VIDEOS/Storyboarding – Storyboarding Tips: Jan 2018 Patreon Rewards Video
Something happened to me during my Christmas break, helping a friend out with some storyboards.
This leads me to talk about some storyboarding tips. Things you may want to avoid so your boards work better.
Also I show this months rewards, which you can download anytime once you become a patron. And I announce the winner of the Raven from Teen Titans postcard.
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ART/STORYBOARDING – Basic Storyboarding Tips: Part 2
It’s been a while since I published the last video on this topic. It takes time to make all the visual notes so I can talk about them. At least I got to it.
This video I talk about shots with multiple people and the as well as shot that aren’t necessarily at eye level and what they are best used for.
I hope it’s helpful to you:
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If you liked this video and would like me to discuss something you think I might know about…
If you want to ask me a question about drawing that you might be struggling with…
If you want to suggest a character or drawing you’d like me to draw, feel free to ask or suggest away, either here on my comments or anywhere else you’d like to contact me.
Just be aware that my Patreon patrons get their questions answered first and they get to see the videos weeks before anyone else.
My job is storyboarding yet I’ve never really made a video talking about how to storyboard. There was a comment on left one of my Youtube videos that asked me to talk about it.
Without that comment, I probably wouldn’t have thought to do it.
During my down time on the Metro going home from work, I started creating some Sketchnotes concerning what I know about storyboarding. I’m thinking, once I’ve done a few of these, I’ll compile them into a pdf and give it away.
Anyway, here’s the first video I made on what I know about storyboarding:
If you want a copy of the page in the video before I’ve compiled it into a pdf, you can get it by becoming a Bronze Level Patron over on my patreon. It’s located here on this reward page:
If you liked this video and would like me to discuss something you think I might know about…
If you want to ask me a question about drawing that you might be struggling with…
If you want to suggest a character or drawing you’d like me to draw, feel free to ask or suggest away, either here on my comments or anywhere else you’d like to contact me.
Just be aware that my Patreon patrons get their questions answered first and they get to see the videos weeks before anyone else.
I was assigned Act 1 of episode 2 of this new season and man does it have a lot of rewrites. LOTS of work for me this week.
I was mostly finished with roughing out the fixes when the director came into my office and asked me to start on Act 3 once I was done roughing out Act 1.
So Wednesday I started Act 3. Needless to say, I won’t have the final finished version of Act 1 done by the end of the week.
At least Act 3 wasn’t as heavily rewritten. That’s gonna help out a lot.
MOVIES
Now here’s a movie that’s gonna make a TON a money. I really should buy Disney Stocks:
ART
ALRIGHT! I’m really cranking out these pages considering I’m working on them like, twice a week. It’s cool, since most of the planning is done. There were are a few spots where I left the final decisions of what I was gonna do to this part of the process. Specifically pages 30, 32 and 33. More on that below, underneath page 30:
At this point in the story, I knew I wanted to make what the characters where talking about visual. So thought a cut away would be good, I just didn’t really know exactly what the cut away would be. I decided, since my character is Conan-ish, that the cut away should look like a Frank Frazzetta painting. I google some paintings and basically did parodies of the them.
Here, I was just trying to show a little bit of the day in the life of the character, so you can see that he used to have jobs but the sorcerers always ruined them for him. He doesn’t say it in the dialogue so I decided to add the information visually.
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We had the day off Monday because it was Memorial day. This left me with four days to do the work I have to do this week. I enjoyed having a day off, I just don’t like how I seem to get punished for having it.
I did manage to finish Act 3 on Tuesday which gives me the rest of the week to finish Act 1.
The reasons I haven’t gotten done with Act 1 was because it had a really problematic opening that the director really wanted to work out himself. It was really tough but he solved it. Now I just have to make it presentable for the layout staff.
VIDEO
An excellent video on drawing eyes:
ART
This is the fun part of storyboarding for me. This is the part I enjoy the most. The first pass at building the visual pace and narrative of a film or show. After all this time, (two years) I finally get to see what my story will look like. Once I’m done with this pass, I’m going to time it and make a rough animatic. But first, I need to get the shots down as fast as I can. All that work thumbnailing is finally paying off. I don’t really have to think as hard as I did as when I thumbnailed the shots. I just have to make rough clear drawings that tell the story. If it works at this stage, it will work once it’s cleaned up. I’m not laboring over anything too much at this stage. It just has to be clear.
