Lab 7: Story Development
IDS252: 3D Animation, Spring 2011

Goals

• Develop a story idea for a 1 minute animation.
• Draw the storyboards.
• Pitch the story and revise.

Links

Here is a summary of the links given below in the directions:

• Resources for Story Creation
• Story Development CheckList
• Directions for Converting Your Storyboards into a Storyreel.

Directions

• You may work alone or with one other person.
• In class, we will go over ways to help you develop a story and make the storyboards. See resources here.
• Discuss your various story ideas with your partner (if you have one).
• Once you decide on a single story, write it down in text/paragraph form. It does not need to be more than a few paragraphs long.
• Think about the following:
  • Identify the major emotions, and thoughts of the characters that must be communicated to the audience. How will these will be conveyed visually to the audience? Don't rely on subtlety. And remember, your animation will have no dialog (it will have music and foley).
  • See questions in CheckList.
• Begin to sketch out rough story boards. Use the small size so that the boards are quick to draw and don't have many details. Include camera directions. Try different ideas and don't be afraid to throw out boards and insert new ones. You may even want to start by using the white board or Photoshop.
• Once you have your rough set of story boards, redraw them more carefully on 8.5x11 sheets of paper. We need them to be this size so that they can easily be scanned later. Don't use pencil because it is hard to see when scanned. Black or colored pens or markers are best.
• Tuesday, Mar 8, in class: Be prepared to pitch the story. You will be timed to make sure the story is approximately one minute long.
• After you pitch the story, the class will provide feedback.
• Revise the storyboards.
• During class or lab on Tuesday (Mar 8) you will create a story reel (in quicktime format) from the boards. The quicktime animation should be exactly 1 minute long. To create the storyreel, follow the directions here. Be ready to pitch the storyreel towards the end of lab.

Evaluation

During Tuesday Mar 8:

• Place your final animation on cs-render in the folder \ids252Sp11\lab6\FinalAnimations. It's name should include both your partner's name and your name.
• The joint project folder for your animation should be in \ids252Sp11\lab6\ProjectWorkspace in folder with you and your partner's name. Animations will be graded based on the following:
  • Were the basic directions followed, including, how well organized is your Maya project?
  • How well was each character modeled (i.e. did the controls make it possible to give each character some personality?)
  • Was the nature of the interaction clear?