Hey guys, I’m hoping I’m not the only one with questions about this project, specifically about the animatic. I wasn’t there on tuesday (yeah not a good move on my part), and I had a few questions about what to include for the project.

So, the questions: regarding the animatic, does it need to be in color? How many frames roughly? I was going to do index cards and scan them in possibly…how are you guys going about making the animatic? With the shotlist, I’m not a film major so I’m a little in the dark about this, can I have some examples for types of shots I could use? Do I just say “close-up” of character x?

Regarding the color-keys, do I just take my storyboard illustrations and add color to them?

Whew, that was a lot of questions, a lot of them probably got answered during class which I should’ve gone to. Thanks for help in advance, and I hope you guys’ project’s are coming along better than mine

Hey Nick,

Since none of your classmates seem here to help you out, I’ll chime in.

The animatic is just the storyboards brought into an editor (say at least one storyboard per shot on your shot list) and roughly timed as the eventual shots will be by changing each “slide” duration; some may be a fraction of a second, some several seconds. Rough sounds, dialogue, or music will help decide timing, too.

The storyboards can be rough (and don’t need color)… just shoot for dark enough lines to be seen and as clear of drawings as you can — trying to bring in some of those perspective and figure-drawing ideas and also thinking about composition. (See the “famous artists course” notes on the resources page for ideas on composition that will also tie to your shotlist. Also, index cards would work fine… larger could be better, but as long as the aspect ratio matches your production and the drawings are clear when in digital form, you should be good. (If you use paper or straight digital, there are some three frame per page and one frame templates on the resources page here.)

For the shots to use in the shotlist, review the notes on visual storytelling on the resources page of this site. They have a list of different camera shots (and abbreviations) and basic camera movements that you can use to describe each shot and then aim for drawing in the storyboard slide that goes with that shot. Think about how a wide or medium or close-up, dutch-angle, etc. would affect the story point at that moment and choose what works best. Usually wider shots introduce settings or isolate characters. Closer shots reveal decisions, revelations, etc. and emphasize objects or characters.

The color keys could be a few of your storyboards with added color if you like — just keep in mind their goal — to demonstrate the art style, color palette, and lighting of each of your different scenes. Since it’s a short, you may only have one scene, but if you change time, location, etc., you’ll have more scenes and should have at least one color key for each. Here’s a great example of a color script (color keys) for Up by Pixar: http://louromano.blogspot.com/2009/06/up-color-script.html

Overall, you should be able to read your premise and present your animatic (perhaps with just a bit of added narration by you) and have your story come across clearly to the audience. That’s the goal.