Students Say- STORYBOARDS……..not again

Ok, a new phase is taking over. We thought the storyboarding for SHADE is done. Right? We were wrong. Not completely but still uncomfortably to some extent.

There are different ways and methods and styles and approach and intentions and necessities (ok too many ‘ands’…sorry.) for storyboarding. A storyboard (ahh… such a long word. Would it be ok if we call it Sboard?) For a film will be drawn differently than a Sboard for a 21 min animated series. Similarly there is a huge difference between the Sboard for a live action film and for an animated film. Many amateurs think that it is the same thing (as did we.)

Sboards for film are normally shot by shot representation of the scenes. They are not often too detailed. The flow and what is going to happen in the shots is illustrated but not how it happens. It is left for the direction or the actors to perform.

In animation though, Sboards are very well detailed showing all the scenes and the motion or action in the scene. The actual animation is described in each shot to clarify the story, drawing sometimes the major key frames of animation. (man! Its too detailed….) The simple reason for this is that you cannot take any risks for a reshoot in animation, while there can be hundreds of takes in a live action film. Thus the cost & the amount of work make it unaffordable. You have to be sure that your film is ready lock, stock and barrel on the paper first so that you don’t have to think over and try on the production.

So the new phase is simply that we are going to break up the shots from our Sboard and try to draw the performance in it because we had been under the impression that the Sboard we drew (which were a shot by shot progression like live action) would be enough for our short film. But with the alarm clock sounded by our teacher, woke us up to our mistake.

I think that the way you draw the Sboard should highly depend upon what is your film’s requirement. (And believe me I am perfectly right) you should carve your style yourself as you know (hopefully) what justifies your film.

We’ll get back with the breakups and some expression sheets later. See ya!

This is an excerpt of the story progression we had designed.













Id Animation & Arts

MASTERS & Some more Storyboards

This blog has given us the opportunity to talk about Animation in detail like never before on the Indian Animation Scenario.

Internet technology changed the way we learnt animation & now it is making it possible to share it with the world audience. Yes we have had hits from all across the world on the SHADE blog.

Storyboards, so very little is known about them & the truth is personally, I have never met a single story board Artist in the ten years that I have been in the Indian Animation Industry. The future will be different, no doubts there for sure.

In our research for SHADE- we looked at many Storyboards/Artists to learn how they are constructed & understand how best we should build ours.

Out of the many, we liked this one very much, as it was simple & we thought it was very easy to read.

It was a good starting point & after studying it closely we used all that info to draw the Storyboards of SHADE.

http://www.animationarchive.org/2007/03/story-greatest-cartoon-writer-of-all.html

Yogi Bear was created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, the guys who also created the Tom & Jerry.

Asifa Archives has been our back yard & we got whatever we were looking for. It has made it possible for us to get hold of the best works of the greatest animation masters. So in a way it is Ironic that the look into the past is helping us build the present.

Tomorrow, we will reveal the Indian Connection & look into the history of some Indian Animation, a few gems in our not so glorious past.

See ya then

Have fun

Director speak

More about storyboards-1

A storyboard is creating the film on Paper,so the final film is a mirror of the Storyboard

Here are some very simple doodles from a living legend & creator of show like Ren & Stimpy- John Kricfaluci.

Most of you may have never heard of him or his work making very cartoony cartoons, so here goes one up on our effort to bring some greats who have helped us understand & learn this craft better.

The link below is a post on the Animation Archive site; it is dedicated to restoring & Archiving of the best animation work to come out of America in the last 100 years.

We have gone to this site so often & still the wealth of information & articles on Art, Artists, companies & everything connected to the animation arts is unlimited & amazingly so vast that a life time would not be enough.

From this Gold mine we wish to introduce you to John K as he is known widely & some of his storyboards from the, now Path breaking animation show Ren & Stimpy.

http://www.animationarchive.org/2006/03/media-john-ks-storyboard-for-stimpys.html

For those who are following our posts, we hope they enjoy this link & what will follow an eye opener to the REAL world of Animation.

Enjoy & we still want to hear from you.

The follow up of this post will reveal another Jewel with a very INDIAN connection.

Till then , have fun

Id Animation & Arts

The Start of the final leg of pre-production

Now the style is decided, we have gone back to the drawing board, as we have a new challenge. Firstly we are looking at how do all the characters adapt how to the background. The characters are also being refined to become more animation friendly.

It is still not suitable for animation. It looks good and justifies the concept but the edgy and indefinite lines will be complex for animation. We have planned to draw the outlines then take it for coloring somewhat like in the last picture.

The storyboard is not finalized because it is not pitched yet.

Pitching means presenting and selling your content before the board of producers and directors. (We don’t have any producers, as we ourselves are producing it). Also the initial pitching did happen when we created & dropped quite a few good concepts before we zeroed onto this one. The entire process has it own life & takes its own time. As we had wanted this short to mirror our artistic aspirations, so we took our own time to come to this stage.

When you PITCH, it can be at different stages. First when you have a concept competing with others, and you have to put it forward in such a manner that the audience (Producers/Director) has to buy it. Now we have to pitch the story telling and Appeal that should be visible in the storyboards as we understand it. More about Pitching in detail in the later posts.

So when you PITCH, the worth of your Short to go thru to the final stage is judged by the performance of your content. It should appeal to the people in front of you. If it can’t tell a story here, how will it express itself to the audience? This is the second draft of the storyboard being made and it will be evaluated tomorrow..

Id Animation & Arts

LIVE SHOOT

Achievement! The first attempt to the storyboard is done. Though not ultimately the final one, it is a good enough foundation to kick off for the LIVE SHOOT. Yes. We are going to shoot whole of the film LIVE with a handy cam. A kind of live animatic. We are going to make a proper CG animatic later, but to get a more clear understanding of the visual story flow and timing; live shoot is the best and FAST way to attain results.

We can pre visualize the acting, emotion and effects of the film really fast and apply it. Some of our own people from the team will act and imitate the characters of the story, which are a man, a bird of prey and a tree. We cannot afford to make any mistakes in the actual production of the film as many of you may know what it costs in animation. For those who don’t know, tell you that it costs really a LOT. It can double your time of production, and that obviously means money too. And sometimes redoing the shots are not possible, so you have to carry on the production with the mistakes keeping them as a permanent flaw in your film. Compromising on the quality. So we can’t just jump into the production without getting the idea of how our story will flow ON THE SCREEN.
Is it understandable? Does it connect to the audience? Are all the shots timing perfect so as to move the story smoothly on screen? That is why it is so important to shoot live. We don’t know if this method is usually followed, but we know for sure that it helps. We will get our movie ready, SHOT AND EDITED. Then there is only a matter of making it CG. Of course that is not easy as it sounds here ;-)

Keep in touch for some of the footage of the LIVE SHOOT of the film.

Storyboard