Common MISTAKES beginning storyboard artists make for animation

i get a lot of emails from beginning story artists or students trying to break into the storyboarding world for the animation industry and they'll send me their portfolio or animatic and i give them some feedback here and there but i've also noticed some common things and elements that actually holds them back so i want to talk about that in this video by the way rage shadow legends is a game okay bye hey guys it's siddiquentua and today i'd like to talk about common mistakes that beginners storyboard or story artists make all the time so i've worked as a storyboard artist for both feature and television animation therefore i also look at storyboard portfolios and when i look at storyboard portfolios i think about three criterias number one is their storytelling capabilities clear so when i look at the storyboards i actually know what's happening i know how the characters are feeling i basically know what the story is in the storyboard sequences number two can they adapt to different productions and styles or genres so do they have their foundations down whether it's drawing whether it's storytelling storyboarding if they have their foundations down they can adapt to other productions if they've shown a bit of variety in types of stories they can tell whether it's comedy drama action they have a scope to be able to do those if they do switch productions and number three would i hire them so when i look at their storyboard work can i actually see them be used in an actual work environment or production does the quality of their work match with the professionals currently in the industry things like style aesthetics execution that's all supplemental to me but can i actually see this in a professional production now because studios and productions have different styles from each other i recommend you to find a pool of artists that you sort of look up to and use them as reference for the type of work that you want to do in the industry now the first one i'd like to talk about is staging inconsistency and a lot of beginning story artists tend to break the 180 degree line or the staging line in their storyboard portfolios imagine there are two characters in the scene and they're connected with this invisible line a rule of thumb is that you want to keep the camera generally on one side so the staging between the two characters remains consistent and there's a reason for this now i don't think switching characters and going beyond that staging line is wrong per se but the common mistake that i see beginning story artists is that they're unintentionally changing it or switching it so let's say you have two characters talking right and then in the next shot you kind of switch the camera to the other side so it makes it feel like the character switched places staging wise and then another common trait i see is that they switch the camera again in the next shot after that so my suggestion is before you even board like draw a layout of your scene with your characters draw the line and just figure out where you want to plan where your cameras are and of course there are ways to break the 180 degree rule the first one is if you're intentionally creating disorientation or chaos number two is the characters move around the environment and switch places this also involves like boarding out camera moves and the third one is that you've established the sequence enough where you already know where all the characters are before and this leads to the next common mistake that i see the lack of establishing shots or staging shots so a common trait i see with a lot of beginning story artist portfolios is that none of the characters feel like they're grounded on something you can't really tell where they're at there's a lot of upper waist or really close-up shots you can't really tell where they are in the scene now usually when people think of an establishing shot it's a wide shot of the whole environment where you can see everyone but it doesn't have to be just that it can be any shots where you can actually see where all the characters are placed in the scene the fact that they're grounded and how far or close they are now if this is intentional this can make everything feel disorienting maybe claustrophobic but if it's not intentional think about pulling the camera back so you can actually see everyone in the scene vary up the shots and just ground the audience and the characters really so implement those establishing shots whether you're describing the setting the staging how space the characters are from each other one small tip and hack that a lot of storyboard professionals look for in beginning story artists is a basic understanding of perspective so add those perspective lines or grids in your storyboards especially when your storyboards are rough and loose that makes the scene and characters feel a bit more solidified and grounded even if the drawings are super loose the other one i can think of is excessive cuts and unintentional jump cuts so i'm going to start with the excessive cuts sometimes when i look at a beginning story artist's animatic or a story portfolio there always has to be a cut for some reason like when a character starts talking there's a cut and then when another character starts talking there's a new cut when a character does a different action like they reach out for something or they bend to lean over there's always a different cut and what this does is that it makes the whole sequence feel a bit hectic like there's just no break there's no pause in it and i would say use cuts sparingly i would only use cuts if it had a certain purpose or i've had a strong purpose behind it sure you can have a different cut for every time a different character opens their mouth or when they say something new in the sentence but what if you just stayed on one shot where these two characters are talking where you can actually see the performance of these two or if you just wanted to focus on mood or atmosphere just to recalibrate the audience into the scene again if you want to see a bad example of cuts look at the taken 3 chase scene there's like 15 different cuts for one simple action the camera is switching all over the place at the same time too and sure some people can argue it's a great intensity and to make you feel disoriented but seriously it's like this for like four minutes and some of those cuts are unnecessary now the other one i want to talk about is jump cuts so a jump cut usually happens when a shot has a certain composition and the next shot literally has the same composition even if the context is different and this is usually to create an abrupt transition and it works on things like a quick jump in time or a different state or maybe trying to say something else between these two subjects now because of how abrupt the transition is it can be jarring especially when it doesn't need to be a jump cut maybe it's just two characters talking sometimes it might also feel like the shot really hasn't changed a thing that i see in storyboard portfolios is like two