Prepare to board! : creating story and characters for animated features and shorts / Nancy Beiman.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

First catch your rabbit: creating concepts and characters -- Vive la difference! Animation and live-action storyboards -- Putting yourself into your work -- Situation and character-driven stories -- What if? Contrasting the possible and the fanciful -- Appealing or appalling? Beginning character design -- Size matters: the importance of scale -- Beauties and beasts: creating character contrasts in design -- Location, location, location: art direction and storytelling -- Starting story sketch: compose yourself -- Roughing it: basic staging -- Boarding time: getting with the story beat -- The big picture: creating story sequences -- Patterns in time: pacing action on rough boards -- Present tense: creating a performance on storyboards -- Diamond in the rough model sheet: refining character designs -- Color my world: art direction and storytelling -- Show and tell: presenting your storyboards -- Talking pictures: assembling a Leica, story reel or animatic with a scratch track -- Build a better mouse: creating cleanup model sheets -- Maquette simple: modeling characters in three dimensions -- Am I blue? Creating character through color -- Screen and screen again: preparing for production -- Further reading: books, discs, and websites -- Appendices: animated interviews.