General Question...

[AngryMonster]

For us storyboarding is essential

We always do a detailed storyboard. So that when it comes to animation we know exactly what we are doing.

Also before we even think of animating we cut together the board to time out the shots (scenes). And use this (we call it an animatic) to cut in the audio. So in the end we have the whole project ready to go. Also if there is a client - we can use this as an approval stage.

The reason we spend so much time at the boarding stage... is that it is easy to make changes... we can fix things quickly and easily... and we waste less time at the animation stage.

As far as I know every (quailty) animated movie was boarded. I know that a lot of live action movies do not use boards. Thats cause they can... They also end up with a sh*$ load of film on the editors floor. In animation we can't afford to do that - we need to know exactly what's going on... and we do not need to waste time animating something that wont be in the final cut.

Don't get me wrong - Over the years I have wasted a lot of time on stuff that hasn't made it to the screen... but its all about minimising.

I agree with Krunk... well almost ... The script is the most important thing. Actually .... before that on the most important scale is - funding -

As a note of interest : We spend most of our time either in Pre-production or Post-production. Because of the intensive pre-production ..the animation becomes quite simple and straight forward and quite quick a process.

So .... my recommendation is to STORYBOARD!!!!!!!

even if your animation is 1 sec/1 shot long...do a sketch work out the composition and the composition of the animation poses....then animate.

(I consider myself an animator - not a board artist ... there is no bias here)

[Danimal]

Thanks to everyone for your answers. I guess the overwhelming majority has it that I need to storyboard.

I looked at some pretty cool storyboard software, but I think I just need to print off some PDFs and hand sketch them - no learning curve!

Thanks everyone. And if you still want to give an example of your wrkflow I'd appreciate it as I'm totally new to doing this as anything other than a hobby.

[slowtiger]

I still think a storyboard on paper is the fastest way to work. Later on one may use software to scan it in, time the drawings to make an animatic, and print out the whole thing if it needs to be presented. But pen & paper are the fastest. (Don't forget to leave some besides your bed if you are, like me, a strong visual dreamer ...)