Professional Storyboarding by Sergio Paez & Anson Jew

Introduction

Story bug is addictive - trying to solve visual problems in the most unique & creative way; it's a language.

Story boards

comic book style drawings that establish emotional content and action of a project
the blueprint for all video productions and basis for what everything else does.

Very little documentation on this art out there.

Shorthand for film and visual story language - aspects of cinematography.

Storyboards not about drawing - about communication, to tell a story.

Drawing skills are helpful but not a preerequisite - you can board in stick figure. Professionals do need to be able to art though.

Achieving Success

Secret to mastery: practice. Talents are learned, not innate. You can learn this, you just need to know what to learn.

Visual Literacy

Screen Reference

Refer to images as if already projected on screen-

"screen direction" "camera left" "camera right"

Camera height, moves, lenses.

Imagine the panel as the final projected image.

The Story Point

Fulfilling the story point

The purpose of the shot or scene - "why"? What importance does this shot have to the narrative as a whole, what importance does this panel have to what we're conveying.

Emotional Response

Evoke emotional response

In film & storytelling, emotional response over time.

Beats: stepping stones in story to create the overall emotional response

Pictures designed to move and engage an audience.

Visual Appeal

Appeal is an essential aspect of animation and visual design:

Charm, pleasing design, simplicity, communication, and magnetism.

Based on design concepts and aesthetics. Does not need complexity, can be simple.

Composition within Your Picture Frame

Start with a rectangle/frame!

The presentation will be with the frame, so start with the frame to build composition for appeal and directing the attention of the audience.

Drawing for Storyboards

Your Drawing Alphabet: SICO Shapes

S-curve, straight lines, C-curves, ellipses, or SICO

S-Curves

Straight Lines

C-Curves

Ellipses

Compound Shapes

Cinema Language

Aspect Ratios

1.33:1 or SD 

Standard Definition, old TV, 16mm film, aka 4:3

1.66:1 

European widescreen, 1980s disney, Super16 film, some IMAX

1.78:1 or HD 

current TV standard, HDTV widescreen, 720p 1080p, 2k, 4k all use this.

1.85:1 or Widescreen 

Cinema widescreen, standard for theatrical film

2.35:1 or Cinemascope 

anamorphic projection, Panavision, Cinemascope, typically uses a stretched lens for live action so slight perspective distortion and wide blue lens flares are standard.

Shot Choice

Camera's location relative to the subject of the shot.

Extreme Wide Shot 

Show the environment, used for outdoor or large area establishing shots, characters are tiny relative to the environment.

Wide Shot 

Characters still small on the screen, this establishes their placement in the shot, and that they are the focus.

Full Shot 

The full body of the focus character is visible, head to toe. Used for broad body language.

Cowboy Shot 

top of head to mid-leg. Popular in Westerns (hence the name). Intended to show upper-body language that still involves the whole body

Medium Shot 

Hips to head, face is easily read, arm gestures and actions still fit on screen, conversational distance

Close up Shot 

Head and neck, important personal info about character, arms length away, communicates emotion.

Choker Shot 

Forehead to chin, a little too close for comfort, arm-on-shoulders distance.

Extreme Close Up 

Inspecting a single element of a face, eyes, or maybe a mouth. (Yzma having food in her teeth while talking, in ENG)

Over the Shoulder Shot 

Back of an actor in the foreground, Typically a little closer than a MS on the other.

Point of View Shot 

Literally looking from the view of a character. May see their arms come "from" the camera, in acting. Normally the view distance the character is standing, but can cut in closer to reflect their focus.

Reverse Shot 

In conversation, cutting between the two characters talking, to establish a sense that they are talking to each other.

Reaction Shot 

Character's emotional reaction to new information, or something happening either offscreen or in the previous shot.

Insert Shot 

usually a CU, cut in or cut away to show a detail related to but not currently participating in the dialog or action currently being focused on.

Camera Position and Height

High angle shots

Camera is placed above eye level. Can be used to indicate the POV of a taller character, or the layout of the scene, or a "security camera" feel - typically emphasizes environment over characters. Diminishes power of the characters in the shot.

Low-angle shots

Below characters' eyelines, makes them feel large and in charge, we are literally forced to look up to them. Promotes the influence of the character,

Camera Position Affects Emotion

Height affects the sense of how much power the character has in the current moment. Where you place the camera is where you place your audience - both distance and horizon.

Eyeline

The closer the character is to facing the camera, the more engaged the audience will feel. Unless you're deliberately breaking the 4th wall, sweet spot is to have the character looking just off the side of the camera usually, rather than profile or straight on or a more shallow 3Q.

Moving Camera Shots

These moves typically create parallax, the overlap of the background changes. Even trucking in, closer things actually pass the camera.

Dolly

camera rolling sideways through a scene.

Truck in/out

camera moves towards or away from a subject.

Boom

camera elevates by a small amount, to step up over a crowd, for example

Crane or drone

elevation change with large framing change, can move from a CU to an EWS.

Steadicam

counterweight-smoothed handheld camera, creates a non-distracting sense of the audience following a character through a scene

Other Specialized Shots

Handheld

without stabilization, a handheld shot creates shakiness, loss of stability, or the feeling that we're looking through a character's eyes in the scene

Dutch tilt

angled view. Feels off-kilter, off-balance

Zolly

zoom and dolly in opposite direction, so the background expands or contracts around a relatively stable subject - gives a sense of shock

Sleeper/corkscrew

down shot looking at the character, as the camera rotates. sense of vertigo and isolation, maybe spider

Camera Lenses

Long/Narrow Lens 

zoomed in lens, 40m-120mm. Flattens perspective, narrow depth of focus range (foreground/background tends to be out of focus)

Short/Wide Lens 

zoomed out lens, 15mm-40mm. Expands and somewhat curves perspective, frequently action-oriented shots, GoPro cameras use a wide almost-fisheye lens.

