5 steps to finishing a storyboard

When I first started to draw storyboards, I scoured the web and libraries for anything I could find on the topic. And although I found a lot of articles about storyboarding, there was not really an article explaining how to get started in creating your first storyboard with an original story.

My first storyboard never got finished, neither did my second or third, I did not have a process to follow and I would get partway through before realizing that there was a crucial step that I missed and that it would be easier to just put it aside for now and start a new project.

Which is what I did for a while, I probably started around 30 storyboard projects, all with varying levels of success, but they all ended up falling on their face. And I learned a lot from all those failures, but I can talk about that another day.

So through trial and error I discovered some steps that personally helped me to successfully start and finish a storyboard.

I am going to share that with you today, and I hope you will find it helpful.

Step 1 - STORY

Story is king, have you ever heard that? Well, its true, and its called storyboarding for a reason.

You need to have a story, and it needs to be good, it doesn't have to hold up to Shakespeare, and it should be simple. One of the first stories that I wrote for boarding that ended up working was this simple: a man trapped on an island goes to catch a fish and the fish bites him. That ended up being only 41 boards, but I told a story from start to finish, and that is what people want to see.

You should be able to sum up your entire story in one or two sentences.

I am talking about original stories, not taking something from an already existing script. I know a lot of people recommend that but as a storyboard artist I think it is important to come up with ideas and be able to write. So why not start exercising those muscles now.

Step 2 - Characters and world building (planning)

Once you have a story, you are going to end up with some characters, and they need to be designed.

Designing is not making really cool looking things, it is solving problems. And as a storyboard artists the problems you need to solve with your characters are how they will animate, can your character express a variety of emotions, what does he/she look like when angry or jumping up and down or running? You need to sit down and play with your character, draw them a for a while so you get the hang of them, it may seem like homework but it's worth it. All of these questions are very important. But I don't spend too much time on this, it's easy to get sucked down the design rabbit hole. And if you find yourself liking the design process more than the storyboarding process maybe designing is a better fit?

You also need to take into consideration backgrounds, they are just as important, if not more so than the character. Take some time and explore the world, I recommend that you just have fun with the environment but still design them. These drawings are like model sheets and no one will see them but they are valuable to you as a storyboard artist.

Step 3 - Thumbnailing shots and making a beat board

You are going to run into a lot of problems here, this is where your knowledge of cinematography comes into play, I like to use post it notes and just beat out the story, sometimes you will need to do this two or three times to get the storytelling just right so that no one watching would get confused.

I keep my drawings rough at this stage, its more about how I tell the story through an imagined lens, I look to solve any story or pacing problems. Also through doing this I get some clear angles for backgrounds that I need to draw, and I start thinking about that.

Most pros estimate that they draw around 100 thumbnails a day in feature animation, probably even more per day in television animation. (thats 100 per day in addition to the 300 cleaned up boards per week)

Step 4 - creating the storyboard

Now its time to get into the nitty gritty, and you can do this in many different ways, sometimes I will board on paper or on the computer. Whichever way is fastest and lends itself to better drawings.

This is when you show your value as a storyboard artist, you need to be able to draw well, that means having clean drawings that are easy to communicate what is happening.

Look at boards from television and movies as an example, theres a fine line in showing too much of an action and just enough. I always repeat this mantra, this is for an animator to use as notes, this is for an animator to use as notes. You are not creating a piece of fine art, and you are not animating, your sequences should be clear enough so that an animator can go ing and easily tell what the action.

Step 5 - clean up

Everyone has to clean up, In television the storyboards need to be as clean and crisp as possible, they are going overseas to Korea and the language barrier leaves lithe room for sloppy drawings, If you look at final TV boards, the lines are crisp and clean always. Clean up is important in feature as well, they need to make sure there is a drawing continuity in their boards and that they add value/ color if needed so that when showing it in a reel there is no jarring drawings that would take the viewer out of the experience.

Drawing = Frustration

Learning how to draw well is a frustrating journey.

