STORYBOARD FOR ANIMATION

http://www.parkablogs.com/sites/default/files/corpse-bride-13.jpg

These are storyboards in action, used by Selick, Burton and their team in the production of The Corpse Bride. I found it quite surprising to see how closely the animators followed the storyboard. 

I thought I knew how and why storyboards are used in the industry and I expected it to be more of a plan, how a script dictates the lines but the actors will add their own accents and pronunciation... but this example shows just how strictly the animators have followed the storyboard, including composition, framing and expressions.

Story boarding is much stricter in stop-motion animation than other forms of moving pictures because unlike computer generated animations, assets can't be moved or edited much afterwards. The movement is all done painstakingly by hand. Once a shot is taken and the crew move on, the frame can't easily be done-over so it needs to be done right the first time.

http://www.parkablogs.com/sites/default/files/corpse-bride-06.jpg

Storyboards would be especially important on such a big scale, large budget production because there are so many hands on board and so much at stake. It takes a really long time to make a stop-motion film like this, so there's no time to be wasted. Storyboards are used to keep to schedule, working from each frame and paying attention to each individual detail.

 All of the animators need to know where each puppet should be for each frame. Rigs need to be set up in position and moved whenever a puppet moves.

The quality and finesse of The Corpse Bride could not have been achieved without such a story boarding system in place. Alongside all the talent that goes into a film like this, there's also logistics in thinking about WHAT, WHERE, HOW and WHEN each asset moves.

The storyboard is the backbone of the movie and a vital part of the stop-motion process.