Storyboard Artist questions

Ken: What happens when you choose to take the flack and miss the deadline by a bit?

Also, it's not that I hate storyboarding, more like I would rather be something else such as painting and coloring scenes and characters. Thanks for the advice again. I'll try and keep my boards simple yet, entertaining.

roger: what happened to those artists who handed in those storyboards you mention in your post? They got fired?

Well, I finally have some free time again so I'm going to get start on this test. Wish me luck!

You get some minor teeth gnashing from the storyboard coordinator and get to have a night's sleep every night. If you really blow the deadline you don't get anymore shows to do.
But its all balanced out by how good the work is.

See the bottom line here is how usable the board is. If you hand in a 200 page board that has only 10 corrections needed, and miss the deadline by about 5 days........no one usually complains about it ( much). You just saved them some headaches and effort in correcting the thing, and the job can go through to the next part of the process with minimal fuss.

Trouble is FINDING the people that can do a board right.
Most beginners don't do boards right. Typical problems are not enough posing, or no backgrounds, or basic stuff like the camera axis-rule ( 180 degree rule) is shot to hell. Or the board is just badly told without any cinematic thought behind it/
When I first started doing boards years ago, my work was a borderline mess. The ONLY thing that saved my ass was a bare-bones understanding of the camera axis rule, and that I knew just enough to cut properly from shot to shot--and I got that from studying comics.
I've seen newcomer boards LOADED with jump-cuts, and the board artist had no clue as to what was wrong with the thing.

And with all the above still needing to be addressed, there still comes the need to entertain with the thing too. To make the material funny, cute or thrilling, as the case may be.
Honestly not a lot of people can do it, or even do it justice.

If it sounds like I'm trying to dissuade you from dojng boards-------I sure as hell am! Not to protect my own job, but to challenge only the truly determined people to try doing boards professionally. The Board supers I know constantly spend long hours going over work that is..........well, weak.
They are not making changes for aesthetics--their work is often just to correct the board into having some cinematic sense to begin with.

That scares me as a board artist.......as much as it comforts me because it means that this kind of work is hard to do, and not many people do it right.
And it means I'll always be in demand.

To make these shows the best they can be, they need to start with people that know their shit.

Couple years back, I did a board test for AKA's Ed, Edd and Eddy show, and took my best stab at it.
The average test they see is about 15 board pages long for a 1 page outline.
Mine was 45 pages.
I wasn't doing anything really different content-wise from what anyone else was doing, I just addressed the needs of the board in a specific way.
When I've coached students on getting the very same job, they show me a 15 page board, and I tell them to add more stuff--and they come back with a 25 pager. All they can think of to add is 10 pages........and I've got 20 pages more business in my board without even trying hard, right from the outset.

Btw, I didn't get the gig, even with the test I did. I was over-qualified for the position they wanted to fill anyway.

See, the REAL value in a board artist is not just all that technical stuff, but in the judgement values they make. Entertainment is such a vague, non-descriptive concept anyway--and yet its the real stumbling block here.

The real skill is to look for the PROPER occasions to add business to the story.
Knowing the right beat, consciously or intuitively, is the real money-making skill here.
If the story is a simple one like Lil' Miss Muffet.........at what point can you milk out that simple nursery rhyme for best effect? Do you play out the initial establishing set-up? Or do you build up thr dramatic stalk of the spider? Or is it the reveal of the spider to Miss Muffet? Or is it her ( and the spider's) reaction that get's all the play? What will bore the audience? What will entertain them? What is wasted effort and what misses the mark in terms of the story beat.

When I've handed out assignments like this to students, I've gotten back bullshit with the spider turning into a Godzilla-sized cyber-spider, and Miss Muffet ripping off her cloak to become a Jenna Jameson-lookalike super-vixen, replete with massive rocket-launching machine guns and ninja moves.
That's not the story.
Addressing those needs with the story is the demanding part of the job, and the part of the job that is hardest to fill.
I'm not the best board artist around by any stretch, but 99% of the time I know what I'm doing with the material I'm handed.
That's my edge.

To make these shows the best they can be, they need to start with people that know their shit.

See, the REAL value in a board artist is not just all that technical stuff, but in the judgement values they make. Entertainment is such a vague, non-descriptive concept anyway--and yet its the real stumbling block here.

