5 Steps to Storyboard any Music Video Project | Mr. Mo

1. Intro Video to Music Video Storyboard Class: Hello, my name is Mr. mole and a Missouri artist here in Los Angeles. I've been storyboarding for 20 plus years. And in this bisects class, I'm going to share with you my process of storyboarding for music video. I'll be sharing all of my steps from starting of a rough sketch to having your storyboards fully polished and presentable to your clients. Although this class is a bias IS class and you'll be able to finish it would in one sitting. What you will learn here is something that will improve your storyboard skills for the rest of your lives. So if you are into storyboarding for illustration or in learning new techniques in general, I'll see you in my class. Jojo. 2. Storyboarding Music Video vs Commercials: All right, Let's talk about storyboarding for music videos. And why is that slightly different? And storyboarding for commercials or video games. So first of all, when you are storyboarding for commercials, commercials or video games, they are very story-driven and they also do have typically a big crew giving you all the help you need when it comes to script or shortlist for reference images in order to assist you in your storyboarding process. But when he, when it comes down to working on music videos on, let's say our top singers, top bands. Chances are, you are working pretty much under the music video. Lead singer or the leader of the band. And that's pretty much all the accrue power that they have. That means whenever you are working on low budget music videos, now you are not going to get a shot list. And chances are you're not going to get a lot of help when it comes to having a big library of reference images. So then, what are you by storyboarding? What is your job as a storyboard is when, whenever you are facing a project that does not have a story and does not have a shortlist. Well, what you are in essence, storyboard and for them, although they do not know or might not know how to articulate what they want is that they want to have coverage, meaning the listener or the leader of the band is actually looking for different camera angles of the band whenever they are performing. And the reason why the listener wants to have Story Wars were different coverage, meaning different camera angles, is for him to visually communicate with the DP and show the DP exactly the shadow that he wants. And by dp, we're talking about director of photography. That's pretty much your job whenever you are storyboarding for music video. So you are providing coverage. Again, you are not storyboarding or story because they don't have a store if you're not storyboarding, base on a shortlist because they did not have a shortlist, but you are providing coverage. Now we can use the power of imagination and visualization to create beautiful frames when it comes to creating coverage. But efficiency and productivity and speed is key when story-boarding. So I would highly suggest for you to use photo references that are already out there. And that's exactly how I go about whenever I am faced with music video projects and especially music video projects that have very low budget. With that in mind, let me show you my process on creating a music video storyboard 0. And one thing, even though the music video project might not give you all the references, images and Chatelier's and the script and the story and all these things, you are least need these two things, which are number 1 or photo reference of the cast, which in this case is the band. And number two, the location. No matter what he takes, makes sure you know, a cast of the band. Okay. So once you get that and you know also the location of where the music video is going to be. Film that, then you are good to go. And for location, it might not give you the photo reference because they have not locked or location. But you still need to know in concept where they are planning to film the music video. Okay? So two things that you need. First, a photo reference of the cast, and second, where they are planning to film the music video. All right, let's jump into the next part of the lesson. 3. Sketching Process Overview | Storyboard: When collecting reference images to work on your projects, in this case, or music video, I like to use well-known search engines such as Google or Google Doc. I also use stock images by going to get images or Shutterstock.com and search for a specific topic that I need to or I'm looking for. For this particular project. The images that we're showing on Shutterstock or get it images, they looked a little too commercial. So search engines such as Google was giving me reference images that look very more organic and look much more like references images that I could use for this particular storyboard project. Now because we do not have a shot list, I am looking for coverage, so I'm looking for a nice wide shot, a medium shot. Also different camera angles such as low angle, high angle, and maybe on NGO from the bag where we see the crowd. And with that lens in mind, I'm doing the searching in. Once I find a good why shot, a good establishing shot that I like, I copy and paste right into Photoshop. The next step is to bring the opacity down of this particular layer and create a new layer. We're going to start sketching. Now keep in mind at the reference image that we got. Although