Assignment 10

2/4
Find two inspiring storyboard examples and compare/contrast the work

http://www.ghull.com/art/revolutions/art_mtxrev_thumbs_01.php

The storyboarding of George Hull (who was one of the primary concept and storyboard artists on the Matrix sequels) is very loose and painterly, but also very literal. There is extreme depth in all of his boards and keyframes and his color palette communicates an awesome sense of atmosphere. Even though every volume is not hardened into specific forms, there are elements with detail and the frames are easily linked. Personally I find this very hard to do while still painting loosely, especially in a storytelling scenario where what is important and what isn’t has to be established.

The frames displayed appear to be very complete, and the final film follows these storyboards shot for shot, making me believe that Hull was chosen for the work because of his detailed precision and accurate shot composition.

http://www.starwars.com/episode-i/bts/production/f19991222/index.html

Much of the storyboard art for Star Wars: Episode 1 falls into two categories: keyframes (highly-detailed precise shots) and then everything else in between. The process described by the artists who worked on Episode 1 essentially details that much of the artwork was done before the script and even locations and characters were totally finalized. It’s mentioned that all of the art staff were had to be capable of drawing anything because of the high volume of necessary shots between keyframes.

This art (displayed in the few pages of the article) also is extremely loose, and in some cases even looser than George Hull’s work. The sense of atmosphere created by the ILM concept artists comes from the shot composition, as most of the frames do not involve color. However, despite the lack of color and a slight disparity in how tight and detailed George Hull’s work is on the Matrix film storyboards compared to the Episode 1 ones, both storyboards have heavy depth, with a sense of scale and atmospheric volume easily communicated through their use of tone.

This is something I admire heavily because of how fast these artists must work, and to be able to communicate the right amount of form and put in depth quickly is impressive.