Once I finished this pass and get ready to time it out as an animatic, I’m probably going to need more acting poses to flesh out the action.
The first panel above is in yellow because I just imported my original Post-it and stuck it in the panel to save me time. I’ll replace the first panel during the rough animatic process, I just wanted to have something there in the mean time. I didn’t want to re-rough the drawing.
I’m drawing the rough pass in red because, well, if feels more comfortable for me to do so. The red line makes it feel less final to me. It’s just a working habit I’ve acquired.
The drawing of the raven above and below is really clean only because I used an old development drawing I had done during the treatment process. It was pretty much the shot I had thumbnailed so just went ahead an used it.
The page count gets screwy here because I had to “re-print” the last two pages. I had forgotten to put in the dialogue and descriptions in the last four pages:
29 scenes down, 400 left to go.
What do you think?
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First week back at work. I miss the kids. Though Ambrose seems to be waking up around the same time I do and hangs around as I get ready for work.
I’m revising Act 1 of show 1.
OH! And I found out about the new programs we’ll be using this season, which I wrote about last week. Last week I was under the impression that we where going to start using a program from a different company. Not so. We just upgraded out Toon Boom programs, so now the Layout Crew is using Scene Machine, and the board artist are using Storyboard Pro 2.
Last week I went to a class that taught us to use Scene Machine, but I had no experience with Storyboard Pro 2. Turns out that Scene Machine had so many similarities to Storyboard Pro 2 that it was pretty easy to pick up. I like the new program. It fixes some issues that I had with the previous one.
ART
I’m FINALLY done thumbnailing the shots for my film. It only took TWO YEARS to get to this point. It should NOT have taken this long:
I feel like there should be a parade or something to mark the occasion. I’m so glad I didn’t pushed through and finished it. 429 shots! That’s crazy. The Simpsons boards have this many shots.
Well, now the that the hardest part of the boarding is done, I finally get to execute the project. I begin the process of making it come to life. This is the fun part. I’ve been waiting a long time for this.
So excited.
VIDEOS
I saw this video posted in different Social Media sites but never bothered to click on it until much later in the week. Turns out it’s fantastic. It’s Neil Gaiman (one of my favorite writers) giving a commencement speech at a college. I highly recommend you watch it if you’re into art or interested in it in anyway.
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This is my last week of hiatus but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to be in the studio this week. I was asked to come in this Friday for a meeting. We’re going to be using a new program to do boards this season and the meeting is going to help us get up to speed on it. I’m curious to see what the program can do. So far we’ve been using Toon Boom’s Storyboard Pro. It’s a decent program, and it works for what it is, but we’ve had issues with the compatibility of the program and Toon Boom’s Pencil Check.
Not only that, but the board artists have been asked to do Quicktime movies of their boards in order to pitch their Acts in a easier way. This has lead to trying to find a program that does this even easier than Storyboard Pro. Even though, I think, Storyboard Pro does a pretty good job of doing this.
I’ll give you my two cents of what I think of the program next week. Especially since I’m going to be using one of the two program on my personal project.
BUSINESS/BOOKS
Just a bit of an update on the books I’ve been reading this week when it comes to money management and business:
INVESTING ONLINE FOR DUMMIES:
I haven’t read further than Chapter two, but I like it so far. Hand holds you into the investing thing and it’s very informative about what goes into the process.
LINCENSING ART 101 3rd edition:
Good little book that gives you an overview on the art licensing world and what to expect. I’m reading this so that I can see about taking advantage of any webcomic or cartoon I put on the web. I also want to see if there’s a way to make a little money on the side with random personal art.
CREATIVE, INC.: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO RUNNING A SUCCESFUL FREELANCE BUSINESS:
Got this on my Kindle App. I started reading this at the doctor’s office on Tuesday while I was in the waiting area. At first I thought I had made a mistake getting the book. After all, I’ve done the freelance thing. I LIVED it.
Well, turns out there’s more to it that I hadn’t done, that, if I had, I would have probably been more successful. It really should just take out the word “freelance” from the title. It’s a really good book on how to start a creative business. I didn’t run my freelance career like a business when I did it. I should have. I think know, if I ever work on my own again, I’ll do what this book advices. Very informative, even for people who are working on their own now. It might give you ideas for things you hadn’t thought to do. I recommend it.
