Freeboard

Freeboard is a lightweight drawing tool in DFCine. You can use it to sketch simple outlines, draw notes, mark up a reference image, or create a quick visual guide, then export the result back to the current canvas.

Open Freeboard

You can open Freeboard from the canvas toolbar:

1. Open a project and enter a canvas.
2. Find the vertical toolbar on the left side of the canvas.
3. Click Utilities.
4. Click Freeboard.

Freeboard opens as a floating drawing window. The default canvas is white, with a black brush.

Draw on a Blank Canvas

After Freeboard opens, you can draw directly on the white canvas.

Use the toolbar at the top of the Freeboard window to adjust:

• Color: choose the brush color.
• Brush: adjust the brush thickness.
• Canvas size: enter a custom width and height, then click Apply.
• Clear: clear the current drawing.
• Export to Canvas: export the drawing back to the DFCine canvas.
• Close: close Freeboard without exporting.

The default canvas size is 1280 x 720.

Add a Background Image

Freeboard can also draw over an image background.

To add a background inside Freeboard:

1. Open Freeboard.
2. Click Upload Background in the toolbar.
3. Choose an image file from your computer.
4. Draw on top of the image.

When a background image is loaded, Freeboard uses the image as the canvas background. Clicking Clear removes only your drawing strokes and keeps the background image.

Send a Node Image to Freeboard

If a node on the canvas is currently showing an image, you can send that image directly to Freeboard.

1. Right-click the image node or an upload node that displays an image.
2. Click Add to Freeboard.
3. Freeboard opens automatically with that image as the background.
4. Draw or mark up the image.

This is useful when you want to annotate a generated image, sketch changes, or make a quick visual note based on an existing canvas image.

Export Back to the Canvas

When you finish drawing:

1. Click Export to Canvas.
2. DFCine saves the Freeboard image into the current project.
3. A new upload node is created automatically on the current canvas.
4. The new node displays the exported Freeboard image.

The exported Freeboard result is a new image. It does not overwrite the original image or any existing node.

Close Without Saving

Freeboard is a temporary drawing tool.

If you close the Freeboard window without clicking Export to Canvas, the current drawing is discarded. It will not be saved into the project and will not create a new node.