There is a lot of mystery involved when it comes to becoming a story artist in companies like Disney, Pixar and so forth. The problem is that one can only get a sense of what you need in your portfolio once you’ve already worked at these companies. A lot of my students and artists I’ve met over the internet ask me about story boarding portfolios all the time, and I have recognized 2 major things from this:
- There’s are a lot of talent out there for storyboarding
- There isn’t enough training out there for those who want to become story artists
I wanted to address the above with a Back to Basics video that I think will help clear up some uncertainties surrounding portfolios. I’ve been working as a story artist for as long as I’ve been out of Disney and I’ve been fortunate enough to work in a lot of different productions for a lot of different studios. What I’ve found is that every studio is unique and require their board artists to be able to fit their particular style, but there are also some general skills that every board artist needs to know.
These are, in my opinion, what every good story artist needs to do:
- Learn the fundamentals of story writing
- Become a good storyteller
- Learn script writing
- Script driven shows vs board driven shows
- Be authentic, pull from your own experiences
- Overcome your fear of speaking in front of others
- Maybe take an acting or improve class
- Practice pitching your boards
In my video, I include tips on how to structure your boards, what type of samples studios will look for in your portfolio and how to approach action, comedy and comedy boards. I know that this is a lot of information to take in with one video, but I wanted to make sure you have all of the tools in your arsenal to be able to get you that dream job in whatever studio you want to work for.
If you’ve enjoyed this video, please leave your thoughts and comments below. We always love receiving feedback from you and it helps us improve our content.
Share this tutorial: