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.
Contents
- 1 Part One: Story Content
- 1.1 First, Catch Your Rabbit
- 1.2 Vive la Difference! Animation and Live-action Storyboards
- 1.3 Putting Yourself Into Your Work
- 1.4 Situation and Character-driven Stories
- 1.5 What If? Contrasting the Possible and the Fanciful
- 1.6 Appealing or Appalling? Beginning Character Design
- 1.7 Size Matters: The Importance of Scale
- 1.8 Beauties and Beasts: Creating Character Contrasts in Design
- 1.9 Location Location Location: Art Direction and Storytelling
- 2 Part Two: Technique
- 2.1 Starting Story Sketch: Compose Yourself
- 2.2 Roughing it: Basic Staging
- 2.3 Boarding time: Getting With the Story Beat
- 2.4 The Big Picture: Creating Story Sequences
- 2.5 Patterns in Time: Pacing Action on Rough Boards
- 2.6 Present Tence: Creaging a Performance on Storyboard
- 2.7 Diamond in the Rough Model Sheet: Refining Character Designs
- 2.8 Color My World: Art Direction and Storytelling
- 3 Part Three: Presentation
- 3.1 Show and Tell: Pitching Your Storyboards
- 3.2 Talking Pictures: Assembling a Story Reel or Animatic with a Scratch Track
- 3.3 Building a Better Mouse: Creating Cleanup Model Sheets
- 3.4 Maquette Simple: Modeling Characters in Three Dimensions
- 3.5 Am I Blue? Creating Character through Color
- 3.6 Screen and Screen Agan: Preparing for Production
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!
