Advice for storyboard/animation careers, new GN "I Moved to LA to Work in Animation"

I moved to LA in 2015 to storyboard for animation studios. I get a lot of questions from artists who are interested in making similar career moves themselves. I wanted to make a comic about my experience, half for me and half for anyone looking for information about LA / storyboarding for animation. It took a LOT of my weekends over the past year, but I turned all of my experiences and feelings and things I wanted to tell my younger self into a graphic novel!

The 96-page graphic novel is out now in comic shops, bookstores, Comixology, the BOOM! Studios app, and online retailers! Find our more about the book, as well as links to where you can buy it, HERE.

Thank you to everyone who sent me your questions when I put the call out earlier this year, and thank you to Molly, Diana, Matt, Paul, Lissa, Erika, and Luis for the proof-reading and encouragement. ❤

Note: Please do not send me your portfolio or your work; I cannot look at it. I wish you all of the best, and I hope that this comic and the resources below will help you, but I cannot mentor you or give you individual feedback. I do volunteer as a mentor for Rise Up Animation, and I highly recommend signing up for a portfolio with them if you are a BIPOC artist. Thank you for understanding. Good luck!

ANIMATION LINKS AND RESOURCES

(Let me know in the comments if any links are broken or if you think I’m missing something important here. If you are more interested in resources for a career in comics, check out this post. If you are more interested in resources for Animators, check out this post.)

Basics you should understand about Animation:
How Does Animation Work?: LINK

Dreamworks Animation CGI Studio Pipeline: LINK

PIXAR in a box: LINK

Different Story artists’ personal advice:

Madeleine Flores' extensive guide to breaking in and pitching shows: LINK

Latoya Raveneau's PDFs on the basics of what a Storyboard Artist is, and how to make a great Story portfolio: LINK

Sam Spina's comic about moving to LA to work in animation: LINK
Sam Spina's comic about working on Infinity Train: LINK

Lissa Treiman’s tips for becoming a story artist: LINK

Stu Livingston's advice to struggling board artists: LINK

Anthony Holden's comic about gaining life experience before working in a studio: LINK

Jen Bennett's advice for storyboard artists: LINK

Kris W. (Disney TV director) made a very relatable post that I love: LINK

Bill Peet: An Autobiography: LINK

Exercises to build your Story skills and portfolio:

• Next 5: This is one of my favorite exercises to give people, because you can do it in half a day, and it's totally something you can put it in your Story portfolio! Grab a photo that inspires you somehow (I use Explore | Flickr) as a starting image. Redraw that image in your style, come up with a story based on that starting point, and then draw out the next 5 panels of that story. Here’s a site that explains Next 5 and includes a bunch of examples: LINK
• Film studies: Do thumbnail sketches of existing films. It's a good way to study light, composition, staging, and how to effectively tell a story. Example: LINK
• Lifedrawing: This is very important. Get lots and lots of pencil mileage in by lifedrawing! You can do traditional figure drawing classes with a model, or use the online resources I list further down in this post, or just draw the real people you see while you are on the bus or sitting in a cafe. I have a tutorial about figure drawing for cartoonists here: LINK
• Fan storyboards: create the storyboards for a story that already exists. For example, Charis JB storyboarded scenes based on the Hamilton soundtrack. Louie Zong storyboards jokes from the MBMBAM podcast. Stephanie Stine storyboarded a scene from The Golden Compass book (before it was adapted into a film and a TV series).
  
