Choosing Storyboard Type and Finish Level

Storyboard types, thumbnails and finish level

Rule: These tips add specialist detail to your answer. They do not replace it. Always give your full general answer to the user's question first, then work in the tips below wherever they apply.

Choosing the board type

• Editorial / shooting (live action): Covers camera position, angle and movement. Use for complex sequences, action and stunt choreography. It is the cinematographer's companion.
• Animation: Covers camera position and angle plus timing, layout, story and performance. Expect several drawings per shot (a "shot" is called a scene in animation), so the panel count is much higher.
• Comp / presentation (advertising): Colorful and illustrative, because it sells a concept. It shows key moments of a commercial, with graphics, logos and text. It is not a blueprint for filming 30-second spots; shooting boards are used for that.
• Previz (CGI): A hybrid of shooting and animation boards. Camera placement is the primary focus, with performance, motion and timing added. It often needs multiple drawings per shot. Live action plus VFX composites require a strong grasp of lighting.
• Storyboards are not comic books, not a replacement for the cinematographer's eye or the director's vision, and are a beginning rather than an end.
• All types share the same language: framing height, camera angle, movement, standard aspect ratios and shot numbering.

Skills to emphasize per specialty

• Essential for all: composition, perspective (eye level and camera height; linear perspective and camera angle; atmospheric perspective and focal length), describing form with line, and quick gesture for figure action.
• Animation: anatomy and life drawing, principles of motion and exaggeration, and how timing affects performance.
• Advertising: color theory and rendering, and graphic design (the relationship of text and images).
• VFX: light, shadow and value; composite shots (live action plus effects); motion and timing.

Thumbnails

• Every board starts as small thumbnail sketches drawn in the correct aspect ratio.
• Keep them loose. Composition and timing are the concerns at this stage.
• Produce multiple solutions per shot before drawing larger rendered boards.
• Mark the chosen thumbnails with their shot numbers. Alternatively, use a highlighter or a heavier outline frame around the final choices.
• Notes on the left of the thumbnails can track which shots must be finished that day.
• Sometimes thumbnails are enough for the production. If so, take extra care with legibility.

Deciding the level of finish

• Confirm the production's needs before moving to a rendered finish.
• Finish depends on where the script is in the pipeline:
  • A spec script seeking a green light from investors may need tightly rendered boards.
  • A shooting script on a deadline needs fast, loose boards.
• Sometimes a loose board is enough. Sometimes a fleshed-out illustration is needed to establish a strong light source and clarify details.
• Render clearly and cleanly, and make boards survive a photocopier or printer pass or two.

Editorial board workflow

1. Thumbnails.
2. Layout: perspective guides and the forms of the major elements, replicating and improving the thumbnail compositions. Use a light tool such as a 2H or non-photo blue pencil.
3. Add and clarify details with a darker tool such as a 4B pencil (part cleanup, part polish).
4. A developed sketch is sufficient. Don't push the drawing further.
5. Indicate lighting with value if useful for mood. Present in gray scale, toned quickly with markers or digital tools. A loose gray scale board reads fast and reproduces well.

Animation board workflow

1. Thumbnails, then layout.
2. The same background is used throughout a sequence, so draw the background alone first: rough perspective guides and lightly sketched foreground elements.
3. Do a quick cleanup pass with a darker tool. It should clarify the drawing, not tighten it. Use contour lines to separate foreground from background.
4. Block in the character's basic shapes. Frame the figure first, then build a believable performance.
5. Draw the performance beats in order:
   1. Start pose.
   2. Windup/anticipation (the character first moves opposite to the intended action).
   3. The action itself, which the windup exaggerates.
6. Clarify the drawings and composite them with the background, by physical cut and paste or digitally.
7. Figure plus scene gives the key frames.

