WDA200 - Storyboarding

Assignment 8: Animate a Title Sequence

2010-03-24T08:32:00.000-07:00

Due at 8:00 am Monday April 12, 2010

Animate a title sequence (opening or closing) with 10 unique transitions. Don't just show me one shot of one title and another shot of another title. Show me how we proceed through the sequence. Animate this in Flash, Photoshop, AfterEffects, Celtx, or GoogleDocs. You will probably need to have about 25 or so frames (maybe more!) to make this work. The timing of the transitions isn't that important to me. I simply want to see your storyboard in moving format.

Here are the films you can use:

The Lord of the Rings
Star Wars: A New Hope
You've Got Mail
Hook
Aladdin
Citizen Kane
Night at the Museum
Runaway Bride

I would recommend checking out IMDB and looking at the film credits found there. That should help you out in creating your work.

Give me the file in a viewable format so we can all see it. A .flv, .mov, .pdf, or other playable media format is acceptable. Separate jpegs are not acceptable.

Grading criteria:

10 unique transitions (show me the actual transition)
creativity
good design: font choice, color, balance, contrast, etc...
show me your understanding of camera moves
you will pitch the idea to the class on screen

Extra Credit!

2010-03-16T07:18:00.000-07:00

Each of these are worth 10 points--the equivalent of one day of class participation points.

Draw 2 characters from any Mother Goose rhyme. Make their proportions and personalities as contrasting as possible. Tall, short, round, thin, etc... Scan them and email them to me.
Go to any art museum. Choose one image from the museum to discuss. Write a one-page review of the image. Talk about the framing, colors, and other aspects of the artwork you think are interesting.
Write a one-page review of any of the films up for an Oscar nomination. Films nominated in any category are fine.

This extra credit will be available to you until March 31.

Assignment 7: Comic Panel or Color Script

2010-03-13T11:36:00.001-08:00

We will review your progress on Mon. March 22 at the beginning of class.
Due Date: Weds. March 24 at the end of class.

You have two options for your midterm assignment.

Option 1
Create a one-page overlapping comic of a story from your life. Make sure you use ORIGINAL images on this project. You may use photographs, vector images, stock images, your own drawings, etc. You may use any program to tell the story.

This comic can be done in any style, but unlike past board assignments, it must be in full color and it must be pro-mounted. You will be graded on the professionalism of your presentation and how well your story reads.

Here are some more specifications:

Use only one page; 8x10 or larger
Use at least 4 frames; can use more
Must be full color
Must be pro-mounted
You will be graded on the story and on the artwork
Text is ok

image courtesy of axecop.com

Option 2
Create a color script for one of the stories found on Six Word Stories. Your color script will show at least four panels that give us the mood of what happens in the story. Each panel should have interesting colors, should use a different color scheme from the one before, and should tell the story well at the same time. Remember that this is your midterm assignment, so plopping random colors over photos of yourself is not good enough. Try and create color schemes that are going to look really good--that will really tell the story of what happens in your film through color.

Follow these guidelines:

Use only one page; 8x10 or larger
Use at least 4 frames; can use more
Must be full color
Must be pro-mounted
You will be graded on how well you tell the story and on how well you have thought through the color schemes in each frame.

Assignment 6: Character Sheet

2010-03-10T08:16:00.000-08:00

Create a traditional character sheet of one of the personas below. Follow these guidelines:

Create your character sheet on an 8" x 10" or larger.
Character sheet must have the following positions:

Front
Side
3/4 view
Back

3 additional facial expressions.
Completed character sheet must be in full color.

Color pencil
Watercolor paint
Marker (professional only)
Computer coloring (must provide original drawing)

Give your character a name and include it in the design.

