Life Drawing
Drawing for Features Storyboarding ANM 372 Week 1: Life Drawing
Academy of Art University, ANM 372, Figure Drawing, Life Drawing, Storyboard Class, Storyboarding, Storyboards, UncategorizedHello good webizens! Today I am showcasing my second storyboarding class, Animation 372: Storyboarding for Feature Animation. That’s right, this semester I am taking not one, but two storyboard classes. I am exceedingly pleased with this semester. As a storyboard major, I am finally taking the courses most interesting to me: STORYBOARDING. For FILM no less. Although both of my courses have to deal with storyboarding for feature animation, I am learning some different things in each one. And each of my excellent professors has their own unique way of teaching.
Disney, ILM and Pixar artist Tamara Lusher-Stocker teaches this course. Her filmography includes The Lion King, Home on the Range, Dinosaur, Treasure Planet, and Escape from Planet Earth.
On our first day of class she introduced herself, then the five of us (that’s right, only five students – stellar! Personal attention!) discussed our goals. Everyone in our class is a storyboard major and three of us will soon graduate, so we will be able to showcase our thesis project during the class.
For our first class, we discussed some of the similarities and differences between boarding for TV, live action and feature animation.
TV Animation
As everyone who has ever watched the credits of an animated program knows, most TV animation is not actually animated in the states. For this reason, storyboard artists must be extremely precise. The boards are often used by overseas animators as key frames for their animation, so accuracy is a must.
Live Action
Live action boards serve as a blue print for complicated shots. You want to make sure that the angle of that explosion looks just right before the truck drives under the bridge you’re going to blow up. The point is to give the director exactly what they’re looking for, to draw realistic characters, and often arrows are shown to where the action is going (although I hear this is starting to go away since most everything is put into an animatic now).
Feature Animation
You’re creating the entire film with boards and making a story reel, or animatic, that will show exactly how the movie will be played. No arrows here.
Most importantly one should draw loose and communicate quickly. There’s no time to noodle boards to make them beautiful. You’ll be drawing way to many of them to get attached to any one in particular.
Like in Kristen’s class, we also discussed Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey (seriously, read this book. It explains A LOT and you’ll find how many of your favorite films use the formula pretty accurately). We also discussed stereotypes, empathy, acting, and the importance of using a strong silhouette.
We practiced modeling and drawing each other in preparation for our homework.
Here are my drawings of my classmates:
Next we watched interesting clips from The Incredibles and Monsters Inc. in order to get a better sense of character design and structure. Then we tried our hand at drawing our own crazy creatures.

Working off the original idea, I made my monster girl a little bigger and made her into a workout junkie.

My last sketch, I gave her a 50s retro swim suit and gave her the lifelong ambition of being on the swim team — in spite of her flaming hair.
Finally, we took our last model and were encouraged to tell a story with the character, making the model into some type of creature.
Here are my three processes:

I turned the character into a witch and moved the newt so that he became an unfortunate prince floating in the air.
For our first homework assignment, Tamara instructed us to draw three life drawings of a single person from life, five drawings of them participating in an activity, three head studies, and one drawing of them on the phone. She encouraged us to pick someone fascinating, as our first storyboard will revolve around this character.
You’ll see who I chose in Week 2.
Bon Nuit!
San Francisco Zoo Sketches
Animal Drawing, Animals, Life Drawing, San Francisco ZooI LOVE the zoo. Of course you know this devoted blog followers. Here are even more animals for your viewing amusement. I particularly like the anteater, my favorite animal at the zoo.
Life on the BART Sketches
BART, BART drawings, Figure Drawing, Life DrawingI enjoy drawing people on BART. However, people on BART, look up from your phone once in a while. We are permanently attached to our phones. Phone zombies if you will.
Walt Disney Family Museum Cute Farm Animal Drawings
Animal Drawing, Animals, Figure Drawing, Life Drawing, Walt Disney Family MuseumSaturday I went to the Walt Disney Family Museum and drew some of the cutest farm animals ever. Love animals.
The Daily BART
BART, BART drawings, Life DrawingCharacter Design: Woman At Bat
Academy of Art University, Character designs, Figure Drawing, Life DrawingA woman who is a samurai and then a baseball player.
Character Design: Samurai Punk Woman
Academy of Art University, Character designs, Figure Drawing, Life DrawingThis girl had a cool costume. I like her look and all of her poses.
Greetings from the Oakland Zoo
Academy of Art University, Character designs, Life DrawingTook a field trip to the Oakland Zoo with Character Design Class. That zoo is fantastic. They have at least four of every type of animal. And we were able to see the tigers, which according to the Zoo Volunteer, rarely happens.
Tamsin the Tavern Woman and Pirate Fiends
Academy of Art University, Character designs, Figure Drawing, Life DrawingIt’s always a great day to draw pirates and tavern women, and women pirates. Some are the model, some are based on fun characters I made up as I was looking at the model. Enjoy yee scurvy dogs.