characters talking it's an over the shoulder shot for both characters every time a new character talks it takes a perspective of the opposite character but using a same shoulder shot that's also quite a jump cut because the composition is so similar and of course those things can easily be fixed by replacing one of those shots with a different composition maybe it's a close-up of the character or maybe it's a side profile of that character now i don't think jump cuts whether it's compositional or whether it's an editing thing is bad per se but if you're going for a very specific shooting style it's all conscious decisions then i think it can work but whenever i point it out in a beginning story artist's portfolio or animatic they often say that they don't realize it now another one that i can think of is a lack of variety in terms of shot angles or compositions when i look at storyboard reels or storyboard portfolios there will be some sequences where there's no variety in terms of shot language cinematic language the shot angles are always the same it's always like a waist level shot it's flat and it's like this throughout the whole sequence and of course there's appropriate sequences that retain the style where the shot composition is always the same throughout i'm not saying that this is wrong but if this person wants more cinematic shot choices or shot choices that emphasize a story think of shots that say something about the characters the actual story the emotions the tone of the overall scene so if a character feels small and weak allow those shot choices to make those characters feel small if you want to show a character that feels intimidating make them feel big and take up the whole space in that composition or you can just vary up the shot choices add in some over the shoulder shots implement some wide shots some profile shots that's why i would always recommend thumbnailing your story sequences before you actually start boarding them so you can actually see how many cuts there are if the shot choices are too little if there's enough variety or do the shots actually say something about the whole sequence and then the reverse issue of that is too much dynamic shots dutch angles really stylized wide angle shots where it's just dynamic just for the sake of looking cool but what happens is that these dynamic shots don't really serve any story purpose whether it's emphasizing how a character feels the tone the emotion and it's just dynamic throughout the whole sequence what happens is that it feels like there's no resting point or there's no establishing point and everything just feels way too intense and you can bounce those out with great compositions that actually serve the story how the character feels and mix it up with more mundane shots more medium shots more calmer shots just so you know how to organize all those shots lack of acting is another thing that i'd like to point out and this is something that i didn't learn until i was already in the industry in school i wasn't really told much about acting for storyboards but at work it was always talked about and now when i look at my old work and when i see beginning story artists portfolios the character acting in their storyboards are rather robotic or they're just really basic expressions like the most basic smile the most basic anger basic sadness a lot of animation productions are looking for board artists who can do acting and specific expressions and maybe this is something that character animators who are switching into storyboarding have an advantage over so really get into the mindset of your characters what are they thinking and see if you can try and blend different expressions and emotions into one like switching anger and sadness together or switching happiness and hate and a successful acting drawing for comedy will make that gag shine even better remember if you're dealing with characters characters are the ones that drive the story forward but you also have to be able to make your characters emote even in storyboards so if acting isn't your thing i recommend you get a mirror you know act it out record yourself and use that as reference or study reference from actors and something that i want to bring up is something that i learned when i was a trainee at dreamworks feature animation and that is pinpointing the overall point of the sequence when we were trainees we were each given a sequence for a mock feature film that won't be released but it was just for training purposes and we were all given a sequence for our first act for this supposedly movie now the first time we were doing our boards i made the mistake of trying to implement everything because i want to impress the you know the senior story artists of what i can do so i tried to put drama in the sequence i tried to put action in a sequence and try to put in a few jokes but what happens if you add too much of so many ideas is that that sequence loses its point so if you're doing a dramatic storyboard sequence make that dramaticness shine if it's comedy really amp up those gags if it's action go ham crazy about that if it's a crucial moment for the character or a turning point for the story really make that storyboard sequence that what i'm trying to say is have a clear end goal for that story sequence whether it's a character's end goal or the overall point of that sequence keep it focused so i've talked about most of the common mistakes i see from beginning story artists or students trying to get into the storyboarding world and animation and you know what most of these mistakes are unintentional well that's the thing with common mistakes but the reason why i bring these ones is because a lot of productions are looking for story artists who have a good handle on these things on these specific things now the competition for story artists is just growing but there's also a big pool of people who don't have the chops to work as a board artist in the industry yet in most cases you learn on the job some people learn when they're hired in as a story revisionist and eventually story revisionists get promoted to being story artists but nowadays in order to even be qualified for those training positions or those early entry-level storyboard artist positions you have to have a decent portfolio that shows that you have the chops or the potential to grow as a great story artist anyways that's all i want to say bye interested in learning hand-drawn animation or learning how to finish an animated shot from beginning to end have a look at the store where you'll find the complete introduction to 2d animation video course tutorials and other resources learn classical animation approaches drawing lectures techniques and other process videos visit the store through the link in the description below

Channel: Toniko Pantoja

Views: 384,148

Keywords: Toniko Pantoja, Youtube, Animation, Tutorial, Advice, Lesson, Vlog, Adobe, Photoshop, Animate, Flash, After Effetcts, Premiere, Video, Film, Drawing, Tips, Gestures

Id: FobYdp19LR0

Length: 11min 42sec (702 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 18 2021