Storyboard Artists in "Severe Skills Shortage"

Storyboard artists "skills shortage"

Storyboarding continues to be an area of "severe skills shortage" in the animation industry, according to a recent report from Screen Skills (the organisation formerly known as Creative Skillset).  Screen Skills reports a shortage among "storyboard artists, story supervisors, story revisionists - across all levels". 

Industry has been telling us for many years that storyboarding is an area of critical skills shortage.  As animation production in the UK has expanded rapidly over the last five years, the supply of talent has not kept pace, hence our new MA in Storyboarding, which starts on 28 June.

"Brodiaga" Storyboard panel by Anastasia Gurova

Storyboard Artists in Demand
Good board artists are highly sought-after.  The large increase in animation production in the UK in recent years means that skilled board artists are in high demand. 

Story remains a key part of the production pipeline - one that is rarely outsourced overseas. 

Storyboard artists work closely with the writer and director to bring the script to life, and add entertainment and "business" to the story. 

Storyboarding leads to Directing

"Brodiaga" storyboard by Anastasia Gurova

Storyboarding also tends to lead naturally to directing your own projects, something that has been demonstrated at Escape Studios, as our Story MA students have directed award-winning short films such as "Street Ratz", "Animal Lover", "Hat Shop" and "Moon Rockz". 

A good story artist is essentially a mini-director: board artists  are in control of creative content, visualising (and improving) the idea or script. Board artists have to think about story, character, and the big picture - unlike animators, who tend to focus on an individual shot or performance.

Creative freedom
A board artist has a good deal of responsibility, but also a considerable degree of creative freedom, the freedom to make things better and also to add their own ideas and suggestions, especially visually.

Storyboard artsists must board the script, but how the board artist approaches the task is very much down to them. A good storyboard artist is near the top of the creative food chain, working closely with the director to bring the project to life.

Boards by Escapee Dominika Brodowska

Story skills are highly transferable
Story skills are highly transferable, and board artists work on commercials, advertising, interactive media, motion graphics,pre-viz for VFX, animated feature films, TV series, music videos, and video games. All narrative media requires storyboards of some sort to visualize a script or idea.

Storyboarding at Escape Studios

Storyboarding Evening class
Storyboarding is back in the New Year; our next evening class in storyboarding starts on 3 March 2021.

Boards by Escapee Fred O'Rourke

The 8 week evening class is led by Francesca "Chess" Adams,  a story board artist at Blue Zoo, one of London's leading animation houses.

MA in Previs and Story
We are also starting a class of our MA in Storyboarding and Previsualisation, starting on 28 June 2021. 

This MA is the first of its kind - the only masters' course in storyboarding in the world, and one which tackles both 2D and 3D skills.

MA Tutor: Iliana Franklin

Iliana Franklin

Iliana Franklin is the newest member of the animation team at Escape Studios.  Iliana teaches our new master's degree in Storyboarding and Previsualisation, which launched in September 2019 and has already producing some remarkably skilled and imaginative work.

Success Stories
Check out the work of Escapee Dominika Brodowska, currently working as a storyboard artist at Blue Zoo. 

 

 
The Escape Studios Animation Blog offers a personal view on the art of animation and visual effects. To find out more about our new BA/MArt, now recruiting for September 2021, follow this link.   To apply, visit the official page here.