A Storyboarding Tutorial - Part 1 - Starting out

Here I will detail my entire story boarding process from beginning to end with all of my though process and different revisions so you can get an idea of how to board through a sequence. 

To start 


I found a short story to board, an aesop's fable:

A Fox once saw a Crow fly off with a piece of cheese in its beak and settle on a branch of a tree. "That's for me, as I am a Fox," said Master Reynard, and he walked up to the foot of the tree. "Good-day, Mistress Crow," he cried. "How well you are looking to-day: how glossy your feathers; how bright your eye. I feel sure your voice must surpass that of other birds, just as your figure does; let me hear but one song from you that I may greet you as the Queen of Birds." The Crow lifted up her head and began to caw her best, but the moment she opened her mouth the

piece of cheese fell to the ground, only to be snapped up by Master Fox. "That will do," said he. "That was all I wanted. In exchange for your cheese I will give you a piece of advice for the future.

"Do not trust flatterers"

I choose this story for a number of reasons:


Two characters, a simple setting, two levels (up in the tree and down on the ground, it will make for some nice angles), I like the animals, I like the ending, Its very short, it remains in one location, I can think of a cool location etc.

The most important part of the storyboarding process is the planning you do before you start drawing. 


So I will write up my thought process as follows:

Now first I will tweak the story:

A Fox turns over a trash-can next to a barn and looks inside for some food. The trash can is empty. 

Then the Fox sees a Crow fly over with a sandwich in its beak. The Crow settles on a branch of a tree nearby. 

The Fox smirks and walks up to the foot of the tree.

The Fox:

 "Good-day, Mistress Crow." 

The crow glances down at the fox then away uninterested and makes to fly away. 

The Fox (Con't)

"How well you are looking today: how glossy your feathers; how bright your eye. I feel sure your voice must surpass that of other birds, just as your figure does"

The Crow looks down with more interest.

The Fox (Con't)

"let me hear but one song from you that I may greet you as the Queen of Birds." 

The Crow lifts up her head proudly and begins to caw. Her sandwhich falls to the ground, at the foxes feet.

The Fox -

"Next time don't trust a flatterer."

With that the Fox picks up the sandwich in its mouth and skampers away. 

Notes on the changes:

First off Story boarding is a visual medium. 


"Show. Don't tell" 


So I had to rewrite so all of the beats can be seen.  




Below are each change and why I made it so you can see the beginning of how i start on a sequence: 

A Fox once saw a Crow fly off with a piece of cheese in its beak and settle on a branch of a tree. "That's for me, as I am a Fox," said Master Reynard, and he walked up to the foot of the tree. 

TO

A Fox turns over a trash-can next to a barn and looks inside for some food. The trash can is empty. 

Then the Fox sees a Crow fly over with a sandwich in its beak. The Crow settles on a branch of a tree nearby. 

The Fox smirks and walks up to the foot of the tree.

So I wrote the revision of the story to be beat by beat. I described the action to be visual. 

For Visual storytelling we must always think in terms of small bits of information, one piece at a time. when I looked at the story I had to analyzed that information that was being presented and put it in order that it can be easily received. Ill explain that in detail. 

I started with "A Fox once saw a Crow fly off with a piece of cheese in its beak and settle on a branch of a tree. "That's for me, as I am a Fox," said Master Reynard, and he walked up to the foot of the tree."

I see first my main character is a Fox. I have to clearly introduce a fox which is one bit of information. I must show the location clearly. I must show the Crow. And that the crow has a desirable bit of food. and that the crow is flying. It is mundane but a story artist must think this way because the first rule of storyboarding is clarity. 

Then too one must think about the order that the elements are presented. In the original story it is in this order:

Fox, Crow, Flying, Food, Branch, Tree, The food is desirable to the fox, the fox goes up to the tree. 

That works in Prose but I wanted to make a clearer string of events:

Fox, Location = Rural/Barn, Fox is hungry, fox sees a crow with food (and of course wants it), this crow lands on tree nearby. the fox goes to the foot of the tree and looks up. 

I am writing this out to show my though process but this all goes through my head and I just react to it. 

And more notes:

I do not want the fox to start talking to himself "that's for me," so I devised a way of showing that he wants the food. 


Well the most simple way of showing that is to show him to be hungry. Well he is hungry because he does not have food. 


But how do you show a lack of food? An empty plate? Why would he have a plate he is a fox? Well an empty chicken pen? That would require a whole new location and a bit more set up than i want to deal with. So a trash can then because foxes scavenge and I can show the trash can upright at first and the fox knocks it over and looks inside and finds the trash has been picked up or something in any case it is empty. So because he was already desperate enough to look through a trash can he is probably already very hungry. This can all be shown by a simple action. 

