Cutting Through the Noise: Simple Storyboarding

I believe storyboarding should be clear and simple. The best animated content is design-driven.

01 Clarity in Storyboarding

A clear and simple storyboard makes it much easier to communicate ideas in animated form. It’s easy to want to throw the kitchen sink at a piece of work, but you have to remain focused on the key message you are trying to deliver, especially in mediums like TV & digital ads, where dwell time is shorter even than web video.

When storyboarding for animation, it’s important to constantly review your work and ask yourself questions like “would this character pose work as a silhouette?” (if it wouldn’t, chances are the pose could be stonger) and “could a stranger explain to me what’s going on here, if I asked them?” (if you’re doubtful, make your work clearer).

02 Focus on Design-Driven Animation

When designing and animating, I often used the “stop and print”! check meaning I pause my work and ask myself “if I were to print this, would it look good as a piece of static design?”

Good animation will elevate good design, but it won’t save bad design. Best to make sure you get it right in the design phase, and then make it awesome with animation, than try and rush through thinking “animation will save this”.

03 User Experience and Engagement

Not only does design-driven animation enhance visual appeal (leading to all the gems we love about animated video: increased user trust, higher conversion rates, etc.) but it improves the user experience, which will make the audience think more highly of your brand.

If you’re a content-creator or brand thinking of investing in animated content, you’re missing a trick if you under-value design-driven animation. This starts with a clear, simple, beautiful storyboard.