Introduction to Storyboarding for Animated Films

Course final project

A course by Petra Popescu , Storyboard Artist

Storyboard Artist. Leipzig, Germany.
Joined August 2021
94% positive reviews (66)
4,128 students
Audio: German
German · Spanish · English · Portuguese · French · Italian · Polish · Dutch

About the final project for: Introduction to Storyboarding for Animated Films

Introduction to Storyboarding for Animated Films

“We have now come to the end of this course on storyboarding. Thank you for the participation! I hope you had as much fun as I did and that you were able to deepen your knowledge. Now you can focus on your project! But first, let me remind you that I don't want you to follow my example project to the last detail, I want you to let your own inspiration run free. Here I recap the steps you need to follow to create your storyboard. Screenplay and thumbnails First of all, you analyze the script to understand what is happening in the scene. From what point of view is the scene told? Who is the main character? What are the emotions and what is the conflict? Based on this, you plan the camera settings for the scene by creating thumbnails, either directly digitally under the script or with pen and paper.

The rough board With the program of your choice, you first convert the thumbnails into shots. Then you create the roughboard or the first rough drawing and work with perspective and composition to create spatial depth. These aspects are also important for expressing emotions.
The characters Make the characters move by drawing gestures, that is, animate them without actually animating them! Try to find appropriately expressive poses and the emotion behind the pose. Note the acting of the characters: How can you bring out the interaction and relationship of the characters?
The cuts Motivate the cuts so that they are logical and not conspicuous. It is always important that the cut is motivated by something. Most of the time we want to discover what is happening together with the characters. The camera should therefore know no more than the characters. The Clean Storyboard Finally, you go through the roughboard again and then trace it cleanly, which means it is cleaned so that it can be exported and prepared for presentation.
I would be very happy to see your finished storyboard in the forum, as well as photos of your workflow, which you are welcome to add a short description to. Simply click on "Create your project". The forum also gives you the opportunity to exchange ideas with the other course participants and find more inspiration. Of course I will be there too and will be there to give you advice and feedback. Until then, happy storyboarding! ”

Partial transcription of the video

“final project We have come to the end of this course. Thank you for your interest and participation. I hope that you were able to learn a lot for your work. Storyboarding can be difficult at first. Don't get discouraged, because every beginning is difficult. Have fun with the material and develop the scene so whatever brings you the most joy. I will briefly summarize what you have learned in this course. First up, I have your introduction to storyboarding and given to cinematography. We looked at the use of film editing. Then we analyzed the script and created thumbnails based on it. After ...”

This transcript is automatically generated, so it may contain mistakes.


Course summary for: Introduction to Storyboarding for Animated Films

  • Level: Beginner
  • 94% positive reviews (66)
  • 4128 students
  • 5 units
  • 18 lessons (3h 46m)
  • 9 downloads
  • Category

    3D & Animation, Illustration
  • Areas

    Animated Illustration, Animation, Character Animation, Digital Illustration, Drawing, Figure Drawing, Motion Graphics, Storyboard, Traditional illustration

Petra Popescu

Petra Popescu
A course by Petra Popescu

Teacher Plus
Storyboard Artist

Petra Popescu lives in Germany and works as a freelance storyboard artist in the animation industry. After graduating with a degree in graphic design, she found her calling during the first few projects she worked on as a prop and character designer and director's assistant. She started exploring the world of black-and-white Japanese comics at a young age thanks to anime series Dragon Ball, sparking her life-long fascination with the expressive power of a few simple lines and shading.

The current aim of her art is to elicit intense emotions from her audience using minimal resources. Her work ranges from film projects and video game cinematics to US and German children's shows, as well as movies and series for Netflix.


  • 94% positive reviews (66)
  • 4,128 students
  • 18 lessons (3h 46m)
  • 21 additional resources (9 files)
  • Online and at your own pace
  • Available on the app
  • Audio: German
  • German · Spanish · English · Portuguese · French · Italian · Polish · Dutch
  • Level: Beginner
  • Unlimited access forever

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Introduction to Storyboarding for Animated Films. 3D, Animation & Illustration course by Petra Popescu

Introduction to Storyboarding for Animated Films

A course by Petra Popescu
Storyboard Artist. Leipzig, Germany.
Joined August 2021
  • 94% positive reviews (66)
  • 4,128 students