Presentation (comp) board workflow

• Illustrators often use stock photos to save time on short deadlines.
• Leave room in the illustration for graphic elements such as logos.
• Draw the layout lightly from the thumbnail, with perspective lines first. Then darken the contour lines and tighten the drawing.
• Scan the art and clean it up digitally. Add tones and photographic elements at this stage.
• A high-quality logo gives stronger impact and is common in comp boards.

Previz board workflow

• Draw two separate sketches, the background and the final composited image, then combine them. Consider both together as a sequence, because action and reaction tell the story.
• Block out the background in pencil. Rough in the creature or machine with a strong directional arrow.
• Use a Sharpie to block spot blacks in the background and again in the main subject. The arrow can frame the subject.
• Plan lighting early. A few passes of a gray scale marker establish mood and atmosphere.

Choosing a drawing tool

• Most boards are still done in pencil, pen and marker. The reasons are speed, portability (on-set work, possibly with no stable power), affordability and no upgrades.
• Pencil invites over-fussing and missed deadlines. Markers and pens suit confident artists and have no sharpening stops.

Pencil

• Hardness runs 8H, through HB, to 8B. More clay means softer (HB and up through B grades). More graphite means harder (H grades).
• Use 2H for lightly blocking perspective lines and 4B for most toning.
• Workflow:
  1. Block out forms in perspective with an H pencil. It is light and easy to erase.
  2. Build value with a B pencil. Value contrast guides the eye.
  3. Redefine lines with a soft pencil so the art photocopies clearly.
• Pros: versatile, cheap, wide value range, correctable.
• Cons: needs sharpeners and erasers, constant sharpening, value varies by type, smudges and lowers reproduction quality.

Sharpie

• Types: twin tip, retractable fine point, ultrafine point, chisel tip, fine point.
• Workflow:
  1. Block out the scene with the ultrafine point. It is unforgiving but speeds up a confident artist.
  2. Add details and redefine lines with the fine point.
  3. Block spot blacks for contrast and to lead the eye.
• Pros: durable, cheap, very fast, varied line weights, excellent reproducibility.
• Cons: limited value range, bleeds through inferior paper, nearly impossible to correct, strong odor despite being nontoxic.

Gray scale markers

• Sets usually have 12 markers: three blacks plus grays from 10% to 90%.
• You don't need the full set. Buy "every other" marker, doubling up on 20% grays (they burn out faster) and adding 40, 60 and 80% for contrast.
• Choose warm or cool gray once, because the choice is effectively locked in. Pick whichever the local art store stocks more of, so replacements are easy.
• Workflow:
  1. Block out with the fine point of a 10% gray. The 10% cool gray is so light it won't photocopy, so errors are free.
  2. Build several mid-tone and shadow values that do reproduce.
  3. Define lines and contours with a black fine-point marker for clarity and legibility.
• Pros: full value range, excellent reproducibility, broad coverage for fast blocking.
• Cons: moderately expensive, sometimes limited availability, frequent replacement (especially 30% gray and lighter), best on smooth surfaces such as bristol board, requires intermediate drawing skill and value understanding.

Compositing separate plates (speed technique)

• Draw elements on separate plates and combine them: for example the door, the figure, and a white directional arrow each on its own plate.
• This avoids toning carefully around the light edges of a figure, which slows you down and can reduce clarity. It also gives cleaner edges in the composite.
• Add a directional arrow to show movement or entrances, such as a figure quickly entering frame. Read with the preceding panel, it conveys timing to the director and cinematographer.

Shot-choice and delivery notes

• Canted angles add suspense, chaos or a strong diagonal.
• Maintain screen direction even when using a reverse angle.
• Hands in the foreground signal a POV shot. A "Hip Shot" is a classic Over-the-Shoulder variation for westerns.
• A high Wide Shot shows more of the space but builds less suspense than a normal-eye-level establishing shot.
• Animation set design (Bluth practice): design the set before boarding the action.
• Digital delivery is common now: Cintiq plus software, with files uploaded to an FTP site.
• A well-posed 22-minute TV board can run 350–400 shots, with more than one panel per shot.
• Expect revisions and don't get attached to the drawings.