I think we need to take hold of that frustration and embrace it! It will always feel bad, it will always make you want to snap your pencil in two, but that is part of drawing, and you have to push past that, because the more that you become frustrated at drawing something badly the better you will get at drawing that thing. Or you will think of a different way to draw that thing and start to do something "wrong" but that nobody else is doing and that is style!

This is probably best compared to learning how to draw figures and people from your imagination, When I first started to devote serious practice to that, I was horrible at it. I had pages of disfigured and ill proportioned people, and when I got frustrated I forget things that I otherwise would have known, like what side of the hand the thumb is on, or how an arm bulges, because you are trying to juggle so much information, and when you mix all that information with frustration you can either snap your pencil in two and watch television, or you can embrace the frustrations of drawing that thing and keep drawing it until you either learn how to draw it properly or find a "wrong" way to do it.

Where things fall apart

I write a lot of stories, and I don't finish a lot of stories or I quit them before they are finished because I realize there is a flaw in the story so fundamentally bad that its not even worth reworking.

This begged the question, WHEN and WHERE during the process of writing, drawing and storyboarding the story did I go wrong?

It is always the very beginning of the process.

I will get an idea and I'll write a first draft, and maybe I'll write a second draft, and I get so excited with the story that I will jump right into the heavy lifting. What I should have been doing is setting the story down for a few days or weeks if I have that luxury and coming back to it fresh. With the goal of rewriting the story.

It's kind of like looking in a painting through a mirror, after not thinking about what you wrote for a while suddenly you are reading it as a reader, not a writer and all of the flaws poke out to you.

Then I should have been less afraid to completely revamp what i had written and come one with something new.

Great website to draw heads

I broke my glasses last week and I discovered a website that has an amazing tool for artists, Warby Parker, their website has a tool wherer you can go in and view i head from multiple angles with the same lighting. Its really good for drawing and understanding the head and how it looks at different angles.

https://www.warbyparker.com/eyeglasses/men/dixon/brushed-ink

https://www.warbyparker.com/eyeglasses/men/eli/whiskey-tortoise

Building a professional storyboard portfolio

Last year when I was at CTN, I looked at a lot of portfolios and I showed my portfolio around to a lot of different people, both pros and students. And I heard a lot of advice from people about creating a good story portfolio, to show around. Most of the tips are generally about being considerate of the person viewing your portfolio, but isn't that really what life is about?

1. Print it, It only costs about $10.00 to get a wire bound book made at FedEx (make two)
Why? If someone likes your work they may want to keep your portfolio, I had an artist that I hold in very high regard ask to keep my portfolio so he could bring it back to the office with him and show around, If I only had an ipad portfolio I could not have done this. It feels better to turn pages rather than swipe on a screen, but go in prepared and have a portfolio DOWNLOADED (no internet needed) to your tablet just in case.

2.  Size, I printed my portfolio at 8.5x11, some people liked that size and some people wanted it one notch larger, To be safe I would recommend printing two sizes of your portfolio. that way if someone mentions that they wish it was bigger, BOOM I'm prepared bitch!

3. Include storyboards, This one sounds obvious, but you only need to have storyboards in your portfolio, and if you want to include other work, set a maximum of four pages at the end of the book for things like life drawings, comics, character design, background layout. I also paint backgrounds, but they were not in my story board,portfolio, I had a SEPARATE portfolio with just backgrounds, so if they asked if I did background I could pull out my other book and show them. I cant stress this enough If you want to be a storyboard artist you need to have a storyboards, I think the magical number might be three original stories in total.

4. Tailor the types of boards that you draw to the type of media you want to work in. The question is essentially, where do you want to work? You need a specific answer, don't say "movies". For example I want to work at Cartoon Network on a young adult television show, so all of my boards had a television feel, and they were laid out like a lot of tv boards are laid out.

5. Overview pages, At the start of a new storyboard sequence in the portfolio, it might be a good idea to have a couple of pages dedicated to having all of the boards laid out in a grid, keep them about 3 inches in width so they don't have to struggle to look at them. But then also have a page by page of the storyboards as if they were being used in production. This way whoever is viewing your portfolio has the option to see a project as a whole, and if they like it they can get into the nitty gritty of each panel.

