Prepare to Board!: Creating Story and Characters for Animation Features and Shorts

Packed with illustrations that illuminate and a text that entertains and informs, this book explains the methods and techniques of animation preproduction with a focus on story development and character design.

Story is the most important part of an animated film—and this book delivers clear direction on how animators can create characters and stories that have originality and appeal. Learn how the animation storyboard differs from live action boards and how characters must be developed simultaneously with the story. Positive and negative examples of storyboard and character design are presented and analyzed to demonstrate successful problem-solving techniques. Artwork from an international array of students and professionals supplement the author’s own illustrations. Three never-before-published interviews with well known development artists and a comprehensive glossary are also included.

·Written and illustrated by a renowned animator with 30 years experience as producer, designer, and story artist.

· Storyboard and character design examples from an international array of students and professionals.

· Positive and negative examples illustrate the techniques.

Create realistic characters; with genuine thoughts, emotions-and conflicts. Packed with colorful illustrations that illuminate, this book clearly explains the methods and techniques of animation preproduction, with a focus on story development and character design. Examples of story boards, color keys, and character designs from an international array of students and professionals supplement the author's own work and original illustrations.

Create realistic characters; with genuine thoughts, emotions — and conflicts. Packed with colorful illustrations that illuminate, this book clearly explains the methods and techniques of animation preproduction, with a focus on story development and character design. Examples of story boards, color keys, and character designs from an international array of students and professionals supplement the author's own work and original illustrations.

•Written and illustrated by a renowned animator with 30 years experience as producer, designer, and story artist.

• Storyboard and character design examples from an international array of students and professionals.

• Positive and negative examples illustrate the techniques.

Currently teaching animation and character design at the Rochester Institute of Technology, Nancy has worked for nearly thirty years as a supervising animator, director, character designer, and storyboard artist. A graduate of the Character Animation Program at the California Institute of the Arts, Nancy worked in development and as a supervising animator on several Disney features including A Goofy Movie, Hercules and Treasure Planet. She was nominated for an Annie award in 2000 for storyboarding Little Angelita for Disney and won a Cine Golden Eagle in 1984 for her personal film Your Feets’ Too Big. Nancy is a member of the National Cartoonists Society and the Australian Black and White Cartoonists Club. In recent years she has illustrated two children’s books, Duffy and the Invisible Crocodile and Basil Bigboots the Pirate for Australian writer Patricia Bernard in 2004, and taught at the Savannah College of Art And Design.

A graduate of the California Institute of the Arts, Nancy’s 30 year career includes television specials, commercials, new media and several Disney features. She teaches animation and design at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Getting Started; Vive La Difference! Animation and Live Action Storyboards; Putting Yourself Into Your Work; Situation and Character Driven Stories; What If? Contrasting the Possible and the Fanciful; Appealing or Appalling? Beginning Character Design; Size Matters: The Importance of Scale; Beauties and Beasts: Creating Character Contrasts in Design; Location, Location, Location: Art Direction and Storytelling; Starting Story Sketch: Compose Yourself; Roughing It: Basic Staging; Boarding Time: Getting With the Story Beat; The Big Picture: Creating Story Sequences; Patterns in Time: Pacing Action on Rough Boards; Present Tense: Creating a Performance on Storyboard; Diamond in the Rough Model Sheet : Refining Character Designs; Color My World: Art Direction and Storytelling; Show and Tell: Pitching Your Storyboards; Talking Pictures: Assembling a Story Reel or Animatic with a Scratch Track; Build a Better Mouse: Creating Cleanup Model Sheets; Maquette Simple: Modeling Characters in Three Dimensions; Am I Blue? Creating Character through Color; Screen and Screen Again: Preparing for Production; Books, Discs, and Websites for Further Reference; Animated Interviews