thumb-boards

While working at Big Idea I had the opportunity to work with Tod Carter- an amazingly bright and talented story artist. When he was working out a sequence for a video title Tod often used simple little thumbnail sketches. He'd cram 10 or more shots onto a single piece of paper, no formal board templates or anything. While these were intended as first pass rough sketches, more than a few times the thumb boards were so clear and functional they just scanned those, blew them up and cut them into the edit- no full clean up board needed. I'm sure it helped story development to move faster (saving money & time- two very important things in the world of lower budgets), but whether I was animating, supervising or directing I never felt like we were getting short-changed in the process. The thumbs were clear and they gave us plenty to work with.

That made a big impact on me because I'm always intimidated by the act of drawing. I can draw all day long (and even do OK at it), but the moment the drawing becomes "serious" or needs to be on par with some arbitrary skill level I just shut down. So thumb-boards work perfectly for me. I've boarded a number of films and projects the same way over the years. Quick, rough and simple. Like everything else about this project, immediacy, speed and simplicity are the goals.

As you can see, the drawing is utterly lacking professional skill. But they don't need to be fancy or amazing. I'm not out to impress anybody. The drawings just need to be clear. 

  

  

 

I've been trying to keep my Twitter account updated with things as I move along.