STORYBOARDING FOR ANIMATION

Meet your instructor and get a feel for the creative journey ahead. We’ll walk through how the course works, introduce your daily drawing practice, and break down the final assignment so you know exactly what you’re building toward.

• Instructor intro
• Daily drawing exercise
• Discussion of final assignment
• Housekeeping

LAUNCH SEQUENCE! Begin your journey by learning about the crucial role of storyboarding in animation. We’ll preview historical examples and discuss various methods for generating storyboards. Get your creative juices flowing with your ideas for story beats.

• History of storyboarding
• The art of storyboarding
• Feature animation vs. TV animation
• Materials
• Workshop: Pitching and discussing a story beat

Assignment #1: Re-Boarding
Take a scene from a film or show and re-draw it as a storyboard.

Fire up your imagination with a tour through the vast world of different animation aesthetics and styles. Find out how these styles are rendered in storyboards and get acquainted with how different genres shape storyboarding decisions.

• A visual tour through animation aesthetics
• Aesthetic conventions
• Developing your own voice as an artist
• Horror, comedy, action, sci-fi
• Using beat boards to develop your vision

Assignment #2: Story Panels
Create a beat sheet, thumbnails, and story panelsfor a personal idea.

Get to grips with the preliminary skills every story artist needs to know. Breakdown scripts into images and delve into visualizing techniques like thumbnails and beat boards. We’ll also explore tips on shot selection strategies.

• Script pages
• Beat boards and visual outlining
• Thumbnails and figuring out a scene
• The classic shot-list triad
• Introduction to pitching
• Workshop: Story consequences game: Describe a sequence of beats as a group

Placing all the pieces in the right place is key to storyboarding. Explore how to organize elements in the frame using staging, blocking and the infinite possibilities of the wide shot.

• Master shots and blocking
• Line of action and screen direction
• Staging for story, mood and spectacle
• Wide shots and combination shots

To do this job you must be able to draw anything. Turbocharge your penmanship with the essential tips and practices every story artist needs to make your images solid, clear and appealing.

• Drawing techniques
• Mastering structure
• Disney principles
• Drawing on-model
• Workshop: Quick sketch zoom portrait exercise

Assignment #3: Character Re-Board
Re-board a scene replacing characters with designs from a different animated movie.

Dive deeper into a range of concepts to strengthen your mastery of visual storytelling. Learn the layout and cinematography secrets that will unleash amazing shot design and bring your sequence to life.

• Designing the screen
• Creating exciting shots
• Lighting and visual contrast
• Perspective and lens choices
• Camera strategies for storyboard sequences
• Workshop: ‘Name that shot’ game

To care about an animation story sequence the characters must engage us. Here we’ll go further into the most critical element of your boards – the performance of the characters. The art of creating poses, emotion, and personality.

• Posing your characters
• Facial expressions, character types, and eye acting
• Comical performance and making acting ‘pop’
• Character reactions
• Intro to anime acting styles
• Workshop: Attitude sketch exercise

Equip yourself with some tried and tested narrative conventions to ground your sequence in great storytelling. We’ll analyze movie clips to explore character motivation, forms of dramatic conflict and the subliminal story structures that every filmmaker needs to know.

• Visual storytelling
• Character want vs. obstacle
• Set-up and pay-off structures
• Rhythms of expectation
• Baby steps and dramatic escalation
• Workshop: Want vs. obstacle improvisation exercise

Assignment #4: Final Project
Write, thumbnail, and board a scene from your own imagination.

A story sequence lives or dies on how much we’re engaged. Are we laughing? Are we scared, excited or maybe even welling up with tears? Discover a range of techniques for getting your audience to care and for bringing your character’s inner world to life.

• A character’s internal emotional world
• Punching up emotional extremes
• Creating suspense, fear and surprise
• How to plus the comedy
• Camera and staging conventions
• Workshop: Break a scene down to its key emotion related elements

Who doesn’t love a great action scene? Discover how to convey speed, impacts, explosions, kinetic editing and dynamic camerawork to turn a sequence of static drawings into a vibrating thrill ride of pulsating action.

• Classic Hollywood vs. anime action scenes
• Dynamism, rhythm, and movement
• Chases vs. fights
• Physics & laws of motion
• Visualizing VFX and special effects
• Workshop: Pitch thumbnails for the final project

It’s easy to get lost in the details. In this session, we’ll discuss the importance of identifying the big picture concerns of any scene. What’s it all about and how should the scene play as a connected whole?

• Intent of script pages and the director’s notes
• Maintaining a coherent tone
• Rhythm and flow
• Exercise: Review a clip to analyze the shape and rhythm of a scene

Ever since Disney started pointing a stick at story panels, pitching has been an integral part of animation storyboarding. Dig deep and find your inner actor, storyteller and sound effect artist to present your sequence in the most cinematic way you can. And then be ready for some notes.

• Crafting your pitch
• Presentation tools
• Feedback and iteration
• Workshop: Practice pitching your final project storyboards in groups, receive feedback, and refine your presentation skills

A portfolio is your gateway to a career. It’s time to assemble your work in a way that dazzles prospective employers and announces your existence to the world. Plus some tips for building your resume.

• Best practices
• The power of storytelling
• Practical tips for resume/CV alignment
• Beyond the portfolio
• Workshop: Share your CV/portfolio draft and receive feedback
• Demo: Creating a timed animatic from a storyboard sequence

TAKE A BOW! You’ve built, refined, and pitched your storyboard — now it’s time to wrap it all together. Reflect on your progress, revisit key learnings, and get final insights on how to keep growing beyond the course. Celebrate your work and leave with a clear next step for your storyboarding journey.

• Industry landscape
• Career opportunities and pathways
• Building a successful career
• Emerging trends
• How to adapt to industry changes