Storyboarding and the Story Reel - Animating with Blender: How to Create Short Animations from Start to Finish - page 41

the fi rst shot. Using your storyboarding tools of choice, draw it. Line characters or whatever is appropriate to
your skill level in sketching are fi ne, as long as you will be able to tell one character or item from another.

When you have the fi rst shot drawn, pin it in the upper left corner of the board if you are using physical tools
(pencil and index cards). If you are creating your storyboards digitally, save the image into your storyboards
directory, using the following convention:

Board Number Description.Extension

Board numbers should start with “005” and go up by fi ves (010, 015, etc.). You do this so that if you decide to
enhance a sequence of storyboards with a few extra drawings, then you can keep them numbered sequentially
without renaming all of your fi les. If you're really nervous about it, you can number by tens.

The description is a very short description of what the storyboard depicts.

Of course, the extension is dictated by the format in which you choose to save the illustrations. The PNG for-
mat is usually a good choice for storyboards because it keeps a good balance between fi le size and image quality,
although you are free to use your favorite format, as long as it is one that Blender will be able to import later.

A segment of the “storyboards” folder from The Beast can be seen in Figure 4.36. Notice how several story-
boards have been inserted into the “by fi ves” numbering sequence.

Figure 4.36 A partial listing of the storyboard fi les from The Beast

As you proceed to draw your storyboards, make sure that you include a storyboard for each action or sig-
nifi cant moment that takes place. It can be useful, as shown earlier, to create before and after storyboards of
quickly occurring actions. Add arrows to show motion. Scribble notes on camera movement, sound effects, or
anything else that you think is important. Include bits of dialog where applicable. Relevant set elements and
props should be drawn, but don't become bogged down drawing every detail of every shot.