Gera Gera Po - !!

HELLO!! big fan of your animatics!! How do you make them and do you have any tips for inspiration, planning, and what software do you use?

Thank you! I'm glad you like them!

I think the realization that revolutionized the way I think about storyboarding the most is that you HAVE to let your imagination drive. I start off every animatic with super loose, super messy, barely legible sketches, with wrong anatomy, janky movement, etc. Instead of focusing on making it look good, I can just focus on setting it up for its potential, and starting my motivation at the highest point it can be. I never let my first draft take more than a few hours over the course of like 2 days max, or else the drive dissipates.

If I start a board right away with the cleanest, most beautiful art I can muster, I'll kill my own motivation, like "Oh god, in my head, I imagined a huge spinning 3D camera shot here, with a bunch of dancing characters. That last panel alone took me like 30 minutes to draw, I don't wanna do this! I'll draw a simpler, flatter scene instead." and then it ends up looking nothing like how I imagined, and I get demotivated before abandoning the project. But if I start with super messy lines, just barely enough to get the idea out onto a screen where I can watch it, the excitement and imagination will drive, like "Wow, this shot with a huge spinning 3D camera and all these complicated characters looks SO COOL! It's gonna take a lot of work, but look how interesting it looks already! I can't give up on this!"

For reference, this was puppet boy's first draft!

Storyboarding is a bit different from a lot of other visual art mediums because it takes a LOOOOT more work before it starts feeling rewarding. Learning to manage your own motivation is a huge part of building the skill that I feel a lot of people don't mention.

But when it comes to learning how to finalize it, study up on your storyboarding rules! Learn about perspective, anatomy, screen direction, and learn to draw FAST (that's a big one). Draw out shots from your favourite movies, study their composition and take note of their camera/character movement, and how it aligns with the shots sandwiching them. Learn from other artists (I recommend Toniko Pantoja, he's a very experienced board artist who makes a lot of videos abt improving your boards and what it's like to work in the industry), and PRACTISE! Your first piece of art, whenever you try anything new, is going to SUCK. You're gonna think its bad. That's just how art goes. But the next time you do it, you'll always, always, improve, even if just a little, even if you can't see it for yourself.

The biggest thing to keep telling yourself when making storyboards is DON'T GIVE UP YET. YOU'RE SO CLOSE TO MAKING SOMETHING COOL. And then you have to keep telling yourself that over, and over, and over, and over, through all the sighs, and the frustrated rage-quitting, and the exhausted temporary give-ups, and then eventually, those animatics you keep building in your head get to be real! And it feels incredible.