• But the absolute best thing you can do? Storyboard a short, original story from your imagination! Try to tell a story in 100-200 panels, with a beginning, middle, and end. You can pitch your story to a friend and ask if they understood what was happening, and if they felt any emotions based on your scene, and see whether or not your jokes made them laugh. To really test your work, hand it to a friend and ask THEM to tell you what they think is happening as they read through the scene, with no explanations from you! This will reveal areas that are not clear enough yet.
  When I coach people on what to put in their Story portfolios, I recommend having 2-3 short, original storyboard samples. I think it's a good idea to make at least one of the samples a comedy (to show off your sense of humor and gags), and at least one of them a serious human drama (e.g. two people having a difficult conversation). The idea with the drama sample is to show off your dramatic sensibilities, your ability to draw "realistic" people (think How to Train Your Dragon or Frozen), and your ability to convey complex human emotions in how your characters act. Try to show emotions beyond just "happy", "sad", "angry". Try to get subtle and complex. Even if your character is showing a basic emotion like "happy", can you draw them in a way that feels unique to THAT character? Like they show "happy" in a slightly different way than other characters?
  Expert mode: try boarding a scene with no dialogue, no written descriptions below your panels, and no arrows. Communicate everything in your drawings and in your characters' acting.

Some examples of great Story portfolios:
Yon Lee: LINK
Andrea Walker*: LINK

Bosook Coburn: LINK

Kai Lynn Jiang: LINK
Donna Lee: LINK
McKenna Harris: LINK

Matt Jones’ Dreamworks Feature story test: LINK

*My favorite tool for formatting your boards to be "clickable" is Speaker Deck. It's free - just make a profile and you can use this tool and embed Speaker Deck in a blog post or portfolio. If you see Andrea Walker's portfolio above, she has Speaker Deck PDF slideshows embedded in her Blogger portfolio, and then she also posts .jpeg sheets of her boards below each one. This is my absolute favorite way to see boards formatted in someone's portfolio, because I can click through and see subtle movements from one board to the next. It helps me feel camera moves and see more easily what your boards will look like in an animatic. You can also format your boards to be "clickable" with Google Slides, but there is a flash of white between boards that is jarring to the eye, at least for me.

Free online resources / tutorials:
Flooby Nooby: a crash course in storyboarding for animation: LINK

StoryboardArt - free visual story course: LINK

Violaine Briat's 150-page tutorials for art and animation (pay what you want): LINK

Intro to Storyboarding with Rajen Ramkallawan: LINK

Kris W.'s free faux storyboard test: LINK

Mia Calderon's how to start storyboarding: LINK

Brad Bird on how to compose shots for storyboard and layout artists: LINK

Storyboarding the Simpson's way: LINK

Stu Livingston's Craig of the Creek boarding tips: LINK

Mike Moloney posts tons of good tips on his Instagram: LINK

^Mike Moloney also published a $10 TV Boards Survival Guide on Gumroad: LINK

Ariel VH's tips for storyboard revisionists on Amphibia: LINK

Nic Parris on how to use shorthand: LINK

Nic Parris on how to make a short more cinematic: LINK

Jim Mortensen's storyboard tips (pay what you want): LINK

Jim Mortensen gives a demonstration of how quickly recruiters look at portfolios: LINK

Portfolio advice from The Animation Guild: LINK

Ash's storyboard tips zine (pay what you want): LINK

Ben Juwono's advice on storyboarding speed/efficiency: LINK

Megan Ann Boyd's A Guide to Storyboards (pay what you want): LINK

Colin Jack's how to storyboard in Procreate: LINK

Matthew Humphreys on how to avoid over-posing / animating your boards: LINK
Stephan Park's intro to Storyboard Pro: LINK

Toniko Pantoja's tips for Story Portfolios: LINK

Emma Coats’ 22 Story Basics: LINK

Bianca Siercke's tutorial posts: LINK

Cartoon Network Studios - the art of storyboarding: LINK

Cy's tutorial on the benefits of tracing: LINK

Karen J Lloyd’s tips for storyboard tests: LINK

Corey Barnes on the importance of thumbnailing: LINK
Corey Barnes' Gumroad storyboarding tutorials (pay what you want): LINK