The real skill is to look for the PROPER occasions to add business to the story.
Knowing the right beat, consciously or intuitively, is the real money-making skill here.

I thought the scripts were filled with camera instructions, staging and pointers to whomever is directing the project? There is also the bible, do you have to have a copy of that while working on the storyboard?

What did you do about those bad storyboards?

I thought the scripts were filled with camera instructions, staging and pointers to whomever is directing the project? There is also the bible, do you have to have a copy of that while working on the storyboard?

What did you do about those bad storyboards?

Honestly, most scripts I see these days offer jack-shit as far as camera instructions--most of it is simply shot set-ups and dialogue.
What is written in the script as a "camera instruction" is often a GUIDE, not a direction and the actualy technical calls are left to the board artists and directors.
Some shows have margin notes regarding what the client wants, but again, its all kept vague to a degree because the board really is the first stab at visualizing the story.
The series bible is seldom of any use because once into production, the story arcs can often change dynamics enough that what you are doing on the board is different enough what what the series bible has anyway.
I use the bibles I get for maybe the first show I board and them put them aside after that--because I usually have the dynamics down for the cast from that point on.

As for the bad boards, if I understand what you are referring to, they have to have someone sit down and redo the chunks that do not work, or add additional material to make them work better.
That eats up unbelievable amounts of time and energy in a board supervisor's day.

See that hardest part about that is recognizing what is wrong, and then thinking about how to fix it without just throwing the whole thing out.
Usually the board artist is tasked with doing the corrections--the supers will post-it-note the board and call for the changes they want and the board artist will do the changes on the panels where its called for.
Sometimes a board artist can get handed back a board that is a sea of pink post-its ( or whatever colour they use). Occasionally the thing will be handed (with a wince) to another board artist to re-do whole chunks of the thing from scratch.

Bear in mind that if a beginner hands in a POS, they seldom get other chances to board unless they improve or the studio is really desperate.
Experienced board artists usually present fewer problems, but everyone has their off-days. I've seen supers shake their heads over worked done by seasoned guys that, for some reason or another, looked like it was ghosted by a rank newbie. That doesn't happen often, but it does happen.

As for the bad boards, if I understand what you are referring to, they have to have someone sit down and redo the chunks that do not work, or add additional material to make them work better.
That eats up unbelievable amounts of time and energy in a board supervisor's day.

Sorry, my bad. I left out the part about students that you were teaching.

When I've coached students on getting the very same job, they show me a 15 page board, and I tell them to add more stuff--and they come back with a 25 pager. All they can think of to add is 10 pages........and I've got 20 pages more business in my board without even trying hard, right from the outset.

I was just wondering if you keep sending them back to work on the project.

Obviously I dont know about this job you are applying to, specifically, but Ive done boards before, and have also directed storyboard artists. Im directing a 3D show for Disney right now, and have done over 30 episodes using their boards... so, I'll tell you what I know:

A) The main thing to knwo about storyboards is that they are STORY boards... not mini-layout. Let the layout guy worry about perfect ruler-perspective. You concentrate on telling the story through the camera: Where do you need a close up? Where do you need a wide shot? Can your audience follow the story? Are your compositions nice? Are you accurately using your backgrounds?

B) Usually rough is fine... storytelling is what matters, but again, depends on the client. Theres a book, Film Directing Shot by Shot, that has some cool info on storyboarding

C) Yes... you DO have to use all that camera info. What I usually do is cut and past from the script itself. Animation scripts are usually pretty detailed on Camera Indications. BAsically, a storyboard is almost a visual representation of the Scripot and X-Sheets. Its a tool the animation team will use, has to be technically professional and accurate.

C)

I have to contradict Roger a bit--as I've been doing boards for about 17 years now and there's some things that need paying attention to more than others.

A) while its true the board is not meant to be lay-outs, the cirrent trend is to reat them as such.
Usually because the boards can be outsourced or assigned to lesser skilled talent, they need to be as complete as practical. Currently, almost all the projects I've worked on in the past 7 years have employed animatics, and a fully posed out board makes for a better animatic. Plus its easier to slug too.

