Storyboarding
Lets hope this doesn't becoming board-ing. eh? get it? ahh you ain't got a good sense of humor anyway.
These where my storyboards for my FMP, these where what was directly adapted into my aniamtic and subsequently the FMP itself.
Before I get into the storyboards themselves I want to say that this wasn't my first time storyboarding. I have had to do so for many units at uni and additionally for my own personal work. I'm quite familiar with making them and have even got my own little work flow for them. All the story boards you about to see have basic colour outlines representing what colours the object in question will be. Additionally something somewhat new is that these ones are one a black background as most of the FMP is gonna have dark blue or even black backgrounds. The fisherman is using red outline just because for characters in both storyboards and animatics I use bright red. Mainly because it just makes it easier for me to see the focus, being them, and other focuses will have other colours to allow me to differentiate between the sketches. On that note you'll also see how these are very crude and basic. It's only a storyboard so no need for a lot of detail. Plus it saves a bunch of time, you should also notice vague sketches of my perspective guides scattered about. Additionally if you look below each shot you'll see a little time mark I gave as an initial rough estimation of the length of each shot. Following on from that all the small red arrows mark movement of things within the shots. Likewise the shot boxes themselves have arrows to mark camera movement. a red arrow inside the box something is moving within the scene. Arrows on the box itself are for camera movement. Furthermore I really like storyboarding. It's something that I could see myself doing in the future besides animation. It gives me a chance to just be free with the shots and narrative, a very fun process for me. Lastly thanks to the character sheet I got from Araki, you can read more about that in my R&D page, it made creating the narrative much smoother. admittedly I was finding it a little difficult at first but once I completed that it was made much easier as I knew how the character was going to act within each shot and scene.
There is a lot to cover here so I'm just gonna give you a brief little description as to what's happening in each shot with a little extra for important details. Box 1 through to 4 are shot 1, it's a pan down from screen top. Starting with a shot of the clear night sky with the moon and shimmering stars. As it’s panning down the title card appears and fades just as it gets to the bottom of the pan. Landing on a shot of the surface of the opean ocean with the fisherman on his little boat casting his net. Box 5 through 7 are shot 2. This is a tracking perspective from screen right to left following the fin. It starts with just a blank ocean expanse with the sky visible screen top. A fin emerges from the water slowly growing in speed as it passes by the camera only to have the camera track it and follow it to the left as it envelops the screen. Box 8 to 10 is shot three. This is a medium static shot facing the fisherman on his boat all the while you see the fin getting closer to the boat in the background. With it slowly rocking back and forth. This shot starts with the fin going across the screen from right to left revealing the shot behind it as it goes.
box 11 and 12 are shot 4. This is somewhat of a fisheye perspective static shot. With the reverse of what the last shot was. Now seeing the boat in the background. Still gently rocking in the top left corner. Meanwhile you see the fin approach closer to it from screen right to left. Box 13 cuts back to shot 3 this time though the fisherman gets knocked off the boat falling face first towards the camera and down. Box 14 to 16 is shot 5 this shot is a static long shot. It sees the fisherman falling into the ocean. As the ocean has a large splash with bubbles that float towards the ocean surface. All the while in the background you can see the eye of the Ocean God open, to which it looks to screen top indicating it has sensed the Fisherman falling into the ocean. also giving the viewer a bit of foreshadowing as to what lurks below. You can tell it's below since it has to look up, also it's a nice dose of dramatic irony. Box 17 to 19 is shot 6, it's a POV shot from the Fisherman’s perspective. Slowly opening his eyes he lowers his hand realizing what just happened. Since he is a fisherman the ocean doesn't scare him so he is still calm at this point. In the background you can see various fish going about their business, each fish is colored differently to help differentiate and also it’s representative of what colour they are gonna be. Box 20 and 21 are a static wide shot, shot 7. With the Fisherman calmly sinking further into the ocean, fish are still doing their thing. Suddenly the leviathan responsible for knocking the Fisherman off quickly rushes past the camera. again some dramatic irony and foreshadowing rolled into one.
Box 22 to 25 is shot 8. It's a static long perspective shot. Now that the Fisherman has gained his bearings you see him start swimming confidently to get back towards his boat from screen left to right. Fish swimming in the background. As he gets closer to the camera you see him suddenly stop only to look scared and he shakes his hands in a comedic manor alluding to him seeing something that scares him. This is just some non verbal characterization. Through just the body alone. Box 26 to 29 is shot 9. It's a static perspective shot again. This is the other end of the 180 line keeping in with the 180 rule. Just from the other end of the line now. So it just switched. This can be seen from the fish in the background being in the same place just now seeing them from the different end of the 180 line. Now you see the Fisherman swimming frantically this time from screen right to left to escape the first Leviathan approaching as it opens its jaws. All the while the camera is closing in on the fisherman swimming for safety. Cutting to box 30 to 33. We have shot 10, This is another tracking perspective shot. Tracking from screen bottom to top. This sees the next leviathan,the second one, rapidly rising from the depths, tracking it as it swims vertically upwards. Again having a fisheye camera effect in the middle. Cutting back to shot 9 again we are on box 34 to 37. Still zooming in on the fisherman. Where we just left off. However you see the second Leviathan rush up from screen bottom grabbing Levithan one in its jaws and quickly leaving the shot via screen top. All the while the current created by leviathan 2 pushes the fisherman off screen left as the camera quickly zooms back out again.