we got it to wage trace on top of it, we don't have to technically use it to trace every single thing a 100 percent we are using as reference. Remember this, our reference images. So you are free to cut around a move things around so that the composition that you have in mind is visualized. And even though these are rough sketches, I like to work on multiple layers. We will at least have two to three layers. One will be for the characters and other one will be for the background, and another one would be for the arrows. And the reason I like to work on different layers is because I like to blur out the background so that the characters would pop out. Not all the time. But I like to have the flexibility to go into that option if I want to blur the layer, we go into Filter blur, motion blur. Said that this tends to about 23 and angle either 0 or 90 degrees. Another blur effect that I like to use is the radial blur. I choose to amount to 12 blur method to zoom in quality. Once I'm happy with the rough storyboard, I save this file and continue the same process of looking for the reference image and using that to sketch the next rough storyboard. And as we are working on the next rough storyboard, keep in mind that the reference image that we have selected is not the Holy Grail. Meaning we have the total freedom to zoom-in, rotate, crop, and even add different elements that are not in the reference image. And this is because our mission is not to trace over things. To use the reference image to help us speed up with the storyboard process and make us more efficient. In as we are storyboarding. We have to also keep our eyes on the target, which is our mission. And our mission for this particular project is to give enough coverage in the storyboards so that the client can use to communicate with the DP. And thus why, instead of drawing another wide shot, just as the reference image was selected, we have chosen to zoom in and turn this into a medium shot. And from this 0.4 is a repetition of the first 12 steps. First is to look for the perfect reference image that we can use. And then second is to use those reference image has a blueprint to build our rough storyboards. And when we are selecting the reference image, we always have the mission in mind, which is to provide the client enough coverage from wide shots to medium shots, to close-ups, to low angle camera shots and everything in between. Once you are happy with the rough sketches, we move on to the final stage, which is the clean up time. Are you ready to do some cleanups? Let's go. 4. Detailed Sketch Process | Storyboard: Now let me show you the step-by-step process in real time. So you can get to see my thinking process behind whenever I'm creating storyboards for a music video. First, I go into Google or Indiegogo dark, and I searched for the right image, I want to storyboard, then a copy and paste that image straight onto Photoshop. Remember this is a reference image. So I have the freedom to flip it around into move it until I'm happy with the composition. Then I turned the layer's opacity to anywhere from 20 to 30 percent. Then I create a brand new layer and I started sketching on this layer using my favorite chisel tip brush. The brush size that I like to use is about 20 pixels. And I like to start from the head. And the reason behind it is there's something about completing the facial expression that adds a sense of accomplishment. And when the facial expression is right in a lake, the way it looks, it gives me an extra confidence to keep on sketching the remaining of the frame. Again, these are sketches so you don't want to be a cut up in the little details. You always want to be very loose when you are sketching. There's multiple ways that can help you to loosen up a little bit. And one way is to just like when you are playing sports, it's also a good practice to warm your sketches by obeying up a blank canvas and just roughing out different characters in ideas that might come to your head. And another way is to have a very relaxed music playing on the background. And lastly, a step that I use is by holding the actual pen very, very loosely. This will help you to loosen up the grief literally and also metaphorically. Now that I'm happy with the rough sketch, I select all the layers, including the photo reference, and I flattened into one layer. 5. Detailed Inking Process | Storyboard: Now that I'm happy with the rough sketch, I select all the layers, including the photo reference in a flattened into one layer. Then I lower the opacity of that layer to about 30 to 20 percent and create a brand new layer to start the inking process. Much like how we started the rough sketches. I like to start by inking the head because our eyes are drawn into their faces whenever we look at a character. So it's good to have the first impression done, right. And also it gives me a sense of confidence to tackle the remaining of the frame. Once I'm happy with the way that the face came out, is much like how we set out to do list in a way that is easier to have the hardest task. As number one, for you to finish the remaining of the task. Something psychological inner us that if we tackle the hardest task first, it makes the remaining tasks much easier. And that's a psychological trick that I use upon myself to start with the face. Because I know that if the phase and then the head area came out