Next Five story game: LINK

Purge Theory's Story/Design tips: LINK

Evan E. Richards' blog dissecting cinematography in films: LINK

Toby Shelton's blog: LINK

The Amphibia crew Tumblr has lots of good behind-the-scenes stuff: LINK

Flooby Nooby breaks down cinematography in The Incredibles: LINK

Rian Johnson breaks down a scene from Knives Out: LINK

Mark Kennedy’s blog Seven Golden Camels: LINK

New Masters Academy Youtube tutorials: LINK

Toniko Pantoja's animation tutorials: LINK 

Alex Small-Butera’s Flash tutorial series: LINK

Alex Grigg: animating in PS (“phantom limb”) LINK

Ross Plaskow: After Effects LINK

Bill Plympton's production vlogs: LINK

Aaron Blaise animation videos: LINK

Justin Oaksfield's mini tutorial on environment painting: LINK

Emel's mini tutorial on how to emulate paints in Photoshop: LINK

Tamra Bonvillain's mini tutorial on how to color bookshelves in your comics quickly: LINK

My thread on how to loosen up and get bold/gestural while sketching people: LINK

Every Frame a Painting: LINK

Chris Oatley's website: LINK

Collected film lessons from Alexander Mackendrick: LINK

Brandon Sanderson's BYU lectures on Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy: LINK

Paid courses / academic programs:

If you have the money....I think the top programs in North America are probably Cal-Arts, Sheridan, USC, Ringling, SCAD, and Art Center

Schoolism (I recommend Alex Woo's gesture drawing class!): LINK  

CGMA - Storyboarding for Animation: LINK

Skill Share: LINK

Brainstorm Burbank: LINK

LinkedIn Learning (previously Lynda.com): LINK

Kevin Reed's storyboard mentorship: LINK

Rad Sechrist's classes: LINK

Leo Matsuda's Skillshare classes: LINK

Lyndon Ruddy's Art of the Storyboard: LINK

Steve Ahn's workshops:LINK

Storyboarding with Kris Pearn: LINK

Concept Design Academy: LINK

Animation Mentor: LINK

Gobelins character animation summer program: LINK

The Animation Guild offers periodic classes: LINK

SILA classes: LINK

California State Summer School for the Arts' animation program: LINK

CalArts' extended studies (check out the summer Animation intensive program): LINK

Oatley Academy: LINK

Animsquad: LINK

iAnimate: LINK

Aaron Blaise's Fundamentals of Animation course: LINK

The Animation Collaborative: LINK

The Story Whisperer: LINK

Bloop's Animation for Beginners: LINK

Tron Mai’s story classes (normally at CDA, but do your own search for the latest info)

Software:

"Storyboarder" (free!): LINK

Toon Boom's "Storyboard Pro" (WIDELY used in studios, especially in TV): LINK

Photoshop: LINK

Procreate: LINK 

Animation organizations:

Women In Animation: LINK

ASIFA: LINK

The Animation Guild: LINK 

Events:

Lightbox Expo: LINK

CTNX: LINK

Los Angeles Animation Festival: LINK

Gallery Nucleus: LINK

Center Stage Gallery: LINK

Pop Secret Gallery: LINK

Model Drawing Collective Empowering Models/Inspiring Artists life drawing: LINK

Spirit Drawing (costumed, often spooky/sexy themes): LINK

Contemporary story artists to follow / study:

Johane Matte: LINK

Samantha Vilfort: LINK

Lissa Treiman: LINK

Kellye Perdue: LINK

Maddie Sharafian: LINK

Pete Sohn: LINK

Fawn Veerasunthorn: LINK

Allen Ostergar IV: LINK

Donna Lee: LINK

Stephanie Stine: LINK

Mia Calderone: LINK

Leo Matsuda: LINK

Rob Porter: LINK

Wesley Fuh: LINK

Yon Lee: LINK

Domee Shi: LINK

Stu Livingston: LINK

Toby Shelton: LINK

Normand Lemay: LINK

David Derrick: LINK

Dave Pimentel: LINK

Steve Ahn: LINK

Louie del Carmen: LINK

Chris Sanders: LINK

Anthony Holden: LINK

Alex Woo: LINK

Michael Yates: LINK

Madeleine Flores: LINK

Clio Chiang: LINK

John Ripa: LINK

Griz & Norm: LINK

Jeremy Spears: LINK

Rad Sechrist: LINK

Colin Jack: LINK

Valerie LaPointe: LINK

Matthew Luhn: LINK

Dean Kelly: LINK

 

A few story art masters:

Bill Peet: LINK

Chuck Jones: LINK

Kiraz: LINK

Quentin Blake: LINK

Hayao Miyazaki: LINK

Norman Rockwell:LINK
 

Storyboards and animatics to watch and study:

You'd be surprised how much stuff is publicly available online - try Googling any of your favorite animated shows / films and seeing if the boards or animatics are available to watch! Try searching "(show name) storyboards" and "(show name) animatic". The links below may not work anymore because this stuff does tend to get pulled down. But just do your own searching and I'm sure you can find them again!

