Computer Arts

spring 2017

computerarts.creativebloq.com

storyboarding

shaping stories

Time spent shaping the stories that Studio

AKA is asked to tell through commercial

work has trained us to think fast and with

confidence but when you pick up an idea

there can be a multitude of problems to

resolve. You need a method to help you follow

through on stories that lack clarity and

structure or concepts that need upending in

order to work and that’s where the process

of storyboarding can be really helpful.

STorYboArd bASicS

starting a board is never easy – all those blank

panels! the solution is not to work on one neat

sheet of paper. use small post-it notes and

scribble loads of quick and rough thumbnail

ideas. Get all the ideas out of your head in any

order you like. Don’t feel that you have to just

start at the beginning and work forwards.

When you have a bunch of images that are

making sense resequence them and discard as

many as possible. move it all about until it feels

coherent and in balance. You can do all this with

stick figures and then replace everything with

your character drawings once you know what

you are doing working back into the gaps any

visual embellishments that reinforce the story.

one of the most common mistakes with

storyboards is creating opening sequences

that drag on eating up panels with establishing

shots. Your aim should be to establish a crisp

clear cadence from the outset. You can always

turn that single opening panel drawing into a

three-minute tracking shot at a later stage.

in terms of our working process at studio

aKa the relationship between writing and

sketching ideas and scenes is unique to each

director but what we all try and do is not lock

ourselves down at the outset. some animation

directors write in sketches others sketch in

writing. the storyboarding we do starts as

rough cut and paste and we bring a working or

presentation board to completion by a process

of distillation. everything remains open to

question up until it’s decision time.

Don’t get bogged down in process when it

comes to inspiration if you purge yourself of

every single random idea you can at some point

the good stuff will make itself known to you and

find its place in the storyboard. then sleep on it

and reconsider it all the next day.

creATing cHArAcTerS

at the pictoplasma academy those who are

selected as students often also have little or no

experience in sequential or character narratives

and this can be the most challenging aspect of

the course for them. i set the students simple

exercises to introduce them to the concept of

structural narrative. For example i give them

a series of boards to create working through

four- nine- 12- and 24-panel storyboard

exercises each structured around different

character narratives or rules.

one very simple exercise we do at the

academy involves creating a nine-panel board

in which the students’ characters have three

distinctive ‘life moments’ or events imposed

on them which must be expressed in the

phiLip hunt

Philip is a partner and creative director at Studio AKA a multi-BAFTA-

winning and Oscar/Emmy-nominated animation studio and production

company. The London-based agency has a strong emphasis on story

design and character and has produced films such as A Morning Stroll

Varmints and Jo Jo in the Stars as well as creating and producing

children’s TV show Hey Duggee. Philip runs a course in story and

character development as part of Pictoplasma Academy.

http://www.studioaka.co.uk

opposite and 01

storyboard panels

from the Girl &

the cloud which

was produced by

studio aKa and

red Knuckles.

02 the final

shot of the Girl

& the cloud which

was art directed

by amandine

pecharman.

02

01