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Pixar in a Box
Course: Pixar in a Box > Unit 2
Lesson 4: Visual language | 4Advice on visual language
Advice from our storytellers.
Want to join the conversation?
- You have to keep Drawing, that came out of no where.
I'm an Illustrator & I know she's right but how many people here have that skill?(8 votes) - Is it just my computer, or is there like, 10 seconds of silence at the end?(6 votes)
- it is not just your computer(0 votes)
- As a screenwriter, when writing for animation, when is it appropriate to use language and descriptions to influence how a storyboard of the scene may look? Obviously color is a great descriptive tool frequently used in any script, but at what point can describing locations and characters in detail become "directing on the page" for an animated script?(5 votes)
- yeah how come you dont use pencils(2 votes)
- you can use pencils,pens or something else it does not matter(4 votes)
- Is there a place where i can digitally make some beatboards for my story?(2 votes)
- Place? Well, so long as you have something to draw on and draw with, the location of where you do this shouldn't matter. In a swimming pool isn't recommended though :)
If you meant tools of some sort (i.e. Photoshop, Clip Studio, or practical tools like a sketchpad, pen, marker, etc.,) then, as long as you can communicate your intention for the beat, that doesn't matter either. Use whatever you can draw with.
My apologies if I'm not understanding your question.(5 votes)
- I'm not good at drawing either but when i start drawing lines and shapes it shows up. But Alistair Learn you need to keep practicing i promise you will do great.(3 votes)
- wow that was alot of info(3 votes)
- cool seem fun and thanks(2 votes)
- I have a character, and I want to know if his shape helps show the personality i'm going for. He's a knight-king who's helmet is round and cylindrical but flat on top. He's got horns on the side of the helmet, and the helmet hole is shaped like a block-y capital T. His chest plate is an upside-down pentagon, and is made up of mostly block-y, geometric shapes and is mostly a grey-blue color. Little organic shape and is made up of a lot of squares and triangles, but the points aren't that jagged. His visor is shaded and you can't see inside.
Your thoughts?(2 votes) - yeah how come you dont use pencil(2 votes)
Video transcript
- So I remember for me, it
was like once I realized I wanted to do storyboarding, I would look at the end credits of films and see the names of everyone on there and sometimes I would look them up online and ask questions to them and a lot of times,
they're all really nice which is surprising. I don't think I've ever had a negative experience doing that. It's either they won't answer or they'll give you
advice for how to do it but I think it's just being
strong in your commitment of what you wanna do and
just never giving up on it and constantly pushing yourself and challenging yourself in
that field, whatever it may be. - You have to keep drawing. You have to keep drawing,
drawing, drawing. The best advice that
I have is not to look, it's great to look at films
and to look at photography, to look at other artists but
for me, it's to look at life. I carry a sketchbook. I do quick sketching. I take notes, sometimes I
don't even have to draw. It's more about observing
people, observing moments. - Remember all the bits
that you've learned about shape, line, texture. Know how they work and then do your best to forget about them by loosening up and doing
a lot of quick drawings, a lot of fast drawings and
not being afraid to fail. You're going to get out your first ideas and your first gestures and you may find
something very spontaneous that you like a lot and then you think using those elements that you've learned about
how to frame that idea by using a triangle as a dynamic shape or a square as a blocking element or a pattern of lines
as a directional device to lead your eye to that
thing that you discovered because you were drawing fast and you could go back
and capture the charm of the thing that came right
off the tip of your pencil. - Play with all of these tools
that you're learning about. Play with line, shape, color but the name of the game is
just to experiment and have fun. Play with compositions that don't work but then learn from those mistakes, think about well, why don't they work, why aren't they achieving
what I want them to achieve? I think you have to forgive yourself and just allow yourself to make mistakes and that's probably the best
advice that I could give. - When I was given an assignment, it would using be a table read first where you get the script pages
and you'd read it together with you, the director, the head of story, usually the writer as well and you kind of just
read it, you take notes, you ask questions and then after that, I would usually go back to my office and I would kinda sit for a while with my eyes closed sometimes and I would just visualize what does the scene look like to me which is basically me just
as quickly as possible and as roughly as possible doing these really
quick and small drawings about what the progression
of the scene is. So maybe there will be a car there and then this is a car there and then moving into maybe
a close-up of a car here and I'll just do this until I
go through the entire script and then I'll have a full page
of all these little squares with what they're saying
underneath it and everything there and then I'll look at
it and then I'll decide is this what I pictured in my head and then if it's not,
I'll usually scrap it and I'll do it again because it's so quick and such an easy way to do it because I'm not putting
much effort or time into it so I can see it as quick as possible and understand where the
mistakes are and how to, sometimes it's rearranging shots. So I might say, oh, I put this one here and I'll put this one over
here at the front of it and before I even move into
the storyboarding process. It's like a plan before
you move into the building of the scene. - I think that the best way
to think about these tools that we're teaching you here today is to think of them
just as that, as tools. They are the building blocks
of visual storytelling that you have to know. This is like your meat and potatoes. You have to learn how to use
these things by practicing and kind of repeating it over and over but in the back of your head, keep in mind that you're
trying to tell a story. So in a way, the best way
to use tone or perspective is asking yourself,
what am I trying to say and that will help you in knowing which ones
of these tools to use and how to use them best. - I remember during the
internship I was really shy and we had to pitch paperboards on a board with a stick in front of the whole group and whenever I would go up to pitch, I would be really quiet and
I would read the dialogue and I wouldn't look at anyone in the eye and I remember he was like, come on, Mike, you gotta be better than this. What's wrong, why can't you
just get up and pitch it? And I think he helped me to realize that when you're pitching and when you're in front of a crowd, they're not really
paying attention to you. It's more about the work. So I remember before pitches,
we would always just get amped where we'd go out in the hallway and then listen to loud music and kinda do jumping
jacks or whatever it took and then go into the room
and then they would ask who wants to go first and
then I would be in the back and I would raise my hand
and he's like, yeah, Mike, go and it was just that kind of encouragement that really helped for
later on in my career and I still kinda do those
things now before pitches. So that's always really helpful. Thanks, Bobby.