Category: Storyboard

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Week 4 – Storyboard reflection and improvements

Reflection Page

During the week, we analyzed different types of compositions and storyboards to aid us in formulating our own little story. Within the rotation, we made 2 different stories. 

Cafe dispute storyboard evaluation:

For my longer storyboard, I personally enjoyed the story concept. I drew each frame consecutively without much precise planning. Since my cafe dispute is a literal argument, it’s much better to figure out the flow of what’s gonna happen next – which worked quite well. It was quite difficult to have more abstract experimental things going on within my story without having the readers be confused. Following the brief, I stuck to very simplistic character designs with basic shape language just for the readers to differentiate who is who. That made me focus more on the compositions and camera angles than the characters themselves. 

For what went well, I think that the use of colors in monotone really helped to bring out the form of the characters from the background. It really helped to establish the bursts of colors and energy when it went into the imagination phase. I think that if I managed to animate this, I could even stick with the color palette I used within the storyboard itself. I also liked the use of arrows within my scenes just to show the flow of the camera if it’s not static. 

To improve, I think I should’ve made the frames similar to the aspect ratio I’m working with, and keep them mildly consistent – since when I tried to make an animatic out of the frames, it was really difficult to line everything up in the same position. When I was getting feedback from this storyboard, I didn’t get much feedback on improvements due to time, and the ones I got were quite positive. 

3 panel storyboard evaluation:

For the 3 panel storyboard however, I got some feedback where I should redraw the middle frame with the boy and the child, since the boy pointing made it feel like the camera pan-ed over to the boy’s perspective rather than them growing further. Overall, I think these simplistic story panels where nothing much changes makes the viewers focus more on the little changes that happen rather than the complexity of the scene.

 I have improved this storyboard with a second draft, where instead of pointing in a direction, the boy is just pulling on the mother’s shirt. I also changed the colours within the storyboard so that it’s more clear with the background through using complementary colours rather than mixing up a colour palette with similar tones from one another.

Overall, I really love the storyboarding process and hope to somehow turn my storyboard into an animation of some sort.

Feedback I noted down during the presentation
Refined Storyboard
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Week 4 – 3 panel storyboard

Life drawings in Waterloo Station:

Within the first 30 minute session drawing, I was focused on capturing the expressions and facial features of the person. I found out that just blocking out shapes and shading really helps with that. During the drawing, I was sitting a floor up, and looking down – thus only being able to see small details. It was quite helpful in helping me get the main shapes down.

When we moved onto more drawings that have potential for a “narrative”, I went into Southbank near the station, sat at a near-by cafe/office thing, and started drawing people who were dancing. It was quite a fun experience, since I got to draw natural poses and also some rapid ones too.

Figuring out the 3 panel sequence I’ll use:

I decided to go for the mother and child storyline since I came up with quite a cute storyline for them. (where we watch them grow older in just seconds). I was inspired by “UP” within their montage sequence of them growing old together – but just a condensed version of it.

Personally, I feel like I went overboard with the colours, and thus made it murky and distracting. It also makes the whole atmosphere feel more sinister rather than wholesome.

Feedback and response on this will be on the next post:
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Week 3 – Storyboard – Story board assignment

Brief:

<> Storyboard with 20-60 panels
<> Scenario should be 2 people in a cafe having a disagreement
<> Can use stickmen

My finished storyboard:
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3

<- This is extra content that I couldn’t fit into the narrative. But it was to establish more personality within them.

My first draft:
Page 1 of 3
Page 2 of 3
Page 3 of 3

I mainly drew each panel in a flow, rather than figuring out a start, middle and end – which worked quite well. I did get carried away and colored in my storyboard, but it made it a bit more better.

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Week 3 – Storyboard – Film language

For our first class in storyboarding, we mainly looked into different compositions and shots used for different moods and scenes. We also looked into shape language of the characters and the environments around them.

These are the notes I made during the presentation.

Storyboard Exercise:

We had a mini exercise where we draw a panel of one of the prompts written in the presentation, and I chose “A surprising discovery”.

I interpreted the discovery to be something pleasant, thus setting the scene with some subtle clues of where the characters are (in a birthday party) I used the worms eye view bottom view to create a visually interesting piece. Based on the feedback however, I think I could definitely improve by showing the character’s expression and energy of the “surprise” before getting to the scene that I drew. (which I kind of sketched out in the 2nd panel after that).

QUICK PANORAMA LIFE DRAWING EXERCISE:
4 panels of my classmates within the class

These are quick sketches of my point of view within the class, it was very interesting how I couldn’t exactly fit everything I see on the page or else it’ll be cramped up. In a way it felt like capturing a fragment of what I see in a viewfinder. Other than that, this exercise was quite fun and eye opening. If I had more time I would’ve definitely developed on it more.