The rule of thumb is that the more specific the board is, the better the final product tends to be.
That means the following;
-A background in the first panel of every scene--no exceptions. If a shot pans after the first panel, add the added background. After the first panel, every panel just needs a indication of the horizon line or ground-plane.
-Add panels to show multiple poses of the action in a given scene. Do not leave peculiar actions to chance, show the material.
--All camera moves need to be shown on the board--pretty much as they would be in a layout.

In essence, idiot-proof the board. Assume the next person that looks at it is a complete moron, and leave nothing to chance. Make it as clear as possible, so that way if any mistakes get made it'll be on the shoulders of production, not pre-prod.
Boarding is hard to do properly--and there's a fair number of sloppy board artists out there.

So with that in mind, they can be a kind of "rough clean"--some constructions lines visible, drawing can have a bit of sketchiness to it. Make sure the characters at least bear a decent resemblance to the model.

B) perspective should be reasonably accurate, as any layout crews will probably take their cues from the board. Surprisingly, layout crews can be lazy buggers, and its not uncommon for outsourced studios to take the boards and photocopy them up to layout size and use them as is. Any flaws in the staging of the shot WILL get transferred to the layout.
Not without reason did I say before that boarding is hard.

C) Depends on the studio, and the job. If you are in-house, you might get salary, but usually the rate is per board, or part of a part. A 22 minute show is typically done by at least 2 people, sometimes as many as 4-6.
Bear in mind that a lot of board creep up to pages counts around 500-600 pages for a 22 minute show these days. That is a lot of work to do for even two people

D) Yep to the camera terms. The board becomes, in essence, a legal document, a guide to how the film is to work. If it lacks accurate written directions and terms, then misinterpretation will happen and mistake will get made. Leave nothing to chance.

Here's a old secret: a well-drawn board can save a weakly told story, to a degree, but a badly drawn board cannot save a good story.

Ken: What happens when you choose to take the flack and miss the deadline by a bit?

roger: what happened to those artists who handed in those storyboards you mention in your post? They got fired?

Yeah, right... In my dreams the bad storyboard artists got fired! But unfortunately, when we get the boards overseas, we have no choice in the matter. The boards come from "the client", meaning the US studio. You're stuck with what you get.

The thing is, animation works department by department... if one department does a sloppy job (X-Sheets, Storyboard, Layout) the next deparment pays for it. Whenever a Western studio sends sloppy boards (by paying peanuts to inexperienced artists?) to an overseas studio, they are passing the cost of correcting those boards to the overseas studio.
Problem is:
A) That cost is usually not refelcted in the budget and...
B) The overseas studio usually lacks the experience, time and manpower to fix the boards before going into production, these places are factories, not creative powerhouses.

End result: Bad boards are followed, layouts are a mess, overseas studio gets blamed for it.

Oh, then theres my favorite... getting ridiculously rough boards, or blank X-Sheets, then having the client say its because they want to give us "creative freedom". That usually translates as "We are too cheap to pay for good boards and X-Sheets... we want YOU to pay for them"

PS: I think missing the deadline by a little bit is ok (once in a while) if you deliver good work in the end, missing it by a lot, or missing it consistently is not ok.

I haven't messed around with Storyboard, but I've got Toon Boom Studio and Solo.

Based on these other packages, I think the line tool may be stashed under the brush tool--click and hold on the brush tool in the toolbox and see if it's there. (otherwise I go nothin'):o

And also, SBA's get payed by hour depending on the length, dexterity, and complexity of the board. A good figuire for a minimum is about 40 dollars p/o :D

Thanks for the replies Roger and Ken.

You see, I'm kind of stuck in a sticky situation. I really want to make a fantastic board to knock the socks off the hiring manager so I could get hired but I don't want them to look at my board and expect me to output the same quality everyday. I've taken a storyboard course in college and know how much work is required. I remember staying up all night trying to finish one for class. It was not fun. I don't want to be a storyboard artist but I am desperate to start working, even if it means doing something I don't want to do...I bet a lot of people probably started their career this way..

Is everyone still doing storyboard the traditional way? By pencil and paper?

I am playing around with Toon Boom Storyboard and it looks pretty neat. Just wish I knew where the damn line tool is!

Ok. My last question before I go.. I know this varies with different companies and people, but how much work does a typical storyboard artist to do? 1 whole episode per day? And how long should it take you do...let's say 1 page of script? Thanks in advance!

ps: I noticed it was your birthday yesterday, Ken. Happy Be-lated Birthday!

