I once attended the screening of a story reel where one of the characters felt completely off and people noticed it. That character had been going through dialogue rewrites for a while, and his scenes had been reboarded many times, hoping to define his personality. But the problem was that…
instagram nothings
Two illustrations from a while ago. You might have seen them already in my art book or on this tumblr before I deleted it. I feel wary showing development of a project that’s still very much in the works but whatever. Gotta get over that fear. Meet the two main characters of the secret project I’m working on with Iker Maidagan!
forosha asked: Hi Dana! I really dig your work, especially your storyboards. Are there any tips or books that you recommend for people who want to improve or learn essential boarding skills? Thanks for your time!
Tips! Sure I have a few of those.
If you’re interested in boarding then you have to study film. And I don’t mean cartoons or even animated movies. Study actual films. I’m talking Indiana Jones, Rear Window, Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown, Citizen Cain, Rushmore, North by Northwest, Moon, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, There Will Be Blood (there are a million more, you get the idea). Study things by Alfred Hitchcock, Roman Polanski, Stephen Spielberg, PT Anderson, Orson Wells, David Fincher, again, you get the idea. Do little thumbnail studies of screen shots, note where they decide to put the characters and how they may balance out the compositions. Study Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton and how seamlessly they interact with their environments. 100 years old and still 100% relevant to today’s film students.
If you have trouble drawing backgrounds then it’s a great time to start learning. You can pick up a cheap book on beginner perspective at any art store. Being able to convincingly put your characters in a space is VERY important, and you better be ready to draw that space at any angle. Do studies of your own room or places around you. Try to compose an interesting shot. Can you make your room feel hostile? Can you make the same place feel safe and warm? How does the angle of your camera and the lighting affect that? Experiment.
Don Bluth’s Art of Storyboard is one of the best storybooks I know. Sadly it sells for like.. 70-80$, not very affordable for the average student. Ask your parents for Christmas or something. Star Wars Storyboards : The Original Trilogy is worth taking a look at (and is much more affordable). It’s not so much a how-to but a collection of the boards used for SW. You can see how professionals can describe space in a few marker strokes, how they can lead the eye depending on where they place things in environments. It’s really lovely to look at and study. Ghibli sells books of their storyboards for EVERY SINGLE ONE of their movies. I HIGHLY suggest getting one. Or two. Hell, get em all. Some are more expensive than others but it’s so so worth it.
These are just a few things that can help punch up your boarding abilities, but they’re some of the most important. Remember to draw clearly, make expressions readable, know where you are in space, don’t be afraid to move the camera. Don’t confused your audience (unless you want to). Despite having done this stuff professionally for the past year I’m still learning new things everyday.
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Whether you’re a professional or student watch these videos: Every Frame A Painting by Tony Zhou. They’re incredibly insightful to the techniques of film making. He even dives into the advantages of animation as a MEDIUM! Something few live action filmmakers/critics recognize.
While trying to figure out what could be the basis of my first block of text here, I started thinking on what’s the main reason people’s stories usually fall flat. In my experience, I see people struggling with stories mainly because they don’t understand how they work at a structural…
Iker touches on themes in writing! Whether you’re a student or a pro I definitely suggest reading this.
Animation I did from the last scene of Not What He Seems. Keys by Matt Braly. Woo
HEY GUYS you enjoy the episode last night? Here are some of the boards I did (I tried not to show anything too spoilery for those who haven’t seen it yet). Like I’ve said this was my first episode so I’m both proud and intensely embarrassed to show these. I can go on about what I don’t think works and what I would change today but sometimes I draw a cute expression and think it’s worth showing. I owe a lot to the director and my fellow board artists for their invaluable advice and support. And cheers to the designers and painters who made every shot look CRAZY!
I’ve been told I should use this to share thoughts that otherwise get scattered randomly across the Internet. Let’s see how it goes.
Once upon a time, I made this with Dana Terrace, which has been doing quite well worldwide.
But we are focusing on other things now:
miniclary asked: Sorry i probably sent you an ask before i finished writing it D: ahah anyway 1) i think you are great 2) i just started learning how to animate (with my ipad) and i was wondering if you had any tips or exercises you could suggest? It would be so kind of you :) hope to hear from you soon! Have a great day
1. Thank you! uvu
2. I didn’t know there were animation programs for the ipad. Can it hold Flash (probably not haha)? Exercises! Since this is just a general question I won’t get into the theory and and execution for each exercise. You can start off with the basics like a bouncing ball, walk cycle, run cycle, character rotation (very difficult but very educational).. And then whenever you feel comfortable start going into acting, dialogue, and maybe even fight scenes if that’s what you’re into. Just do whatever the hell you want, really. Find an animator you want to emulate and try to do something similar. Find animation students on youtube and vimeo and see what kind of assignments they’re doing for class, and then do them! I WILL suggest that you warm up before animating. And that could be a 20-40 minute straight ahead animation (no keyframes and no inbetweening, just one image at a time) of anything you want. This way you can stay fluid and improve your speed! Or (this is what I usually do), open a video of dancing, sports, charlie chaplin, buster keaton, something with a lot of movement, and do gestures. Lots and lots of gestures. WHOLE SKETCHBOOKS of gestures! Learn how to economize your poses without losing energy!
One of my favorite things to do is take dialogue from a dubbed anime with sub-par acting and see if I can improve it. If your program can’t import sound files then you can always do it the old fashion way with a stop watch and an x-sheet! But that’s a little nuts if you’re just starting out, haha. Try simple movements, or dialogue-less acting. Make little gifs, just have fun with it. :)
But remember this: Character animation depends on draftsmanship so keep striving to improve your drawing. Take figure drawing classes, study from life. These can only help improve your animation and whatever style of drawing you wanna get into.
Hope this helped.
i have a horrible habit of never finishing sketches. Here are some examples.
Something new and exciting I’ve been working on with Iker.
