What are Storyboards? 

Storyboards are like plans for an animation. They allow artists to visualise their story and script and allow for more in-depth planning and pre-production. They consist of multiple boxes (frames) which consist of drawings, sketches and notes that show what is happening in the scene, and are mostly used for animation, film and tv, to make the final shoot as streamlined as possible. Storyboards are really important in saving time, money and resources by limiting any early changes that need to be made to the paper, rather than later in production when turning back or even redoing a scene would be incredibly inconvenient and expensive.

What is usually included –

• Drawings of the main events in a sequence
• Visual representations of movement (both the characters and camera, usually seen as arrows)
• Colour highlights (where this is necessary, like drawing attention to something or providing contrast)
• Small amounts of text (any notes for additional information)

 

Storyboard Language

 

 

Camera Movements: Large arrows, often annotated represent camera movement. The descriptions are on or around the board to explain a specific movement. The arrow normally interacts with the border of the frame to show the direct effect, and can sometimes be outside to show transitions. An example above is in the fifth frame where a pan movement is shown through a squiggly arrow coming from the border.

Movements in-shot: These are contained inside the frame and are usually a different style of arrow if the camera moves at the same time. The arrow can even overlap or interact with the item that is moving. In the first frame, this can be seen, with an annotated arrow that shows in which direction the little girl is moving.

 

Storyboard Examples

 

The drawings are quite clear and have a good amount of detail, which show what is going on in each frame. There is also good contrast and notes at the bottom which give some extra info. If this is for a comic, arrows aren’t necessary, but since there is one in the second to the last frame, I believe this is for an animatic, in which case, more arrows are needed to show movement.

 

Again, the drawings are very clear and we understand what is going on at all times and this time, there is added colour which adds more contrast and makes certain parts stand out, which effectively draws the viewers attention to those parts and shows the main focus of each frame. The boxes with text which are placed in various places are quite interesting because they aren’t just at the bottom, which makes the storyboard more dynamic. 

 

This storyboard is for the film “The Matrix” and is very logical and organised. We can tell which frame comes next because of the numbers on the side, which show that the frames are running down, and every new number is a new scene. The 7th scene is quite confusing because of the strange movements the ‘man’ does and I think really needs some arrows to show the character’s movement. The whole storyboard, in fact, lacks arrows, which would make camera and character movement much more clear.

 

What are Animatics?

Animatics are very similar to storyboards, but either have minimal, or no visual language. More frames are used to replicate an animation and are played one after another, usually with audio, to give the camera operators and directors a sense of pace. There are no camera movement descriptions because of the speed they are played at, with generally only larger character movements being displayed. Transitions and zooms aren’t uncommon, however, because the frames are edited together and certain features can be used to test pacing and framing. Animatics overall, help massively with translating a storyboard into a more visual and dynamic format, so that you can see if the scenes flow together and if any major changes need to be made. Whilst a storyboard is a way to plan out an animation/scene from a show and helps you map out the main events that will be shown, animatics provide a more extensive look into how the frames would look together, with transitions and some movement. If there is anything that looks messy, bizarre or illogical, this is the stage to remove or change it.

 

Animatic Example

 

 

As you can see, the animatic is quite different from the final animation, but still conveys the same basic movements and ideas. Right away, it is evident that the characters are much more simple and have a loose sketchy style. This is because the plan is rough and is only meant to show the main aspects of a frame. Any frames with the castle/environment show movement through using only one drawing and animating it to move/zoom. Things that are extremely detailed are shown as very loose and messy sketches, with only the basic lines being shown in the animatic. The linework is only in the foreground with the characters, whilst the background is some simple colours in order to show the most important aspects (the characters and their movement) and in this particular animatic, colour and glow are added here and there for contrast and to enhance a frame. Movement in the animatic is shown through lines, not arrows, like with the lanterns, where the switching colours and curving lines show they are spinning in a circle around each other. With scenes where the characters are only moving slightly but their overall position stays the same for prolonged periods of the time, with simply the camera moving, the animatic only has one drawing/image of them and keeps this the same, relying on the audio to show that time is passing. An example of this is when Rapunzel and Eugene are holding hands and singing to each other. Here, the only move slightly and the camera does most of the main movement. There are some parts, which aren’t included in the animatic, and have clearly been added afterwards, like the cut to Pascal. All of these things are indicative of a good animatic, and the kind of style you should be aiming for.

 

Creating Animatics

In Premiere Pro/ After Effects:

• Import every frame and any audio
• Match up visuals and audio with simple cuts
• Export as generic video + sound file

In Photoshop:

• Put each frame in its own layer
• Window – timeline – create frame animation
• Turn on relevant layer for each new frame
• Decide frame length
• Set duration to forever
• File – export – save for web (legacy) – GIF