As mentioned in the previous post, storyboards and animatics are key features in the pre-production stage of the animation production pipeline. This post will include the storyboards created for the 3D animation about Stonehenge made of Swiss cheese.
According to Ambrose and Harris (2015:78) “Images have the ability to convey an idea or a lot of information very quickly.”
Storyboards
Storyboard One
This demonstrated my initial idea of having the opening title as the metamorphosis. The ‘o’ in Stonehenge would be the moon made of Swiss cheese and the camera would zoom in on the moon until it was focused on a hole in the Swiss cheese. The camera would then zoom out to show that the Swiss cheese was now Stonehenge with the moon in the background.
The moon would go down and the sun would rise, and the heat of the sun would melt the Swiss cheese to reveal Stonehenge made of stone in a pool of melted cheese.
When starting to use Maya it became clear that creating something as detailed as this may be past my current skill level, so the story was amended.
Storyboard Two
The second storyboard was a similar idea to the first one. However, included the ‘Le Voyage Dans La Lune’ inspiration in the opening credits, the clouds from this inspiration will act like a theatre stage curtain.
The issue with this storyboard was that there wasn’t a clear hook at the beginning or end to the story.
Storyboard Three
After considering how to simplify the animation and include a story with clear structure my third storyboard was created.
The Idea
Opening title with the moon made of Swiss cheese as the ‘o’, the clouds open and the camera zooms in on the moon whilst the title fades. The moon seamlessly transitions to the smiling sun (metamorphosis) and the camera zooms out to display Stonehenge. The sun sets and the moon rises over Stonehenge. Suddenly the stones start changing to Swiss cheese (metamorphosis) with a pop every time, the popping gets quicker and the camera flies round showing all the stone changing to cheese. The camera ends on the moon, which turns around to also reveal a face. The moon raises his eyebrows with a cheeky smile to communicate it was him changing the stone to cheese.
The Story
Hook – The title itself “The Moon Says Cheese”
Beginning – Happy sun in the sky, a normal day at Stonehenge
Middle – Stone is becoming cheese
End – Moon reveals its cheeky face and that it is the reason for the cheese
The Camera Shots
In addition to the storyboard, I planned what shots needed recording on Autodesk Maya as I was aware that the rendering process was lengthy and needed to ensure nothing was missed.
References
Ambrose, G. & Harris, P. (2015) Design thinking for visual communication. Bloomsbury.