You may watch the video or read the transcript below.
Hello! Hello! I’m Mili Fay and in this series I’m going to share with you EVERYTHING I know about storyboarding. You can decide if you find the series useful.
First, I have to give credit where credit is due. I learned everything I know about storyboarding from my years spent at Sheridan College, life experience and independent study, and more recently from Schoolism classes — I took both Kris Pearn’s (who incidentally was my character designer teacher during my first year at Sheridan) and Alessandra Sorrentino’s class on storyboarding for animation.
I’m also following Arron Sowd’s Storyboarding for Live Action webinars.
Waiting on my shelf is Framed Ink by Marcos Mateu-Mestre, volume one and two.
My point is that even though I can storyboard, I will forever continue to like learning about storyboarding and story art. If you are looking for a great storyboarding class, I highly recommend any of the ones listed above.
This series will not be a master class in storyboarding. Instead, I’m going to create a storyboard from conception to finished presentation and share with you my thought process. When possible, I will also include words of wisdom and resources I found from other artists.
Personally, I learn best by seeing and applying what I have learned to my own work. So, feel free to choose an existing story of your own and apply the concepts I’m sharing to your own work as you build your portfolio.
Why an existing story rather than an original piece?
Because to work as a story artist you will have to work on someone else’s stories using someone else’s characters and location designs… Unless you are wealthy and can produce your own movies — then do whatever you like.
Storyboarding as a job is teamwork and you as a story artist are just a tiny cog in the machine that produces the finished film. You may be an important, irreplaceable cog, but you are still just that tiny cog. Leave the unhealthy egos outside the door and tell yourself that as part of a team you must play well with others.
Your mission if you choose to accept it following this post is:
- Write down your strengths and weaknesses as a storyboard artist.
- Think about how you can promote your strengths and consider how you can conquer your weaknesses.
For example, one of my greatest strengths as a story artist, that I’ve been taking for granted, is my ability to tell stories. I am an author. I can resolve story conflicts and issues and I can write dialogue for different characters.
A weakness is that I have not yet learned how to use 3D tools to speed up production — for example instead of drawing a car for every panel, it would be so much easier to just use a 3D model of a car, no?
Please take your time and write down as many strengths and weaknesses as you can. The final list will help you to clarify your study goals that will lead you to become an even greater storyboard artist than you already are.
“Veni. Vidi. Vici!”
See you next time.