You will be graded on the following:

Your ability to communicate your character visually
Creativity
Portfolio Quality
Completion by due date, Weds. March 17, 2010

Here are your options for character designs:

An evil villain with a really big weapon
An attractive female with a negative IQ
A large character who is also graceful
An animal character who wants to be human
A half-human/half-animal who is also clumsy
A superhero with an obvious weakness
A mad scientist for whom everything always go wrong
A robot made out of spare parts
A disgruntled postal worker
A ninja who only uses pool equipment as weapons
A medieval warrior who always loses battles
A princess who is never satisfied with what she has

Due on Weds. March 17, 2010

Assignment 5

2010-03-09T09:20:00.000-08:00

Design from Cedric's Blog-O-Rama

Create 20 small silhouette sketches of either Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, or Oliver Twist and Fagin from Oliver Twist. Here are the specifications:

20 silhouettes. Some should be of one character, some of another. In other words, don't make 20 Fagins if you choose to do the Oliver Twist characters. Do some of Oliver and some of Fagin.
Don't do some characters from one story and some from another. If you choose the Dr. Jekyll story, you should not make characters from Oliver Twist.
Do some research. If you don't know anything about either story, look up a summary of the story on Wikipedia.
The sketches should be completely filled in with black. These are silhouettes, remember. How you decide to fill them in is up to you (i.e. with a pen, in Photoshop, etc.).
Remember to use interesting shapes. Start with the basic shapes and go from there.
Keep props in mind. Does Dr. Jekyll carry a weapon, a vial of potion, a cane? Does Mr. Hyde have a hat, a gun, a crowbar? Props can make your designs more interesting.
Keep the silhouettes small. They don't need to be huge. They should all be able to fit on an 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper.
Be creative! Remember: you are inventing what these characters look like. Sure, you start from the basic story, but these characters are all up in the air. They're up to you!

Due: Mon. March 15 BEFORE CLASS BEGINS!!! Send the files to me as hi-res jpegs.

Glen Keane Story Thumbnails

2010-02-24T08:44:00.000-08:00

This guy's awesome.

Assignment 4: Shot List, Diagram, and Storyboard

2010-02-23T16:59:00.000-08:00

Option 1

For the following short scene, work out an overhead diagram, a shot list, and images for a 10-18 shot sequence. Mark the camera positions and character blocking on the overhead, and be sure to use the same aspect ratio for each of the frames. (You can use the template provided if you'd like. It's in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio.)

Exterior, street. There is someone standing on a corner.
Across the street a door opens and a second person emerges.
The second person crosses the street to the first person.
They exchange something.
They leave, either together or apart.

Notice that the description lacks details. You need to add the story to this. Is it a Western? A film noir scene? A romantic comedy? Decide on the gender of the characters, the "something" that they exchange, and feel free to embellish the story's skeletal structure.

Have fun and don't worry too much about the drawing. I don't want stick figures, but I don't expect Rembrandt. Just use this assignment to become familiar with the process of working from a shot list and overhead in planning your imagery.

Your assignment must include:

A shot list for all 10-18 of your shots
An overhead diagram showing where the cameras will be placed
The storyboards
You must include at least 2 camera moves

An example follows.

Option 2

Work out an overhead diagram, a shot list, and images for a 10-18 shot sequence from your Grimm's Fairy Tale. Mark the camera positions and character blocking on the overhead, and be sure to use the same aspect ratio for each of the frames. (You can use the template provided if you'd like, or you can use your own. It's in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio.)

Beat Board Template

2010-02-20T13:33:00.001-08:00

For those of you who might have lost the beat board template for the 3rd assignment, here's the link to download the pdf.

An Alternative to Wacom

2010-02-18T10:54:00.001-08:00

This inexpensive tablet might be useful for those of you interested in drawing on the computer but looking for an alternative for expensive Wacom tablets. I've never used this brand before, but for the price, it's probably worth checking out.

A List of Camera Shots

2010-02-09T12:43:00.000-08:00

Here's a link to a list of camera shots and how they work. Just for reference. Some of the names are a little odd, and it's not the best list ever, but it may be useful. Another list from the "Dummies" site.

