Storyboarding takes place in the initial stages of a Design process/Project Setting in the Industry where initial ideas are developed. The design process in the Industry follows a specific pipeline and meetings with clients are regularly scheduled to update them on the progress made on the project.

Storyboard

In the storyboard may aspects are considered and it is a crucial phase of the project initial ideas. Things such as overall style, the quantity of characters, the environments or even camera angles are decided and considered.

When considering style in a storyboard there could be made choices such as using cartoons or humanoids, to simulate the real world or having an anime environment style even if is going to be a 2D or 3D animation and how the law of physics are applied. However even if the storyboard determines the overall style, the style does not determine the logic of an animation.

In order to work efficiently while creating a storyboard is better working following a hierarchy of elements present within the scene. Time is another important aspect of storyboarding since it can also determine how many frames or how detail you want to show off for a singular action. A possible approach may be the pose to pose where every action and frame are showed.

If there are are dynamic designs this aspect can boost the appeal of the entire stage so storyboarding can help determine the amount of appeal on your stage. Proportion may be useful since it can give emotion and characteristics. Audience is easy to be drawn towards shapes and colours rather that specific details. Storyboards don’t have to be too complicated, good achievements can be obtained with simplicity too: form follows function and function follows forms.

Staging

Staging is one of the 12 principles of animation, when talking about staging we are referring to camera angle and position, timing, acting or even settings. Camera has a role in staging since that it controls the presentation and viewpoint. Different distance and angle of a camera position will have different outcome based on what you wanted to communicate from the protagonist. Screen Space is also an important element to take in consideration since it is where the attention is directed in the scene. Camera distance may also determine different meanings: for characters you can use a code up for facial expression and fa r shot for body gesture; for buildings close ups are used for details and to see properties while far shots for more overall book like a city skyscraper. The camera is not supposed to be positioned away from what is supposed to be focused on unless there is a reason for it. The camera viewpoint must be switched on what you are showing.

Contrast and focal point

Our attention will change if there are distinct difference of colours, animation, scale, size, lighting: we need to consider what to put in the stage, work out the balance and make sure it delivers what you want to show.

Timing: pausing

Sometimes delaying allows audience to absorb and digest what is happening so pausing, slow-paced camera shift are elements to not be discarded.

Acting

Characters’ act and pose will be important to tell the story or the moment: with the correct angle of posing and camera, even stripping all the details and colours, good characteristics can still understand in silhouette shade.

Setting: emotions, characteristic and themes

Every colour indicates a certain state of mind, so they must be used wisely to convey emotions in the scene. Settings and props must reflect the state of mind of the characters they should align with him or her, however over detailing can obscure what’s happening taking out balance to the background. Well planned storyboards will allow you to understand what is needed to be included in the project, what should be prioritised, what is not and how much time you should spend on each element.

After the lecture we were given a chance to create a storyboard for two possible ideas to use and develop as two 3D animation projects for this module. Our professor gave us some guidelines to use to plan them.

Project 1 idea

Intro

Name of the project: Cats’ secret life

What is it?: a short animation film

Narrative

What is the story?: the animation short is going to showcase some habits that a cat does when is home alone without his or her owners with an ironic tone.

What is the event?: the sort is going to start with the owner leaving the house and after there will be showed three actions where the cat would do things he is not supposed to do.

Storyboard:

Project 2 idea

Intro

Name of the project: Fisherman

What is it?: a short animation film

Narrative

What is the story?: A not-so-lucky fisherman is out fishing on his boat, and suddenly something take the bait he is using to fish and he struggles to pick it up because it seems extremely heavy, however it turns out to be a very small fish and he feels disappointed in the end.

What is the event?: A fisherman fishing on his boat trying to catch a big fish, or at leat some fish since he has not been so lucky so far.

Storyboard:

Narrative arc

These are some notes on the lecture we had about story arc in term 1:

Week 5: Story Arc and Character types

to develop the story for these two project I have followed a narrative arc for the path that the story itself follows providing a clear beginning, middle, and end of the story.

Every story has a beginning, middle, and end, with the middle typically taking up a longer period of time than the beginning or the end. Every narrative arc has key points, traditional stories have key plot sections and points that map nicely onto this arc:

1. Exposition: which introduces the setting, the character and the problems they face. For the “fisherman” project this would be the first few frames where he is out fishing and he is sad because he has not caught any fish yet. for the “cats’ secret life” project the owner of the cat leaves the house and the cat stop pretending to be asleep and shows that he has a plan from his expression.
2. Rising action: moves the plot forward by showing characters fighting against their problems. For the “Fisherman” project the fisherman realises that something catches the bait and he put so much effort to catch it and do not loose it. In the “cats’ secret life” project the cats is showed in a series of actions that he is not supposed to do but the owner is not at home so he is free.
3. Climax: tensest moment of the crisis; it describes the moment when the characters face a crisis that controls the rest of the plot. For the “Fisherman” project the fisherman finally catches the catches the fish and falls on the boat. In the “cats’ secret life” project the owner comes back home.
4. Falling action: which moves the plot from the climax towards an ending. For the “Fisherman” project the fisherman sadly realises that he has only caught a very small fish. In the “cats’ secret life” project the cat realises that the cat is back home and is surprised.
5. Resolution: brings the story to stability by showing the final results of the climax. For the “Fisherman” project the fisherman leaves the fish free in the water disappointed. In the “cats’ secret life” project the cats goes back pretending he is asleep before the owner notices that he has doing things he should’ve done.