Q: What makes a good Storyboard Artist?

You don’t have to be the best artist. I’ve seen guys that work on massive films who aren’t the greatest artists in terms of technical ability per se, but they can tell a story. The test of a good Storyboard Artist is, can they tell a story through images? Can they convey what’s happening in a scene? That’s the number one thing. You have to be a good storyteller and a bit of a Director. Especially in animation. They’re giving you scenes and you’re adding what you think will work. You’ve gotta be a Director and tell a story through images. And be quick. You aren’t going to get a job where they’re like, “Take a month!” Time is money in film. You only get better as you do it, as with anything.

Question 1

What is the purpose of storyboarding?

Robert Castillo · Accepted Answer

The purpose of storyboarding is basically to draw and put the vision of the Director on paper. You’re jotting down camera moves, maybe some acting, some story elements, so that everyone can follow. You want everybody to be on the same page. It’s a very powerful communication tool.
It goes back to the 1930s and Walt Disney. You had some studios in New York that were doing animation, like the Fleischer brothers, but Walt Disney is credited with doing storyboards for his animated cartoons in black and white in the 1930s. A lot of Animators came out of New York. New York was the hub of animation in the 1920s and ‘30s, and what happened was Disney paid a lot better, so a lot of people went out to California (and the weather was nicer).
In that time period, Walt Disney did some shorts for movie theaters like Silly Symphony and Plane Crazy with Mickey Mouse, and some of the artists there developed a way to kind of see the movie before the movie was made so that they could save money. Because you don’t want to make a movie and it doesn’t work.
A good way was to get it drawn and then put it into panels, look at the panels, and maybe have sound to it and voices, and kind of see what people were going to watch. 
From there, it made its way into big films. Citizen Kane, Gone with the Wind; they utilized storyboards. (Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t know who the artists were on those movies.) Hitchcock was really into storyboards. In fact, he’s quoted as saying, “If it’s on paper, then the movie is done.” Like, he really loved boards.
I always try to tell the kids when I’m teaching that it’s good to know a little history of whatever you do. It’s so important.

Question 2

What do Storyboard Artists use in their work?

William David Hogan · Accepted Answer

Nowadays it’s almost exclusively digital capture. The two main camps are Wacom Cintiq tablets and iPad Pro with Apple Pencil (what I use).
When I began, you had to draw storyboards in a way that they could be FAXed without losing quality. To this day, black and white drawings with just a splash of grayscale are still the preferred look. For someone starting out, I would develop a good B&#038;W style first, before resorting to tricks you can do in Photoshop. Every once in a while, I still have to draw on paper on a set.
I use an 11&#8243; iPad Pro with Apple Pencil (2nd gen). I draw the boards using Procreate on the iPad then finish the boards (doing layout, adding text, effects) on my laptop in Photoshop.

Question 3

What makes a good Storyboard Artist?

Shane Carrington · Accepted Answer

You don&#8217;t have to be the best artist. I’ve seen guys that work on massive films who aren’t the greatest artists in terms of technical ability per se, but they can tell a story. The test of a good Storyboard Artist is, can they tell a story through images? Can they convey what’s happening in a scene? That&#8217;s the number one thing.
You have to be a good storyteller and a bit of a Director. Especially in animation. They’re giving you scenes and you’re adding what you think will work. You’ve gotta be a Director and tell a story through images.
And be quick. You aren’t going to get a job where they’re like, “Take a month!” Time is money in film.
You only get better as you do it, as with anything.

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