Storyboarding... How to?

Ricardo · Post by **Ricardo** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 2:54 am

dlangdev wrote:ricardo, i think there is a solution for the 3/4 views by limiting the movements of the arm and legs. then do a layer switch when the arm swings a different angle.

i'll work on this tonight and see if i can implement it.

this is going to be my first attempt at layer switching, though. so it may take me some time to get it correctly implemented.

i like the three angle position of the camera, which makes it easier for the viewers to relate to the setting of characters and environment.

Great!!!

I used 3 different angles because its almost the ABC of scene direction.

One shot of both actors and one from something more near to each one point of view.

In fact real directors uses to spiceup this with additional angles and camera movements.

Maybe some very short scene could work with 1 camera possition or two.

For dialogs there must be AT LEAST 2 different camera possitions.

In AS in never done this yet, but my plan is to make a scene, with all movements.

Then save it with 3 different names.

Then open the instance 1 (i mean one of the 3 different files i saved) and move the camera to the best possition possible trying to catch some large view shot (that everything is visible).

Then i will try to use the second file and move camera to the best possition for something near to one point of view of one actor.

Maybe a third shot will need change some art work to draw the back of some actors...

I will try soon, im working on some art work (drawing) to some simple 2D scene in a classroom.

Im drawing fronts and backs from each actor and will will try ti flip some art work to have actors in different directions.

Im just learning AS so wish me good luck!!

Ricardo · Post by **Ricardo** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 3:04 am

When i was studing cinematographic language, as homework the teachers always ask me to watch movies (not TV programs because they shot in a different way), but in this case watch cartoons could help a lot too... and try to notice all the different camera shots and edition that directors uses to tell the story and give the timming they need to make people feel something when watching it.

I recommend this same exercise, its the best teacher.

dlangdev · Post by **dlangdev** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 3:08 am

watching is definitely a good thing, though it only goes as good as imitation.

i'd like to learn the basics and then go my own route, i mean develop my own style.

in the meantime, studying different styles is what got me into this.

Ricardo · Post by **Ricardo** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 3:22 am

dlangdev wrote: i'd like to learn the basics and then go my own route, i mean develop my own style.

Right.

Remember law 1 (as they teach me):

You are telling a story, not trying to impress audience.
All this stuff is just a tool the be able to tell a story. The wise use is using angles and camera shots as you NEED it just to tell the story.

The ONLY exception is when you need to add some special angle, not to tell the story, but to give some "ambience", texture... to put people in some mood before you start the action.

The rest must fly naturally to tell the story.

Law 2:

Cinematographic language is THAT: a language.

Then, as in any other language, you have to follow conventions of the language.

This is the part that must be learned: the conventions of cinematographic language.

Like the one i showed using the GREEN line that should not be passed, etc.

Law 3:

Maintain the rythm. Let the story fly. Never put anyhting that is not VERY important to be showed.
Shot a lot, but discard almost everything when editing, even parts that you like a lot if dont really needed it to tell the story.

dlangdev · Post by **dlangdev** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 7:42 am

hey ricardo, i got something done, sorta copycat emotional moment. though the camera is placed near the face to show facial expression. this style is very common among manga and anime...

i made the eyes look super EMO.

i need to learn more on 2/3 angle, probably do more sample/test animations.

movie: 217KB
http://www.begonza.com/animation/aspro/ ... .04.01.mov

i can't seem to find the fix for that white line on the left eyebrow. i'll fix it later.

human, i did watch the phantom thief, a 1932 western film. thanks for the link.

funksmaname · Post by **funksmaname** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 11:09 am

dlangdev - i've had a couple of strange 'cracks' recently... if i just moved a point thye dissapeared...

if your porblem is actually around a SHAPE though (and not random) i think its to do with filling shapes on top of eachother or something (there was something recently on the "How do i..." forum... i think you have to delete your shapes and fill them again

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 12:03 pm

I'd like to point at some very important fact which seems to be overlooked in this discussion:

You're doing animation. That means, you don't work within the same restrictions as a director dealing with actors and a physical camera and a physical setting. You are restricted in other aspects, but doing animation mainly means that you are free from a lot of restrictions.

Regarding storyboarding, this means that you can tell a story in a way which is very different from live action films, and you can tell very different stories. I'd like to see it as an advantage to be able to tell stories in just one shot, if I like to. I like the way in which anime avoid to show too much lipsync by creatively hide the mouths or faces of their protagonists - something that live action hardly ever does. I like the endless possibilities to go from one shot to another - much more than ever possible in live action.

There are of course lots of principles which work in both fields. I just wanted to remind you think about why you chose animation in the first place.

