Storyboarding: Why and How.

Whenever developing a multimedia project you have to plan ahead. This means:

• Planning the concept
• The aesthetic
• The graphic look and feel
• The art,
• The dynamics
• The sound
• The interaction
• The production, etc.

A storyboard is one method which allows you to plan out in a simple fashion:

• How the major sections of the narrative look.
• In what succession they appear.
• The relationship between them.

A storyboard is simple a grid containing sketches and text representing the major screens and sections of a piece.

Storyboarding is used in any medium which changes over time (TV commercial, film, digital multimedia...) [example]

When creating a storyboard you must decide in a general fashion on how things will look and how they will flow from section to section. It forces you to move your thoughts from the abstract to actual sketches on paper and thus moves the project forward towards completion. The storyboard allows you to see how your ideas might work before actually producing them and thus saves a lot of work and time.

Another method for planning out the major flow of a piece is using Flow Charts.