Lissa Treiman boards for Raya and the Last Dragon: LINK

Hannah Ayoubi's pilot animatic for Monsters Abroad: LINK 

^Don't miss her Twitter thread sharing behind-the-scenes art and insights!: LINK

Johane Matte boards for Trollhunters: LINKhttps://twir.com/rodrigoblaas/status/817061000331431936

Craig of the Creek boards by Lamar Abrams and Charmaine Verhagen: LINK

Joe Johnston "It's over isn't it": LINK

^Don't miss Joe's behind-the-scenes look at how he crafted this scene!: LINK

A big free, online archive of Adventure Time storyboards: LINK

Lego Movie clips by various artists: LINK

Kiki’s Delivery Service: LINK

Wreck It Ralph deleted scenes: LINK

Glen Keane thumbnails from Tarzan: LINK

The Boxtrolls: LINK

Star vs The Forces of Evil: LINK

Penguins of Madagascar: LINK

Ratatouille: LINK

Steven Universe: LINK

Frozen: LINK

Jesse Wong's Infinity Train boards: LINK
Craig of the Creek: LINK

Dan Abraham's boards for Lost in the Woods from Frozen 2: LINK
Legend of Korra book 3 chapter 1: LINK

 

Storyboarding (and related) Books:

Prepare to Board! Creating Story and Characters for Animated Features and Shorts by Nancy Beiman
Storyboards: Motion in Art by Mark Simon
Art of Storyboard by Don Bluth
Professional Storyboarding

100 Tuesday Tips by Griz and Norm (I believe it is sold out at the moment, but please take the time to dig through their original Tumblr with all of the Tuesday Tips posts - this is really a goldmine for Story artists.)
Studio Ghibli's storyboard books (even in Japanese these are incredibly useful to study)

Save the Cat by Blake Snyder 

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
The Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri

Screenwriting: The Sequence Approach by Paul Joseph Gulino

Movie Storyboards by Mulligan
The Visual Story by Bruce Block
Shot by Shot by Steven D. Katz
Five C’s of Cinematography
Master Shots by Christopher Kenworthy

Framed Ink by Marcos Mateu-Mestre

Framed Perspective by Marcos Mateu-Mestre

On Film-Making by Alexander Mackendrick

Animation Writing and Development: from Script to Pitch

Directing the Story by Francis Glebas

Setting Up Your Shots by Jeremy Vineyard

Projections 5: Film-makers on Film-making
The Big Lebowski by Robertson Cooke
Casting a Shadow: Creating the Alfred Hitchcock Film

Kingdom of Heaven: the Ridley Scott Film and the History Behind It

My Life, Drawing by Matt Jones: LINK

The Animator's Survival Kit
Drawing People: How to Portray the Clothed Figure
Andrew Loomis's books
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
An Atlas of Anatomy for Artists
How to Draw Anime & Game Characteres (volumes 1 & 2 in particular)
Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes

Story by Robert McKee

On Writing by Stephen King

Force: Dynamic Life Drawing for Animators
Color and Light: Life Drawing for Animators

Dreamworlds by Hans Bacher

Online figure drawing sites:

Line of Action: LINK

Quick Poses: LINK

Sketch Daily: LINK

Croquis Cafe: LINK

Senshi Stock: LINK

Proko: LINK

New Masters Academy: LINK

Love Lifedrawing: LINK

Bodies in Motion: LINK

Reference.Pictures: LINK

I also made a Youtube video with a bunch of figure drawing advice for cartoonists: LINK

