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Showing posts with label Storyboards. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Storyboards. Show all posts

"Surprised Patrick" Steve Hillenburg's original rough storyboard art

I have about a billion old files in my stack of hard drives, but every once in a while I find a gem that makes all that hoarding worthwhile. Here's Steve Hillenburg's original rough storyboard sketch for the "Surprised Patrick" scene in the first SpongeBob Movie:

...followed by a screengrab from the final movie.
Good times.

SpongeBob Rockin' the Bass - Deleted scene from the SpongeBob Movie 2

Who lives in a Pineapple and plays bass? Here's an extremely quick cut from a deleted scene from the SpongeBob Movie 2. Don't blink or you'll miss it!
 

 In case you blinked, here's a still-frame shot of the scene (drawn in Storyboard Pro):
It's really a deleted scene from a deleted scene; It used to be part of the "Thank Gosh it's Monday" song, which you can see here: http://youtu.be/ImJtoDcb1zo The bass part was never animated, but it would have been at around 1:13 in the clip.

SpongeBob Movie 2 -- Some of my Storyboard and Layout drawings

The new SpongeBob Movie 2 is in the theaters and #1 at the box office! I worked on the movie as Sequence Supervisor...and now that it's in theaters, I can finally start posting my artwork from the movie!

-- Can you remember which scene this was from?



DELETED scene!
In this earlier version, the Post-Apoca-Whatcha-ma-call-it started earlier in the picture.
Mr. Krabs appeals to the angry mob of hungry customers.

Rough storyboard panel from the opening scenes of the new SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. SB loves his Krusty Krab snowglobe (which rains down Krabby Patties instead of snow). Shot lasts about 1.5 seconds in the movie. Thanks everybody for making the movie #1 !!

Discover 7 Hidden Patterns of Successful Storyboards

Discover 7 Hidden Patterns of Successful Storyboards — When you begin drawing your storyboards, there’s no need to head into the job with a completely blank slate.
These 7 hidden patterns of shot progressions will make it super-easy to get started. Then you can mix it up a bit to suit the exact situation called for in your particular script or story. Much much more in my new 5-week interactive course at http://StoryboardSecretsLIVE.com

Cartoon Storyboards from the Sixties -- Irv Spector draws Linus the Lionhearted

Gorilla pounds Linus the Lionhearted into the ground with his fist
The classic cartooning and animation work of Irv Spector has started to re-emerge from underneath the sands of time and forgetfulness. Irv Spector's son, Paul, is spearheading the Irv Spector revival with his posts about the life and work of his father on the Spectorphile blog at http://irvspector.blogspot.com/

Storyboard panels from 1964 cartoon Linus the Lionhearted Storyboard art by Irv Spector

As a storyboard artist, the stuff that gets me most excited are these beautifully loose storyboards from the 1960's TV cartoon, Linus the Lionhearted.

Cartoon duck talking with cartoon lion playing william tell with an apple and an arrow

See all the storyboards as well as the story outline, model sheets and animation layout art at the Spectorphile blog at: http://irvspector.blogspot.com/2008/12/irv-spector-at-ed-graham-prods-enter.html

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More Irv Spector storyboard art at Cartoon Brew:


Storyboards from Phineas and Ferb

Perry as Agent P putting on his fedora hatI’ve just posted
a big ol’ bunch of my storyboards from Phineas & Ferb.

You can find them all
on my storyboarding blog at
http://StoryboardSecrets.com/blog

 Here’s a tiny sampling
of what you’ll find on the storyboarding blog

storyboard art pages from Phineas and Ferb by Sherm Cohen featuring Perry the Platypus Baljeet and Buford
phineas_ferb_perry-Baljeet-bufordstoryboard art pages from Phineas and Ferb by Sherm Cohen featuring Perry the Platypus and Carl the Internstoryboard art pages from Phineas and Ferb by Sherm Cohen featuring Carl the Intern Perry the Platypus
Come check out the whole sequence

at http://StoryboardSecrets.com/blog

First-Ever Photos of the Storyboard Secrets 10-DVD Boxed Set

 10 DVDs - 20 Topics - 13 Hours of Practical Instruction.
The DVD course debuted on Friday at CTNX


CTNX was amazingly great, and we met tons of great cartoonists!
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For more info on the 10-DVD Box Set, please send an email to:

Posing - Storyboard Video Wrap-up

This is the third of three videos in this series that answer the question, "How many poses do I need draw?"

Click on the full-screen button (at the bottom right
of the video
), to make the video nice and BIG!
Amy Poehler The Mighty B The posing
(in these last scenes especially) was driven by the amazing voice performance of Amy Poehler.
 
Amy co-created the character of Bessie (along with Erik Wiese and Cynthia True), and she always threw herself 1000% into acting out the character. Her hilarious comedic performances made it a real treat to work on this show.


