Most artwork, unlike the goddess Athena, doesn't spring fully formed from the creator's mind. This is especially true of sequential art, such as film and animation. For filmmakers the process of producing a full-length film is further complicated by managing film crews, props, and actors. Planning ahead can save millions of dollars in production costs. Storyboarding is the answer and technique many filmmakers turn to, as explained in this video about "Lord of the Rings" and how it was planned.
For a simplified look at storyboarding, take a look at this University of Houston page on its educational uses. Storyboarding can produce some stunning artwork but usually it's sketched quickly, in response to the need at hand. Closely related is concept art. I'm a big fan of the artwork found in Guild Wars 2; here's a sample.
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| Concept art, Guild Wars 2 |
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As you can see, video games as well as film use storyboarding. The site Game Design Schools has a short, but informative article, "Video Game Storyboard."
For a nuts and bolts treatment of storyboarding -- especially on camera shots, angles, and movement -- take a look at Brian Lemay's page on storyboarding basics. At one point on the page he says:
I had a course when I went to college called "Visual Language". It wasn't about storyboarding but rather how we interpret visual input through our eyes in everything we look at. This visual input is a language all it's own. Like any other way of learning a language we need to start with the basic building blocks.
How true.
-- Marge
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