WEEK 3: Motion Studies DESN1136: Storyboarding 101 - 1st Assignment Due Next Week!

Story boarding is one of the key planning tools in film and animation. It requires clear drawing, storytelling ability, and a knowledge of the cinematic tools used by filmmakers for decades. Story boards can be drawn using digital tools but paper is the ultimate collaborative tool for sketching ideas out in teams of artists who are among the highest paid in the industry.  Why? Because in animation, the story board artists direct the action with input from the director, of course. They take the script and turn it into a blueprint for all the action to follow. 

I'll be showing you lots of examples of storyboards for different types of projects. 

Dream Works artists hard at work with pencils, paper, pointers and push pins - old school!

There are a few tools we need for this process. At first I recommend keeping your ideas loose and not drawing in 'boxes' until after your ideas have been explored from many angles. But once you're ready to draw in the squares, make sure they're the same aspect ratio as your final output: 16:9. We have some stickies that size available for you from the office.  Create your own boards in seconds with a cardboard frame or print out fancy ones.  It's up to you. Each studio has their own process and tools.

The master story artist, Pixar's Alex Woo, shows the key to all acting: line of action.

Pitching session on the Fairly Odd Parents - more paper!

Once again, come ready to draw as we will be building on the skills we learned last week to draw from movie stills and learn more about the cinematographic language of story boards.  We'll be referencing the classic animated feature "Iron Giant" - if you haven't seen this movie, take some time to watch it soon. There's a lot to learn both from the cinematography, the storytelling, and the animation.
Try reading the script to see if you could draw a storyboard from just the words on the page:
http://www.freestyle.mvla.net/webaudio/p2-narrative/screenplay/Screenplay_THE_IRON_GIANT.pdf

I'll have a look at your work in progress. By now you should be about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way through this 4-part project which is due at the start of class NEXT WEEK.