The unfinished sketches or casual doodling as many call it, are in fact one of the most important stages of pre-production while making videos of any kind. It’s called the storyboard and is the next big step after script of the animated explainer video is finalized. It’s essential as it helps clients to have a visual idea of what’s going to happen in the video.
Storyboards are parts of all types of videos i.e; Motion Picture, Animation, Motion Graphics or Interactive Media. They first started being used by Walt Disney artists and since then are in use. The time taken to prepare a storyboard completely depends on how detailed oriented the artist wants it as it can be very time consuming or can even be done over a cup of coffee! But mostly, storyboards are kept simple and the detailing is done while the final graphics are prepared. Why it’s helpful is because you can see if the story plot or sequences planned for the animated explainer video is following the original expectation or not.
The process of storyboarding is followed by ‘Animatics’. At this stage the images are put together in sequence for the viewer to get a better idea of how the video will look and feel with motion and timing.
Some of the several benefits of storyboards are:
1. Freedom to experiment
The most important benefit of storyboarding is it’s one of the very first stages in video creation, so there’s a lot of room for making changes. There’s full freedom for the concept artists to experiment and see what turns out and works to be the best.
2. Scripts can be best judged through storyboards
It’s not a hidden fact that some scripts only look good on paper. Just as it goes into storyboarding any mistake can be soon caught and remedied.
3. Areas of improvement become clear
That’s the whole logic behind why storyboards are made in the first place. They bring out the areas of improvement such as scene balance, repetitive scenes, complex drawings etc. They also highlight some new opportunities followed by changes.
4. It makes the video creation process a lot easier
For a second, let’s imagine a world without storyboards. What would it be like? A writer hands over the script to the graphics artist who works on the final graphics and hands it over to the animator. The animator without any clue of animation starts animating. There’s a 110% chance the animation would turn out to be… let’s say… not satisfactory. Here’s the reason why : The writer writes the script imagining something, the graphic designer similarly imagines while making the drawing and the animator imagines something totally different while animating the animated explainer video.
While preparing the storyboard, all these major characters, the writer, graphic artists and animators all sit together and discuss their thoughts on the script. A very important step where everyone chips in their thoughts.
Storyboard facilitates good communication amongst the animated explainer video makers with very little room for misunderstanding in the working process.