Fostering Creativity

2010-02-08T20:43:00.001-08:00

Thought this was interesting. Brad Bird, director of Iron Giant, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille, spoke with The McKinsey Quarterly about how he fosters creativity in the workplace. Check out the free version of the article here.

Assignment 2: Linear and Non-linear Storytelling

2010-02-06T10:51:00.000-08:00

Create a Linear and Non-Linear story from a Grimm’s Fairy Tale. Follow the guidelines below for each type of story. Make sure to use the same story for both storytelling examples. Utilize class time for story research – DUE WEDS. 10TH AT END OF CLASS.

Guidelines for the Linear Story:

Decipher which parts of the story are the beginning, middle, and end; label accordingly.

Change at least one scenario of the story to make it more unique.

Feel free to add more visual descriptions, as this will help you with your next assignment.

Print on white, 8.5" x 11" paper using New Times Roman Font at 12 points size. Headers, Titles, and Subtitles may be ‘redressed’.

1 page

Guidelines for a non-linear story:

Alter the same Grimm’s story to example a non-linear story – Make any necessary changes to accomplish this goal.

Feel free to add more visual descriptions, as this will help you with your next assignment.

Print on white, 8.5” x 11” paper using New Times Roman Font at 12 points size. Headers, Titles, and Subtitles may be ‘redressed’.

1 page

A Beautiful Scene: The Hudsucker Proxy

2010-02-04T09:58:00.000-08:00

This sequence is extraordinary. If you really take time to look at what they've done, it'll blow your mind.

Assignment 1--Board a Scene

2010-02-03T14:10:00.001-08:00

Choose a scene from a movie you enjoy.
Create storyboards that depict what happens in the scene. In other words, rather than creating storyboards for a movie and then making the movie, you're doing things the other way around. The movie is already finished, and now you're creating the boards that would have been used to make the film. Capiche?
Use the template I handed out in class to create your images, or get the template here. (In class, I handed out three pages of this template. If you weren't in class [tisk tisk], then download the template and make 3 copies of it.) You should be able to fill all three pages with images. If you've finished 3 pages of images and your scene keeps going, just stop at three pages. If your scene stops before you finish with three pages of drawing, that's fine.
Stick figures are fine. The point of the exercise is to dig deeper into how movies are made. Working backwards helps you see the filmmaking process better. Pay attention to how the characters are framed in the shot and try to represent that on paper. In other words, if the scene has a shot with a close-up of a man looking up, draw a stick figure in one of your frames with the man larger within the frame and looking up.
If you don't know how to represent a camera move or a specific shot, do the best you can. Use your brain.
In class, someone asked if we needed to include crosscutting in our boards. The answer is that almost any scene you pick from any movie will use crosscutting, so don't worry too much about that. We'll talk more about crosscutting later. The big deal is that you draw the shots from the scene.
DUE in class at 8:00 am on Monday February 8. If you're late to class, your assignment gets docked a grade automatically. IF YOU DO THE ASSIGNMENT YOU WILL GET FULL POINTS.

Any questions? Leave them in the comments section or email me.

Michael Sporn

2010-01-26T19:10:00.000-08:00

Michael Sporn's blog has some excellent examples of story art from all sorts of films. Check it out! http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/

Ryan Woodward

2010-01-26T14:58:00.000-08:00

Ryan Woodward, story artist on Where The Wild Things Are, Iron Giant, and the Spider-Man films. Here's a link to his site: http://www.ryanwoodwardart.com.

And here's a link to a recent article about his work on Wild Things: http://news.byu.edu/archive09-Oct-wildthings.aspx

And a link to an interview with him about how he works: http://ryan-woodward-interview.blogspot.com/

A Brief Storyboarding Overview

2010-01-21T14:10:00.000-08:00

From the Lady and the Tramp DVD. A great overview of what a story artist does.