Prepare to Board! Creating Story and Characters for Animated Features and Shorts [Paperback]

Nancy Beiman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2, 2007 | ISBN-10: 0240808207 | ISBN-13: 978-0240808208 | Edition: 1st

Packed with illustrations that illuminate and a text that entertains and informs, this book explains the methods and techniques of animation preproduction with a focus on story development and character design.

Story is the most important part of an animated film-and this book delivers clear direction on how animators can create characters and stories that have originality and appeal. Learn how the animation storyboard differs from live action boards and how characters must be developed simultaneously with the story. Positive and negative examples of storyboard and character design are presented and analyzed to demonstrate successful problem-solving techniques. Artwork from an international array of students and professionals supplement the author's own illustrations. Three never-before-published interviews with well known development artists and a comprehensive glossary are also included.

·Written and illustrated by a renowned animator with 30 years experience as producer, designer, and story artist.
· Storyboard and character design examples from an international array of students and professionals.
· Positive and negative examples illustrate the techniques.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Nancy Beiman has done an excellent job explaining the story development and boarding process, and I am certain this book will be a useful tool to all animation students and schools.'
Brian P. McEntee, Art Director 'Beauty and the Beast' and Production Designer 'Ice Age'

'No one knows more about designing characters and creating story for animation than Nancy Beiman. Lavishly illustrated and expertly written, she draws on all her experience as a teacher, an artist and an animation industry veteran. A must-have for anyone who wants to make an animated film.'
Jerry Beck, Animation Historian, www.cartoonbrew.com

'In the library of motion picture how/to books, one topic that has not been adequately explained is the art of storyboarding. Internationally known animator Nancy Beiman draws upon her experience to create for the first time a definitive manual for the art. Lavishly illustrated and highly readable, it is essential reading for anyone serious about learning how to create stories, characters and storyboards for film.'
Tom Sito, animator, author of Drawing the Line: The Untold Story of the Animation Unions from Bosko to Bart Simpson.

'At long last we have a comprehensive new book covering the not always fully-understood areas of the animated film production processes of story and character development, and their care and feeding. Nancy Beiman, a seasoned Producer, Writer, Teacher, Story Artist, and former Disney Animator who has worked all over the globe, has authored a book which I predict will become a textbook in animation programs everywhere.'
Bill Matthews
Animation Professor

'Nancy Beiman knows that storyboards are about more than continuity and cutting; they're about character and conflict. A good storyboard has the power to make things as elusive as thoughts and emotions tangible for audiences. Prepare To Board fulfills the promise of its title by supplying readers with solid advice and illustrated examples that will help them make successful animated films.'

Mark Mayerson, Professor of Animation, Sheridan College

'Nancy Beiman has written an excellent book on
animation...Beiman is a natural for writing about storyboarding.'

AWN.com

"The author has a breezy, anecdote-packed style that makes reading about the craft a real pleasure. Beiman, who teaches animation at the Rochester Institute of Technology, is the kind of guiding force you wish you could have by your side at all times. Reading her book is the next best thing." -Ramin Zahed, Animation Magazine

About the Author

Currently teaching storyboard courses at Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, Nancy has worked  as a supervising animator, director, character designer, and storyboard artist in six countries. She has taught beginning and advanced animation, character design, storyboard, layout, animation history, and gesture drawing at the college and university level since 2000. A graduate of the Character Animation Program at the California Institute of the Arts, Nancy worked in development and as a supervising animator on several Disney features including A Goofy Movie, Hercules and Treasure Planet. She was nominated for an Annie award in 2000 for storyboarding Little Angelita for Disney and won a Cine Golden Eagle in 1984 for her personal film Your Feets' Too Big. Nancy is a member of the National Cartoonists Society and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In recent years she has illustrated two children's books, Duffy and the Invisible Crocodile and Basil Bigboots the Pirate for Australian writer Patricia Bernard in 2004.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Focal Press; 1st edition (March 2, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0240808207
• ISBN-13: 978-0240808208
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 7.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #198,645 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Hello, all. So you want to know about me? I am a professional cartoonist and illustrator who has lived and worked in England, France, Germany, Denmark,Australia and the USA. I've worked for major animation studios and also run my own company. Lately I've discovered that I prefer teaching to working in the studio system and have also become a book illustrator. I am teaching storyboard at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario.My first book PREPARE TO BOARD (Focal Press, 2007), is the standard text on storyboarding for feature and short animated films. A second edition will be published in 2012, and will contain much new material, including work by some of my students at Sheridan. My second book, ANIMATED PERFORMANCE, was published in July, 2010 by AVA Press. I think laughter is a great gift that was given us so that we could enjoy life, and I like to associate with people who know how to have fun and do things that are out of the ordinary. I love humor, and humourous people and consider myself fortunate to have many friends in many parts of the world. Oh, almost forgot: Female, single, age: old enough to know better.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic!, November 6, 2007

By 

Grant Beaudette (Missoula, MT United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Prepare to Board! Creating Story and Characters for Animated Features and Shorts (Paperback)

"Prepare to Board" covers most pre-production aspects of an animation project, but focuses mostly on storyboarding and character design. This book does a better job on both these subjects than most other books can manage on just one.

A lot of storyboarding books out there focus on the live action or advertising methods where boards are used to illustrate an existing script a sell a rough concept to non-creative executives. The methods Nancy Beiman shows are far better suited to animation's use of storyboards to create the story itself.

Along with guidelines on how to increase the cinematic storytelling power of your boards, there are also plenty of tips on how to get that power across when presenting boards to others.

When it comes to character design, "Prepare to Board" is up there with Tom Bancroft's "Creating Characters with Personality: For Film, TV, Animation, Video Games, and Graphic Novels" as one of the few indispensable resources on the subject. All of her advice is aimed at making your character designs more functional for animation & storytelling (the most important asset of any character) as well as being unique individuals rather than stock characters.

The lessons Beiman shares in this book are exactly what you need to build a strong foundation for any animated project.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and very inspirational!, April 8, 2007

By 

Brett McCoy "Programmer by Day, Musician by N... (Germantown, MD United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Prepare to Board! Creating Story and Characters for Animated Features and Shorts (Paperback)

I'm just an amateur artist and animator wannabee... but I have found this book to be very inspirational and am now finding new characters just flowing from my pencil tip (or tablet stylus :-P ) so much easier now... Nancy is a top-notch artist and is equally a top-notch teacher as well.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it., July 30, 2007

By 

Didier Ghez - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Prepare to Board! Creating Story and Characters for Animated Features and Shorts (Paperback)

I am not an artist, so can't comment much on the core of the book (although, as a layman, I found the explainations extremely clear).

I LOVED the interviews with Ken Anderson, Ken O'Connor and T- Hee as well as the way they were illustrated (there were quite a few documents that I had never seen before).