[TUTORIAL] MANGA STORYBOARD -For Both Artists AND WRITERS!-

[KagePen]

STORYBOARDS!



The purpose of this tutorial is to of course educate you on the creation of Storyboards, or as the Japanese call it, Names.
Now this is as important for writers as it is for artist, if not more. Do not fool yourselves now and say "Oh I can't draw for sh*t so I won't be able to produce a name." Bullsh!t, any idiot can draw a stickman, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to put pencil to paper. And trust me, a writer that can produce a name has a much more of a chance to find an artist.

Now, the process is simple, I'll try my best to go over it carefully.

THINGS YOU WILL NEED:

* Pencil, doesn't matter what type, even a pen will do, and for some of you, blood will suffice

* Ruler, not Emperor Ying, that thing you measure things with.

* Paper, A3 is the type pro's use but for now normal A4 paper will do just fine.

Now that you have those, we shall embark on this educational journey

Step 1) Take emperor Ying-- I mean your ruler and draw 1 cm borders on your sheet of paper.

Step 2) Now, take your sheet of paper and turn it horizontally.

Step 3) Take your ruler and adjust it on the 1 cm border (Left side of page) and draw a small dot at exactly 13.5cm, do the same for the right side of the page.

Step4) Adjust your ruler vertically to one of the dots and draw a line connecting with both borders, repeat with second dot.

Now you should have your pages worked out, you may now begin to draw panels, the panels don't have to have spaces between each other, just lines dividing the panels.

It should look like this:



If not, just go over the steps again and use the above picture as a guideline.

For the pictures and character placement just draw stickmen, it should be simple enough, it just has to be simple enough for artists to understand what the characters are doing, you can even write numbers or letters on the figures to let the artist know what character they are.

This is how my storyboards look, it should give you a basic idea, though ignore the drawings, they don't have to be so complex, and if you don't know how to indicate something like a forest or a city 'cuz you don't know how to draw it, just write words down to indicate.






[ATTENTION!] These storyboards belong to me, don't try stealing any of the aspects shown in them, I'll hunt you down and punish you if you do 

And if you want, you can post your practice storyboards here and I can give you critic on them if you are not sure whether they are correct or not

I hope this tutorial was of help to you

[KagePen]

Well thats quite easy and simple way to do it  Whenever I hit a wall like that and don't know how I should position characters I just brainstorm a little and it comes to me quite quickly, my idea flow is kinda like a pipe with liquid running through it, but when it gets blocked I just shake it a little and it flows again haha Storyboards are quite hard to grasp at first but if you practice enough you'll be popping 'em out at a fast pace ^^ Jamie-sans way of doing it breaks down the thought process enabling you to have a clear thought flow. Though its basically what I do in my head, just a more organised approach.
Anyway, thank you Jamie-san for sharing your insightful ideas with everyone  I'm sure those who have trouble making a storyboards will find it very useful

[Chaos297]

Well Jamie's style of explaining things is clearly better for this matter since he broke it down with step by step diagrams like a real teacher would and with that little sample I can tell I like the way this Shinji guy thinks he'll make a good manga character for a series.

Oh and as I said to Kenji I've seen missal designs easier to follow than that in terms of complexity and how straight forward they are.  "Minus the bit about the terms of how it's more complex and hard to follow."

You should redo the whole tutorial with a step by step photo for each step from the first to the last that way people will find it easier to follow it. 
Besides if you like being NET's own Eiji Nizuma you should be able to crank out those story boards at least as fast as you claim to be able to if not better since Eiji himself could deliver easily enough in under 40 minutes for a full chapters worth of storyboards.

Obviously I'm not saying crank out storyboards on that level but deliver on your words and do it in a way that will get the job done and if you need a hand with the photography just ask I'll help you out there if you need it I did spend my school years playing Pokémon Snap and have a Digital SLR camera which I can use on a high level so put me to use if you want I don't mind and openly relish the challenge.

Either way your ideas not the problem it's your execution that's a bit rough on the method and delivery.

[Hikari]

I actually think the delivery was very clear, I was shown this and easily deciphered information I needed. There is a lot of information for newbies who don't know how to make names and the images make for good examples.  As for names, I sorta do the same as Jamie san, but I make a visual name after it, this means that a lot of information is shown to Tetsuro, without it getting cramped into one version, hopefully I can get fast enough to do all that weekly for serialization ^^

[Chaos297]

Geez you are unaware of how difficult it is to read that MAL when you don't know the language.

"MAL means Manga Artist Lingo."

Either way you need to remember that if your a total novice who knows nothing of it you would be totally lost after trying to read it since the Nazca drawings would make more sense in terms of how easy it is to figure out.

[KenjiMinato]

I understood it to a degree, it definitely didn't feel like stuff was just shoehorned into it, my only problem is my ability to draw, I can't draw that well, especially hands.

[Hikari]

I find it hard to imagine someone who is serious enough about manga to want to do names yet not know the terms, and even then they can look it up or ask on he chat and then follow it from there. The images show a basic name so if you follow the instructions then its easy, adding more information would probably creep into "place this many panels in this order", but if that happens then there is no originality. If you are serious enough about manga then you research it or ask questions about it.

