Do you know that artist turns script and concepts into visual stories, But Have you wondered How to become a storyboard artist? This is a hot topic and if you love art, cartoons, 2d sketches, and games fascinate you a lot. You will love this article. But first of all,
What Is A Storyboard Artist and What He does
Storyboard artists are 2d artists whose main job is to create storyboards for advertising agencies and film productions. They are the guys who are involved in the preproduction part of a project. Their job is all about taking a script and turning that script into a story with visuals.
Not only they are master in visualizing scenes, but a storyboard artist also needs to describe camera movement for particular shots. they are the people who decide the camera should move which way and where to place the camera in addition to create strips of entire shots with speech bubbles having some dialogues or no dialogues.
Also read: Cartoon Animation Maker
But, Can anyone become a storyboard artist and pursue a career in it? Well, the Answer to this question is yes. Anyone with a good understanding of drawing skills and strong visualization can start a career as a storyboard artist with just.
To put yourself on the career path, anyone can start working on own from high school age and learn strong storyboard artist skills to get a job in television shows, video game without any bachelor’s degree.
How To Become A Storyboard Artist
To become a Storyboard artist, one must have excellent drawing skills. Along with that knowledge of character design, camera, colors are a must. A bachelor’s degree in fine arts, animation or graphic design is required for this job. Knowledge of gestures and postures is also required.
Becoming a storyboard artist is one of the coolest jobs in the world. But what companies are looking for from candidates is a strong understanding of drawing skills. Also, a strong portfolio showing creative skills in sketching, figure drawing, character designing, drawing. A storyboard artist is the lifeline of a preproduction pipeline. Their job is to create animatics for movies, games, commercials. This can also help in gaining strong knowledge and even send their demo reels to many Animation festivals.
Understanding of Cinematography
Knowledge of cinematography is also needed to be a storyboard artist. Because movies, games, and even computer-generated commercials are not shot live. they are visualized by these people and if they have a deep understanding of the camera.
They can put the same perspective just like real live shoot. So, knowledge of the camera, comic book as well as fine arts, always helps in storyboarding.
Understanding of Camera
During their training for degree courses, they are taught to understand the industry needs and are able to visualize for movements of actors, requirements of scene and camera movements, etc. These multimedia artists are often having a very strong understanding of storytelling skills. They plan things according to the scene, shot of a game or movie, commercial or any Tv series. Setting up camera angles, panning, and zoom in and out of the camera is something that they understand better than many artists.
Read more on : Whiteboard Explainer Video
Storyboard Artist Portfolio
A storyboard artist must have a portfolio showing strong skills in drawing and visualization. Also, camera skills and character movement skills are his strong weapons which he should master.
Also, the language of cinema, staging principles, and how to create dialogue for characters, these are few of the things he must be strong at. They must be having a better understanding of the various aspects of film and television production.
An artist should have a good knowledge of software like Adobe Photoshop and usingWacom for drawing purpose.
Industry Expert Advice
There are a lot of famous storyboard artists in the world. One of them is Pixar’s, Scott Mores. In the above video, he is seen discussing and sharing his experience in his career as a storyboard artist. As they are the creators of many projects which we see on tv or the internet.
Also read: Are Disney Internships Paid?
Books About Storyboarding
- Storyboarding Essentials: How to Translate Your Story to the Screen for Film, TV …….by Benjamin Reid Phillips and David Harland Rousseau.
- Directing the Story ……by Francis Glebas.
- Professional Storyboarding: Rules of Thumb Book ….by Anson Jew.
- The Storyboard Design Course: The Ultimate Guide for Artists, Directors, ….. by Giuseppe Cristiano
- Storyboards: Motion in Art Book …..by Mark Simon
- The Storyboard Artist: A Guide to Freelancing in Film, TV, and Advertising Book ……by Giuseppe Cristiano
- The Art of the Storyboard: Storyboarding for Film, TV, and Animation Book …….by John Hart
Storyboard Softwares
- StudioBinder
- Toon Boom StoryBoard Pro
- Storyboard Fountain
- Storyboard Composer
- Storyboard That
- Adobe Flash
Final Thoughts
We hope you enjoyed this article about becoming a storyboard artist. Getting a break with an entry-level job and having a bright career in the entertainment industry is a dream to many. We hope we were able to provide you the right guidance. Please feel free to share your experience in the comment section.
