FrameForge Studio has brought tremendous value to the many television shows I've used it on, including Dirty Sexy Money, Outsourced, Heroes and Marvel's Agents of SHIELD. It lets me quickly construct complex scenes which, unlike hand drawn storyboards, accurately represent the real world. And it's fast enough to easily work in the hectic schedules of television production.

As a director of photography, way back in the 1970's, I first saw how PreViz could bring tremendous value to production.

At that time, of course, it simply wasn't practical as it required mainframe computers, professional programmers and days to input code!

As microprocessors became prevalent in the 80’s, I tried several “storyboard” programs for PreViz. They were mostly 2D and not really specially designed for production Later, powerful general purpose 3D software became available, but they were expensive and all had a steep learning curve; again not really geared for the quick turnaround needed for television.

FrameForge solves all these problems by allowing the user to arrange objects on screen in a virtual 3D world by using a simple “video game” style input that anyone can master, allowing me to to directly design shots without technical knowledge. And the accuracy of its virtual cameras has continued to amaze me.

Its simple drag-and-drop interface with over a thousand built-in objects (ranging from alarm clocks to office furniture, and from streetlamps to skyscrapers), lets me create sets and locations quickly, and its built-in Room Builder allows me to match them down to the inch. A wide array of emotive actors can be placed and quickly positioned and posed, and it can do it all fast enough to easily work in the hectic schedules of television production.

I first discovered FrameForge Studio when it was originally released, and thought these guys were really on to something. As the program's evolved, my initial sense of its value has been proven right again and again during the production of the many television shows that I've used it on, including Dirty Sexy Money, Outsourced, Heroes and The Agents of SHIELD.

Also, I’ve found the company, Innoventive Software, very receptive to the industry’s input for improvements and new features, which is why I believe this program has become the standard for anyone doing real-time, optically-accurate previs in the television industry.

Christopher Nibley,
Director of Photography