On top of that, I’ve also been thinking about selling a few things on ebay. Mostly stuff we don’t use around the house, but I’m also think of putting up a drawing or two. Mostly to continue to make some side money in order to pay off as much debt as we could. I’ll think about this some more. In the meantime, I’ve got to research a bit on how it’s done.
ART
Page 9 is done! One HALF page left to go! So excited. I’m gonna get done soon! Hurry for sticking to it:
MY WEB COMIC
I’ve been taking advantage of my time off to work on my webcomic. It’s all outlined out. I just need to fix up a detail here and there and it should be ready to script out. I’m taking a much more streamlined approach to the writing than I did with my cartoon above. I just want to get it done as fast I as can.
That said, there’s quite a few characters and stuff to design. It’s what’s taking up most of the time. I’ve very excited about it though. For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.
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Well, I’m on my first week on hiatus. I’ve been spending a lot of time with the kids and doing a few commissions on the side. Next week will be my last week of hiatus and then, back to work. I’m enjoying my time off.
BUSINESS
My sister sent me a book for my Kindle App called: SECRETS OF THE MILLIONAIRE MIND by T. Harv Eker. The book really opened my mind to the way I think about money and wealth.
A friend of mine at work who has his own business on the side has this same mindset and he’s doing really well financially.
Reading the book has really made me interested in business, of all things.
In order to start putting the principles of the book into practice, I got a copy of Dave Ramsey’s THE TOTAL MONEY MAKEOVER. We’ve begun putting the methods in the book, into practice. We plan to be mostly out of debt by the end of the year which will allow us to start truly making our own money.
I’m planning on making money off my art, comics and cartoons. To do this I need to get out of debt and start pursuing money making strategies that work. This includes, investing any surplus money, which I’ve only done a little bit.
So, not only am I educating myself on story and drawing. Not only am I researching the genre that my webcomic will fit in, but now, I’m learning business and money management. And for the first time ever, I find that prospect exciting.
ART
Man, compared to page 7, page 8 was a breeze to thumbnail:
I’ll be done in no time now. Hopefully, by the time I get back to work, I’ll be ready to start boarding.
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So I finished my work and within the hour I was getting booted right out the studio door. Well…not really, but it sure felt that way. I worked as hard and as fast as I could on the boards I needed to do. I started the clean up process late Thursday and it took me Friday, Monday and Tuesday to finish it all. Wednesday night and most of Thursday I spent creating a rough Quicktime Animatic of my board in order to find out how long the short would be.
I stayed late Wednesday working on the first rough pass of the animatic. I showed it to the director and he had the same problems I had with it. Namely, it was too fast in parts. It was difficult to tell what was going on. We went over, about a third of the shots and retimed them before we got too tired and decided to call it a night. I told him I’d come in nice and early Thursday to tighten up some timing before he got in. I usually come into work around 7am.
Imagine my shock, as I was ready to go bed that night, when I passed by my Jury Duty notice and realized I had to call in that night to see if I had jury duty the next day. Turns out I did. Everyone was counting on me being in Thursday and it turns out I had to go in for jury duty the next day. Panic time.
Well, at the court house the next day, I had to make all the phone calls to all the director and production staff, about my situation. They were less than happy about it.
Lucky for me, about an hour after I had done that, I was dismissed and on my way to work. Not a moment too soon, since one of the production coordinators had called me to ask about the location of my boards in my computer. They were releaved when I told them I was on my way.
I got to work at noon and worked on getting the animatic finished ASAP. The director and I managed to finish it on time and we showed it to the Head Director of the show, who really liked it. He gave us a suggestion or two and it was time to finish cleaning up the boards.
As I wrote above, I got done by Tuesday. No sooner had the head of production received a copy of my board, when she was having me turn in my last time card so I could go on my hiatus. It was pretty crazy. But it was necessary. They needed to process my as soon as they could so I could sign the right paper work. Otherwise I would have to come in the next day for no good reason.
I was originally suppose to have 4 weeks off, but because of how long this project went, I now only have 2 1/2 weeks. That’s not so bad.
ART
FINALLY! I’m done with page 7 of my script:
That was by far the toughest part to get through. The worst is over. It should be down hill from this point on. Yes, I have to thumbnail the climax of the story, but compared to having to rewrite an whole new fight scene as I went, it will be much easier to do. Especially since the final conflict is much more internal the external.
