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.

How to: Walk (This Way)

This is a really basic walk cycle, with a simple character (with two legs, two arms). Animated on 2s. (Without inbetweens but if you look in the top right hand courner you'll see a where the inbetweens go) The shaded arm/leg is the one behind.

1.) Contact: This should be the first drawing you draw.

• Both feet touch the ground.
• Arms swing oppsite to the leg

 

2.) Down: The character should reach the lowest point in this drawinging. This drawing is should placed in between the passing and the contast.

• Body dips down, to its lowest point, the front leg should be taking the weight.

 3.) Passing: Middle drawing, should be drawn second.

• The body is going up, the leg is lifted and passing the leading leg, ditto for the arms.

 

4.) High Point: The character should be reach it's highest point in the walk cycle.

•  The body's weight is tipping foreward and the leading leg is moving forewards to catch the body from falling

5.) Contact: The legs and arms have swapped arms. The next three drawings should be the down, passing and up only reversed from the previous drawings.

I'll do a post on the inbetweens later, k? :)