Thanks to this lesson I just realized how many errors I’ve done in almost everyone of my storyboards… I hope to have understood the lesson and to try to avoid this excess of drawings 🙂
Hi Riccardo — I should mention that there ARE a few places when you’ll need many poses: big fight scenes are an example. It all depends on the context. Also, certain TV shows demand an excruciating amount of poses to cover for their lack of a layout department. On any job, make sure to check for their particular stylistic requirements.
Hi Sherm, I’ve understood that the number of panel / how to show an action, is connected to the context, and for this reason I can tell you that I’ve often created too many panels and I didn’t use cutaways. But form today I will work keeping in mind the context and trying to optimize my storytelling ^^
Wow! I’ve been doing notes on every single lesson so far and I have at least 10 pages full of notes at the moment. I’m definitely learning so much that my college has never told me!
I really love the lesson on studying the script, don’t start drawing immediately, and the cut-aways as well as the start, middle, and end of a complicated action. Very useful.
But I was wondering.. Since this was created like 5 years ago, is there anything in any of the lessons that’s ‘out of date’ in today’s storyboarding world?
The only that’s changed much in the last 5 years is the technology; It’s now more common to pitch a storyboard board on a big screen rather than on the wall — but some shows still draw their boards on paper and many digital storyboards are printed out and then pinned on a wall to pitch. Another technical aspect involves digital portfolios and portfolio websites…but I recently updated the video page about jobs and portfolios to include demonstrations about using the web and creating PDF portfolios. I’m glad you’re getting so much useful information from the course!
Great Lesson Sherm! I have a question about Pose cycles
Suppose a character, let’s say The Major, is eating popcorn and you want that action to be cycled, but another character is on screen doing something that is not cycle-able to what the Major is doing. what would be the best way to indicate that?
Hi Waymond — the simplest and most effective way to indicate an ongoing cycle is start by drawing one cycle (say, in panels A, B and C) and then after that draw the character in the same chewing pose, and indicate in the action notes “continue chewing cycle ABC until panel “X”. You could pose it all out in all panels but I wouldn’t bother unless you really need to see it in an animatic. That could get too tricky because it will be hard to tell as you’re drawing it exactly how to time the chew cycle in concert with the other character’s primary acting and posing.
I prefer to keep is simple and clear; focus on the actions of one character at a time, otherwise you may find that the repeated chew cycle is distracting from the acting of the other character. The thing that always guides my decisions is “will it be distracting?” and “will it be clear enough to the timers and animators?”
Hi Leo — so glad to hear you’re enjoying the course! Please shoot me an email at sherm@storyboardsecrets.com — I’ve been trying to reach you since last week (about shipping info) but I’m not sure my emails are getting to your inbox. Thanks! –Sherm
Thanks to this lesson I just realized how many errors I’ve done in almost everyone of my storyboards… I hope to have understood the lesson and to try to avoid this excess of drawings 🙂
Hi Riccardo — I should mention that there ARE a few places when you’ll need many poses: big fight scenes are an example. It all depends on the context. Also, certain TV shows demand an excruciating amount of poses to cover for their lack of a layout department. On any job, make sure to check for their particular stylistic requirements.
Hi Sherm, I’ve understood that the number of panel / how to show an action, is connected to the context, and for this reason I can tell you that I’ve often created too many panels and I didn’t use cutaways. But form today I will work keeping in mind the context and trying to optimize my storytelling ^^
Fantastic use of the cutaways. Very useful lesson.
Glad to hear you liked that one, Kenneth, The “Cutaway” is my all-time favorite storytelling tool 🙂
And thanks for the ‘silent movies’ tip.
Wow! I’ve been doing notes on every single lesson so far and I have at least 10 pages full of notes at the moment. I’m definitely learning so much that my college has never told me!
I really love the lesson on studying the script, don’t start drawing immediately, and the cut-aways as well as the start, middle, and end of a complicated action. Very useful.
But I was wondering.. Since this was created like 5 years ago, is there anything in any of the lessons that’s ‘out of date’ in today’s storyboarding world?
The only that’s changed much in the last 5 years is the technology; It’s now more common to pitch a storyboard board on a big screen rather than on the wall — but some shows still draw their boards on paper and many digital storyboards are printed out and then pinned on a wall to pitch. Another technical aspect involves digital portfolios and portfolio websites…but I recently updated the video page about jobs and portfolios to include demonstrations about using the web and creating PDF portfolios. I’m glad you’re getting so much useful information from the course!
Great Lesson Sherm! I have a question about Pose cycles
Suppose a character, let’s say The Major, is eating popcorn and you want that action to be cycled, but another character is on screen doing something that is not cycle-able to what the Major is doing. what would be the best way to indicate that?
Hi Waymond — the simplest and most effective way to indicate an ongoing cycle is start by drawing one cycle (say, in panels A, B and C) and then after that draw the character in the same chewing pose, and indicate in the action notes “continue chewing cycle ABC until panel “X”. You could pose it all out in all panels but I wouldn’t bother unless you really need to see it in an animatic. That could get too tricky because it will be hard to tell as you’re drawing it exactly how to time the chew cycle in concert with the other character’s primary acting and posing.
I prefer to keep is simple and clear; focus on the actions of one character at a time, otherwise you may find that the repeated chew cycle is distracting from the acting of the other character. The thing that always guides my decisions is “will it be distracting?” and “will it be clear enough to the timers and animators?”
Makes total sense! Thanks Sherm!
that’s was a very useful lesson, turns out i’ve been overposing quite a bit ^^
Hi Leo — so glad to hear you’re enjoying the course! Please shoot me an email at sherm@storyboardsecrets.com — I’ve been trying to reach you since last week (about shipping info) but I’m not sure my emails are getting to your inbox. Thanks! –Sherm