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Permalink Reply by Shea Street on October 7, 2012 at 12:19pm

There was a discussion on here not that long ago about this topic but I do not know what board discussion it was under. The real goal for a storyboard is for your purpose to get and idea of how everything flows and will the shot work for the story before ever trying to shoot it. So there is no set way of doing things and everyone approaches it somewhat differently. An example that people can usually relate to is the Storyboarding the Simpson's Way By Chris Roman http://www.animationmeat.com/pdf/televisionanimation/strybrd_the_si...

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Permalink Reply by grecodan on October 7, 2012 at 12:57pm

Yeah, there is no one way to storyboard. Do what you need/can do. Some professional boards are incredibly detailed, with very precise angles, camera moves, and character blocking mapped out. Others are fairly simple, just single frames that allow you to plan your set-ups, e.g. shots #2, #5, & #6 are all from the same angle so you can shoot those one right after the other without moving the camera and lights. 

I've always done fairly quick doodles, about 12 or so to one sheet of 8x10 paper. It works for my junky films. If you want to get all fancy there are numerous examples of templates you can use for empty frames.  Here's one:

storyboard

Remember to make your drawings in the same aspect ration you're shooting in. 

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Permalink Reply by Mikey Pounds on December 18, 2012 at 1:54pm

Plat around with "google sketch up" you can import 3d models of whatever you want, and move your camera around (change mm) and take screen shots. 

If you don't want to draw it's simple and effective way to lay out your story.

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Permalink Reply by Evan DeRushie on December 18, 2012 at 2:29pm

You're asking about storyboards, but I think it's just as important to make an animatic. This is an edited version of your boards, complete with voices (if you have them), and even temp music. Animatics are crucial for working out the pacing of your film. They don't have to be fancy- it's all about timing.

Here's a scene from my last film next to the animatic. This animatic was made long before anything was built, and was not edited to fit the final version, as you can see some of the cuts are off...

And here's another animatic comparison by Kevin Parry (might have been edited to fit the final product).

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Permalink Reply by Dana Ezikian on December 21, 2012 at 9:01am

Those animatic examples are super helpful. Thanks for sharing.

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Permalink Reply by Jacob Paul on March 15, 2013 at 11:55am

I know this is an old post and I'm new to all of this. but for me, i dont like storyboards, im not good at planning on paper. And I read a trick somewhere where they recommend using a basic wire armature and animating at 12 frames per second and make your movie that way. so you can get a very rough idea of your finished film, and angles and timing and things like that.

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Permalink Reply by Angus Lamont on January 27, 2015 at 2:54pm

Thanks for the assistance guys. I think I would much prefer to use storyboards than writing a script, plus the fact that there will be very little or no dialogue in it, just sound effects. I have started the storyboard (thanks to The Flying Animators handy storyboard templates) and I think I might be slowly getting the hang of it. This is my first short film so, I'm guessing roughly 3 to 5 minutes in length.

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Permalink Reply by Hendrikus De Vaan on April 24, 2015 at 6:27am

Better late than never; storyboard sample :D

I'm not sure if I'd hand draw storyboards like this anymore. Recently I've been using Toon Boom storyboard pro, which works well for my needs.

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