DDA 514, Storyboarding & Storytelling
Final project due Feb. 20 (6th session)
Overview:
This
project is done as a team of three or four students. Form a team and select
one of the stories listed below. From that story, select 3 or 4
sequential scenes that you will develop and storyboard. The
scenes you select must be sequential. In order to keep the
quantity of work manageable, the total running time of your final
animatic should be approximately 30 seconds per student. Thus a
team of three should plan to limit their project to an approximately 1 1/2 minutes running time, etc.
Do not
change the milieu
of the story
in any significant way -- that is, do not change the historical time
period or the setting. Also not change the tone of the story in any
significant way -- for example, do not change a comic story into a
tragic story, do not change a serious story into a comic story, do
not add gratuitous violence, etc. You may, of course – and should
– add lots
of details to add interest, and some of those details may be
unexpected, but your job here is to tell this
story well,
not to make up a new story.
Use the Storyboard
Pro software
to develop and print your storyboard.
Specifics:
1. Decide which team members will be responsible for which aspects of the work. (This will need to be adjusted as you work on the project.)
2. Decide which story you will storyboard. Decide which sequential scenes from that story you will storyboard. Decide which details of the scenes you will keep, discard, or elaborate on. Remember the final running time of your project in making these decisions.
3. Decide which medium and technique(s) would be used to produce your animation. You will not be producing any animation, but you need to decide how it would be produced so you can plan accordingly. For example, would it be hand-drawn 2d animation, 3d animation, cut-out animation, stop-motion clay animation, some combination of these? Would it include any live action? Etc.
4. Do concept/design sketches and/or physical models for all the principle assets of your story -- that is, for the principle characters, scenes, environments, and props of your story. For all principle assets, produce at least one high-quality full-color rendering. For each principle character do turnaround-drawings or models as well as expression drawings or models. (These do not have to be full-color.)
5. Do lots of preliminary storyboards for your scenes. These can be done as quick sketches on paper, within Storyboard Pro, or any way you choose.
6. Use Storyboard Pro to to develop a detailed storyboard of your scenes. Pay special attention to the following:
Before the first panel of your storyboard, insert one panel of text explaining very briefly at what point in the story you are starting.
Wherever appropriate, include graphic icons (arrows, etc.) and/or verbal descriptions of the action or camera to aid understanding.
Your panel imagery should be detailed enough and your panels numerous enough to very clearly convey the action, mood, camera angles, and transitions.
Make sure the graphic style of your panels is consistent throughout your storyboard. This may mean dividing the work so that one person does all the drawing, one does all the coloring, etc.
Include written descriptions of the soundtrack for the entire storyboard. (Do NOT attempt to produce an actual audio soundtrack. Instead, include verbal notations describing the music, sound effects, and dialogue.)
One scene of your storyboard should be done in full-color. (The other scenes do not need to be done in full-color; they can be done as line drawings if you wish.) The full-color scene does not need to reproduce in each panel the highly detailed design drawings you did, but it should be in full color even if you use a simplified color palette to refer to your design drawings.
Someone who does not already know your story should be able to follow solely from your storyboard, without any explanation from you.
7. Use Storyboard Pro to print out physical storyboard panels. Final printed panel drawings must be a minimum of 3” x 4". Also use Storyboard Pro to export an 8 1/2" x 11" PDF of your storyboard, 2x4 panels per page, to be posted to your blog. (See my Introduction to StoryboardPro instruction sheet online for details on how to do this.) It is not required to do your entire storyboard in presentation-quality full-color panels, but you must do a minimum of one full scene at that final full-color quality.
Final Hand-in:
On the final due date, you must hand in certain physical materals as well as posting materials to your blog. Hand in the following:
1. Concept, design, and rendering sketches printed and mounted onto board. (See item #4 above for details.) These should be printed large enough for the group to be able to see them.
2. Printed storyboard of your selected scenes, mounted on board. (See item #7 above for details.) If you print the storyboard panels individually, tape or glue them to a foam board. (Do not use pins; they will fall off.) If you print out large sheets of several panels each, pin the sheets to a single foamboard so we can flip through them. You may use the same foamboard(s) for both concept drawings and storyboard.
3. Post to your blog page: A) Final design drawings/designs; B) a 8.5 x 11 2x4 PDF of your complete storyboard, as exported from StoryboardPro. Each team member should create a link on his/her blog to this PDF.
4.
A printed
sheet listing which team members did which portions of the work.
5.
After
everything is handed in, I will email each of you a self-evaluation
form to evaluate the contribution of the members of your team. This
self-evaluation form is a required part of the assignment and must be
filled in and emailed back to me.
Each student’s grade will be based on the quality of the final project, plus that student’s individual contribution to the project. Grades will be based on the quality of thought and quality of execution of all the elements.
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The stories you can choose from are the following. (Click the links for details)