6. Put tabs in your portfolio, like bookmarks, Fed Ex includes these in their book printing, but the tab pages are going to be blank, don't have blank pages, tape some drawings to the blank page or something.

7. This one is important, be prepared to pitch the boards. They may very informally ask you what the story is about, and instead of mumbling, "oh its a guy, and huh he is uh you know..." have an exciting pitch to give them about why your story is awesome!

Theres so much more to say on this topic, and maybe you disagree with what I think, so let me know in the comments!

Tarantino and movies

Heres a great mini-doc about the making of pulp fiction, if you can get past the first minute, it gets very interesting when Tarantino starts to talk about the specifics of how created the story for pulp fiction and movies that influenced him.

I know everyone is not a fan of Tarantino films, but he is a talented storyteller and knowledgable about film history. 

Jake Parker Videos

Jake Parker has started doing videos again, and with any luck he will continue to share his art and process with us. This is a wonderful place to get some valuable information from a working and successful professional artist

I have always admired Mr. Jake Parker and his work ethic, I have gained a lot from his videos and from various talks that I have seen him give in person. 

I hope you enjoy the video, I know I did.

Pixar's 22 rules of story, Analyzed by Vladimir Bugaj

This has been around on the web for a while, but if you have not read it in a while or its new to you, its work the read in its entirety. When I am stuck in part of a story I'll usually refer to this document.

Thats all there is to say :D

THIS IS THE GREATEST PHOTOSHOP EXTENSION EVER CREATED

Okay, so if you read the title of this post, you are probably expecting some magical color picker, that has gamut masks and triads and everything you ever wanted in a color picker for the price of a six pack of beer?

Well I have some disappointing news, ITS BETTER THAN THAT!

http://www.coolorus.com/

This is an amazing color picker, I bought it last week and it has dramatically improved my workflow for painting and coloring comics. (although it doesn't have much use for storyboard artists if you only work in Black and White) but its still worth the purchase.

If you are interested please help support coolorus.

:D

Starting

Starting is an interesting problem That I am faced with on a regular basis. It is by far my favorite part of the creative process, but it ultimately means very little.

Lots of people can start something, and lots of people do start things. Starting is not what makes someone a famous or renown as an artist, think of all the artists that you follow, what is the one thing they have in common?

They finished something, not just one thing but multiple things. Success is attracted to productivity, not talent. Meaning that you could be the greatest draftsman in the world but if you never finish anything, no on is going to know. And no one will care that you are a master draftsman because they have nothing to admire.

A lot of this has to do with work ethic, and how much you really want to succeed, If I ask any artist what they want to do with their career, if they have given it any thought, chances are it is going to be a lofty goal. Not many people have the life long goal of being a storyboard revisionist, people want to be directors or Show Runners, writers.

 But if you follow up that question with "What are you doing to make that dream a reality"

 you will probably get vague answers and a lot of "umm..drawing?" Although practice is mandatory to success, it alone will not bring you success, If you want to achieve your goals you have to start something and then finish it, and do that over and over again until you develop your voice.

Eventually people will start to listen.

I am partially writing this for myself, and for anyone it may help.

Invisible Ink

Today I want to share the insightful writing of story guru, Brian McDonald. I first discovered Mr. Mcdonald on a great podcast called Chris Oatleys Art Cast, A real gem and I am sure anyone who is reading this has listened to it before. Brian was featured on an episode spotlighting his book THE GOLDEN THEME.

I immediately bought his book and read it in one day, there was so much valuable content in that book that applied to creating storyboards I actually read it twice and downloaded an audiobook which I frequently play.

His blog, The Invisible Ink Blog is just as amazing, because it offers real world examples and Brian mentions the shows and movies that inspired him throughout his lifetime.

http://invisibleinkblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/castaway-act-one-breakdown.html

The post that I specifically mentioned breaks down the first act of Castaway, and really just sheds light on the important elements in a first act and how the can be implemented to create an emotional story. Read it.

