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Creative Process
Storyboards
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Twins Scratch Game Shooting Board
Last month, I drew up some shooting boards for Unbelieveable, a commercial for Minnesota State Lottery featuring some former Minnesota Twins players and ex-head coach, Tom Kelly.
I met with the director (who'd flown in from California) Monday morning, drew the frames Tuesday in 4-5 hours, and they had a crew at Target Field by Thursday to shoot the spot. It was released March 12, only five weeks after I first snagged the job.
Based on a quick discussion with the director, I dashed out 27 frames to serve as a guide on set. Take a look at a sampling (below) of 2/3 of the group - some of the scenes did not make the final cut, most likely due to editing.
I always find it interesting to compare my rough frames to the finished spot. Though I would've loved to have more time to flesh these out, this was a quick, fun job!
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I was provided reference for the actor playing the blueshirt. He's all over the Best Buy site, too, in vids for laptop test drives, etc.
The character types, staging & blocking and more change as it gets closer to actually shooting the commercial. Sometimes the concept drawings I do look exactly like the final commercial, other times they bear only a passing resemblance.
These frames were done digitally, completely in Photoshop.
Best Buy 3D TV storyboard
Maybe you've seen the new 3DTV Best Buy commercial? Here are a couple storyboard concept drawings I did for it:
I was provided reference for the actor playing the blueshirt. He's all over the Best Buy site, too, in vids for laptop test drives, etc.
The character types, staging & blocking and more change as it gets closer to actually shooting the commercial. Sometimes the concept drawings I do look exactly like the final commercial, other times they bear only a passing resemblance.
These frames were done digitally, completely in Photoshop.
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Fiber Choice Storyboards: Veggie Faces
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More Color Storyboards
Following those storyboard pencils I posted yesterday, here are some color frames recently finished. As I've mentioned previously on this blog, I keep them looser by coloring over scanned pencils, then coloring digitally on-screen with my trusty Cintiq. The rough color effects are achieved simply with a "chalk" brush in Photoshop, at various degrees of opacity.
People with products. Go figure, I enjoy drawing them, after all these years.
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Storyboard Pencils
From a recent storyboard job, these are a couple of my favorites. Every so often, the client just wants penciled frames, and I need to do them even quicker than usual, down and dirty.
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Storyboards: Sleepy Teddy
I'm coloring my storyboards digitally now, with my trusty Cintiq. Still penciling at the drawing board, I scan the pencils, darken them in Photoshop, and color away. I'm finding with the Airbrush Pen Opacity Flow brush at certain settings, I'm able to achieve a similar look to those frames colored with markers. To rough things up a bit, and to lessen any computer sterility, I use a large chalk brush to finish things off. The more I do, the quicker it gets!
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Storyboards: Sleeping in the Bathtub
About half (and in the past, sometimes more) of what I do is storyboard work for television commercials. Storyboard frames are quickly executed drawings to communicate a concept, and help test and plan television, movie or animated projects. I've been doing storyboards for over a decade, and find it helps me as a cartoonist, requiring me to think and work fast, and keep loose. For years, I'd color them with marker over inked drawings I'd copied on marker paper, achieving a more cartoony and clean look, but which also created an extra step and took time.