Fisheye Lens 

ultra short lens, gopro lens, "peephole" lens. 18mm or less. curves the entire view into a bowl or sphere, extreme perspective distortion.

Zoom In/Out 

Lens shifts from narrow to wide or vice versa. There is no parallax in this movement, a part of the image simply fills more of the screen.

Rack Focus 

Deliberate change of depth of field, to drive focus from one subject to another. Your eyes do this all the time, so it's extremely weird in a 3D-projected film. Since we typically ignore out of focus elements this can be used to reveal a subject that seemed part of the environment moments earlier.

Storyboard Types

Different types have different requirements, for different uses

Beat Boards

Working out the story visually - not final shots necessarily, just to identify the story points to make it visual.

May be used as an outline for the main boards.

Single panel storytelling image to convey the meaning/emotion of the beat

Continuity Boards/Shooting Boards

Describe every shot, every beat within the shot.

Used to create the animatic

Frequently have fewer arrows, and additional panels instead, to make animatic creation easier.

Live Action Boards

Only used as a reference for live shooting.

More conceptual / rendered

Less directing involved - just execution.

Lots of arrows.

Feature Animation Boards

Boards used extensively for designing the film - there is a lot of back and forth with writing, directors, location design, character design, etc.

A lot of revision.

Produced to create animatic reel as the living draft of the film.

Anything from finished panel to last minute thumbnail revisions can wind up in the final reel.

Advertising Storyboards/Pitch Boards

Highly rendered panels to pitch the concept to the client.

TV Animation Boards

Very tight/on model continuity boards - frequently the animation indicated in the boards will simply be copied or referenced directly by outsource production companies.

Video Game Storyboards

Rare, but used for cinematics - more likely to be required of an existing 2d/3d artist on staff.

Previs

rough 3D animation to block out the scenes in a script, especially for 3D productions

Can help navigate complicated environments, and set camera angles ahead of production

Storyboarding

Storyboarding is complicated, but it's FUN - it's filmmaking with quick drawings, and it's addictive.

Lots of information, but easy to learn by doing.

Studying lots of different media will build your intuitive sense of storytelling.

Storyboard design is my passion.

The Storyboard Process

Get all the technical details - designs, characters, locations, aspect, deliverable format, etc.

Script Analysis

Movies don't really use scripts, may just pass the storyboarder an outline

Everything else uses a script

Read the Script

Read the entire script, understand how your section relates

Characters' motivations, how your events relate to the larger story

Themes the screenplay is going for in general, and in this specific scene

Break down into Beats / Inventory / Research

Break the scene story into beats

Take inventory of all people/places/props needed

get reference from similar scenes, also reference of inventory

Script Notes / Maps

mark up script with notes and thumbnail sketches, figure out which shots work best where

draw a map of the scene to figure out where things go before you start drawing panels

Interpreting the Script

Look for callouts in scene, action, dialog.

scene

time and place for scene, establishing shot.

action

each thing mentioned probably needs its own shot

dialog

any necessary reaction shots based on the set up, present people specifically called out

A brief description of a complex event (battle, party, etc) could involve dozens to hundreds of shots.

• About scene:
  • How many in the scene?
  • What is the change (beat) of the scene?
  • Who's affected?
  • How do they feel about it?
  • How does the scene affect or effect the following scene?
  • How does it reframe or evolve from the previous scene?
• Within a scene:
  • Who, what, what action, is the main focus?
  • Who's got control?
  • Where are we, and who's moved where for this shot?
  • What's the subtext?
  • What nonverbal cues might work - how do we show not tell?
  • who's being affected by the shot, and how?
  • What's the consequences of the action?
  • what do you want the audience to feel?
  • What's the overall mood

Fulfilling the Story Point

Most important: identify and fulfill the story point of the scene

Everything that occurs in the scene must support this point

Subtext

The emotion/meaning behind the characters' dialog.

WHY is the character saying what they're saying, the way they're saying it?

Not necessarily a double meaning - can just be the "things unsaid" or "mutual understanding" or a simple status transaction.

Thumbnails

quicky first draft in dozens of panels per page, just to see if everything's working before creating detailed panels.

Exploring emotional beats and thinking through/organizing the scenes on paper

Thumbnailing can be half the time, since most of the thought applies here.

Keep it simple, no shading unless that's the point. Arrows to show movement

Starting Your Rough

Vanishing point/perspective grid is a good place to start

quick, simple, unlabored, but NOT sloppy - this is economy of finish since it's testing

Double Check Your Work

All important information?

Maximum effect from scene?

Scene flows well?

Would the subtext/context within the story be clear to someone who hasn't read the whole script?

Finished Storyboards

Redraw with polish, now you know how the panel must be built

• solid poses w/clear silhouette
• simple tones
• color only where key
• More panels rather than arrows
• keep near model
• perspective grid

Digital Storyboards

Most storyboards are digital now, and it's MUCH faster.

Cintiqs are neat, but cheaper tablet hardware works too

Industry-standard software (the book is out of date here)

Work in layers for max flexibility

Checklist for identifying Common Mistakes

• Does the shot fulfill the story point
• Best camera angle for the story point?
• depth? FG, MG, BG?
• Too flat? Profile rather than 3Q?
• Good silhouette?
• too much horiz/vert lines, or symmetry?
• animation playing to camera (depth)?
• variety in shot angles?
• composition shapes interesting?
• is this a reused composition?