Have a great spring break!

When you get back, there will be a sub, for that week.
JH

Solution

This is going to see hopelessly complex to some of you, at first.
The thing is, it's all based on the right triangle and the Law of Parallels.
When the pink triangles (nice choice, John) appear, watch for where the light is throwing the shadows of the boxes' corners.

JH

Assignment

art by Linh Phan

The latest homework, due Tue 11 March, is to finish or redo your 1pp-with-rotated-object drawing and tone it using the shadow plotting methods we reviewed in class today.

I HIGHLY recommend you get some tracing paper or vellum and create an overlay to put your a- and d-lines on .

Then put that overlay under the final art on a lightbox or animation table, trace through the points that are the corners of the shadows and fill them in on the original drawing. If you like, you can even put the shadows on their own overlay or composite the thing in Photoshop using layers.

The art above is an example of the kind of shadow-constructing overlay I'm talking about.

JH

The Solution

Here's how this one plays out. The most advanced and tricky part is putting the shadow on the box at the left side (NPQR). Note: the shadow of F falls onto the side of it. Below the shadow of F, the Law of Parallels takes over, and the shadow edge runs straight down the side of the box.

To the right of the shadow of S (the "top" corner of the object), the shadow edge runs back to its origin, the unseen plan of S.

Click on the art to see it bigger.

JH

More storyboarding links

Thanks to Chris Lutes for these. Some inspiring and striking visuals here and insights into composition and storytelling.
http://roseandisabel.blogspot.com
http://talesofcollosus.blogspot.com
http://sevencamels.blogspot.com
http://www.animationarchive.org
The links on these sites are highly recommended.

JH

Pro Movie Storyboard samples!

Thanks for Samson for this link:
http://www.tedbstudio.com/home.html

Here's another one about a guy's digital storyboard art, which on some jobs echoes both photos and classic design-marker technique. This work is for the advertising industry.
http://home.earthlink.net/~jimmy57/methods.html

JH

Storyboarding Glossary:

(line art by JH, color by K. Garletts, Express Visuals)

We're getting down to the end, you guys. The last major topic in the book is storyboarding. I want to give you an early start on the terminology, because there is a lot of it. Much of it comes from the world of film, and is helpful in talking about comics as well as storyboarding.

I'll put it flatly: You need to understand the methods and terminology of storyboarding to have career mobility in animation. Relatively few people are so good at their specialty (e.g., character design, backgrounds) that they can work all year in just that area. It pays to be a generalist, especially if you want to be a director. So: you need to know and use these terms.

So, without further finger-waggling, the first of three installments of the storyboarding glossary:

ANIMATES (as in "BG animates")-- v., Used to denote when an element that one might expect to be fixed art, like background, moves in way that requires it to be redrawn (several times for each second of screen time).

ANTIC = Anticipation-- In animation, the action just before the main action, e.g., the backswing of a golf swing or a punch. Or a person might hunch down in their seat before jumping up in alarm.

BG = Background

BG Pans-- In animation, this term is used when a moving object, such as a car, retains a relatively fixed location in the frame, while the background moves past behind it. Familiar to all viewers of Hanna-Barbera cartoons, whose BGs would pan through cyclically over and over in the same shot.

CRANE SHOT-- A shot in which the camera moves freely over the subject in any direction by virtue of being positioned on a crane. Crane shots are often used at the end of movies to pull up and away from the subject, in order to put him in context in the larger world.

CU = Closeup-- A shot framed around the subject's head. See the text, p.210, for an example.

DOLLY SHOT-- A shot during which the camera rolls, such a tracking shot.

DS = Downshot-- Shot in which the camera is aimed down toward the subject (compare Upshot).

ECU = Extreme Closeup-- A shot so tightly framed it shows less than the full head. Shots that show tight closeups of small important objects are also ECUs.

EST SHOT = Establishing shot-- A WIDE SHOT (see) used to give an overview of setting and situation.

EXT = Exterior Shot-- (compare INT)

FIFO = Fade In, Fade out-- Also known as a lap dissolve, connotes time passing.

FOFI = Fade Out, Fade In-- A transition that leaves the screen black briefly, connoting more time passing.

FG = Foreground

HOOK UP-- In animation, when an action begun in one shot is continued from the same instant in the following shot. Action must match.

INT = Interior shot (compare EXT)

INTO SC = Into Scene-- Used when a character or object moves into the frame under its own power, i.e., not due only to camera movement, after the shot has begun.

JH