Starting From What I Know
Progress:
This week, I broke down the story for Here There Be Tygers into scenes and created thumbnails for each scene. I made a few visual layout sketches, just for myself, as I plotted the movement of each character.
Next, I will record a voice recording for the Tygers project.
For next week’s post, I will include a draft of my thesis story, Vermillion, and include the structural feedback I have received.
Process:
There are various approaches to creating storyboards. Some of the best, most creative shows and projects take a non-traditional approach to creative storytelling. Two industry professionals I consulted have reassured me that I don't need a literal script, and I can absolutely start boarding with the plainly written stories I have. I will certainly experiment with various structures as I keep working. However, I am starting this project in the best way can: starting from what I know. This semester, my overall goal is to build my skills and create visual narratives that I can be proud of. I am constantly referencing books like Film Directing, Shot by Shot, and The Visual Story. I also follow young industry creatives and gather their advice based on what they are currently experiencing in the animation industry.
I'm not doing this for a class or a professor or to look good in front of my classmates. I show up and try to learn as much as I can, be the best student I can be, and improve my skills so that I can eventually tell the stories I want to tell. That extends beyond this project and into other projects and classes that I put my heart into.
Prevention:
Now, what's preventing me from making reasonable progress, is having to restructure how I make advances in my project. These thumbnails that I created were originally only to give me a visual guideline/reference for my boards. They were created as a very rough outline, not as a direct precursor to an animatic (I am a visual processor; I need visuals for my visuals). These thumbnails are more like visual ideas, not representational of visual decisions. They aren't accurate enough to be timed. They break the 180 rule a lot. However, based on professor feedback and fear for my grade, I am going to time these loose thumbnails.
While I am experimenting with Storyboard Pro, I typically complete my animatics with Procreate and Procreate Dreams. For this project, I was told to time the thumbnails and just switch them out with the actual boards I am creating. This drastically slows down my workflow, as "switching out" images isn't easily doable for me. Putting my first draft of storyboards together will be a completely different project file. As I start creating backgrounds and boards for my actual drafts, those will be much easier to adjust and replace as I progress. The thumbnail images, however, in my opinion, should not be considered as "boards to be timed" because they were not drawn, built, or framed to be a direct predecessor of my storyboards.
Predictions:
I want constructive feedback on the work I produce. I want to know if I'm delivering the impact I am seeking to or if my framing needs to improve. I have gotten amazing constructive feedback on other aspects of my project. In the coming weeks, I am looking forward to being far enough in the ideation process for structural feedback rather than feedback on my creative process.
https://www.reddit.com/r/animation/comments/1iomua0/thumbnail_progress_for_storyboardanimatic/
