Sharkskin: Keyframe Storyboards

Here is my final for Drawing for Storyboarding class. This has been one of my favorite classes so far--it applied directly to the career I'm pursuing.

The final assignment was a continuation of our earlier assignment. We were asked to select a scene from our previous stories and create 25+ beat boards.

My story, Sharkskin, was pitched as a full-length animated feature (Previous blog post here).Sharkskin tells the story of an over-fished ocean, an angry, sea-god, and two fishermen who wish to make amends on behalf of the humans. The fishermen are transformed into sharks so that they can experience life in the ocean first-hand. During their time spent as sea creatures, they learn that the ocean is a big community--these animals socialize with one another and have families, just has humans do.

 The turning point of the story happens when the pair encounter a mother whale, tangled inside a fishing net. I decided to create beat boards for this scene because it would be very action-packed. Here is the process behind the project:

ORIGINAL BEAT BOARD:

THUMBNAIL BOARD SEQUENCES:

Originally the sequence started with the sharks swimming by the reef. It was taken out because it was unnecessary. 

These early thumbnails stay true to the final.

Working out the initial tearing of the net.

Originally, the sequence ended here. My professor recommended the whale swimming free.

A revision of the hammerhead net-tearing segment.

Simple thumbnails showing the mother whale swooping out.

Revision of the opening sequence. The sharks talk, see the whale, and the whale struggles.

Left side continues the whale struggling. The right side is a revision of the whale swimming free.

Revision of the goblin shark biting the net apart.

FINAL BOARDS:

The sharks spot the mother whale.

Zoom on the mother whale. She struggles in the net as her baby watches in despair.

The mother continues to struggle and the baby  loses hope.

The whales eye the sharks wearily as they launch in to the rescue.

The baby tries to ward off the sharks, afraid of them attacking. The sharks offer to help.

The goblin shark swims underneath the whale.

The goblin shark bites.

The goblin shark pulls away, ripping the net. The whale looks above at the other shark.

Full shot of the progress. Shot changes to the hammerhead pulling with the baby watching closely.

The hammerhead pulls hard, but the net snaps him back down, startling the baby. He tries again.

The hammerhead pulls so hard he tears the rope and is flung off into the water. The baby whale swims down excitedly.

The mother whale wriggles loose of the net.

As the sharks and baby whale gather together, the mother whale swoops off  in joy.

The baby joyfully follows his mother. The sharks stay and watch the happy scene.

Mother and child are reunited. The sharks are proud of their good deed.

It's incredible to see how much progress I have made in this class. In the beginning, it was a struggle to produce only THREE storyboards. From there it doubled into six. And this last project contained over FORTY! I am amazed that I was able to handle this huge workload in only a week.

The only downside to the short time span was how rough my boards look. I would have liked to add line weight and even color to them. Perhaps this is a project I can return to in the future. I really enjoyed this class. And here ends another awesome quarter at SCAD!

Excuse me while I enjoy my spring break.