Storyboarding Fundamentals

Learn how to storyboard for Film, TV, and Video Games in this 6-week workshop

Storyboarding is the Best Way to Share Your Vision

Storyboarding artists are sought-after artists in the film, TV, commercial, and animation industries. If you want to learn how to create professional storyboards you need to start learning from the masters.

Cartoony Animation Looney Tunes
Cartoony Animation Looney Tunes

In our workshop you’ll learn how to analyze a story to create strong storyboards that communicate visually. You will gain a solid foundation of the fundamentals of storyboarding, such as pacing, beats, camera angles, and timing. Once you finish this course you will be able to break down any story so it can be told visually by an animator, cinematographer, or commercial director.

Pixar’s long-standing motto is, “Story is king.” A great story resonates with an audience, no matter what medium it’s told through. From comic books to TV to feature films, there are so many stories left to tell.

Now it’s time to tell yours.

6-WEEK WORKSHOP

$899 USD

Start the Week of
March 25, 2024

Register By
March 24, 2024

Pro Storyboard Artists Mentor You to Be Successful

Our workshop allows you to learn, practice, and get 1:1 feedback and reviews from our mentors who work as professional storyboard artists. You will have the chance to learn from them in live conversations as they share insights about what studios are working on and what qualities they look for in a storyboard artist. Our mentors will work directly with you to grow and improve your skills.

Mike Kunkel mentor and storyboard instructor

Hero Bear and the Boy

Mike Kunkel

Story and Development Artist
The Astonish Factory

Mike Kunkel is first and foremost a cartoonist! Writing and drawing cartoons is something he's wanted to do since he was a kid and now, with over 20 years of experience in the animation industry, Mike has done just that by working on numerous TV and film projects as a director, story and development artist, character designer, screenwriter, and animator.

Mike has worked for studios such as Warner Bros, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Sony Entertainment, Universal Pictures, and Walt Disney Studios.

As a published writer and artist, Mike was nominated three times for the prestigious Eisner Awards and four times for the Ignatz Awards. He's the creator of the two-time Eisner award-winning comic book series, "Herobear and the Kid," and as a designer in TV, he won the Annie Award for Best Character Design in an Animated Television Production.

Read Full Bio

Tuesdays | 7:30 - 8:30 PM*
Wednesdays | 9:00 - 10:00 AM*

*All times are in Pacific Time.

Examples of Mike Kunkel’s Work

Click images to enlarge

1-on-1 Feedback from a Studio Pro

During this 6-week workshop, you’ll have live Q&As with your mentor each week in addition to receiving an assignment designed to build your skills. Plus, your mentor will review and critique each of your assignments and provide you with a video of their feedback so you can improve your work.

Learn from an award-winning industry veteran

With over 20 years of experience in the industry, Mike Kunkel will guide you through the essentials of storytelling and storyboarding. His tailored curriculum will help you understand the workflow and thought process of a professional story artist. A multiple Eisner award-winning cartoonist and an Annie award-winning character designer, Mike will teach you what it takes to be a storyboard artist.

Storyboarding Student Gallery

Vasilisa Ikonnikova

Mooly Segal

Marilù Rainò

Jane Morrison

Jasmine Jacobs

Phill S

What You’ll Learn in Storyboarding Fundamentals

Week 1

Learn the Basic Ideas and Structure of a Storyboard

Storyboarding is an incredibly powerful tool that allows you to quickly share your vision and to quickly iterate ideas. In this first session, we’ll go over the basics of storyboarding, including structure and common terms, as well as visual storytelling through live demonstrations and examples.

Week 2

Understanding Story Beats & Timing

Storyboarding is all about identifying the main beats that provide the core structure of the story. In this session, we’ll learn all about beat boards and what role they play in storyboarding to help tell a complete story.

Week 3

Incorporating Thumbnails Into Your Storyboarding Process

When drafting a visual story, you want to clearly and simply communicate your ideas in as few drawings as possible. Thumbnails are about to become your best friend! They may seem simple, but we’ll look at the huge impact they have on storytelling and see how to incorporate them into your process.

Week 4

Laughter is Food for the Soul: Portraying Humor

Humor can be a powerful storytelling tool, but it’s easy to miss the mark with your audience if your punchline is off. In this session, we’ll analyze what makes a good gag and the importance of timing and delivery. We’ll also compare the differences between story-driven humor and random jokes, and see how best to apply them.

Week 5

Be a Visual Storyteller

In the previous sessions, we’ve focused on building up our storyboarding toolset. Armed with these tools, we’re now ready to get into the core of storytelling. We’ll learn to phrase our scenes and sequences, and dive into how to use the camera to set up a moment and bring stronger emotional impact to a scene.

Week 6

Story is Life

When we tell a story, we are observing life. In this final session, we’ll discuss how to build on our skills and grow our abilities to tell stronger visual stories. By taking a look at life and the stories around us, we’ll gain a broader library and knowledge of natural storytelling. We’ll also do a drawing exercise/live demonstration to connect with a core storytelling aspect in all of us.

Course Requirements for Storyboarding Fundamentals

Course Details

LIVE Q&As | Weekly 1-Hour Q&As

ASSIGNMENTS | 5 Animation Exercises

SOFTWARE |

Skills You Need Before You Start

Storyboarding Fundamentals is open to artists of all experience levels, but basic drawing skills are required. The lessons and feedback will be tailored to fit you. The workshop is not graded so that you feel comfortable learning the concepts at your own pace.

What You’ll Learn

This 6-week workshop will help you understand foundational techniques for staging, clarity, emotion and other fundamental principles of visual storytelling. You’ll start by studying film and TV examples, breaking down what works and why. After storyboarding weekly, situational moments, you will ultimately take a simple short story and board it to completion.

Once you’ve completed our workshop, you’ll be able to confidently progress on your storyboarding journey because you’ll have mastered these key skills:

  • Foundation in visual storytelling with an emphasis on the language, terminology, and visual structure of storyboarding
  • Understanding of techniques and the impact that camera setup, staging, clarity of pose, and emotional undertone have on your story
  • Craft and sculpt every single pose on screen, to ensure the narrative intent reads clearly
  • Ability to critique real film examples to see how the pros storyboard successfully
  • Confidence to break down a simple short story and create a board set

FAQ for Storyboarding

What is a storyboard?

A storyboard is a series of illustrations that represent the narrative of a movie or a single sequence. They can be very detailed featuring descriptive text and arrows to help the user imagine movements or very basic (often referred to as thumbnail storyboard) featuring just rough sketches.

What is the purpose of a storyboard?

Storyboards are used by artists to create the first visualization of the project. With a storyboard you can get your entire team on the same page so that everyone has a clear understanding of what they are working on and how it should look. Storyboards are also often used to pitch ideas to clients.

What does a storyboard artist do?

A storyboard artist creates the first visual representation of the story. These artists must think about camera angles, character movement and direction, and the overall narrative while bringing the story to life in a clear way.

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