Here are some handy links to the rest of this Storyboarding Commentary series:
Coming next week:
a special announcement about
“Storyboard Secrets”……?

Storyboarding - Escalation and Contrast in Posing and Acting

In the previous video, I was talking about posing out a character's actions, and building up the posing to escalate the comedy.


During the cutaway shot to Mary Frances, there is another good example of trying to find the right amount of poses for an action. Mary Frances is going through a short process of thinking and then reacting. I wanted to show the contrast of all of these emotions to give it the greatest storytelling and comedy impact.



Contrast refers to emphasizing the great differences in tone or mood or action. If all of the action takes place at the same level of intensity, it gets boring and numbing to the audience.

Just like the way a good pop song will speed up and slow down, get softer and then louder, the way a scene plays out (and the way a whole story plays out) also needs contrast to keep it interesting.

Notice the different emotions in these panels: from dumbfounded to scheming to thinking to excitement. If these emotional moments were not posed out, it wouldn't be as fun to watch and we wouldn't learn nearly as much about her character.

Storyboard drawing how many poses 01 dumbfounded
Storyboard drawing how many poses 02 scheming
Storyboard drawing how many poses 03 Thinking Storyboard drawing how many poses 04 excited
This is the second of three videos that look at how much to pose out an action. Since there are always a number of different things going on in any drawing, there are also many other topics covered: staging to leave enough room for the biggest action, use of the cutaway shot, prop design, using reference, truck-ins, and the match-cut.
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If you missed any of the previous posts, here are the links:

Storyboard Video: How Many Poses?

One of the most commonly asked questions about storyboarding is "How many poses do I need to draw?" The answer usually depends on how important the action is in the telling of your story.


For example, let's say a character is tying a tie. If this action is just a little bit of business, not an important part of the story, you could probably do it in just two poses: in the first pose, the character has his hands on the knot -- and then in the second pose, the tie is tied.

But if you are storyboarding an instructional video about how to tie a tie, you may need a couple dozen poses. That's a pretty extreme example, but it gives you a good idea about how to think about how many poses you need to draw.


This is the first of three videos that look at how much to pose out an action. Since there are always a number of different things going on in any storyboard drawing, there are also many other topics covered: staging, silhouettes, using the cutaway shot to advance a gag or story point.

This scene stands out for me as one of the most fun sequences I've ever had the chance to draw... sometimes it's a lot of fun just to get silly. It's also the best example of using a great vocal performance to fuel the drawings; Amy Poehler was on fire when she recorded the track for this episode!


If you missed any of the previous posts, here are the links:

New Storyboarding Video -- Staging for Movement/More on Backgrounds

After taking a little break to cleanse the palate, we're back with another storyboarding commentary video (Links to the all the videos are at bottom of this post).


The topic of today's video is staging for movement; it's critically important to plan ahead and leave just the right amount of room in your composition for your characters to act out the scene with the most impact.

Click on the full-screen button (at the bottom right
of the video
), to make the video nice and BIG!

In these storyboard panels, Bessie starts a series of actions that are going to escalate into a cute little comedy bit. The action starts out when Bessie and Portia are sitting next to each other on the bench. Bessie is so enthusiastic that she knocks Portia out of the way and start frantically putting together cosmetic kits.

Anytime there's a lot of movement in the scene, it's important to leave enough room for the action to really be visible.


Other topics in this video include the use of the "Same As" pose indication, more on background design, the "start pose," and one more example of "The Magic of the Cutaway."

If you missed any of the other posts, here are the links:

Storyboarding: the Three-Shot

Today the topic is the three shot -- a composition that not only includes three people, but deals with the relationships between them

 
Click on the full-screen button (at the bottom right
of the video player
), to make the movie nice and BIG!

The general guideline for when to cut is that you always want to be looking at whatever is the most important thing to the story at any given time. At this point, the dramatic relationship on the screen is specifically between three people: Portia, Mary-Frances, and Bessie.


Other topics in this video include acting, corresponding pairs of camera angles, scene descriptions, contrast as a storytelling tool, and "The Magic of the Cutaway."
Mighty-B Storyboard Bessie glove

Questions or comments?

I'd love to continue the conversation in the comments section below!
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Storyboard: The Close-Up

The storyboard artist is really a director at this point in the production process. It's up to the storyboard artist to direct the eye of the audience toward whatever is most important at any given time.

Click on the full-screen button (at the bottom right
of the video
), to make the video nice and BIG!

When the emotion or the reaction of the character is especially important , it's time to cut to a close-up. A close-up can best be defined as a head-and-shoulders shot

There’s no real room for the character to move, so the audience can focus on the expressions and emotions of the characters. The way characters act and react is always very important to understanding the story.

bogart close-up

A common mistake of less experienced storyboard artists is framing their shots too tightly. Even a close-up should have a bit of breathing room, unless it is the rare occasion of an extreme close-up.