What is even more great than just the posts are the comments, Brian gets very insightful comments from his readers and he actually takes the time to think and respond individually to the comments, so that a singular blog post becomes a discussion.

Do yourself a favor and procrastinate with Mr. McDonald

Alex Hirsch Interview

Sidebar has long been one of my favorite podcasts, their interviews are informative and they ask great questions that provoke artists to answer honestly and reveal parts of their creative process that can really teach us something.

Usually they interview comic artists, but last week we got a special treat and Alex Hirsch, the creator of Gravity Falls was captured long enough to give a brief run down of what it's like to become a show runner.

I have to admit that this job sounds terrifying after listening to the interview, it is still my goal to become a show runner and create a show that makes people happy, but this episode is a hard slap in the face of what it will really be like.

CLICK HERE LISTEN TO THE SHOW

Please listen and enjoy!\, the people at Sidebar or constantly creating new and fantastic content and it is definitely worth checking out past episodes as well.

here are a few other of my favorite episodes

Peter De Seve

Jake Parker

Robert Valley

-Nicholas

Saving Storyboard Layer Comps to PDF or JPG files in Photoshop

Currently I am forced to use Adobe Photoshop for my storyboarding work, which is fine except for when I need to export my boards into something that I can share with the world. Other storyboard software like ToonBoom Storyboard Pro do this very well but if you are like me and you are just going to be using Photoshop for a while.

 I have learned a few helpful tips that make exporting your boards into any helpful files like PDF, JPG, TIFF or GIF (which I'll cover in another post as you have to use the animation tool in photoshop) I hope you find it helpful!

Heres the final PDF, a simple procedure, but very helpful!

Excellent Advice

I just came across a link to this video, It includes some of the best advice that any young artist can receive. 

Please do yourself a favor and watch this video in it's entirety. It shows four very skilled artists and their interpretation and process of painting one tree. I am a huge Eyvind Earle fan so this video was an amazing treat for me and left me feeling very inspired.

"The great painter has something to say, he does not mat men, landscapes or furniture, but an idea"  -Robert Henri

Thanks!

SCAMSS Sketchbook

I got so tired of buying a new sketchbook every month and lugging around a bulky and cumbersome object that I crafted a revolutionary new device to help manage this problem. I call it "The Artists SCAM system.

The SCAMSS or (Surreptitious Content And Management System) is a fully integrated sketching and note taking device created for today's on-the-go artist who needs to draw strangers without being noticed.

Ease of use
With the SCAM System the artist is encouraged to not be discouraged with the thought of ruining a sketchbook or making a drawing that you are not proud of. Once the top page is filled with drawings, you can either throw the single sheet of paper away or slide it into the back of the SCAM for removal and storage later.


Building your own, SCAM System

1. Get a standard sized wooden Clipboard (heres 3 for $)
2. Get some 8.5 X 11 Paper ( I buy a ream of the stuff jake Parker uses)
3. Put the Paper into the clipboard


Accessories and Preferences

* I prefer to use Binder Clips to hold my paper together at the bottom. This way the wind will never blow your papers around.

* Deluxe Pen holster - It just slides in to the area between the clip and the paper (pilot fine liners work best for me)

* Try putting a sticky note on the last clean sheet of paper so that you know where you backlog of sketches begins.

Portfolio Review Etiquette for Storyboard Artists

I see a lot of portfolio reviews going on during conventions, and I have received a lot of advice on portfolio review etiquette from professionals, Ive decided to compile what I've learned into a neat little list for your pleasure.

1. Take the reviewer's busy life into consideration
Please understand, whoever is looking at your portfolio is taking time out of their bushy life to look at your work. Its incredibly nice of them to do so especially considering at a convention they look at probably 100+ portfolios a day, or over an email they probably have 100+ unread emails in their inbox from people just like yourself.

2. Look presentable and don't smell bad.

What I have to offer is just some observations that I noticed about young artists getting reviews, and how to better come off a a person who would be fun to work with. Even if your art is amazing, if you are super weird and you smell bad, you are going to have a hard time finding a job in a studio environment, because no one is going to want to sit next to you.

