Monday 23rd October
In our first storyboarding class, we discussed the purpose of a storyboard and the elements of visual literacy that form storyboard language:
We also went through the different elements that go into composing a frame, often known as ‘camera language’.
I feel like these are all things that I would notice and be effected by when watching any kind of animation or film, but often without noticing, which is suppose is the aim to an extent – that these elements add to the message and emotion of the work without being a distraction from the story.
I found during today’s class that storyboarding that things like camera angles, framing, composition, perspective etc are more part of the purpose of it than things like character or set design. I also discovered that these are not things that I find easy to communicate in drawing – at least not at the same speed as other people in the group. My attempt to draw someone knocking over a vase, with the vase falling towards the camera, was not very successful:
So when we were set our assignment in the second lesson of creating a storyboard, I felt pretty overwhelmed, but knowing I didn’t have to rely on drawing alone helped a lot. I think I might bring in things like collage or photos for my storyboard. One idea I’ve had is to make models of my characters and stage them, and then photograph them to make the compositions I want.
Later on in the class, we had to do a continuous line drawing of the whole room. I enjoyed this a lot more than the little one-panel storyboard drawing we did. I think that was because a continuous line drawing is expected to be messy and imperfect, so I relaxed more. I also know from previous studies that I enjoy working in this scruffy, unfinished style in my drawing:
Wednesday 25th October
Today we talked about story and story structure:
We also looked closer at composition in a camera shot. We had a go at recreating shots from a film, focusing on shape and tone value:
I found I felt more confident with this as I went, although the results are still quite mixed in terms of how well you can see what is actually in the shot.