Documentaries:

Walt Disney (PBS documentary): LINK

Imagining Zootopia

Into the Unknown: Making Frozen II 

Podcasts:

The Animation Happy Hour: LINK

^I HIGHLY recommend every artist listen to episode 8 of The Animation Happy Hour, which takes a deep dive into finances for artists, including art school, loans, etc. - LINK

The Culture: LINK

TonkoCast: LINK

Cartoon Saloon's The Speakeasy podcast: LINK

The Screenwriting Life: LINK

Black N' Animated: LINK

The Ink and Paint Girls Podcast: LINK

Minkyu and Shiyoon - An Animation Podcast: LINK

The Bancroft Brothers: LINK

The Visual Storytelling Podcast: LINK

The Animated Journey (now finished): LINK

Youtube channels:

Rise Up Animation: LINK
Tonko House: LINK

Dwooman: LINK

Jim Mortensen: LINK

MewTripled: LINK

Laura Price: LINK

Toniko Pantoja: LINK

BaM Animation: LINK

ThirdChildFilms: LINK

The NerdWriter: LINK

Matthew Humphreys' Storyboards101: LINK

Other resources:

Check out the tag #PortfolioDay on Twitter, and post your work to it

The Animation Guild (learn your rights, and check out the wages PDF!): LINK

The Animation Happy Hour podcast has their own list of resources, a little more geared towards Animators: LINK

LoopdeLoop: LINK

11 Second Club: LINK

Glassdoor – employees review the companies they work for and report their real salaries: LINK

Value graphics tablets: LINK

Studios / job portal links:

Chris Mayne's Animation/VFX/Game industry aggregate site (it's INCREDIBLE; send him a few bucks to support the site if you can!): LINK

Disney feature: LINK

PIXAR: LINK 

Dreamworks: LINK

LAIKA: LINK

Sony Pictures Animation: LINK

Paramount Animation: LINK

Illumination MacGuff: LINK

SkyDance Media: LINK

Disney Television Animation: LINK

Nickelodeon: LINK

Cartoon Network: LINK

Titmouse: LINK

Bento Box: LINK

Blue Sky: LINK

Cartoon Saloon: LINK

Aardman: LINK

Spa Studios: LINK

Shadow Machine: LINK

Brown Bag Films: LINK

LucasFilm: LINK

Base FX: LINK

Marvel Animation

South Park studios

20th Century FOX Animation

Fuzzy Door Productions

Warner Brothers, Warner Animation Group (WAG)

Blue Spirit: LINK

Method Studios: LINK

Nord-Ouest films: LINK

Moonbot Studios: LINK

ZAG: LINK

Teamto: LINK

ToonBox Entertainment: LINK

Studio Hari: LINK

Yapiko Animation: LINK

Kawanimation: LINK

Quatre21: LINK

Go-N: LINK

Rooster Teeth: LINK

Ubisoft: LINK

Nintendo: LINK

Pretty Simple: LINK

Liquid Development: LINK

Bent Image Lab: LINK

Game Loft: LINK

Chez Soi / Studio Soi in Germany: LINK

Film Roman: LINK

Nitrogen Studios: LINK

Atomic Cartoons: LINK

Bardel Entertainment: LINK

Reel FX: LINK

Deep Sky Studios: LINK

2 Minutes: LINK

BC Wall: LINK

Mikros Image Animation: LINK

Gaumont Animation: LINK

Caribara Animation: LINK

Studio 100: LINK

Knightworks: LINK

Wako Factory: LINK

Man of Action Entertainment: LINK

Aeria Games: LINK

Kabam: LINK

Kobojo: LINK

Pocket Gems: LINK

DONTNOD: LINK

Quantic Dream: LINK

Big Bad Boo: LINK

Nintai Studio: LINK

Monster (aggregate job site): LINK

Indeed (aggregate job site): LINK

Entertainment Careers (aggregate job site): LINK

Creative Heads (aggregate job site): LINK  

AFJV – French aggregate job site with primarily video game art positions, many of which seek English-speaking candidates: LINK