Storyboard Secrets

Here’s a storyboard sequence I drew for the “Apprentice” episode from the first season of The Mighty B! Since it can be a hassle to open up all these individual pages, I also made them into a sweet slideshow player that you can view full-screen. Here’s that groovy slideshow player, but… …This dinky player isn’t [...]

Storyboard week continues with the start of a panel-by-panel, page-by-page look at the choices and thought process behind the drawing of this sequence from “The Mighty B!” The first post in the series is HERE(click here) If you click on the full-screen button (at the bottom right of the video), it’ll look nice and big! [...]

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. Click on the full-screen button (at the bottom right of the video), to see the video nice and BIG! httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJEwEEAjJjk [...]

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. httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tkxP21yEek Click on the full-screen button (at [...]

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. httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qW8oLlTSlW8 Click on the full-screen button (at the bottom right of the video), for a SuperSize video! A little bit of planning can make [...]

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. httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kcqWeKxmPM Click on the full-screen button (at the bottom right of the video), to make the video nice and [...]

Today the topic is the three shot — a composition that not only includes three people, but deals with the relationships between them httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF1y22qg6CM 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 [...]

After taking a little break to cleanse the palate, we’re back with another storyboarding commentary video. 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. httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeZb3osxcJc [...]

One of the questions I’m often asked by storyboarding students is, “How clean does a cleaned-up storyboard have to be?” Take a look at some actual SpongeBob production examples for the answer…

Whew! I just completed one of my biggest projects yet: Three full hours of detailed tutorials for Toon Boom Storyboard Pro! They’re all free and available to view at this link: (click through for link)…