Animation+Assignment+2+Character+and+Story

=Character & Story =  All great art begins with a concept. In animation the concept is directly related to a good story. It can be funny, tragic, serious and dramatic, traditional or fantasty, realistic or not. Many animated stories exist these days. A good concept will differentiate your animation from just a cute moving character to a fully-developed animated piece. Keep in mind that our class is only a semester and that it takes 10-12 frames of drawing/painting/images to create one second of animation. Create a story for the character you developed. You may choose your original character or any of the morphed versions of it or develop a new one. The story should include conventional elements of story telling such as character development, plot, theme, settings, climax and resolution. Is it a comedy, tragedy, farce, fantasy, realistic, dramatic, romance? What style of animation will best portray what you want to say? Create sets that reflect the story.



Storyboards
==Storyboards are a visual diagram of the action intended in a video, movie, cartoon or even a dramatic theatre production such as a play. Storyboard artists make great money in Hollywood and other places illustrating the director's plans for a movie. Even something as simple as a one minute TV commercial starts out with an idea and a storyboard. Here are some more facts about storyboards and also some examples and links to helpful storyboard templates and sites. ==

//Many of the resources for this site were found at: [] //

===Storyboards are usually frame by frame plans and serve as the layout for the entire video production. The planning phase of your video/animation project is called __Pre-Production__. ===

===Storyboards should include the following: ===


 * 1) the shot number
 * 2) a sketch and/or description of the video image
 * 3) camera placement
 * 4) subject to camera distance (long shot (LS), middle shot (MS), close up (CU), extreme close up(ECU)
 * 5) camera movement (still, pan, tilt, zoom, handheld vs. tripod)
 * 6) camera angle (low, high, eye level)
 * 7) audio that will accompany the visual (dialogue, music, voice over)

===The storyboard is the guide for the __Production Phase__ of the project (the actual shooting of the video) ===

It helps the director to produce the shot list, and helps the camera person to compose the shots. The storyboard is also used in post-production to develop the structure of the finished product.

===<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">How to Develop a Storyboard ===

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">1. Make a list of all the possible characters in your video.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">2. For each character make lists of the following:


 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">List of locations/settings associated with the character
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">List of visuals (realistic)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">List of visuals (symbolic/metaphoric)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">List of sounds (realistic)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">List of sounds (symbolic/metaphorical)

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">3. Then develop your storyboard and shot list. Consider what all of the compositional strategies for the shots. What angle will you shoot from? etc. See above list.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">4. As you develop the storyboard consider the following questions:


 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Can you picture this shot in your video?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">What do you like about it?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">How do you see the shot communicating the message of the video?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Where do you see the shot in the beginning, middle or end of the video?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">How could the shots be improved? (camera angle, focus, distance to subject, audio, sound effects etc.)

===<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">__Post Production__ is the phase after you've shot the video and you begin to edit it in iMovie. This is where you put your plans together into the final video product. Exporting the video for publication on the Internet is also part of this phase. ===

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Click here to see some examples of storyboards.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Storyboard Templates

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">As an animator you will want to visualize your story. A storyboard is a great way to plan the action and settings of the story. This will help you plan your cells, your media and your actual animation. Here are a few examples of what this might look like and there is also a link to some[| Star Wars storyboards on Flickr.com.] Check 'em out!

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Read more about storyboarding and script writing at the link below. Then check out the storyboard examples here. I will provide some printed storyboards to you for this class. You do not need to print out any of the templates.

@http://www.sotherden.com/video101/storyboard.htm







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