3. Shake their hand.

Tell them your name, and shake their hand. This ons is simple, but very easy to forget and it makes a big impression.

4. Prepare a question to ask.
If you are talking to an artist or a company that you admire, have a specific question already prepared to ask them, try to think of a question that would be interesting for them to answer and the have not answered a billion times that day.

5. Make them Laugh.
I sometimes have a goal to make them laugh, which is really appropriate, if you are a storyboard artist, the chances are that you going to need to make people laugh. Don't be a fool though, theres a fine line in making someone laugh at a joke you told and laughing at you.

6. Pitch your portfolio.
Pre prepared to pitch your story, if they ask you "what is this story about" don't just ramble off a dumb one liner plot, pitch it! That will be your job in the future, and not only is this great practice but if you pitch to them they will probably get more excited abut your artwork.

7. Get their business card.
Understand that they might not be so blown away by your work that they give you a job right then and there. Ask for their business card, and ask if you can email them with a follow up showing how you took their notes into consideration. Chances are when they are leaving the convention they will have a mountain of business cards that I doubt they will ever sort through,  so follow up with them!

8. Don't overstay your welcome.
Know when it is time to leave, if there is a line behind you, be polite and say that you will stop by later. And its also a good idea to stop by any booth that gave you a portfolio review later during the convention and buy some of the work that is for sale or just stop in to chat for a few moments, I bet that they will remember a simple conversation over a portfolio review when they are looking back on their day.

These are just my observations, If you think I missed anything or got anything wrong please feel welcome to comment below!

-Nicholas

What to learn from backgrounds PART 2

This shot is a little weird at first, Clarence is cut out but then stoops down into frame, it forces us to focus on the parents and it also encourages you to look in the empty spot  in the frame, foreshadowing to something bad.

Jeff throws the dish of food onto the carpet, everything is pointing to where it will land, the patterns on the carpet are designed, and the door is designed, everything in the shot is making you look at one spot.

An amazing truck out shot, This works not because its fancy, it works because the entire scene has been building up to this point. The background itself is beautiful and the Truck out worked perfectly. It added a comedic sense of drama

We return to a similar shot as before but the angle is a little different, which is an entirely new drawing, this background also serves to lead the focus to Clarence sitting in the stew. It is Also the end of the scene.

Later on in the episode Clarence burst through the room to look for Jeff, He enters the room in almost the same way as before. This shot is really great, because it's wrong, everything in the room has been reorganized. If you compare it with the Truck out shot from earlier, it is an entirely different room. But you will never notice this when watching the cartoon, I have to think that this was a conscious decision.

1. No one will notice it, and if someone does notice it I don't think they will care.
2. It is composed well and allows for the action to take place.

Meaning that if they left the bed and furniture there, it probably would have been distracting.

Just as a treat, in case you missed this bit, when Clarence runs outside he is given a megaphone by a hairy man hand. (Possibly his dad), But its just the kind of gag that makes this cartoon great.

The backgrounds support all of the action, a well designed background will evoke instant emotions into a viewer and give a sense of what will happen before it happens, by letting the viewer guess what will happen next it allows them to feel more intimate with the show.

Thanks!
-Nick

What to learn from backgrounds PART 1

Backgrounds are often ignored or avoided, which is a shame because backgrounds are really fun. I was just the opposite during art school, I looooved backgrounds and because of that I got better at designing backgrounds and it is usually the first thing I notice when watching a film or cartoon.

Clarence is an excellent show to learn from, it has amazing artists and everything is thought through, it reminds of old cartoons that I watched as a kid, which is amazing. There is one scene in episode 29 "Jeff Wins" which takes place in Jeff's room and I wanted to analyze it because it utilizes a lot of successful methods of making the background into part of the show.


The scene starts with Clarence Bursting through the door and crashing into the carpet. The background is perfectly set up for this action. A low horizon and distorted perspective allows for a dynamic pan that follow Clarence as he crashes into the frame.

