(gentle music)
- I think most people before they really know
what storyboarding is, use storyboards as comic strips
because there's such a demand for talent right now.
In our show, we have some artists
that really don't have a whole lot of knowledge
of storyboarding we've brought it in.
We're just kind of training on the job.
In our case, the skills of the storyboarding
is something we could teach.
But what we can teach is people having drawing skills
and having passion and actually I think loving to draw.
For me, would I be in the business today,
had it not been a business
that was really needing talent desperately
in the mid 90s? I don't know.
I made a lot of mistakes along the way.
I learned things like, Oh, composition.
There's such a thing as composition. It matters.
Directing the viewer's eye. Where the eye is gonna go.
These are all little things I picked up along the way
from directors I worked with.
One of the best experiences I had,
was I worked at a flash animation website,
called icebox.com.
What was cool about that was,
we jumped from project to project to project.
Every single project was a different style.
One of the things I learned
is how important it is for a storyboard artists
to be able to jump from style to style.
To diversify, to be able to, not just do one look,
but be able to do a variety of looks and styles,
not only of drawing style, but humor or action.
They all have very, very different requirements and needs.
- I went to San Jose State
for an animation illustration program.
And the one thing that I would stress the most
in terms of education is don't break your bank.
Like you don't need to go to CalArts
to get an animation job,
and especially in the day of like, internet.
If you're graduated from college already,
there are so many opportunities online for you to learn,
to pick up free resources, to apply your knowledge,
and so I would really strongly recommend that.
- I remember when I got into the business
without going to art school,
I was surrounded by people
that were saddled with enormous debt.
And I felt like I kind of like snuck in the back door
and I had an advantage 'cause I didn't have
this student loan I had to pay every month.
So I would recommend if you can get around doing it
which it kind of seems like you kind of can, nowadays.
There's nothing wrong with going to school,
but if you can avoid putting yourself in debt,
it might be something worth considering.
- For me too, something that really bridged the gap
in terms of my artistic journey
and getting into storyboarding
was when I was on SpongeBob as a production assistant
and seeing everyone's art
and seeing kind of what the standard was.
It helped me to relearn that there's drawing,
and then there's also cartooning.
And cartooning is something totally different from
like life drawing, for example.
Like there are principles that apply
but there are so many ways you can exaggerate
and push and focus on volume.
And so for me when I was absorbing all this information
and saying, okay
what's the fastest way I can express this emotion
or this feeling I a pose.
Looking at the SpongeBob work really helped me get that.
Then another big thing that kind of
I think pushed my work personally
into the edge of being like hireable was,
when I took the test that finally got me a job.
Was, I really focused on delivering something
that was both clear and lively but also clean.
I think a lot of people misinterpret storyboarding
as you can be as chicken and scratchy or rough as possible
or a lot of people go, okay, well
you don't have to be on model, right?
And it's like, no, you do have to be on model
and you also have to push it and make it lively,
but you don't have to make it so tight that it's stiff.
- I will admit that my art major at my school
was not necessarily the best.
So there were definitely
more in the fine arts and photography, but like
I was the only hardcore animator student over there.
But when I came here and I took some classes at CDA
I had some really good mentors, really good people
that like really pushed me to my limits
while on the side I was making comics.
I was trying to make original work.
I always had that love of storytelling
and trying to find a way to tell stories as well drawing.
A good way would probably be like to study film.
Don't just watch cartoons, like you can watch everything.
You can watch the good stuff.
See what was said, you can watch the bad stuff
once you understand why the good stuff works.
And that's like, what I do in my off time,
I'll just watch cartoons.
I'll watch like TV shows and be like, Oh
I really loved that shot, really loved that composition
and start building that library in my brain
with the shots I love, shots I don't like.
And then everything else is like
really cool logic puzzle to me
and that's what I really love about story boarding
is like trying to figure it out.
Like if I need to get to this really cool shot
that I wanna do here to emphasize this moment,
how do I get there?
And then be like, okay, well
now that I got there, does it work?
Do I need tO flip some characters,
I need to rearrange some things.
And like,
that's like the part I really find thrilling about my job.
- Ever since I was a kid, I know I wanted to make cartoons.
A lot of people when I was growing up
would either be like, one, their parents didn't support it
'cause they're like, you won't make money in it.
Or like, they just didn't have that backing for it,
but ever since I was a kid, I wanted to make cartoons.
What led me seriously to storyboarding, was just like,
I actually did wanna be an animator first.
And so I pursued that a lot more.
And even like growing up, my art teachers would get mad
'cause I was a kid still drawing cartoons
when they said draw's still life.
What I really enjoyed about storyboarding now is like,
we all get a chance to portray our own voice.
That's kind of the biggest thing
that I always tell people when they're asking like,
how do I make my storyboard stand out?
And it's about finding like, what your sense of humor is.
I've worked hard to that point
where like, people know my boards and they know my humor.
So the more you board, the more comfortable you'll be like,
who you are as a board artist and what makes you laugh.
So when people are like, how do I be funnier?
To be honest like,
I'm just storyboarding what I think is funny.
(cartoon chuckling)