How to make your storyboard showcase the story and be elegant? This article tells you the creation of the storyboard!

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Improve Your Storyboards Instantly

How to quickly improve the storyboard

If you've studied or done animation for any length of time you've no doubt come across some absolutely fantastic storyboards out there. Single images that tell the story at hand with elegant brilliance yet wonderful simplicity. To create such pre-production masterpieces it Take a lot of skill and a huge amount of hard work and practice, of course, but there IS something you can do right now to make sure your storyboards really pop visually.

No matter how long you've studied or produced, you've definitely encountered some great storyboards – a simple image that shows both the storyline and the elegance. In order to create such a wonderful work in the pre-production, in addition to the superb ability, you also need to inject a lot of effort and sweat, of course, there are indeed some small tricks that can make the storyboard eye-catching!


The secret? Add simple tone.

What is this little trick? Just make the color difference!


Hardly a secret at all, really, as contrast is the number one aspect to keep in mind when creating something. Big to small, hard to soft, fast to slow. When you add in contrast, things become much more interesting.

This is hard to be considered awkward, right? But then again, the first thing to consider when creating a work is contrast. It must be big and small, soft and hard, fast and slow. After adding contrast, everything becomes more interesting.


Take a look at the image below, from our very own Ferdinand Englander's article “Finding Ideas: A Feature Film in an Hour.

Let's take a look at the picture below. This is an illustration of another editor of Animator Island, Ferdinand Englande, in the article "Animation Tips - How to Create a Ministerial in One Hour".

Here we see several examples of contrast, from color on the words to size of the different text to simple shadow on the character himself. Your eyes are drawn around the page to different locations because of these contrasts. Watch what happens, then, when we Remove these contrasts.

In this picture, we see three sets of contrasts, the color of the font, the size of the text, and the shadow effect on the character. The reader's eyes will also search for the content in the entire picture along with these comparisons. What if I remove these contrasts? Let's take a look at the effect:

Suddenly the image has a lot less appeal, and your eyes aren't sure sure where to look first, second, or third. The separation (contrast) is gone, and it becomes a less compelling image. (Though personally I still find the Expression on the character hilarious! I've sure felt that feeling while brainstorming before...)

As if the image suddenly became boring, the reader could not know exactly where to look first and in what order. Because the separation (differentiation) of different information disappeared, everything became a whole. (Although I personally still feel that the expression of the character is very happy! I am often a virtue when I think about it...)


Applying Contrast and Tone specific to Storyboarding

Add contrast and tonality based on storyboard content


Contrast is useful in all aspects of your work, but when it comes to storyboarding it shines brighter than ever. Storyboarding is all about telling a story with one image and leading the viewer's eye to exactly what's important. It is normally just one part of a Sequence, but an essential bit that the viewer absolutely needs to see in order to fully grasp the story being told. It may linger for a split second or much longer, depending on where in the story a certain board falls.

Any aspect of the animation needs to reflect the contrast, but it is especially prominent in the storyboard stage. The storyboard is designed to tell a story with a picture and guide the audience to the important points. It is often just a part of a scene, but it is also the most critical part of the scene, and the audience can understand the whole story only if they understand it. Its duration can be long or short, depending on its position in the story.


Here can contrast through simple tone can do wonders. It can transform a line drawing with a lot going on into a simple composition that everyone knows the focus of instantly. Take a look at this amazing storyboard panel by Michael Lester who works over at Dreamworks:

In fact, making a color difference can create a miracle. Because chromatic aberration can integrate complex line drawings into simple images, people can see the key points at a glance. The wonderful storyboard below is a good example (made by DreamWorks animator Michael).

There's a HUGE amount going on in this subway car, with a large cast of characters, but thanks to tone and contrast your eyes are drawn immediately to the most important aspect (the dog in the hat) and then allowed the freedom to look over all The happy riders around him. The darker tone for the dog also plays nicely into the sad pose he's taking. (Truth be told we could study this image all day for a treasure trove of artistic goodness, but let's get back on topic for now. )

This small subway car contains a lot of content, there are several characters, but because of the reasonable use of chromatic aberration and contrast, we can clearly and quickly see the important points (dogs wearing hats) Then he saw the happy character around him, and the dim color of his body also showed its sadness. (Frankly, this priceless art treasure allows us to spend a day studying it, but let's go back to today's theme.)


Behold, like a magic trick, what happens when we remove the simple tonal contrast!

I am optimistic, now let's remove the color difference and see what it looks like! Is it unbelievable with juggling?

Suddenly you notice a whole lot more lines than the partially filled piece. Where exactly are you supposed to look? Is the focus the large cat to the left? Perhaps the laughing character? Maybe the story is following the child to the right, off on His first subway ride? Eventually you might make note that the dog character has a nice aura of negative space (not any other characters) so it may be the story is about him. Without the tone, though, getting to that point takes a Lot of thinking and a long time. Time storyboard artists need to keep moving along quickly.

You will suddenly find that there are a lot more lines in this picture than the above picture. People don’t know where to look, and what is the point. It’s the big cat on the left or the big laughing character. ? Perhaps this picture is about the story of the first child on the right taking the subway. Eventually you may slowly find some negative space around the dog character (it has no physical contact with other characters) and the story may be related to it. Therefore, in the absence of chromatic aberration, it is very difficult to find the key points, and it takes a lot of time to think a lot.


If you'd like to see more examples of superb use of tone and contrast in storyboards, Michael's blog Ninjerktsu (http://ninjerktsu.blogspot.com/) does not disappoint. It's filled with storyboard-like-comics that are as hilarious As they are beautiful. (This one about a "Cat Lady" is one of my personal favorites.)

If you want to see more examples of using chromatic aberrations and contrasts to create great storyboards, go to Michael's blog, Ninjerktsu (http://ninjerktsu.blogspot.com/). (Tips: Tianchao people need to overturn the wall), definitely will not disappoint you! There are many comics in his blog that resemble storyboards, and they have beautifully produced a story that makes people laugh. (Where "Cat Lady" is my favorite)


Keep It Simple

Minimize as much as possible


While it helps to use tone as shadow, you don't need to know advanced lighting techniques to add this aspect to your drawings. Simple blocking of three or four tones is enough to do the trick. Things you want to draw the eye to should Have the highest level of contrast, while the areas that you'd like to fade into the background should blend in with less contrast. As an exercise, try adding in these five tones to a line drawing you've done (or add them to Another artist's line drawings just to practice).

Although it's effective to use shades for shadows, you don't have to use superb lighting techniques to add to these drawings. It is enough to create a streamlined composition frame in three or four shades. Where the most eye-catching places need to be contrasted, the need to dilute into the background should reduce the contrast. You can try to add a few shades to your line drawing (or someone else's work).


Immersion to change levels of contrast, blocking in tone vs adding shadows, and drawing the viewer's eye to different places. Feel free to be messy, you don't have to fill in every last pixel here. It's through experimenting like this that you 'll discover where and when to use simple tone, and just how powerful of a tool it can be.

Try to color or add shadows with different levels of tone to lead the audience to focus on different details. Don't worry if the work is messed up, you don't need to fill in each pixel, but only through such an attempt, you can find out where and when to add color to recognize that it is a What a powerful tool.


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