In September of 2014 I was given a space in the storyboarding department at Aardman Features, here I was able to work solidly on my storyboards, characters, script and animatic in a professional manner. I treated my time as though I were simply another artist working there and would work from morning til evening trying to make my story as solid and cohesive as possible. I worked on my narrative and animatic in its various guises until mid to late December where I felt confident my story was fairly strong. But, even during production, I still made tweaks here and there, as opportunities for improvement and streamlining began to surface.
As well as gaining a fairly detailed understanding of how a storyboarding department worked, being in this enviroment meant that I could really concentrate and focus on the core aspects of my narrative. A huge benefit of being in this scenario was receiving regular advice and guidance from Lead Storyboard Artist, Richard Phelan, who was a wealth of knowledge in terms of narrative devices, shot composition and layout etc. He also made me aware of certain rules when shooting scenes that are cutting to and from different characters, such as the 180 degree Line of Action rule. |
This was a great opportunity to learn and experience the process of story, and it made me even more aware of how crucial it is to lay the ground work at this early stage and make sure that your story works in both a written form, and as a visual form.
When I first started my storyboards, it became apparant quite quickly, that I was being too detailed and pedantic with my thumbnails, and that at this early stage, I should simply be getting my ideas out onto paper, Rich showed me ways of drawing simplified versions of my characters, breaking them down into simple shapes, and keeping backgrounds to just simple objects placed on grid layouts. He also suggested that I dont draw on thumbnail paper within small 16:9 boxes, and that I draw as big as I felt comfortable with on A3 paper, placing a proportional 16:9 frame around the image once it was done. These techniques really limbered me up, and I was able to then generate many more images and ideas much more quickly.
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All in all I did about 6 or 7 entirely different versions of my story and storyboards, all based around the same theme of a young boy meeting a large creature in the woods, but in various guises. Once I was set on a story that I thought was worthy and do-able, I set about piecing together a finalised animatic from my finalised storyboard panels.