Today we’re comparing Blender with 2D storyboarding software like Toon Boom’s Storyboard Pro, even though SB Pro can also handle 3D assets.

Why this topic? During a recent “First Credits” mentorship using Storyboard Pro, a student asked:

Would Blender be a better option for boards and animatics?

Great question — let’s dig in.

1. Building Simple 3D Environments

Pro
One of the biggest pains in storyboarding is visualizing space. I usually draw a floor plan to keep track of where everything is. Blender lets you build that floor plan in 3D — and project 2D background artwork onto simple 3D geometry like planes.

In our tunnel scene example here, I used basic planes for walls, floor, and ceiling. I got a little carried away adding columns and girders, but even simple builds are effective.

With Grease Pencil, Blender’s 2D tool, you can draw directly onto 3D surfaces. It takes some trial and error, but it works — and you can add lights, shadows, and colour to sell the space.

Con
There’s a learning curve — even for basic modelling. For location-heavy shows (like Rick & Morty), rough 2D sketches are often faster and more flexible than building environments in Blender.

2. Drawing Characters and Props

Pro
If you’ve used SB Pro, Photoshop, or Flash, Blender’s drawing tools will feel familiar. I used my Cintiq and had no problem sketching once I found my way around.

Con
The tools are clunky. Drawing starts with creating a Grease Pencil object, drawing on a grid plane, using the layers for lines and fills. I’ve seen beautiful work done with it, but I couldn’t get the kind of line control I’m used to. It felt more like working in an old version of MS Paint than Photoshop.

Fills are unintuitive too — they rely on a weird dragging method that tries to follow outlines. SB Pro is far more efficient here.

You can easily manage multiple scenes or environments in SB Pro but I think it would get very complicated doing that in one Blender file.

3. Character Posing

Pro
For action sequences, you can animate Grease Pencil objects through space and draw on the timeline. It’s great for complex camera moves or blocking out action beats.

Con
Creating and managing poses is clunky. Unlike SB Pro’s intuitive panel/layers keyframe system, Grease Pencil’s is hard to navigate. You can learn it, but it’s not fast — especially under deadline.

Also, Blender updates often — so YouTube tutorials can quickly become outdated. SB Pro, on the other hand, has kept its interface largely consistent from v4 to v24.

4. Scene Planning

Pro
Blender shines in virtual production-style planning. For our tunnel scene test, I dropped in a camera for a wide shot, another for a close-up, and one for a mid-shot — and added subtle moves like push-ins and tilts. These dynamic touches were easy to implement.

Con
Blender’s camera system is not built for storyboarding. You can only activate one camera at a time, so there’s no way to overlap shots or do transitions like cross-dissolves. You have to export everything and do transitions in an editing system (though Blender does have a simple video editing tab).

Managing dozens or hundreds of cameras in one Blender file would be a nightmare — especially with revisions, renaming shots, and inserts.

5. Rendering & Final Touches

Pro
Blender delivers gorgeous visuals. You can use real lights, shadows, and HDRs, plus Grease Pencil effects like glow, blur, noise, rim light, and more. I even imported a Houdini VDB explosion — saved hours and looked fantastic.

Con
Getting the right look takes trial and error, and render times can stack up. Many visual effects — dust clouds, fire, water — are much faster to sketch as 2D shorthand than to simulate and render.

6. Conclusion – Blender is Previs, Not Storyboards

Blender is powerful. But for storyboarding, it’s overkill. It’s not efficient enough for the freelance storyboard artistwho’s paid per board and needs to work fast.

Blender is more of a previs tool — great for visualizing complex shots with VFX, choreography, and camera moves after storyboards are approved. Think of it as a lightweight virtual production pipeline.

Learning curve: To use Blender effectively, you end up learning modelling, texturing, rigging, rendering… a lot of things you don’t need for boarding.

Workflow issues: Blender updates often and tools change frequently. SB Pro evolves slowly and keeps things consistent — I jumped from v4 to v24 with no trouble.

Purpose-built: SB Pro is made for storytelling. One file can hold your script, notes, scenes, and be easily shared with directors or teams. It’s industry standard — and no one’s expecting a director to learn Blender just to give feedback.

See for yourself the results of our Blender version of the animatic shot.  Personally, I’m thinking there’s a hybrid workflow where poses are made in Photoshop then project the png’s on a vertical plane in a Blender environment – best of both worlds.