Some minutes ago I had a “small” discussion with d0oGs about the need of storyboard for making a movie…
he was reffering that all movie director and all always have a storyboard and that it’s an “obligation” to have storyboards to make a movie…
Actually, I never used storyboard because
1st) I can’t draw…even if it’s with stick figure I can’t put them in the right position I want or anything
2nd)it take some precious time
3rd)I can plan everything in my head…
Why should I waster hours to draw storyboards while I have already the scene planned in my head and that I could immediatly start animating? Why should I take twice the time needed to make a video while I can immediatly anim and make some tweaks as it go…
I know that even with a storyboard showing all the actions, while you come to animating you can’t do exactly like the storyboard…and I know that even with a storyboard you have to tweak the anim again and again to make it look right…so why should I waste time drawing it???
Planning is always a crucial step in any situation. Sure, you can lay everything out in your mind, but making a storyboard can help you plan and remember more easily. It is far more tangible than anything in your head.
a greater aspect of story boarding is to allow you fellow teammates see what you animation is going to be link. and if you have an animator I am sure it would be very nessary to have one rather then telling him in words how to animate it.
plus if you ever wanted to join a company I am sure if you did an animation and showd your story board and concept art you would have a better chance of join in. Becuase they want orginality. and if you can make a story board all on your own with you own art then thats a plus the other plus is making it look good and working well uinderpress and wwith others
Unless your animation is something very trivial, like a bouncing ball or something, then you will need to plan how to visualise your story in some sort of visual way - i.e. a storyboard.
One might think that one has the whole thing planned inside one’s head - but once you get to the point of actually animating and rendering the scenes, you will find that the plan was full of holes.
Solid planning is crucial. End of story. If you can only draw stickfigures, then use stickfigures.
I’ve been using really simple 3D-scenes to make images for my storyboard, just boxy things as proxies for the real models. That way I can work out how things should be arranged, where to put the camera to get the image composition right and so on. Then I can simply render some stills and put them together in a sequence. It’s like something inbetween storyboarding and previz, and it works really good. Some sketching with pen and paper first is very helpful of course, but there’s no need to use those sketches in the final storyboard.
also if you can visually see it and have it all in front of you… parts may look different and you can swap/match up certain shots/scenes and change it about until the flow is at it’s best… but saying you can’t storyboard… because you hardly do, means you havn’t taken time to do many… so how do you expect to be good?
I’m not saying that your mind isn’t up to the job… you may have certain qualities an animator would dream of… but you need something to go back to, especially if it’s a long road… just having the scene/act names and perhaps a little note box with arrows showing what’s happening would be better… I suppose you don’t need pictures if you can see the expressions and angles in your head…
ed–
it could be possible you animate the scene out with the basic blocks and camera movements for the whole cut… that way you’ve done the action parts and you just need to spiff it up… so maybe you could do the story board without ‘wasting’ that precious drawing time?
Not all directors have used storyboards… not all full length movies need storyboards…
A storyboard is not an obligation, it’s just very useful…
If you know what you want and know how to express it and you’ve got a crew fully understands you (this can happen mostly when you’ve already worked with the same team on several movies), then you might not need a storyboard… maybe a few sketches from time to time…
stop thinking of storyboard being THE WAY TO GO THROUGH TO DO A GOOD MOVIE. It’s just pure academism. therefor you can stick to it or not, depending on your talent and capacities…
[quote=“Jamesk”]One might think that one has the whole thing planned inside one’s head - but once you get to the point of actually animating and rendering the scenes, you will find that the plan was full of holes.
quote]
Well…I’m currently animating multiple scenes of the exodus…with “what I was planning in my head” and it’s goign pretty well…sure I need to tweak around a bit to fit my taste, but I would be doing that even if I had a storyboard…
Storyboards were never/barely used for the filming of a live action movie(however animated movies made good use) until Walt Disney decided to exploit the fact that people enjoyed watching him walk around the burbank studios and explain what Disney did. I think it was during WW2, Disney needed some money to fund one of his upcoming movies(cant remember) so he decided to film “The Reluctant Dragon.” Suffice to say many people did not like it, and was hidden away in the disney vaults(but now I think they put on DVD for hardcore fans %| ). Back on track, the filmmakers who have only worked on live before saw that the animators were sequencing it out on cards and liked the idea. From then on filmakers used storyboards until George Lucas came and used toys instead(ROTJ: speeder chase).
Also if your the ONLY one animating the film then it really is kind of a waste of time, unless its uber complicated that you cant remember what you wanted to do in the first place. Mainly because you can just rough animate (in order) and render for the timing(refered to as “blasts” from now on). Blasts dont have to be complicated just enough that you get the timing down. Personally I would go through and do all the scenes and cut it all together as sort of an expectation of what the final is. It also is kinda a timesaver because then you can go back and work on the previous animations.
