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CHAPTER 1

Storyboarding

Storyboarding is the process of creating a graphical representation of your project to ensure that all the team members and the client understand the scope of the work to be done before creating any content on the computer. By defi ning the project clearly ahead of time, you will avoid unnecessary changes that cost time and money and create a better work environment for everyone concerned.

Storyboarding was said to have been developed initially by Walt Disney in the 1930s and has since been adopted by animation, fi lm, and theater. The methods of storyboarding vary widely depending on the complexity of the project and the comfort levels of the client/production team relationship. For a simple project in a one-person organization, a basic textual outline from a word processor may be suffi cient, but generally for visualization projects, a more graphical form of the outline is appropriate as sketching allows more information to be conveyed in compact form.

Again, the level of detail and the sophistication of the storyboard will depend on both the availability of the seasoned storyboard artists and the detail of the information to be coordinated between the client and the production team. Some storyboards for large feature fi lms, for example, are pieces of art in their own respect with carefully airbrushed panels depicting each scene.

Although the form of the storyboard may vary widely, it is essential that each project be carefully planned and documented and signed off by the client before any work begins.

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1.1 How to Create a Storyboard There are probably many methods of creating storyboards as there are people who create them. The one you choose will be determined by your skills, resources, and requirements. Some types of storyboards are as follows:

• Textual outline • Storyboard sketches • Mind mapping

You might use just one of these methods or all three in diff erent stages of the project. There is no right or wrong way to do storyboarding, and a method that works for one project might not be the best for another. Keep in mind that it is most important to make sure that your communication between the client and the team members is as clear and concise as possible. A beautifully rendered, highly artistic storyboard that does not convey the requirements and parameters of the project is simply wasted time. At the same time, a mind map with a few attached reference images might convey everything necessary.

Textual Outline The simplest method is to create an outline in a word processor program. As long as the outline is well organized, it should convey suffi cient information to do the job, especially for small projects, allowing for good communication between the client and the production team. A textual outline is quick to develop and easy to edit, making it a fl exible preplanning option.

Storyboard Sketches Although sketches and notations are a very common form of storyboarding, the methods of this technique can also vary widely in both sophistication and detail. The client and the lead artist may use Post-it notes, for example, for sketching each panel in a form that can easily be rearranged or discarded. This is especially useful while brainstorming the initial steps of a project. As the project concepts develop and the team members participate, the sketches may become more detailed and the storyboard may expand in size. Tacking the sketches to a pinboard on a wall allows for easier viewing by a group and better collaboration from individuals from anywhere in the room. Background templates for storyboards can be downloaded from the Internet and printed as a guide for entering storyboard information in the form of hand sketches with colored pencils, marker pens, or even airbrushing.

Storyboard templates can also be downloaded from the web for use in software such as Autodesk’s ® Sketchbook Pro, Adobe’s ® Photoshop, or a similar drawing or painting software. This allows the sketchbook artist to use layers for separating drawing elements and notation. Figure 1-1 is an example of Sketchbook Pro used in storyboarding.

Mind Mapping Mind mapping is the process of organizing words, concepts, tasks, and other aspects of a project in a diagram form, with lines radiating out from a central keyword or concept. Mind mapping is not new but the process has become more popular now that mind

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mapping software is readily available. Such software makes it easy to edit the diagram and also incorporate text, images, animations, voice recording, and Internet links in the same document. Mind mapping software allows you to “wire” elements of the storyboard together in a diagram with the advantage of reordering the information as the need arises.

If you’re new to mind mapping, you can practice with one of the many free applications out there by creating a simple mind map for an activity very familiar to you, such as getting ready for work or preparing a meal.

1.2 What to Include in a Storyboard The contents of a storyboard can vary widely. Generally speaking, the more information you can provide for the client and the working team, the more eff ective your storyboard is. However, it is also possible to include too much information that muddies the point of the presentation and causes it to be open to interpretation by the various team members. The storyboards must be concise to be eff ective.

For animations, the storyboard panels are often tied to “keyframes” in the animation. This term comes from Disney-style animation, where a master animator is used to draw the keyframes for a character such as a starting pose, an intermediate pose, and an ending pose, for example. These keyframes would then be sent to junior animators who would draw all of the “in-betweens,” the frames that fi ll in the action when the animation is played back. In computer animation, the storyboard panels could represent the keyframes, with the idea that the 3ds Max software would calculate the in-between frames for smooth playback. See Figure 1-2 for a simple example of keyframing. The black fi gures are the keyframes and the red fi gures are the in-betweens.

FIG 11 Autodesk ® Sketchbook Pro workspace.

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Some possibilities for inclusion in the panels of your storyboard could include the following:

• Keyframe sketches – the positions of the main or important elements at points in time. • Action descriptions – camera movements or zooms, windup and follow through, squash

and stretch, or shifting weight, for example. • Lighting directive – position of lights and shadows and quality of light. • Surface information – color and texture on surfaces. • Audio elements – background music and sound eff ects in time.

Although this list represents some of the elements of a storyboard, your specifi c needs may require that some should be left out and that others important to your project should be added. There are no hard and fast rules for storyboarding except that it opens the lines of communication, so that ideas and problems can be worked out, and a fi nal version is agreed by all the parties involved before time and money are invested in production.

Keep in mind that if you are only delivering still images (no animation) to the client, you still need to do a storyboard to make sure that the communication with the client is precise. Single-panel storyboards would describe camera angles, lighting quality, and materials, for example.

1.3 Storyboard Examples A search on the Internet will produce many references for the process of storyboarding. Analyze your basic needs and start with a simple storyboard for a simple project, and then as you determine your requirements, you can increase the storyboards’ complexity and detail as needed.

Let’s look at some examples of potential storyboards using templates and mind mapping. Remember that the simplest form can be an outline from a word processor similar to what you would use for a term paper or story.

Figure 1-3 shows an example of a storyboard sketch that was created using Autodesk’s ® Sketchbook Pro drawing program with a storyboard template background that was downloaded from the Internet. The storyboard shown is for a typical “bouncing ball” exercise used to introduce students to animation concepts. The software allows for tablet sketching and unlimited layers for drawing elements and informational text. This method of storyboarding allows a wide variety of editing options and organization tools for fl exibility and effi ciency.

FIG 12 Keyframe example.

Keyframe 1

Inbetweens Inbetweens

Keyframe 2 Keyframe 3

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Figure 1-4 shows an example of mind mapping from a cloud-based program called Mindomo ® representing two of the basic scenes from the bouncing ball storyboard. Again, along with the description of the sounds desired for the scenes, you could attach audio fi les as well as an image from an actual 3ds Max scene depicting the starting point for the project. Cloud-based mind mapping software also off ers online collaboration features and an off -line viewer for fl exible interaction with your client and production team.

FIG 13 Storyboard sketched in Autodesk ® Sketchbook Pro.

FIG 14 Mindomo ® mind mapping storyboard.

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In Figure 1-5 , you will see a couple of panels from a very elaborate storyboard created by Andrew Paquette. The panels were meticulously rendered in black-and-white with full shading to provide a very convincing presentation of the concepts to the client. This amount of detail is only cost eff ective when the storyboard artist has the necessary skills to accomplish this detail effi ciently.

FIG 15 Highly detailed painted storyboard panels by Andrew Paquette. Practice using your skills to create storyboards that eff ectively convey important information

to all members of your project; you will fi nd that your work will easily meet production deadlines and budgets while minimizing the stress of miscommunication.