The storyboard, which has meanings such as story board, pictorial draft, visual scenario, is a guide for every work to be staged. You can not make a movie or a big animation project by yourself, but it is possible to make a storyboard. In this article I will not tell you to animate the film, but I will try to tell you how important the storyboard and animatic is to make them right. Hang on!
Introduction to Storyboard
Storyboard is the first requirement for the pictorial script is the head of cinematography. The following video has made a very nice introduction.
The work that prepares the storyboard is the real owner and usually this person directs. You are an illustrator who makes it easier to understand by drawing on it, a director who produces solutions in shooting, a team that attracts him, and you are the one who follows him. All these efforts are always for you. Nevertheless, you are not ashamed to go sourly commenting about movies in Reddit or what am I saying more. (Some are painful but rightly criticized, but not all.)
Why Storyboard is Important
Without the storyboard, you can not make movies. There are those who do, but it’s sour. You do not make movies without a script. You can think of it as a visual version of the scenario. But do not think like a comic book. The visual sense is more serious in the comic book and there are no notes about the shooting techniques of camera opening. A comic book is a separate work of art in which the graphic and the text are intertwined.
Storyboard is a visual guide for the movie to be produced. There is no script in it, but there is information on how to use the camera and how to build the scenes. It also contains transitions information. Below is a good video about cuts and transitions on the video.
Jodorowsky’s Dune
The most successful documentary about the storyboard was made in 2013, Jodorowsky’s Dune. In the documentary we follow the story of Dune Filmin, the surrealist director Alejandro Jodorowsky’s 1973 initiative. The project is not a completed, but it is a masterpiece of storyboarding and concept art.
Jodorowsky adds many legends to his team in the illustrated drafting process: H.R. Giger, Chris Foss, Moebius, actors Salvador Dali, Orson Welles, Mick Jagger, David Carradine… and Pink Floyd would have make music …
Yes, incredible names. If only the project is realized. If it does not happen, it will be a big contribution to the career of the team members. After that Jodorowsky made great work in his graphic novel career with his illustrators.
Examples
I’m still too lazy. My first pictorial draft was for the The Strangest Creature on Earth animation. Then I published it as a web-comic. In the second, Sizosems, I prepared kinetic typography. (I have detailed information on the related pages.) I plan to add storyboards here in the future.
I must say it again. Mine are bad examples. I will give you a nice list of things to celebrate your eyes: Great storyboard artists from Turkey. These talents usually keep their lives in advertising. Transfers will begin, after the grow in the animation industry. (Yes I will raise my schizophrenic dreams and hire my friends in my studio.)
What is Animatic?
An animated, animated visual scenario. The old name is “Leica reel“. Stages and voices have a big role in adjusting their duration.
Predicting the duration of a scenario on paper is a difficult task. Animators help us find the answer to this question. In addition to storyboard drawings, the use of soundtrack music and sound effects is also mentioned. The video above is a nice example of animatic (fr. animatique).
Best Softwares for Storyboard and Animation
- Pen-Paper: Our ancestors started like this, and this is still the best method. The Jodorowsky team was also a papermaker, so everything is possible with limited opportunities, an open mind and a talented wrist.
- Photoshop or equivalent (Gimp, Sketchbook Pro etc.): The digital balance of the paper base. A4 draft Photoshop in white paper above.
- After Effects: This is the most familiar solution for creating your animations with Photoshop and Illustrator support. You can even do the animation with the same software. As a matter of fact, I always did so until this day (29.3.2016).
- Stroyboard Pro: I distinguish the best. I have not been able to figure out what this software is doing for a long time. Not even the right animation was done once, and there was a lot of unnecessary vehicles about camera angles. Then when I met the storyboard, I realized how unique the software is. Even the oldest version works, but you prefer the original.
Of course, if you have not prepared any storyboards on paper in your life, do not go into software research at all. These things start on paper first. If there is not any software and technology to overtake the paper yet, I will skip it first, but do not look at it.
Last Words
Being a storyboard artist is a good target for animation career minds. First of all, it is necessary to have knowledge about cinematographic view, reading the script and illustrative technique.
We can not animate alone, we need help. In order to find this help, we need to talk about it. Storyboard is the only tool I can find to tell our story. Think about it.
Keep working!
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