right, and I won this battle, I am 100 percent sure that I will win the war of finishing the frame and being happy with the outcome. I'm still using those same chisel tip brush at about 20 pixels. And I stay away from zooming in too tight to add extra details. This is pretty much as close as I will get when cleaning up the storyboards. For the face seems to be looking good. So I've wondered Barto, and I won the war. And as you can see, my brush strokes are flying much faster and much more confident in I'm putting much fearless because I know that this frame will come out nice when story-boarding speed is really crucial. So I like to draw each line by using one simple stroke. This not only saves time, but also adds an extra layer of energy whenever you are drawing your storyboards. I do, however, I do however see storyboard artist that likes to have multiple strokes, much like animation storyboard is. So if that's your style, you like to have multiple strokes. That's fine. As long as Fitz stroke displays a sense of confidence. Because many artists display multiple strokes. Not because that's their style, but because they are unsure about where to put the lines. So they hide behind their troubling lines as a style when in reality, they are lacking confidence in their own artwork. So whether you have a simple strokes or you have multiple strokes, be confident in the artworks that you are producing. And the only way you're going to gain confidence is by repetition, practice, practice, and practice. So you are doing a great thing by watching this class and learning the process. But when it's all said and done, I need you to open up your Photoshop or grab your sketchbook and start drawing every single day. Now some people ask me how many hours one should dedicate to get better or to gain the skills to be able to draw? In. My answer is very simple. You do it until other people around you compliment you for the artworks that you are doing. Not only your parents had, not only your friends, by strangers. Now we're strangers, stars coming up to you when you are drawing at a coffee shop, then you know that you are doing something right. Now that I'm done with the inking process, I create a new layer and add random particles to the frame in order to give the illusion of three-dimensionality. And I also like to blur the particle so it looks like is in motion. And I create a series of layers to start the shading process. 6. Shading + Final Presentation | Storyboard: And I create a series of layers to start the shading process in a user gradient tool a lot when I start the shading process and I bring the opacity down to make it easy on the eye. Then I create a new layer and I fill it with black. Because I know that this scene is taking place at a stage. So we're going to have some spotlights coming from the back of our character. Now I turn the opacity down of this black layer in a add, a masking layer or me to start erasing some of the black area. And the reason I'm using the masking layer is because it gives me the flexibility to go back and fix it if I want to change anything. For instance, if I had used an eraser, then it's difficult for me to recover the erase parts. But if I use a masking layer, I can always go back and recover any of the areas I have erased. Now I'm shading the jacket using color black. Actually, you see the layer that I'm shading on is set to 50 percent. So it looks like is gray, but in essence is color black. And the reasoning behind this is because I can always put the opacity higher if I want to make this jacket darker, or I can drop the opacity down if I want to make the jacket later. In other words, it gives me more flexibility to edit whenever the client one, some minor tweaks here and there. With that, with that same logic. With that same logic, the pans, the hair and the shading is also done using solid black. But the layer is set to 30 percent is time. So it's much lighter compared to the layer that is set to 50 percent. Adding more of a dynamic range. When we look at the storyboard frame, as we keep adding shades here in there, we are mindful of the main lasers, which is coming from the back. To add more emphasis to the lasers, we select a new layer and we use the gradient tool going from white to transparent to add the final touch. This frame took me about nine to ten minutes to finish and is a good habit to keep track of your time because you need to be able to finish anywhere from 18 to 24 frames per day. Now we keep repeating the same process until we clean every single frame. Once you have completed the storyboard project, you can email your client each individual frame, or you can combine them into a presentation deck using Google slide. Now, Google slide is as easy as using Microsoft Word or Google Docs. So I'm not going to bore you creating another tutorial on using that tool. Now that you have finished your storyboard project, you can send to your client the individual frames or storyboard presentation deck, and move on to the next project. We'll now you are equipped to tackle any music video project. So go out there and contact small bands, big bands, and any size in-between, and start working on music videos. Because when you see, you forget, but when you do you remember. So it's time to stop watching this tutorial and start doing those storyboards yourself. And so a magic, they wear, it got stuck. We can't forget.