When I was going to Cal Arts the school would hire working artists from the studios to come up and teach night classes. It was great to learn from these people and it made me feel like I could actually get a job at one of these studios after I graduated. I've since graduated and storyboarded on 14 features including Iron Giant, Ice Age, Horton Hears a Who and recently released Rio.

There's a lot more animation colleges now then there were when I went to school and I've had the privilege of speaking to and meeting the students at many of them. Most of the schools I've spoken at don't have the same connection to the animation studios that Cal Arts did and that got me thinking, why not do an online class to help close this gap?

Storytelling in animation is one of those things you learn best by doing. When I was working on Iron Giant I had the assignment to come up with some action for Hogarth to get way from Kent. I like humor and drawing gags so I ran off in the direction of Hogarth easily outsmarting Kent because I treated him like a buffoon. When I pitched the boards to Brad he didn't go for my ideas. He explained to me that if your villain is a buffoon then he's not a real threat. It would be hard for the audience to make the stretch that he could defeat the hero. There are some basic storytelling principals that once understood, can give the student a real boost in their abilities.

Storyboard drawings are a lot different than an animation drawing or a visual development drawing. Sure, you can throw a few stick figures together in a rectangle and get a basic idea of a shot across but without the right expression, staging or mood in a story drawing you risk losing your audiences interest. I've seen some good Ideas get discarded because they weren't drawn clear enough. You can stand out as a board artist who KNOWS visual storytelling for animation and not just someone who can illustrate a script. Story artist write with pictures, not so much with words. I like to call it visual writing.

I've put together this website with classes and assignments geared to help you get a job in the industry.

-Moroni