Cut to a similar camera angle (with Clarence still facing screen right), although Clarence is in the edge of the frame it works because of what just happened. His momentum got stopped and he fell down. and this shot reflects that as well as having nice compositional aids that point to the pile of pillows, the focal point of the shot.

Jeff screams at Clarence from inside his fort, This shot is important mainly because its simplicity, it says a lot about who is in there, and gives the viewers eyes a break from the previous pan and forced angle. It brings them back into reality for a bit.

Another simple background to stay consistent, the backgrounds transition from one to another in a way that helps the viewers eyes rest in one spot on the screen for a moment, rather than having to search around for what is happening. Notice how Clarence occupies the same spot on the screen that he was in two shots ago.

Inside Jeff's pillow fort, A really cramped shot, without thinking the viewer already wants to burst out of the shot, its claustrophobic.

BOOM! Jeff burst out from the pillow fort, when watching the episode this gave me a huge sense of relief, because the last shot set me up for this action. Everything in the shot also points to Jeff, He is the ultimate focus.

The rest of the scene to be posted tomorrow!

Brad Bird on Composition

Here are some notes that Brad Bird gave to the King of The Hill storyboard team to make their shots more dynamic, Its really insightful and I will reference it whenever I am stuck or If I feel something is not working.

Enjoy!

- Nicholas

Consider... timing

There are so many things to consider when creating a storyboard, one of the most often forgotten but still very important thing is timing.

An example of a cartoon that I think does this very well is Breadwinners from Nickelodeon. Breadwinners is created in an interesting way, as far as I understand it the soundtrack is created before the episode is boarded, and the board artists have to make sure that their boards are in line with the music and rhythm. 9/10 times the show is too fast paced for me to watch more than one episode at time, but I really respect they shows story artist and there are some true golden moments in the show.

Check out the opening scene to their second episode, everything falls along a certain rhythm.

I do not know that I sufficiently covered timing, I will go into an in depth post about it another time.

Whats up with hands?

The only way to get better at hands is to draw hands, books and online tutorials may give you a look to see how another person has solved the problem of simplifying hands, but until you solve it yourself.

1. Draw hands from a movie, I prefer Jackie Chan kung fu movies with the audio turned off so that I won't get sucked into the story. Watching the movie ONLY focusing on the hands, pausing it frequently to draw every single hand pose and angle and if it pauses while blurry, thats even better because then you have to about what the underlying hand could be doing.
This is really great because you get to see how a hand got to be in a certain pose and what the emotional state of the actor is!

2. Study artists renditions of hands, Toby Shelton is great place to start. He has several storyboard samples, I recommend going through and copying the hands from his storyboards, try to break them down and understand why this hand works for that specific character or action or emotion.

3. DRAW YOUR OWN HANDS, literally just fill up a sheet of your hands, I like to draw a page of small little thumbnail hands every morning to warm up.

The most important thing here is consistency draw hand every day, if you can't dedicate an hour a day, draw hands for 10 minutes a day, after doing that for a month you will notice a difference.

don't be lazy!

-Nicholas

Asking the hard questions when writing a story

Thinking of ideas is the easy part, Successfully executing them is hard.

Television shows are not successful just because they have a good idea. Shows like Adventure Time are not smash hits because of the novelty, It draws an audience because each episode has a strong story structure.

When I am starting to write a new story there are a few questions that I try to answer when going through what I like to call the Idea stage.

1. Who is my main character?
2. Where is the story happening?
3. For what reason is the story happening here?
4. What does my main character want/need?
5. Do their wants/needs conflict with someone else's?
6. What does my main character do in the first minute to connect with the audience?
7. What are the stakes if the main character fails?
8. What is the overall message or theme of the show?
9. Are there any elements of the story that can be removed?
10. What is the overall message or theme of the show and does it get conveyed?

Questions 8, 9 , and 10 are by far the most important on the list. I ask them last because they will probably cause you to rewrite your entire story. Most people don't think about theme when writing a story, so if you set aside the time before rushing in, you will be ahead of most of the competitors.

Then there's the Three act structure, which is an entirely different conversation to be had.

Thanks for reading,

I wish you luck

Nichobono