HWAnimation storyboard

Storyboard for HWAnimation snowy scene

Cover Image

Spoilers for Here We Are chapter 9!

When I first conceived of the HWAnimation project, I confidently said to myself "I don't need a storyboard! The comic IS the storyboard!", but I was wrong. Ultimately I don't draw comics as if you're looking through a camera; at least, not all the time. Sometimes I do for specific panels, otherwise I tend to vary angles, layout sizes, and zooms, which would've made a horrible, nauseating viewing experience when translated to motion.

It took a little bit more effort to move from the comic to the animated sequence. I'm not convinced it is a good translation, since it looks very simple in storyboard (left). The scene itself has a lot of subtlety in expression and body language, so I kept shots pretty clear and static so viewers can focus their attention on the minute motion. Secondarily I kept angles simple because I'm a beginner who doesn't really know how to draw or animate properly.

In the comic (right), the subtlety is done through focused panels and close-up shots.

photo of storyboards for animation on the left, and the representative comic pages on the right photo of storyboards for animation on the left, and the representative comic pages on the right photo of storyboards for animation on the left, and the representative comic pages on the right photo of storyboards for animation on the left, and the representative comic pages on the right

I used these super loose storyboards and made the v2 animatic and then v2 was further refined into v3 animatic.

Some current stills from the next iteration, which I'm slowing working through.

Drawing of Austin in graduation garb, entering a snowy outdoor scene, surrounded by other graduates Drawing of Austin in graduation garb, looking around a snowy outdoor scene, surrounded by other graduates Drawing of various characters in graduation garb, except for an out-of-focus person in the middle of the frame, wearing a maroon/wine coat Drawing of various out-of-focus characters in graduation garb, except for an in-focus person in the middle of the frame, wearing a maroon/wine coat Drawing of Austin walking towards Jake, in a snowy outdoor scene, surrounded by other graduates and pine trees Drawing of Austin hesitating to reach out to Jake, in a snowy outdoor scene, surrounded by other graduates and pine trees

I've definitely learned a lot about drawing and workflow through this experience. Truthfully some of the later scenes are better than the earlier scenes because I learned some new tricks along the way, but don't have time to go back and futz with the earlier parts. I'm also trying to steer clear of Adobe in production; so far I've only used:

  • Clip Studio Paint EX for all the drawing and compositing
  • Audacity to crop up audio files into shorter bits. CSP's audio capabilities are pretty limited, so I will admit that I won't be spending too much time on getting fancy with the audio (I'm already very tired from DRAWING......let alone audio leveling and mixinggggggggggg ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh)
  • Affinity Photo to blur some bgs to make it more lens blur effect (instead of the gaussian blur effect I found in CSP, which are shown above)
  • Sometimes the default video editor that comes with Windows to quickly string together disparate clips (to see how it flows, preliminarily)
  • Handbrake for compression, though the file size and export quality straight out of CSP is pretty impressive though (it does take a while...).

Today's music post: Technology by Fatima.

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