Storytelling and Pre-production
Storytelling
Think about your favorite animated movie. What was the movie about? What was the main character's name? How did that movie make you feel?
Chances are, if you have a favorite animated movie, you remember the story by heart, the character's names and what they are like (funny, grumpy, quirky, smart). Depending on the movie, you might know the lyrics of the songs the characters sing, and you definitely remember how that movie made you feel. You may get emotional just thinking about a sad scene, because you care about those characters and what they have gone through. That is why story is the most important aspect of an animation.
You may create the most technically stunning animation you are capable of, but if you don't have an interesting story behind it, it probably won't engage the viewer. Animation, as any other art form, needs to be imbued with meaning, even if this meaning is not instantly noticeable.
So how do you write a meaningful story? There is no short answer to that, but a good start is to think about your own experiences in life and important memories you have. Some memories may be sad, or you might remember something that taught you an important lesson. If you remember it vividly, this might be a good start for a story. Don't confuse this with the idea that every story you write is specifically about you. What you want to focus on is the feeling you get, the emotion you feel when you remember something, and how you translate that feeling into a story. Also very important is how you transfer that emotion to other people. Make sure your story is relatable, and that other people understand what you are trying to convey.
Try to keep your story simple, at least at first. Once you have a general idea of what your story is about, try to plan ahead and think how it all starts, and how it will end. This might help you to keep a clear goal and not get sidetracked. This doesn't mean that you can't change your mind though. Stories change and evolve constantly while you create them, so don't feel pressured to work on an idea just because it looked really good in the past, and don't be afraid of starting over.
Writing doesn't have to be a lonely process. Look for other people's opinions and pay attention to their reaction to your story. Take all criticism and praise into account, but make sure to stay true to your vision. Remember this is your story and you are free to tell it any way you like.
Finally, as you write your story, try to imagine it as a movie/animation. Ask yourself how does it translate to the screen, what do the characters and locations look like, and how does that affect the story itself. This will make the process of turning your story into an animation much easier later on.
Emma Coats, a storyboard artist from Pixar has compiled a very helpful list of rules on how to create great stories and characters:
- You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.
- You gotta keep in mind what’s interesting to you as an audience, not what’s fun to do as a writer. They can be very different.
- Trying for theme is important, but you won’t see what the story is actually about until you’re at the end of it. Now rewrite.
- Once upon a time there was ----. Every day, ----. One day ----. Because of that, ----. Because of that, ----. Until finally ----.
- Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You’ll feel like you’re losing valuable stuff but it sets you free.
- What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?
- Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.
- Finish your story, let go even if it’s not perfect. In an ideal world you have both, but move on. Do better next time.
- When you’re stuck, make a list of what WOULDN’T happen next. Lots of times the material to get you unstuck will show up.
- Pull apart the stories you like. What you like in them is a part of you; you’ve got to recognise it before you can use it.
- Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you’ll never share it with anyone.
- Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th – get the obvious out of the way. Surprise yourself.
- Give your characters opinions. Passive/malleable might seem likable to you as you write, but it’s poison to the audience.
- Why must you tell THIS story? What’s the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of? That’s the heart of it.
- If you were your character, in this situation, how would you feel? Honesty lends credibility to unbelievable situations.
- What are the stakes? Give us reason to root for the character. What happens if they don’t succeed? Stack the odds against.
- No work is ever wasted. If it’s not working, let go and move on – it’ll come back around to be useful later.
- You have to know yourself: the difference between doing your best & fussing. Story is testing, not refining.
- Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.
- Exercise: take the building blocks of a movie you dislike. How d’you rearrange them into what you DO like?
- You gotta identify with your situation/characters, can’t just write ‘cool’. What would make YOU act that way?
- What’s the essence of your story? Most economical telling of it? If you know that, you can build out from there.
Pre-production
Pre-production is the planning period before any development is done. It is in this phase that your ideas and animation take shape as you better define characters, locations, story and as many other details as you can. The first step of pre-production is called...
Outline
The outline is a document where you collect and organize all the elements of your story. This is a very important step in animation development, and very useful to not lose sight of the details about the plot, characters, etc.
An outline can have many forms. It can be a simple list or a collection of reference images, text and even sounds. It depends on what works better for you as an animator.
The main elements of an outline are:
Story pitch or summarized plot:
A short version of your story with all of the most important plot points. It can be presented as a couple of short paragraphs, or even bullet points. Your story pitch should answer some of these questions:
- Who is the main character and what are its objectives and motivations?
- What is the character's initial condition, and how does that change over the course of the story?
- What are the obstacles and conflicts the main character faces?
Character profiles:
Everything there is to know about the characters in your story. A few examples are:
- Character's name
- Age and/or date of birth
- favorite food/color/type of music
- Personality traits/general mood
- Catchphrases
Anything else that may be essential to the plot (past traumas, goals in life, etc.)
You should strive to create characters with opinions and feelings, and that also have consistency. Even if most of the details you list in this step end up not making into a scene in your animation, the fact that you thought about them will help you create more believable characters.
Locations:
A list of locations with detailed descriptions. In this section you can specify:
- Where and when does your story happen (in a space station, in an arcade in the 1980's, inside a kitchen). Describe each landscape and scenery, or use pictures/illustrations as reference.
- Overall mood of the place
- Time of day/weather/season
How does the location affects the characters
Depending on your story, locations can be almost as important as a character, so make sure to think about your locations very carefully.
When you finish your outline, and even as you organize and write your outline, you'll notice that your story evolves and sometimes can even change completely. This is a common ocurrence, so don't be afraid of rewriting your story as many times as you feel is necessary.
Once you complete this step, you are ready to start working on the...
Storyboard
Storyboards are a visual representation of your story. As the name suggests, it consists of a collection of illustrations or images, generally pinned to a board, showing your scenes in chronological order. Storyboards can be as detailed or as simple as you want, and you don't necessarily need to use an actual board, as even small thumbnails scribbled on paper should be fine, as long as that clearly conveys the ideas in your story.
The storyboard is and incredibly useful tool, and it contains a lot of information about your animation, such as:
"camera" movement and scene composition
In a storyboard, you can define how a camera should be positioned, and also how it should move with the use of arrows inside or around the frame.
scene cuts and action timing
Because of the chronological nature of the storyboard, you can use it to easily define when things will happen in a scene, and when one scene will cut to the next.
character and prop movement
You can pose and give the idea of movement to characters and and other elements by using arrows close to or around them. Here is a great example by Alex DeLeon: http://www.stayup.com/motorcycleStoryboard.jpg
scene by scene description
You can write a short description of the scene under each frame of a storyboard. This helps to clarify any details that might be hard to convey in the frame.
extras
If necessary, you can add details such as scene numbers, dialogue for each character, notes about color/mood/music, etc. The level of detail contained in a storyboard ultimately depends on how complex the animation is and what works for you.
Once the storyboard is in place, it serves as a guide for the entire production process, so it is important to take your time developing it and make sure that it is clear and easily understandable.