I’m so glad I was able to get through this. I was really ready to quit. It was just so much work and I was suppose to be doing this for fun. Now that it’s over, I can get back to having fun with the rest of the thumbnailing. It’s still work, but it’s much easier to handle.
This is a great tool veterans and newbies to get acquainted or reacquainted with some basic shot fundamentals. For those who are new at composing shots, it should open your eyes to things to watch out for as you watch movies. It helps you get an eye toward figuring out why some shots are used at certain times. I highly recommend watching it.
It’s also helpful to watch as a comics creator because much of the thinking behind what shots to use can be easily translated into comic book form. It will help clarify you visual storytelling. I’m tired of reading comics with that are very well drawn whose panels are confusing to read.
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So this epic storyboard I’m working on has turned out to be…well…epic. It’s a little over 40 scenes (shots) long but there’s a lot going on in it. I was thinking I’d be done by Friday but I had three meetings with the director and the head director over it and there’s always something that can be done to improve it. I don’t mind, this is the process. How it all works. I especially don’t mind since the changes are all done on the first “rough scribble pass” which makes things easier for me as an artist to change or throw out.
The project has no dialogue and we didn’t know exactly how long it would be, so I also had to time my roughs in order to get an idea for it’s length. It’s a fun project, I must admit. I only wish I didn’t feel so pressured to finish. That said, I WANT to be done by Friday. Hopefully, somehow, I might be able to clean up the whole thing in two days. Whether or not I will succeed is another story.
I might be going on hiatus later than I thought, because of this. Which isn’t horrible, but it will take away time from my commission work.
ART
Speaking of special projects, I’ve finally finished getting passed thumbnailing page 7 of my script. I just forced myself to sit down and really concentrate on getting through it. So far, I’ve thumbnailed out 327 scenes/shots. Far more than I anticipated:
I thought about it for hours before I got to the drawing it and by the time I sat down, I knew what I was going to do. It went by much faster this way. It also helped that I watched a movie with a fight scene that game ideas. I really should have been doing that much more before I sat down to draw the fights. I just didn’t have time to do that since I worked on this stuff during lunch. It would have taken all my time looking at fight in order to get inspired or get ideas. By the time I would be ready to draw, my lunchtime would have been over.
Perhaps, during hiatus or during the weekends I can be home and look at fight scenes I like to see if I can plug in some of what I see into the roughs I’ve already go. It would be much easier to do something like that, now that I have something down, than it was when I was starting from scratch.
In any case, I think the worst is behind me now. There’s still one more battle to thumbnail, but it’s not as physical as the ones I’ve just done. It will hopefully be less of a handful.
COMIC BOOKS/BLOGS
Digital/Web comics are becoming more and more exciting to me. I’ve been getting more and more into them lately. For a long time I hadn’t been very interested in these comics because the quality of the art and storytelling hadn’t really been up to snuff. I really wanted a similar experience reading them as I did reading printed comics. Well, it seems like that’s changed quite a bit the last couple of years. Comics online and “digital only” comics, are just as good now, and sometimes, better than the printed stuff. Part of the reason is that many professional comic creators have started doing Digital work.
The latest of the these is Mark Waid, who wrote KINGDOM COME and SUPERMAN: BIRTHRIGHT among many other things. He decided he was going to start putting out Webcomics. He’s also turned his blog into a “process blog”. Kinda similar to what I do here in my ART sections.
His Digital comics site will go up on May 1st and it’s called THRILLBENT. I’ll let you know what I think about it when it goes live. But right now, I want to call attention to his blogMarkwaid.com. Mostly because I like how he’s approaching doing the comics. Though his a professional comic writer, he’s quite frank about how little he knows about writing for digital comics.
Digital comics and comics on the web are a very different monsters than printed comics. What works in print doesn’t necessarily work in the digital medium. So he’s writing about what he learns as he goes. He also writes about the approaches he takes and the experiments he makes. I like to read this stuff because it puts us all in the same boat. Also, he likes some of the approaches to digital comics that I also like. This makes it seem to me, as I read his blog, that we’re on the same page.
Since I’m also going to put a web comic up, when I’m done with my current project, building on what Mark Waid discovers that works or doesn’t work seems like a good idea to me. I’ve been reading his blog with great interest and I’m very curious to see how things pan out for him.
Check it out, if you’re interested in this digital medium. For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.
If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.
