Week 1 Assignment: 

Short storyboard for movie sequence, loose thumbnail style, for given prompt 

What is a Storyboard and Purpose? 

• Communicating with your team your ideas and what you wish to achieve with your animation 
• Place to figure out things like timing, composition 
• A loose style drawing 
• Goal is to communicate the story and idea, emotion 
• Relatively cheap to produce, therefore a blueprint for movies, TV shows, video games, commercials 
• Planning (budget, equipment, actors, production design etc) 
• Communication with production team (Cinematography, VFX, Sound etc) 
• A place to figure out the compositions and all elements visible within the frame 

Animatic 

• Storyboard on a timeline 
• Place to edit shots sequentially 
• Place to add sound, music, dialogue, voiceover 

Visual literacy and composition 

3 Main Elements: 

• Story point 
• Answer the question of what the purpose of the shot or a scene, and why? Why did the character enter the scene? Why is the character afraid? Why did the bank explode? 
• Each panel needs to have a specific reason why it’s drawn and answer the question of what story point the image reveals. 
• Emotional response 
• Goal in any piece of art, especially with added dimension of time 
• Pictures need to be designed to move an audience and engage with the story 
• How do you draw something and convey emotion with it without words? 
• Through expression, body language, shapes, composition – everything should work towards this idea 
• Composition 
• The frame, big shapes, lines, the design of the shapes, focal point, rule of thirds, depth, perspective, foreground, md, bgd, contrast, overlapping forms, change in size 
• Aspect ratio – vintage, cinematic, etc 
• 9:16 iPhone video, 2:3 iPhone photo, 1:1 profile photo, 16:9 video/cinema 

Breaking down the screen… 

• Horizontal lines / feeling of calm and static.  
• Vertical lines, calm but more active 
• Diagonals feel more active than either verticals or horizontals 
• Asymmetry gives sense of chaos and disorder 
• Asymmetry adds dynamic 

Rule of Thirds – a way of creating an interesting composition square. Subject always sits in the intersection of lines. Common in cinema and photography. 

Design of shapes 

• Circles, ovals, and curves evoke feelings of friendliness, fun, and happiness. 
• Squares, rectangles, and right angles evoke feelings of formality and order. 
• Triangles create feelings of aggression and dynamism – danger, something about to happen? Anticipation? 

Focal point – where do we want our audience to look? 

• Leading lines 
• Primary focal point 
• Secondary focal point – two different characters for example 
• Tertiary focal point – possible but less likely 

Depth 

• Deep space  
• Objects that may obscure the foreground 
• Dynamic poses 

Perspective 

• Determines vanishing point, where camera field of vision disappears 
• Grids determine what point of view the camera is, necessary even if you’re not good with perspective 
• Just fake it! 

Contrast 

• You can juxtapose different objects and elements in shape, colour, value, size and almost any attribute you can think of. 

Big vs. small 

• Triangular shape vs. circular shape 

Dark vs. Light 

• Sharp focus vs. Soft focus 
• Moving vs. still 

Foreground, middle-ground, Background – can use shading to establish this idea 

• Always want shapes coming at the camera for dynamism 

Staging 

• Flat and even staging. Both characters compete in the composition for visual importance. 
• A better alternative. One character is bigger and more important in the frame. 
• Never have two objects with equal importance in the frame. 
• Emphasize emotion in staging. 

Cinematography 

• Shot choices – why do you use them? 
• Extreme wide – to establish the setting and environment 
• Wide / long shot  
• Medium shot – to establish characters, dialogue, gesture as well as facial expressions 
• Closeup – To focus on emotions of what the character in question is going through – also important elements and objects 
• Extreme closeup – More emotion and stressful scenarios, intimacy 
• Over the shoulder – ¾ shot mainly used conversationally, switch back and forth for dialogue 
• Point of View – From the character’s perspective, looking through character’s eyes 
• Reaction shots – Other people in a scene, establishes how an audience is meant to think, makes it more real 
• High angle – Camera looking down on a scene 
• Birdseye view / Arial shot – Establishing shot but can fly through a scene 
• Overhead shot – interesting composition, fun way to create variety in storyboards 
• Warm eye view / low angle – Makes character feel more powerful  
• Dutch angle – received camera to be a little tilted to the side so our horizon is twisted / diagonal 

180 degrees line – your camera must be on one side of the line – so characters talking don’t switch sides at any point 

Floorplans helpful in establishing movement when there are more complicated action-packed shots 

Blocking – involves decided where people are placed in relation to one another, will they move, where the camera is positioned, how other background elements move around them 

Drawing for Storyboards 

• Simplification of the drawing 
• Using silhouettes and symbols 
• Using stick figures 
• Using grid 
• Overlapping forms, symbols, outlines 
• Characters, situation, gesture – using references is helpful for these elements 

Persepolin marjane satrapi 

Left to right – change direction means it goes from right to left instead 

Aim for ¾ perspective rather than profile 

Rotation assignment 

• A group of bank robbers rushes out with bags of cash, ready for their grand escape – only to discover that their getaway car won’t start! Panic follows as they frantically figure out their next move, with the clock ticking and the sirens getting closer. 
• Two friends meet up for coffee, but when the bill arrives, the real battle begins. 
• A flight is delayed, and a couple gets into a heated argument with the airline’s customer service. 
• Make whatever! 

By Friday- have all of your frames ready to put on a timeline