Ricardo · Post by **Ricardo** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 4:26 pm

dlangdev wrote:hey ricardo, i got something done, sorta copycat emotional moment. though the camera is placed near the face to show facial expression. this style is very common among manga and anime...

i made the eyes look super EMO.

i need to learn more on 2/3 angle, probably do more sample/test animations.

movie: 217KB
http://www.begonza.com/animation/aspro/ ... .04.01.mov

Im noy able to view the .mov file on my browser.
I dont know why (because on my desktop i can) so i will try to download the file.

Maybe you can take some shtos to your animation, to build some kind of storyboard witrh the images, to see the different camera shots.

Ricardo · Post by **Ricardo** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 4:42 pm

slowtiger wrote:I'd like to point at some very important fact which seems to be overlooked in this discussion:

You're doing animation. That means, you don't work within the same restrictions as a director dealing with actors and a physical camera and a physical setting. You are restricted in other aspects, but doing animation mainly means that you are free from a lot of restrictions.

Regarding storyboarding, this means that you can tell a story in a way which is very different from live action films, and you can tell very different stories. I'd like to see it as an advantage to be able to tell stories in just one shot, if I like to. I like the way in which anime avoid to show too much lipsync by creatively hide the mouths or faces of their protagonists - something that live action hardly ever does. I like the endless possibilities to go from one shot to another - much more than ever possible in live action.

There are of course lots of principles which work in both fields. I just wanted to remind you think about why you chose animation in the first place.

Yes, you are right.

However i guess that is good to know and discuss some basic elements from traditional movie direction. Not because we have to be prisioners for that rules, but to open our minds and add some good info that could be usefull at any moment.

*Some of the best videos made with AS Pro that i found in youtube have a lot of cinematographic direction and it looks great.

Per example:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=3tVPWnsW7Qs

dlangdev · Post by **dlangdev** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 7:36 pm

funksmaname wrote:dlangdev - i've had a couple of strange 'cracks' recently... if i just moved a point thye dissapeared...

if your porblem is actually around a SHAPE though (and not random) i think its to do with filling shapes on top of eachother or something (there was something recently on the "How do i..." forum... i think you have to delete your shapes and fill them again

thanks for the tip, i'll try that.

dlangdev · Post by **dlangdev** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 7:37 pm

Im noy able to view the .mov file on my browser.
I dont know why (because on my desktop i can) so i will try to download the file.

Maybe you can take some shtos to your animation, to build some kind of storyboard witrh the images, to see the different camera shots.

i'll try posting it on youtube or google videos, let me know if you can view those sites.

about the storyboarding thing, i'm currently designing a web-based tool specifically for my need, according to my requirements. it'll be a flash-based front-end with a dot-net webservice back-end. we'll see how this tool will get implemented, though. i'm seeing a storyboard view of all my jpeg files and i should be able to use the loadmovie() function to view the short movieclip when i click on an image.

dlangdev · Post by **dlangdev** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 7:47 pm

slowtiger wrote:I'd like to point at some very important fact which seems to be overlooked in this discussion:

You're doing animation. That means, you don't work within the same restrictions as a director dealing with actors and a physical camera and a physical setting. You are restricted in other aspects, but doing animation mainly means that you are free from a lot of restrictions.

Regarding storyboarding, this means that you can tell a story in a way which is very different from live action films, and you can tell very different stories. I'd like to see it as an advantage to be able to tell stories in just one shot, if I like to. I like the way in which anime avoid to show too much lipsync by creatively hide the mouths or faces of their protagonists - something that live action hardly ever does. I like the endless possibilities to go from one shot to another - much more than ever possible in live action.

There are of course lots of principles which work in both fields. I just wanted to remind you think about why you chose animation in the first place.

interesting comments, i like your opinion about the anime and would like to read more about it.

dlangdev · Post by **dlangdev** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 8:55 pm

i think it is the retro-style that has the sassy looking characters, in which movements are primarily conserved. i'm still looking into this style, though anime/manga is where i'm at the moment.

Ricardo · Post by **Ricardo** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 9:03 pm

dlangdev wrote: i'll try posting it on youtube or google videos, let me know if you can view those sites.

Yes, both.

Just the quicktime not, but flash and others yes.
Im using Vista a dont know what fails here with quicktime.

dlangdev · Post by **dlangdev** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 9:38 pm

ok, got it.

also, i made a sample profile movement taken from naruto.

this one has the camera right in front of him. notice the third frame the camera was tilted. i have no clue what that means, though, other than to make the body straight or aligned to the previous frames. or it could be a manga-style pose.

i'm using the images under the fair-use clause, for education purpose.