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The New Don Bluth STORYBOARD Book

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The New Don Bluth STORYBOARD Book

Hello.

Anyone out there using the new STORYBOARD Book by Don Bluth.

Any opinions of it?

Thanks.

Larry L.'s picture
Larry web site http://tooninst[URL=http://tooninstitute.awn.com]itute.awn.com [/URL]blog: [U]http://www.awm.com/blogs/always-animated [/U] email: larry.lauria@gmail.com

I've had it for a couple months now and enjoyed it, and only just noticed a certain professor's recommendation on the back :) It's the best storyboarding book I've run across so far, though Film Directing: Shot by Shot also has a lot of good info as well. It's a lot more visual than most...some of the things I particularly like are of course the artwork (love Don Bluth's designs!), the section on camera angles under Mechanics, and the long (maybe too long) sections of annotated storyboards. My favorite is the opening section on Creativity, it helps give a peek into the thinking process of a master animator. Can't wait till his next book is out (looks like it's already overdue?)

Gary says that The Art of Drawing for Animation is slated to be released around the last week of March. So a few more weeks. On Don's site it says the work is already finished and proofed and Darkhorse is in the process of publishing now. So, not too long to wait. He's also coming out with a Layout book and one other I forget the name, but basically a few of the key aspects of animation. Should be a good year for the Bluth guys.

Off topic, but thought you might like to know

my only real complaint was that they didn't explain how numbering scenes and sequences were actually done. He tells the reader to number their boards with that information but doesn't explain to the reader how that information comes about.

My guess is that the numbers are completely arbitrary and based on how the studio has set up its pipeline. Typically, a shot will be indicated by a scene designation and then a specific number indicating a shot within that scene. Such as, Allen Beats Carl shot 1 might be ABC001. I've seen it done a number of different ways, but the most typical way is a three digit scene name (ABC) and a 3 digit shot number (123). But I've also seen it with just numbers. It varies from studio to studio and how they come up with the numbers is usually dictated by editorial.

It's a lot of that minute technical information that most books leave out because that's just second nature to the writer and they forget or assume the reader knows it already.

I find that frustrating, too. That's usually the type of information that you were hoping from the book in the first place unless you're completely new to the craft.

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I have a copy of it. It's a descent book full of basic and pratical information. Most of all I like the way he talks about light, it's a topic that usually isn't covered in a storyboard book. I showed the Concept folks in the department it but don't know if they are planning to do anything with it. I think they are currently using the book called Layout (or something like that).

ed

Department of Computer Animation
Ringling College of Art and Design
Sarasota Florida

my only real complaint was that they didn't explain how numbering scenes and sequences were actually done. He tells the reader to number their boards with that information but doesn't explain to the reader how that information comes about. It's a lot of that minute technical information that most books leave out because that's just second nature to the writer and they forget or assume the reader knows it already.

but it has great art, good information. I give it 4.5 stars out of 5.