The storyboarding process

An integral part of any successful animation project is the storyboarding stage. This is where visuals of the animation are mapped out in draft form. It really helps to bring the narrative to life and provides an essential step in the process for refining the script and director’s notes.

When we start the storyboarding stage, we first review the brief and script. We sketch this out, developing ideas on the best way to add motion and bring it to life. Once we are happy with the general broad strokes, we will then draw this out in more detail, which will look something like the example shown below.

Each scene is shown visually in the panel, with directors notes and script written underneath it.

Directors notes describe the motion taking place in a given scene. So for example, the note may say “character walks in from stage left, smiles at the product then nods to the camera”.

By combining these three elements for each scene, we know what is happening visually, what is being said, and what actions are taking place.

Once completed, the storyboard is sent to the client for review. This is a crucial stage, as it’s a lot easier to change things before they have been fully created digitally. There is usually a little bit of to-and-fro with the client and once they are happy, the storyboard and script can be signed off.

The next thing we will do is to record the voice over (VO). We work with a trusted bank of VO artists and will have already sent samples to the client to choose from whilst the storyboard was being designed. Accent, tone, age and gender are all considerations that clients will have thought about as part of this process. Being a VO artist is a massively under appreciated skill. Having recorded our own for use in in-house videos, we can testament to the horror of getting a take of your own voice that you don’t hate!

With the voice over recorded and storyboard all signed off, we can begin the technical stage of the project – the animation. Using the storyboard and directors notes (these explain in detail what’s happening in each slide), we now have a good idea of how each scene is going to look and be animated.

The storyboard is the framework that the animation is created from. The bones that we build a body around. The corner stone that the structure rests on. And this is why it is such an important part of the process.

Here’s the resulting animation from the above storyboard. You’ll be able to see the connection between the two and how the story laid out in the preparation has played out in the result.

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