Freedom - storyboards

This storyboard is read Left to right along each row (carries over to second page.)

Above is the final storyboard I have created - although it is very basic it is a guide of the different 'camera' angles and what scene follows where. In addition it lets me visually understand the where certain frames should go - for instance I may feel a close up shot should be used to display more emotion of the character. The final story is as follows:

Frame 1 - A crowd of people dancing (Birdseye view) to a low 'beaty' music (2 seconds)
Frame 2 - We are introduced to the main character, a girl who looks slightly out of place.
Frame 3 - close up of her face reveals her feelings of awkwardness
Frame 4 - Long shot shows her dancing among others (side to side) awkwardly
Frame 5 - Tries letting go abit and dances with her arms
Frame 6 - Sees people laughing and assumes its her dancing
Frame 7 - Feels very self conscious and feels all eyes on her
Frame 8 - closes her eyes thinking back to when she is at home
Frame 9 - Turns around and is dancing at home freely and without any prejudice
Frame 10 - More dancing...
Frame 11 - Finishes the dance at the party (she feels free)
Frame 12 - Happy

After I had filmed myself dancing I created several pages like the two above to note down key frames. Furthermore this process enabled me to go through all the footage and pick particular moves and transitions that I may like to use for my animation. This exercise also served as a good way to just start drawing out the layout - personally I find it easier to draw out exactly what I plan to animate so I can plan and discover what works and what doesn't. In addition it lets me cut out unnecessary frames and connect others together etc.

I have decided to hand draw my animation. And because I am focusing most of my animation on the human body I have filmed myself dancing as a reference film. I have created several videos of me dancing on my own - this is so that I can capture movements that are large and random and to see how they entwine into one another. I have filmed this footage and then in after affects split it into a Jpeg sequence where I can draw from these images as reference. Surrounding are some images from these films that I have created. I found that by doing this I could understand more about the way that I move and also more importantly experience the freedom that I am trying to depict in my story.