Animation Storyboarding Explained.

There are many reasons animators use storyboards, ranging from cinematic convention to checking whether something is viable within a production. The approach has remained a part of animation production for decades — animators and filmmakers started using storyboards in the 1930s and continue to do so to this day, and though the technologies involved have changed hugely, the basic principle of an animated storyboard remains the same. Until the storyboard stage, an animated film exists largely in the heads and imaginations of its creators — namely the director and scriptwriter — so the storyboard provides a way to present that vision as a visual sequence.

Storyboarding is useful in several ways:

• It's where words and pictures come together. A story artist (as they're called at Disney) or board artist can collaborate with a writer to see how the two mediums will combine to match the director's vision.
• It's a planning and organising tool. You can use it to break the animation down into scenes, then label the individual camera shots within each scene.
• It acts as a production reference, showing how many scenes you have, which characters are in them, whether there are any audio requirements, and a list of shots still to complete.
• It builds an archive as revisions happen. Because storyboards often undergo several revisions, keeping each version gives a complete view of the project from day one to the last shot.
• It opens the door to feedback. By storyboarding their animation, a director can understand what works and what doesn't, identify specific challenges, and gather constructive feedback from others on the planned vision before production progresses further — just as useful for a studio team as it is for a student filmmaker consulting their teacher on a short animation.Want to broaden your animation horizons? Explore our beginner's guide to animation.

Want to broaden your animation horizons? Explore our beginner's guide to animation.

1. Getting started.

To get started with a storyboard, you first need an idea of the animation you want to create, as well as the basic materials for setting it out. Start with a synopsis: an overview of the plot, including key characters, acts, conflicts and resolutions. Depending on the production, storyboarding may begin from a full script, synopsis or other narrative outline, but for a hobbyist a synopsis should suffice.

You'll also need to know your narrative structure — a breakdown of the narrative, scene by scene, covering what will be happening to whom and in what order — and the action within each shot: what the characters will be doing, whether they'll be moving or speaking, and what's going on around them, from cars and falling buildings to gently swaying trees or rainfall. Before you start, it's worth having at least an idea of your camera requirements too: the shots that will make up your animation, along with ideas for transitions and camera staging, since this will evolve as the storyboard takes shape.

For materials, you can use pens, pencils and paper to start your sketches, or you may prefer to sketch using a drawing app. For the panels themselves, you'll likely want to use dedicated software, such as Storyboard Pro, or the storyboard templates in Adobe Express.

2. Sketching your animation storyboards.

Sketching your storyboard begins with paper and pencil. You might start by roughing up a small thumbnail sketch for each shot, drawn from the perspective a viewer would see on screen — if you have to move your head to see something else, that means a new shot and therefore a new thumbnail.

This helps you get an overall view of the animation on one page, before moving on to more detailed individual sketches on single sheets, which you can then assemble in the correct order on a whiteboard or wall. Storyboards can be drawn by hand or created using drawing apps and other digital tools, whether the production is 2D, 3D or stop-motion.

3. Creating your storyboard panels.

Once you have built a narrative with rough sketches, it's time to transform these into panels. A storyboard panel is a rectangular frame drawn onto a sheet of paper, with separate boxes for notes on dialogue and action.

The dimensions of the box depend on the type of production you're storyboarding, and can vary depending on whether it's for film, TV or wide-screen. You'll draw the action of the scene within this box before adding notes on dialogue or camera angles to the other boxes. At the top of the panel there's usually space to write the scene number and panel number. Panels can still be created on paper, but they can also be assembled and refined using digital software.

Top tips and tricks for how to make an animation storyboard.

The blank page can be intimidating, especially when it's a pile of blank panels, so start with post-it notes or a digital equivalent and scribble down animation storyboard ideas without too much thought, just to get something down. From there, shape these post-it notes into thumbnail sketches you can cut up and assemble in the order they happen in the story — nothing is set in stone at this stage, but you can start to shape the narrative.

Keep these tips in mind as you work:

• Keep it simple. You may be a talented artist, but a first pass at storyboarding doesn't require a masterpiece. Stick people, rough outlines and basic shading are all fine — the focus is on putting across your idea, not getting bogged down in the finer points of a single panel or thumbnail. Think of the whole thing as an extended elevator pitch: a quick overview of the entire story in a series of short illustrations.
• Let the story evolve. You may begin with a rigid narrative structure in mind, but as you start sketching, the story may shift direction as it evolves — let that process unfold and see where it takes you.
• Be disciplined with your core panels. Try to distil the story into a small number that capture the narrative arc of beginning, middle and end, along with any key conflicts and resolutions, before building out further. Not every scene you've sketched will make the cut, and as you assemble and reassemble, you'll start to see the weak points that belong on the cutting-room floor.
• Don't skip the feedback step. Ask other creatives in your work, production team or hobbyist circle to look over your animation storyboard and give feedback. Constructive criticism, though not always easy to take, can help you spot problems you hadn't seen yourself.

Choosing the right software and templates.

Storyboard artists can create and organise panels using software such as Adobe Photoshop and Storyboard Pro, which enables board artists to create and re-order rough thumbnail sketches, create camera moves, and import images and sound, among other things.

If you're a hobbyist animator, Adobe Express is also worth a look. With Adobe's professionally designed storyboard templates, you can easily upload your drawings to your project and annotate them with captions to detail characters, dialogue, camera requirements and more.

Fascinated by the world of animation? Keep learning by reading our beginner's guide to animation. Curious how computer-generated animation compares? See how computer animation works.