As a storyboard artist, you'll be responsible for visually outlining the narrative of an animated project, from the initial concept to the final product. It’s a role that blends artistic talent with narrative insight, allowing you to influence pacing, emotion, and action in a story.
Herzing’s Storyboard Artist training was developed in partnership with Toon Boom, makers of the industry’s leading 2D animation software tools. It’s designed to produce grads today’s studios want to hire.
To help you understand what you can expect from the program, we sat down with course designer Karine Charlebois, who has been in the industry for almost 30 years.
Q. Karine, can you tell us about your education and professional background?
Karine: I learned everything I know about animation by working in animation. I’ve always been an artist, but my educational background is a bachelor’s degree in marketing. I didn’t know that it was possible to work in animation here in Montreal until I was in my last semester of university, when I learned that Disney was opening studios in Toronto and Vancouver.
I applied, and they sent me a rejection letter that was super encouraging. They basically said you’re not quite there yet, but work a little bit harder and apply later. That lit a fire under me to up my skills.
Through all my efforts and building a portfolio and all that, I ended up working as a cleanup artist for a storyboard artist back in the late ‘90s. When his show was done, he introduced me to directors in studios in Montreal, and that’s how I got my first job doing storyboard revisions on Arthur in the second season. Later I worked on Mega Babies, and that’s when I got my first opportunity to storyboard.
My first storyboard was terrible, but the director actually took the time to really break down everything that was wrong and show me how to make it better. I learned a lot from that.
I’ve worked my way up to the point where I’m directing now. But I want to contribute to new people coming into the industry. I developed this curriculum to train storyboard artists so that they are industry-ready when they come out of school.
Q. Is there much demand for storyboard artists?
Karine: There’s a huge lack of good storyboard artists. Of course, the industry is feast and famine, but every time we’re looking for storyboard artists, it is so difficult to find them.
Q. What do students learn in this program? What skills do they come away with?
Karine: The first part of the program focuses on the grammar of visual storytelling: how to understand the direction of action, how to make things make sense visually, how to make it interesting visually.
The rest of the program is more about letting people find their voice and learn how to make their own interpretation of the story work on screen.
I want people to develop a good eye for efficient storytelling. I want them to have some originality but also not get too complicated to be understood.
Q. What jobs will graduates of this program qualify for?
Karine: The goal in making this program is to make industry-ready storyboard artists. We want to get them to be able to take a script from a studio, draw in the style of that show, and understand what’s expected of them. That requires understanding scripts and subtext and being able to adapt to different art styles.
There are also jobs available in storyboard revisions. That’s how I learned to do the job. Revisions are great because you get to work on other people’s storyboards. A director or storyboard supervisor asks you to revise certain things and redo sequences in a certain way and fix the things that are wrong. So you learn at the same time.
Clean up or revision is an excellent starting point for doing the work of a storyboard artist.
Q. What qualities would you say are required to become a successful storyboard artist? How does someone know they’re a good fit?
Karine: Being a storyboard artist requires being an all-around good artist—for characters, for backgrounds, and for understanding your perspective and your characters within that perspective.
You need to develop a good shorthand that has the characters in the proper sizes compared to each other and compared to the backgrounds. You should have a handle on staging as well as a good understanding of the camera and composition rules.
It’s not so much about having a perfect rendering because storyboards are still sketches, not the final drawings you see on screen. But you need to draw fast and get your ideas on paper or on screen very quickly.
If someone’s drawings are not really good, but the acting is good, the emotion is clear, and the intent of the artist is easy to understand, I’m going to hire that person over one who can do super beautiful drawings but has kind of dull staging.
Q. What else should students know about this career?
Karine: As a storyboard artist, you’re the one who throws that first version of the story out in the world. Your director goes over it and makes changes, but the first iteration of the story is entirely yours. So it’s a big responsibility, and you need to be prepared for that.
It’s a tough job that requires a lot of skills, but it’s super rewarding. When I was doing storyboards for My Little Pony, I would go on YouTube and watch reaction videos to the episodes that I’d done. It gave me so much pleasure to look at the faces and see them loving the story the way I told it. That was just fantastic.
LEARN MORE ABOUT STORYBOARD ARTIST TRAINING AT HERZING
Herzing’s Storyboard Artist program is just 12 months long, including an extensive 12-week internship. Training is delivered online.
Not sure if it’s right for you? Reach out to our admissions team. An advisor can discuss your goals and answer any questions you have about schedules, costs, application procedures, and financial aid.
Click below to explore the program and chat live with an advisor. We’re here to help!
