Bricks in Motion
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I'd like some help with storyboarding: Mostly, what is the best way to do it? I've seen it done different ways. and currently using a template from an old animation kit, but I've heard there are programs and other ways that make storyboarding more helpful. Could I get some advice?
Thanks,
Mighty Wanderer
I made this 
image a while ago but you can use it. You may want to resize it in Paint if you're going to print it out. 
Last edited by co0lwill (October 11, 2012 (05:11pm))
I've got something like that, but it's got fewer boxes and more writing space. What I'm really looking for is something apart from the paper with rows of boxes. In Paganomation's The Making of the Red Brick Saga, he shows some storyboards and pretty much every page is different, it's not the standard type I just described.
Some of them looked like the boxes are hand drawn, others look like something you could do in a photo editor. I haven't used this but looks okay might have to give it a try myself It might only be for windows though.
EDIT: Should have looked more that software is only a 30 free trail.
Last edited by cwstudios (November 13, 2012 (01:31am))
I usually just print a template out and draw it out with pencil.
Thanks for the suggestions.
I think my biggest problem right now is that I don't have enough drawing/notes space. And I can't find any templates that aren't a bunch of crammed boxes. And I'm not able to make my own. 
Have you tried index cards? They have enough space to draw or outline a scene or an action. You can also use lined ones for writing what happens. Then you can glue them to sheets of paper or tack them to corkboard. Since cards come in a variety of sizes you should find something just right for you.
Jared
Hey, that's a great idea! I'm going to try that out, thanks! 
There is not just one "best way" to do storyboarding. It will be different for different people. I know some people who draw their's very intricately and provide lots of details in the drawings, while others just have general sketches. I have a storyboarding notebook that has templates in it that I use, but before I purchased it I would print off templates or even just draw rough boxes and free hand everything if I was out somewhere and had an idea. What you want to do with storyboarding is map out your film's shot structure and story so that when filming time comes you aren't making up things as you go along. This should speed up your filming time and reduce errors and retakes. This doesn't mean that you have to stick with you storyboards to the "T" obviously. You may begin shooting and realize a shot you had in mind just won't work. Also, it isn't necessary to storyboard some things like perhaps a long dialogue sequence with two characters that are just going to be standing still.
If you want to see examples of mine, check out this blog post where I compare my storyboards to the finished product: http://repellingspider.blogspot.com/201 … lling.html
As you can see, some of my sketches are very rough. That's perfectly alright though as long as I can understand them and then apply it later on. I also mark down the type of shot it's going to be a lot of the time (whether it's a Long Shot, Medium Close, Extreme Long Shot, Close Up, etc). When I took a film class my first semester in college, we had a project where we had to storyboard out a short film and then shoot the video in order and could not rearrange or edit the shots at all later on. This exercise showed me how helpful storyboarding can be and allowed for a very smooth shooting stage. Hope some of that helps!
co0lwill your storyboard plate is nice. Maybe I would use it.
These are all great suggestions, I'm going to try them out for my next film and see what works best. Thanks all!
co0lwill your storyboard plate is nice.
Thanks! But I think Legogods is better. Im going to use that sometime, I'm going to pick up some index cards later!
So what, do you describe camera movements for a shot, and then have a new image for each frame or something? I'm a bit lost how many pictures, and of what, we draw; and how we then describe the pictures 
I tend to just sketch the pictures, movements, and corresponding words on notebook paper, in the back of my chemistry class. The pictures are pretty small, and don't look super neat. They follow a similar pattern to co0lwill's, except I draw the boxes, and make them smaller, so I can fit more on one piece of paper.
(And I do actually do my work in chem.) 
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