When I started, way back, I was doing all-nighters at least once a week, to meet deadline. Now I might do them once per project.
The difference is that I choose to take the flack for missing a deadline by a bit rather than let my health suffer--and it has in the past. But if you are young and healthy, all-nighters are not a problem.

Boards are done in both media these days, in paper and digitially, or combos of the two. I board on paper and find I it takes less time for me. I miss out of some easier digital tools, but paper boards makes things easier on my head.
The other reason is that the gear to do paper boards is expensive for me, that kind of computer set--up, power, the Cintiq monitor.........its all got a hefty pricetag. Working off a Wacom Tablet is a pain in the ass, and I'd rather go to paper than fuss with the thing for boards.

If you do not want to be a storyboard artist, then don't. When I give advice, I tend to give it according to the emotional strokes of the seeker, and taking up boarding for "desperate" reasons is the WRONG thing to do.
Quite simply, you'll be found out and it will show in your work.
Now, if you do get hired, it might not be as a board artist, someone close to the level might get board corrections, or an entry level task would be board clean-up. IN any case, you must demonstrate that you know what you are doing--and they will be looking for a lot of things.
Boards can be a very tough job for a newcomer to land.

On the work load: It depends on the length of the script and the "density" of the material. A page of dialogue takes a lot less time than a page of action.
The scripts I'm seeing these days are running around 35-40 for a whole episode--and the board pages for that apporximate length is typically around 500-600 pages of storyboard. Deadline for a single episode is around 4 weeks.
The number of board pages varies between 10 -20 pages per script page, on average--assuming a two-panel board template.
I just did a paragraph from a page of script the other day and it took uo 15 storyboard pages. The paragraph was only 1/4 of the total script page and was an action sequence. It was part of a 17 page section I was assigned, and completed it in about 4 weeks.

The average output on a good day is around 20 board pages, or roughly a single script page. Some days my output drops to as low as 5-7 pages, some days its as high as 50.

See, things like numbers of characters in the shot, complexity of the location, complexity of the action, the staging and camera moves, as well as the dramatic intent for the shot--all determine how much work it will be.
I've had to sleep on it to figure out HOW I'm going to solve some shots, but eventually I do solve them. The current series I'm on is Chaotic, for Bardel Entertainment--and its being done in FLASH, which has some specific requirements to address in the storyboards. Its been a challenge to adapt to them.

My working secret is this: I try to follow Alex Toth's dictum--Keep it so simple you cannot cheat.
My boards are simple, straightforward storytelling. I keep things clear--everytime I've tried something fancy it blows up in my face--so i stick with the simplest approach.
Consequently ( and to toot my own horn a bit), my boards routinely clock in with 10% or less corrections called. That means out of any 100 board pages, I might have 10 pages with something to correct on them.
Occasionally, my stuff goes through unchanged.
The board supers I know all tell me the norm is around 40-50% corrections.
That's the value in keeping things simple and its worked for me for most of my career.
Pick the best shot, that says the most, showcase the characters, drive the story forward, establish locations and characters constantly, and entertain the hell out of it with what you have on hand.

And thanks for the B-day wish. I spent the day working on a storyboard, LOL!

And also, SBA's get payed by hour depending on the length, dexterity, and complexity of the board. A good figuire for a minimum is about 40 dollars p/o :D

I've never worked for an hourly rate on boards--only a job rate, or per episode rate.
Paying by the hour can be prohibitive because board can be so labour intensive that hours can vary from day to day and week to week.

Mind you, if someone can get a hourly rate for boarding, more power to them.
It can be a good, but demanding way to make some coin.

I did not bring this up earlier but there is an excellent book on this subject.
"Exploring Storyboarding, Design Exploration" by Tumminello, Wendy.

I bought the book but have not put it to use, yet. It is a book aimed at the class rooms that might be teaching this subject. First two chapters were clear, to me, and she has exercies to help in the learning of this art.

Idiot proof boards! That's right!
Actually, my experience is mostly on the recieving end of the boards and I have to tell you... the more detail the better. We love it when the boards are super specific and well laid out. Problem is, we almost never get them that way.
You should see some of the boards we get sometimes, truly frightening.

Hey Kevin, who do you usually do boards for?