How to: Story Boards

Storyboards, those things that everyone loves to hate, (And if your like me, leave it to the eleventh hour) Which is okay if you're working on a project yourself or even in a pair but if you work with any large groups you will find these to be vital to creating a successful animation.
Story boards are great for giving out quick information and visuals on what each shot is meant to look like, it saves you time having to explain things to others, and eliminates any confusion.

Above is a story board I found on Google images, just type in storyboard layouts and choose one you like, weather its landscape or portrait, three boxes a page or twelve, it's what you like to work with.

How to use it:
The boxes: Draw a picture of the scene, it need not be good, stick figures and little to no detail is required, this is a very simple design for the idea of the shot.
The lines: Write what you need to know. Is it a INT or EXT (interior or exterior) Night or day? What type of angle is it? What kind of shot? How long does it go for? Dialogue? Sounds? Music? This requires a little more thought than the boxes, some storyboards have more lines, which you may need if you include all of the above.

Hopefully this was helpful and encourages you to use storyboards more in the future.

Put your best foot forward

In 1902, The New York Harold published a cartoon strip named “Buster Brown” it was created by Richard F Outcault and it followed the story of a group of mischievous children, the main character being Buster Brown, his dog, Tige and his sister Mary Jane. 

By 1904, Outcault's creations were a hit and he traveled to the St. Louis World Fair with the intention of cashing in on his own creations and he allowed 200 manufactures the license to use his characters as brand names, one of these was the Brown Shoe Company.

Buster Brown helped build the Brown Shoe Company it is today (with an annual turn over of $2 Billion). The company's success is in part due to licensing deal, which at the time, was to create a pioneering marketing campaign.

From 1904 onwards, a roadshow America visiting shoe and department stores featuring characters from the cartoon strip. Thousands of children persuaded their parents to buy into the brand name. This is an early example of cartoon merchandising that pre-dated Walt Disney him self. 

Mary Jane, was immortalized when he name was applied to the single-strap children's shoe in 1909. 

Bibliography:

Vintage Shoes, text by Caroline Cox and foreword by Christian Louboutin 2008. First published in Australia in 2008 by Cameron House, an imprint of Bookwise Internationally Pty Ltd.