Where is this story? Reading through the story I see it only requires a tree but that tree can be anywhere. Also a fox and a crow are limited to their surroundings. Unless I want to make it a comedy then I might place them underwater or in a jungle but as I wanted to focus on the fable and not on my revision of it I decided a rural setting. A chose a barn because I could see a tree standing by a barn and a trash-can also being set beside it. It says "humans are near by but not swarming the place." 


When you start boarding anything it is vital that you have the location and setup clearly in mind. You must also have clearly in mind a setup that will allow for all the actions that you want to have in that location.


For this reason I may not go with my first idea. which in this case was to have him in a chicken pen. Perhaps someone else might be able to make it clear and simple but I foresaw that for me I would have to first introduce a clear place where the chicken pen is then have show the fox walking in then show a wide interior to show that there is no chickens...altogehter doable but for the sake of time I found a simpler and more iconic way of setting up that the fox is hungry. As you can see: "A Fox turns over a trash-can next to a barn and looks inside for some food. The trash can is empty." Is only one line. 

What food? So cheese may be tasty but it does not make for a clear shape and it does instantly say "meal" so i thought "should it be a chicken? A fox would like a chicken. But it would be a weird crow that wants to eat a chicken. Grapes maybe...Maybe... But I go for sandwich because it is a whole meal and something a fox might not be able to get all of the time. This is another simpler choice. 


While I am thinking through all of this I am starting to Visualize how these elements with look. 


And the Next Part:

"Good-day, Mistress Crow," he cried. "How well you are looking to-day: how glossy your feathers; how bright your eye. I feel sure your voice must surpass that of other birds, just as your figure does; let me hear but one song from you that I may greet you as the Queen of Birds."

TO

The Fox:

 "Good-day, Mistress Crow." 

The crow glances down at the fox then away uninterested and makes to fly away. 

The Fox (Con't)

"How well you are looking today: how glossy your feathers; how bright your eye. I feel sure your voice must surpass that of other birds, just as your figure does"

The Crow looks down with more interest.

The Fox (Con't)

"let me hear but one song from you that I may greet you as the Queen of Birds."

This part of the story is the fight as it where. In the original story it doesn't feel like that. 


The fox is like like " yo you beautiful" and the crow is like okay, drops food.


I don't want to draw it out, though I could, because i want it to stay short. 


So I just add some more beats: 


I have the fox address the crow.


The crow passively resists by ignoring the fox and making to fly away to another tree to eat in peace.


the fox continues with his flattery to keep her from leaving.


The crow being, in spite of herself, rather narcissistic can't help but pause a minute to listen. 


The fox has her and finishes his line with a bit of flattery that she cannot resist. 


This story is really just a character moment so I think of who these two characters are.


I don't want it to just be a dumb crow and a malicious fox (which is more like the original story.) 


I want the crow to be a good crow but she is beautiful and has a wonderful voice and she can't help but know it and she is not surprised when others do. 


The fox is an honest hungry fox and can't help but know that the bird is narcissistic and can't help but use this to the advantage of his hungry stomach. Besides it would do her good as every other animal either ignores her obnoxious cawing or flatters her outright. 


Most likely I will not show all of this but creating this backstory in my mind helps me make the characters more unique and believable. And it will be vital in coming up with acting beats in the boards.


If you are having trouble drawing or writing just pause and clearly imagine the characters and the situation. 




The Crow lifted up her head and began to caw her best, but the moment she opened her mouth the

piece of cheese fell to the ground, only to be snapped up by Master Fox. "That will do," said he. "That was all I wanted. In exchange for your cheese I will give you a piece of advice for the future.

"Do not trust flatterers"


TO 

The Crow lifts up her head proudly and begins to caw. Her sandwich falls to the ground, at the foxes feet.

The Fox -

"Next time don't trust a flatterer."

With that the Fox picks up the sandwhich in its mouth and skampers away. 

Notes:


Again I made is clear beats instead of a bunch of dialogue and explanation. 


The Crow lifts up her head proudly and begins to caw. Her sandwhich falls to the ground, at the foxes feet:


The audience can't know she is singing her best but they can see when a character is proud (which implies that it must be their best) So I just wrote that she cawed proudly. 


Then I had the food fall at the foxes feet which iconicity says the fox has it now. I know I can easily show that is one shot.


I didn't like the sermon he gives at the end so I let him just say one clever thing then drive it home by running off with her food. 




Actions Speak louder than words.