Prepare to Board! by Nancy Beiman

This book is about visual storytelling and design. Three parts, Content, Technique, Presentation Visual scriptwriting (board-driven films?) The "Why" must precede the technique Easier for toons to break physics than story. Sound and visuals hang off the story. Character and Story can develop from each other [See also, Robert McKee's Story, where a character is a story, just not necessarily the one you're telling] Animators do the magic of bringing worlds and characters to life.

Part One: Story Content

First, Catch Your Rabbit

A story needs character and conflict, developed simultaneously.

Established early, and grab the reader.

Animation pre-production is "development" - the act of improving by expanding, enlarging, refining- growing the story.

ingredient 3: imagination - animation about what could possibly happen

feature animation starts withoutline/treatment, then developped visually.

story is the clothesline the gags & characters hang on

Linear and Nonlinear Storytelling

Linear: A, to B, to C. Or C, explained by B, explained by A.

Nonlinear: creating effect or mood rather than telling story

Limits are a foundation, not a box

It's easier to construct within limits, within guidelines.

Character created in isolation from story is just a design, not a personality.

Brainstorming stories from lists

Brainstorming lists of story elements:

characters 

anything, human, animal, anthro, feral, fantasy, alien, aquatic, avian

locations 

can vary greatly in scale, in space, under a microscope, in the laundry, in a pineapple under the sea?

situations and occupations 

occupations to vary up the situations that can be defined under "work"

conflicts 

weaknesses, desires, perils, opportunities

mix and match from the lists!

Draw thumbnails of the combinations; the characters and situations

A story should be told by the most interesting characters!

what if - how can we make it even more interesting by mixing it up

Researching Action to break from cliche

Take a sketchbook and draw everywhere, and gesture people in action

stronger poses, and better actor, to draw from the truth that's stranger than fiction

also draw pets

Quick Sketch and Thumbnails

rough thumbnail drawings are the starting point for characters and storyboards

Go beyond, PLUS ULTRA!

Adapt and exaggerate reality, not just copy

Believable, not realistic.

Visual hyperbole, caricature, stylize

Humans are hardest to exaggerate

Researching Settings and Costumes

You can find stuff on the internet - go look for art/culture of different times

Production can make use of all sorts of art comprehension and life experience

Learn a little about a lot of things

Study film too!