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Box 38 and 39. Much more simple shot this time to space out all the action and give the viewer a breather. This is shot 11 its a static long shot. All this shot sees is the fisherman drift in from screen right still being carried by the current made by leviathan 2. He is now curled up into a ball covering his eyes out of fear. Once he gets to centre screen and the energy is lost he remains still only taking one of his arms away from his eyes to see what just happened. In the background you can see some schools of fish swimming about. Cutting to box 40 and 41 we arrive at shot 12. This is a static perspective medium long shot. Camera pointed up from below the fisherman. Allowing us to see above him. As he is floating still somewhat shaken wondering what just happened. You can see Leviathan 2 above him veer downwards heading straight for him. Next to box 42 and shot 13. It's a static extreme wide shot. You can just see the fisherman sinking further. While Leviathan number 3 emerges from the screen bottom mouth agape at alarming speed moving upwards curving in a rainbow formation. All the while you see leviathan 2 speed down from screen to towards the fisherman. It then cuts to box 43 or shot 14. This is a static long show which sees Leviathan 3 go from screen bottom to screen top behind the fisherman bubbles flying by as it passes. Cutting back to shot 13 on box 44 we see that Levithan 3 grabs Leviathan 2 in it’s jaws as it moves back down to screen bottom with its catch in its mouth. Cutting back to shot 14 on box 45 we now see the Fisherman facing the camera having been spun around by the current created by levithan 3 while levithan 3 with levithan 2 in its mouth ruses downwards into the depths behind the Fisherman yet again, the Fisherman is quite confused as he never actually got a clear view of any of this. But he starts to calm down again as he sees there is nothing coming to eat him. Then the fisherman notices his necklace is glowing so he holds it up closer to his face.
Box 46 or shot 15. This is a static closeup perspective shot. In the foreground you can see the Fisherman's hands holding the necklace as it glows brightly. All the while the Fisherman is looking at it in awe. It then cuts to box 47 or shot 16 again this is a static POV shot of the Fisherman. Looking down at the necklace with his legs gently kicking to keep himself afloat. Then cutting to shot 17 or box 48 through to 50. This shot is a wide shot of the Fisherman sinking down to the centre screen as the eye of the Ocean God opens and focuses on the fisherman and holds up its hand to catch him. From there it cuts to shot 18. box 51 through to 54. This is the final shot and again it's a tracking shot. As the Ocean God lowers its hand with the Fisherman being held within the camera tracks the fisherman all while zooming out to reveal the full Ocean God as it moves its arms to match the buddha pose with its leg crossed ending there after lingering on that visual for a bit.
Relevance, reflection, application and future
Relevance. Well besides not being able to form the narrative without the storyboards, thus not allowing me to animate anything at all. I'd say it has an additional secondary reason for relevance. This is one other skill that I could slowly get better and better at and then use it as a secondary bracket for my career. Being able to do 1 thing well is good but being able to do 2 things well is even better. Lastly, I'd say after FMP I have grown this skill even more by making the very storyboards you see above you.
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Reflection. Looking back on the storyboarding process now. I think I handled it exceedingly well. the only thing that I would have maybe done differently is that I would of liked to accomplish it slightly quicker then I did. Maybe if I finished it 3-5 days earlier than I probably would of been able to get more of the overall animation done. Anyway can only learn from my mistakes so next time in making storyboards I'll try to get as much of the story and shots figured out, at least with a vague idea before I start. So I don't have to take time to think them up while drawing it.
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Application. Well the application is rather simple unless it's a rough 4-7 second animation where I don't actually need a storyboard for something so short. But for 90% of animations I make I can see them needing storyboards. I'll make the process of storyboarding quicker by having more general ideas for my narrative and shots before going into the storyboard stage meaning I won't have to wait while I’m making it to come up with ideas. This should allow for a more quicker process.
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Future. Well this is something that I shall continue to do for both my own work and very likely for others. It's a skill that as it continues to grow I could market myself for storyboards as well. Which is just another good thing to be able to advertise and provide. For animation purposes it’s key. In its own right just to be hired as a storyboard artist will also be a good thing for my career. Seeing as I both enjoy making them and I'm getting better at it.