Customer Reviews

The Art of the Storyboard: Storyboarding for Film, TV, and Animation

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

After searching for books on storyboarding for a class, I found and read a handful of them. This book was a big disappointment. For readers looking to learn about the CRAFT of storyboarding, I strongly recommend "From Word to Image" by Begleiter. However, if you like personal anecdotes, personal preferences, Hollywood history trivia, uninspiring graphics, and little teaching content, then Mr. Hart's "Art of Storyboard" will give you much of that. I am giving it two stars instead of one, because there are few books on storyboarding and because there is nonetheless some useful content (but it could have been put in 10 pages).

Most of the examples in this book are re-drawn stills from classic, famous or easily recognized movies and shows: Potemkin, T2, Stagecoach, Gone with the Wind, Citizen Kane. So basically it's somewhere between "drawing off TV" (aspect ratios vary) and a recapitulation of "Shot by Shot", Stephen Katz's excellent book. It's hard to get permission for the original boards I'm sure, and nobody expects Mr. Katz to simply showcase his portfolio -- but his selections neither impress with detail and virtuosity nor provide a comprehensive overview of the craft and business.

One of the main problems with books about storyboarding is that very few actually outline and explain how to execute it without going into too much theoretics. Like a cookbook, I would like to be instructed step-by-step on how to create storyboards: how to decide which angles best suit a written outline; differences in storytelling metric scenarios (quiet scenes, action scenes, etc.); and what would lead me to decide on how to visually set up a scene properly. All this book does is delve into the loooong history of different films, rambling on and on about significant key storyboard shots in the movie. Unfortunately, none of it is instructional. Worse yet, the examples the author uses are his own pencil sketches, which are lifted from actual scenes from an established movie. This does nothing for his credibility as a storyboard artist, especially if he didn't board the sequences himself. While it is important to explain specific key shots in a film to aspiring artists, using re-drawn sequences to fill an entire book is almost insulting to the very subject one is trying to learn from.

Siggraph San Antonio was about to close up shop on its last day and I finally made my way to the bookstore. I had about 7 minutes to make my choices. One choice was a nicely done book on character animation in Flash, and the other was "The Art of the Storyboard" by John Hart Hart's book is one that I can truly say I regret buying. There is little of use inside, and some severely misleading bits as well. (For instance Hart tells us that it's the storyboard artist who determines light placement.) I was hoping for a book that would give me some information on generally used techniques for depicting camera moves, fades and other conventions. Instead we get pencil drawings cribbed from films that look more like fan-art than any storyboards I've ever seen or worked with.

Anyone wanting insights into how tho convey their cinematic vision to others would do well to steer clear of this volume.

This book was very helpful to me. I am a professional animator and storyboard/layout artist, even though I have a very good grasp of drawing, this book helped me improve my composition(balance, contrast, flow, etc) and cinematography skills. The illustrations are from great old time classics like Battleship Potemkin (which is frequently used as examples in top film schools across the world) and an numerous other examples. The simplicity of some of the drawings illustrates how you don't have to be the best artist to draw a good storyboard, other drawings show how you can do pretty psimple but photorealistic renderings in a few minutes. Although this is not the all in one stop for storyboarding, it is a must have for aspiring storyboard artists. The one thing that could use improvement is the discussion on perspective drawing, but this book helped me improve so much that I still give it 5 stars. Note: This is not a how to draw book, If you have a solid foundation in drawing, you will benefit more from this and similar books.

John Hart's book is the very best I've seen on storyboarding. He skillfully draws shots from every camera angle, relates them to story context, and offers his rationale for many shots from classic films--which he draws as a storyboarder would. Also very interesting demonstrations on use of light and shadow.

I found "The Art of the Storyboard" by John Hart to be a wonderful educational tool for people like me, who are trying to effectively illustrate ideas. After one read through, I was inspired to draw my very own professional quality storyboard. I found the formate of the book to be very clean and easy to follow. I would recommend this book to anyone who finds interest in plot development and illustrating.

This book covers storyboards ranging from the most basic to the most detailed. The author recreates frames from classic films--old and new--to illustrate how a storyboard can include light, movement, perspective, and shadow to offer a more complete view of the scene. I found this book to be as much about the art of observing, which is essential to anyone involved in the filmmaking process.