How a Storyboard is Made

A story-board for an animation movie is much the same for a feature film, excepting that the scenes suggest precisely the length of the movie for the particular scene. Each scene clearly depicts the characters, their placement in relation to the back ground, action, dialogues and camera movements. Such scenes are described as ‘slugged' and the entire story board indicates the total duration of the animation movie.
Placement or Location of Characters:

The camera is the eye of the viewer. Therefore, the characters are located in relation to the background and context of the story and the dialogue from the sound track.
Camera Movement:

The location of camera is indirectly suggestive of how the characters present themselves to the viewer. In order that the narration of the story is made effective, the camera is shifted from top angle to low angle, panned from east to west or north to south or vice versa or trucked in(zoom in) or trucked out(zoom out).
Action:

The narration of the story determines the action of the characters. Their gestures corresponding to the dialogues, their walk, or run or jump etc according to the situation denote the action of the characters.
Dialogues:

Recording of the dialogues or the sound track is the first step in animation. The scenes are divided according to the script of the story. The approximate length of the movie is calculated based on the sound track and this forms the basis for the construction of the story-board.
Example:

Let us assume,
we are animating the most popular nursery rhyme,

"Twinkle twinkle little star.
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high.
Like a diamond in the sky".


The rhyme's duration is about 15 seconds.
A story-board can be prepared for an animation work that lasts 15 seconds.

Here is how the scenes can be slugged.

Scene #1



Scene #2


Scene #2a



Scene #3



Scene #4



Scene #4a