Shirley MacLaine The Apartment

This also has to do with pacing... it's best to save those high-impact shots were the moments in the story that have the greatest impact.

If a storyboard artist were to fill their board from start to finish with lots of crazy angles, fancy camera moves and extreme close-ups, it would leave no room for the artist to show any real impact when it's really needed. It's all about contrast.

Closeup Vertigo Jimmy Stewart

In the next video, the topic is the "three shot" -- and the interaction between three characters.

Questions or comments?
I'd love to hear from you in the comments section below!
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Other posts in this Storyboarding Commentary series:

Staging and Design – Storyboard Commentary Video

Today's storyboarding commentary video talks about staging and composition; planning out your drawings to leave room for characters and actions. Also, designing props and background elements that aid in your storytelling.

The video window above looks small, but if you click on the full-screen button (at the bottom right of the video), it'll look nice and BIG!

A little bit of planning can make a big difference. This scene was staged with the second panel in mind. Knowing that Mary-Frances was going to enter the scene and admire Bessie’s pile of work, we left plenty of room in that first panel.

Mighty-B_Storyboard003


One of the best bits of advice I ever received was, “stage a scene based on the widest action.”  It’s usually not necessary to zoom in super close on the characters…it’s nice to leave some breathing room. This allows for nice negative shapes around the characters, and allows you to draw the key players and props with easily-readable silhouettes.

Storyboard staging and composition
Every character is drawn with a specific expression that reveals their character, and (as we’ll see later) advances the story.
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Yesterday I went through the comments again on the last few posts and answered a ton of questions that were asked there. So if you left a comment before, you may wanna check back on those posts (see links below) to find your answer. If its not there yet, it’ll be coming soon.
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Other posts in this Storyboarding Commentary series:

When to CUT? Storyboard Commentary Video

Today's storyboarding commentary video talks about one of the most common questions about storyboarding: when to cut.

As you'll be able to see in the video, it's important to cut closer on a character or an action when they're doing something specific that really needs to be seen.


The video window above looks small, but if you click on the full-screen button (at the bottom right of the video), it'll look nice and BIG!

The general principle that I use is that I try to get as close as possible to show whatever is most important at that moment, while still leaving enough room for any actions that might occur in that scene.

Storyboard drawing: Car makes a U-Turn on the turnpike
That may mean that the shot is very wide -- for example: if I need to show somebody driving a car around the corner, the shot needs to be wide enough to see all of that action. If I'm trying to show a guy sitting in a restaurant drinking a cup of coffee, I would want the framing to include just the guy, the table, and the cup of coffee.

Storyboard art - Gerald talking on the radio
Cut from Gerald talking on a radio microphone to the broadcast tower, spreading his message across town.
  
It's all about how important the specific action is to a scene. If the man at the coffee shop is putting a couple of creams in his coffee, there is no need to make a special emphasis on that action; so I would not cut in closer on him pouring in the cream. But... if somebody was putting poison into his coffee cup, that's a perfect time to cut in on that action for emphasis.

Storyboard drawing - Old man in car listens to the radio
Cut from Grandpa sitting in car to a closeup of him turning on the radio
  
As you can imagine, this is a pretty huge topic! Since this series of posts is really a quick overview survey of my own personal process, there's not much time to go in to every detail... but if there's enough interest, I can always go back and make a specific post about any particular topic.

I sure appreciate all comments and questions about these videos... it lets me know what you're interested in talking about!


NEXT: Staging and Composition for Storyboards

Other posts in this Storyboarding Commentary series:

Storyboard Commentary: Drawing Pans (Panorama Shots)

In today's storyboard commentary, the topic is Pans. "Pan" is short for "Panorama Shot," a camera move in which we move the viewer from left to right, or right to left, or vertically or diagonally.

The video window below looks small, but if you click on the full-screen button (at the bottom right of the video), it'll look nice and BIG!

Here are some examples of pans from my storyboards on SpongeBob, Phineas & Ferb and Hey Arnold:
SpongeBob-PAN-Plankton- FUN-Show Phineas-Ferb-Pan-Old-Doofenshmirtz Phineas-Ferb-DiagPan-movie-theater Phineas-Ferb-Pan-Perry-Doofenshmirtz Phineas-Ferb-Pan-PerryPhineas-Ferb-Pan-Danville Phineas-Ferb-Pan-Race Hey_Arnold_SallysComet-PAN Hey_Arnold_MagicShow-Pan

I've been answering many of your questions in the blog comments, while other questions are answered in the videos. If your question hasn't been answered yet, It's probably because I'm trying to answer them in the context of the topic of the posts...so I promise I'll get to them all ^_^


Next storyboarding commentary video:
"When To Cut"
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Other posts in this series: