Blog #4: Pass the Ball Storyboard

Hi everyone! I know it’s been a bit but I’m back. For this post I’ll be talking about my process for a 3-5 second animated clip for a passing the ball compilation. This is always fun to try and brain storm what I’m going to do, but at the same time it’s hard to know what I’m actually capable of in the time allotment given. But I always shoot big so I can cut back later, because in my opinion it’s easier to take out stuff then to add on. Or maybe that only deals with haircuts, either way here we go.

This starts out with a red ball, like all of them do, but it quickly morphs into a burning fireball. The camera follows it as we see a person on the horizon. This person has to dodge out of the way and we see he has a staff. Looking over his shoulder he’s able to keep his eye on the fireball. Using his speedy thinking, he uses his staff to project energy to capture the ball, this causes him to start spinning in place as he prepares to hammer toss it. A few spins and he leaps up to catapult the fireball back the way it came where it eventually turns back into the same red ball that started the whole thing. This little action scene will allow me to get some action work in on animation, but also will allow me to get better at timing the secondary actions and overlapping action with the hair and most importantly the spinning fireball hammer throw set. Not to mention the smoke trail will be a cool additive in my mind. The only issue is how many frames can I feasibly do all this in and still be able to hit the deadline? Well, that’s for future Drew to figure out. Until then, catch you in the next blog where I’m hoping to get down my color palette and some source images for references. See you then!