Tutorials

HOW TO STORYBOARD YOUR IDEA

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. A storyboard and video animatic can convey even more. If you have a story idea or concept that you want to pitch for a tv production, film, game, or ad campaign, Storyboard Pro can help you bring it to life.

The art of creating a storyboard and animatic to get your idea across in 10 steps:

  1. Establish the narrative timeline for your story.
  2. Make a list the main events. For commercials, list the different scenes.
  3. Narrow down the list and be selective. For each thumbnail or panel of your storyboard, you want to choose a key scene that will engage your audience. Choose those that drive plot development and include turning points and scene changes. For a commercial, the rule of thumb is 2 seconds per frame (15 frames for a 30 second commercial).
  4. Think about what level of detail you want – when in doubt, go for less. In a pitch, the goal is to convey the big picture in an engaging way. You don’t want to lose your audience in the details.
  5. Now you’re ready to go into Storyboard Pro. Create a description for each panel of your storyboard – include the most the important elements like character, location and action notes.
  6. If you are using a script, you have audio capabilities in Storyboard Pro. Make a scratch track before you start drawing, it can really help with the timing.
  7. Start sketching in thumbnails (or in panels). Sketching is a creative act so don’t try to make it perfect, just break down your scenes based on your plan or script.
  8. Work on composition, camera placement, special effects and narrative order. Include characters, props and location to rough out the action.
  9. Next, add your script and timing notes. Output a video animatic of your storyboard from Storyboard Pro to see how the timing works. You’ll be able to tell right away whether you have it right.
  10. Tighten up the artwork and timing until the concept works to your liking in both your storyboard and animatic.

With Storyboard Pro, it’s easy to make changes – you can redraw without having to create a new image, reorder you thumbnails, add timing notes and easily update text notes and annotations. Plus, you can reuse content across different thumbnails, scenes and in animatics.

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