Although you may not need a storyboard you might want a script/notepad of ideas of some sort. However it all depends on the situation e.g. Pixar’s “Geri’s Game” i cant imagine they went through a script on that one theres no talking and it be kinda hard to explain (switching back & forth part) it probably went straight to storyboards.
Its all up to how you want to go about doing it. Its about speed, quality, and the story/message. Just by doing something the professionals do dosent automatically make it good.
edit*
I should be a writer not an animater, I type to much %|
Since I am storyboarding my own short since a while back, and I will be the only one working on the movie, I have first-hand impressions of the benefits of storyboarding::
You don’t do it because it’s an “obligation” - that would be just like cramming for a test just to pass an exam rather than gaining knowledge.
It does consume quite a lot of time - but since it will reveal any potential problems BEFORE you actually run into them, you will get that time back later on.
It will also reveal where it will be a good idea to cheat. Maybe you don’t have to model certain things because they will not be visible. Maybe some things could be painted as 2D-backgrounds rather than modeled.
It gives you a great opportunity to get an overview of the flow in the story without being distracted by technical details.
Yesterday (well, between midnight and 3 am.) I actually made a storyboard. I’ve had this animation in my mind for a long time. First I wrote the… script (?) about how the character and the camera go during the animation. Then I made the storyboard, which was a good thing to do, because I discovered a small dilemma, so I was able to fix it.
The storyboard also helped me to see the whole thing more clearly. And now that I have it on paper, I don’t have to think about it all the time.
Wait till I get it finished!
i always storyboard, for so many reasons it isn’t even worth listing them. as far as i’m concerned they are an essential part of the process.
also, i film and sequence every storyboard into an animatic. vitally important!
everytime i think i know how it should be, the animatic shows me that i need to edit it down by almost 30%.
plus, for selling ideas, storyboards are very important.
i definitely couldn’t live without them.
in the exodus we never really had clear plan, even when i cam aboard, which was about 4 monthes after the initial concept was created by x-dubya. even at the point that i joined there was a bit of story line, but nothing that was clear and concise.
the script changed a lot, and became obese after a while, nothing got done on time and the project lost members. we realised that large movie in one lump sum was a hard project to keep going. we were, and still are in short supply of character texturers, character animators, and character modelers.
our descision was to create 2-3 seperate parts, ranging from 4-5 minutes each. we’re down to a team of about 5 now, but many have helped us along the way.
sometimes i regret not having a clear, concise story stright up from the beginning. maybe the whole thing would have been done, and more people would have stayed.
however it’s quite the learning experiance, and now that we are getting close to actually finishing the first part, most of us in the team have realised that we’ve really grown in our abilities in blender in the last 10 monthes. i know i have.
so back the point. when thinking deeply, i don’t think we needed a storyboard, it would ave been nice, but i know that at least i learned a lot, and i know X did too.
the bottom line is yes movies do need them. however this one didn’t
as an avid film maker, as you all know, I think in certain scenes, especially complcated ones, storyboards are a must.I It is quite easy to notice when a movie has not beenstroyboarded… the edits don’t line up, scenes may be ackward, and precious time may have to spent going back and reshooting when it turns out your scene won’t edit within the line.
I think storyboards, no matter how crude, are a good idea… make them in blender with crappy models and single light setups, and then print out your still frame renders and paste them on to poster board… storyboards are quite important. I would strongly suggest using them…
okay, dont have time to read the other replies, but I think they are neccessary to convey your imaginiation to other people you are working with. If you are just trying to make aa movie by yourself, then they are unneccessaery. BUT they are useful so that everyone have the same image in mind. they are NOT a waste of time.
storyboards, no matter how crude, are a good idea… make them in blender with crappy models and single light setups, and then print out your still frame renders and paste them on to poster board
Why not just make an animatic instead, save some ink. even if it is choppy then port it over to videotape/VCD and watch it while you work not much different.
It will also reveal where it will be a good idea to cheat. Maybe you don’t have to model certain things because they will not be visible. Maybe some things could be painted as 2D-backgrounds rather than modeled.
shouldnt you already be thinking about that to begin with? maybe its just me. personally i see it all worked out in my head (kinda like its already finished) course i do charater/evironment sketches first, so that might help me.
It’s probably just you. You are supposed think about the STORY to begin with. Not where to cheat. You storyboard primarily to “pre-direct” the movie, with the intention of telling the story in the best possible way. The “cheat-detection” appears as a secondary result. It would be sad indeed to watch a movie where the storyline and cinematic qualities came out of premeditated cheating rather than the desire to tell a good and interesting story.
However, in all fairness - when dealing with personal projects rather than big productions, I guess it’s up to each and everyone to decide for themselves how and why to do things.
the other plus is making it look good and working well uinderpress and wwith others