[Chaos297]

I may be low on sleep from waking up insanely early because I had something to do today but even that doesn't throw my ability to read off that far you know Kenji.

When your a Manga Writer who has no familiarity with Manga Art in terms of anything past the concept theory such as knowing what a story board is you'll be totally lost without a map when reading that since it's like trying to solve a jigsaw puzzle with your eyes closed when you've never done this particular puzzle before.

Face it with math like that and such a lack of sufficient visual guides to fill in the blanks it's near impossible for a novice to figure it out since even William Zimmerman from Sanctuary would have a tough time figuring out how something like that fits together and he's a profiler of all things so if he would have a tough time what chance does someone as new to Storyboards as Mikuru Asahina was to gaming when the computer club challenged the SOS Brigade to fight them in a computer game.

And Hikari I did do my home work on Manga that's how I know as much as I do now it's that Pen'san's rough guide is too rough to get the basics since getting the basics down comes before designing your own style so remember that before you make clams like that when you've gone native.

Oh and for the record when I say gone native I mean not just learned the language but started to play for the other team when you are still wearing our uniform and that means your letting what you've learned on the opposite side blind you to what you learned on this side when you should be seeing things from both angles.

[Hikari]

If you are stupid enough to not be able to see the instructions then you should quit as a mangaka. This tutorial explains the process simplisticly enough so that even a 3 year old can do it, if you dont understand words like storyboard after its been explained then there is something wrong, following the instructions will get you to a canvas for you to make a manga. Im saying this not as a gambling mangaka, im saying this as a regular person... there isnt one word in the entire thing that I didn't understand, and im pretty sure that people on this forum are smart enough to know or to ask if they are stuck. Pen san, thank you, I used to just randomly place panels without measuring the borders,  im certain that other people will find this extremely useful

[Chaos297]

Stop refusing to look at things from where I'm sitting I'm trying to figure out the step by step method so my brain can process it and my body can follow it.

You are a fool if you only see things from your own perspective Hikari so stop being so ridged in your viewing of the situation and get you butt over here where I'm standing and look at the situation from my perspective and say there is something wrong with me.

[KenjiMinato]

I must inform you both that your point of view is exactly that and thus that is why neither of you see it the other way, stop this foolish arguing that's getting you nowhere in life and just get on with you day/night.

[Chaos297]

That's exactly what I've wanted to do for some time now though Hikari's stubbornness kept me from doing it.

Oh and you are wrong people can see from other peoples view points it's just a matter of knowing where they are standing and looking from there.
I'd give a load of examples if I wasn't near my limit when it comes to sleep deprivation so I'll leave it at that but don't think I can't see from other peoples points of view.

[Hikari]

You expect me to see your last comment where you basically told me to shut up, and then not bite back? Firstly, not once did I say there was a problem with you, I merely said that a 3 year old can follow basic instructions which is what is given in this tutorial. No offense but I think that the tutorial leads you to have a template for your name, and if you cant do something about it afterwards, I think its the fact that you feel like you haven't been told about the panels, which should be your own design so try and be creative and make your own.  Please tell me which words are hard to understand, humour me... I honestly dont see any manga jargon in there that isnt explained. I look at my own perspective because I've got enough damn problems to deal with to stop all of a sudden and say "are you ok? Do you need help?" Now then, if you really want to stop the arguement then stop telling what to do, it'll only lead to me postingmy opinion which, because of you, makes me seem like the bad guy... I was taught cthat if someone hits you, you hit them back 10 times harder, so I wont just sit by when you question my ideals and opinions. Now then, sorry to pen san, we've literally ruined the topic, and sorry to the admins... but I wont be pushed around, I will post my thoughts if I feel threatened, its my human nature

[KagePen]

Well that escalated quickly

Well yes the way its set out can get confusing, but I wouldn't expect you chaos to find it that hard, I do recall you ranting about your engineering skills on skype quite often, but for the reason of someone getting confused I put the sample page there.
And if you want a simpler version here it is: draw a 1cm border around the page, then draw a line through it to divide your manga page.

[Chaos297]

Hikari I was tired and heading to bed so I left you be for the night but that doesn't mean I am going to let you off the hook we'll settle this when it's appropriate and when we are both in a position where we are in a fair fight.

As for right now I feel I need to sort out Pen'san's misunderstanding of my choice of words which is partially because of you but more likely because of my choice of words when I was near exhausted.

This is the thing Pen'san you gave us puzzle pieces and then showed us the finished puzzle but not how the puzzles pieces fit together that's the problem.

And so you know that 1cm boarder for an A4 sheet of paper is confusing enough but that won't even fit on an A6 sheet as a boarder let alone an A3 sheet so here's the thing you need to show the images in a step by step form not a completed form.

I may be an engineer when it comes to my drawing skills but Drawing the design for a hydrogen fuelled pulse jet engine for a shield based glider is totally different from the method used to create a Storyboard.

I know what your saying Pen'san and your attempt was a good first one but you need to give more hints as to how it works since if the boarder is meant to be in the centre of the top of the page and the dividing line is meant to be in the centre then you need to explain it in a way that makes it clear that's what you are saying and make the visual clue just as clear.

I'm trying to help you here and you aren't getting what I'm saying so please don't make me have to spell it out any clearer it took this long to spell it out after I'm just out of bed.