be mostly a green tone to contrast this, along with a few pockets of tungsten light to break it up. I don’t know of any other previs software that gives this level of control over the lighting.
The ability to convey not just framing, but also atmosphere in storyboards is invaluable.
Cine Tracer — Its Shortcomings
Having sung so much praise for Cine Tracer, it’s only fair that I mention some of its problems.
It Isn’t That Easy To Use
While the software isn’t that complicated, aspects of it aren’t very intuitive. I wouldn’t recommend diving in and trying to bluff your way through using it. Definitely watch Matt’s tutorial videos first (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN0HxYF_yeEOGEodgK6ww0Q).
There’s No Undo Function
Yes, there is no undo function! I’m sure there’s a very good reason for this, which goes beyond my understanding of the Unreal Engine, and how Cine Tracer has been built. It might just be me and butter-fingers, but occasionally I’ll be manipulating an object and my grip on the mouse will slip, sending the object zipping far off into the distance. And on numerous occasions, I have accidentally deleted stuff. Not being able to undo errors is a major drawback. But, it’s still something I’m willing to live with, given all of the benefits of using Cine Tracer.
It’s Still Being Developed
Caveat Emptor. Matt makes this abundantly clear on the website and on Steam, so nobody has any excuse to complain. Cine Tracer has been in development ever since it was ‘released’. And sometimes when Matt updates it, new functions appear, while old ones disappear. During the time I have been using it, there have been at least two overhauls of the camera and actor systems.
Furthermore, it’s been a while since Matt last updated it. I’ve seen posts by him on Instagram saying that a big update is coming soon, and that he’s overhauling much of the application again in response to developments in the Unreal Engine. Anyhow, be warned, this is not a completed piece of software, and Matt has never claimed it was — at least, not to my knowledge.
I don’t think the price of Cine Tracer is that high, and what you’re paying for is not a full release, but the privilege to play with the software while Matt develops it. What Cine Tracer enabled me to do in its current state has more than returned on my initial investment in it.
It’s A Wrap
I think Cine Tracer is an awesome tool for helping directors prep for a shoot. We wrapped ANGEL on time and on budget, and completed all 60 setups that I had wanted. Much of this is thanks to my phenomenal cast and crew. But Cine Tracer was instrumental in laying the groundwork for a successful shoot.
ANGEL will be streaming on DUST from February 4th, 2022.