Essentials of Creating Storyboards for Motion Design

TLDRExplore the crucial steps in crafting storyboards that form the backbone of motion design projects, ensuring a clear vision and productive pre-production process.

Key Insights

Understanding Storyboards

  • 🎨
    Storyboards blend multiple artistic disciplines and techniques to visualize motion designs.
  • 🔍
    They lay out the narrative, depicting composition and movement before production.
  • 👀
    Different storyboard styles range from basic sketches to detailed illustrations.
  • Effective storyboards help communicate and refine ideas, essential for collaboration.

Storyboard Creation Process

  • 📝
    Begin with a script and style frames to dictate the visuals and angles for storyboarding.
  • 🖼️
    Use mixed media, like pencil sketches or digital drawings, for initial storyboard drafts.
  • 💡
    Consider scene transitions, angles, and cuts reflective of the intended emotional impact.
  • 🔄
    Iterate on the storyboards to refine ideas and ensure they effectively progress the story.

Storyboard as a Pre-production Tool

  • 🔗
    Storyboards act as a bridge between concept and the first stages of animation production.
  • 🗣️
    They serve as a communication tool to align teams, clients, and directors on vision.
  • 🎞️
    When laid out in sequence, storyboards help create an animatic, previewing the final animation.
  • 👁️‍🗨️
    The clarity of storyboards can impact decision-making and streamline the production workflow.

Q&A

  • Why are storyboards essential in motion design?
    Storyboards are crucial for visualizing the narrative structure, planning compositions, and illustrating movement, which helps in managing pre-production and guiding the animation process.
  • What are storyboard styles?
    Storyboard styles can vary from basic black and white sketches to colored and detailed illustrations, depending on the project's needs and the audience reviewing them.
  • What mediums can be used to create storyboards?
    Traditional paper and pencils, digital tablets with apps like Procreate, software like Photoshop or Illustrator, and even 3D rendering tools like Blender can be used for creating storyboards.

Timestamped Summary

  • 👋
    00:01 Evan Abrams introduces the continuation of motion design pre-production with storyboards.
  • 📊
    00:35 Milanote, a web app, is highlighted as a useful tool for organizing creative projects.
  • ✍️
    01:06 Storyboards are emphasized for their core role in pre-visualization and ensuring quality work.
  • 🖼️
    01:21 Evan explains creating an animatic by laying out storyboard images on a video timeline.
  • 🤔
    01:56 Starting storyboards requires revisiting scripts and style frames to choose the right angles.
  • 📐
    02:31 Evan discusses fluid transitions and cinematic choices in the storyboarding phase.
  • 💭
    03:01 Various tools and methodologies for drawing storyboards are discussed.
  • 🔧
    04:41 The method of starting with major beats in the storyboard and then filling in details is explained.
  • 🖋️
    06:56 Evan wraps up the topic and announces further animation tutorials.