A storyboard is the map to your animation project. You can draw out scenes and add notes on how you want your film to be. If you are working with a team, the storyboard has to be detailed with illustrations and notes. If you are working by yourself, you can skip a lot of the details. For big money productions, the storyboard is what will be presented to the producers and big wigs, so they can have a clear vision of what’s going on. The storyboard is made with the intention to captivate the higher ups, so they can be motivated with the project.
If you are working by yourself, the storyboard doesn’t have to be so illustrious. For your solo project, the storyboard is a tool to guide you through your project. Animation is a tedious, time consuming art. The solo animator has to have a lot of hacks and shortcuts to get things done. The storyboard basically breaks down each scene of the chapter. The scenes make up the chapter.
In each scene, you add what dialogue will be used, what expressions are the characters using, what type of movement is going on, and all other details in the scene. This is an important step in the animation process. Without the storyboard, you won’t know what direction to go. Even a five second animation needs a storyboard.
As a solo animator, you can skip the drawing part of the storyboard, and you can just write down what will happen in each scene. For example:
Scene 1: Jenny is in the living room with Larry. They are sitting on the couch. Jenny says “What time are we going to the party?” Then Larry says “Let’s get there fashionably late at 2 am, so we could look like rockstars.” Jenny has a smile on her face, and she rubs Larry’s leg.
This is just a simple example even though a chapter is usually made up of a bunch of simple scenes combined to make a detailed chapter. Being that you are doing the project by yourself, most of the vision is going to be in your mind. You can just add important notes in the storyboard like what gestures and emotions were used during the dialogue, and where to add pauses. You can also add stuff like the cat walked into the scene, the clock was ticking, and you could see kids jumping rope outside the window.
After you write your script, the storyboard is the next thing you do. You will be totally lost without the storyboard. Remember, you can always edit anything in your project as you go down the journey to completion. Don’t get frustrated when things don’t workout as planned. You can alway make adjustments on the path. Animation is a fluid and forgiving art.
Once your storyboard is done, you will have more confidence about your project. You can count the scenes and have an idea of the time and effort that needs to be put in. You can visualize the plan of attack on how you will conquer a scene. There are so many different methods to get things done. That’s the beautiful thing. You can do frame by frame, move parts around with a bone system, manipulate vector points, or transform objects within the scene. The options are vast. The points I just touched in this paragraph will be more understood when you read the chapter on animation.
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