Composition for dummies part two: The Dead Center Focal Point!**
I have found that storyboards that use a nice mixture of the “Rule of Thirds” and “Dead Center” focal points are the most visually pleasing. Remember, SHOT VARIETY is good.
I did some compositional how-to’s in my early weeks at Warner Bros. studios. I thought it’d be great to post a series of these on the Tumblr’s for beginning board artists.
These are some guides I did specifically for the Green Lantern Animated Series. I learned most of my knowledge of CG camera lenses while working on Clone Wars (with Maya). I could see the rules being different on a live action set.
Also, note that this indicates stylistic choices I wanted on Green Lantern. Tron Uprising, which I think is a beautiful looking show, tends to use a lot more wide angle lenses than we did, which is what gives it that extra “anime” look.
If you work in traditional animation, you probably don’t have to think much about lens choice - unless you work in anime, or Avatar the Last Airbender.
Camera movement terminology is not nearly as fun as the film theory stuff, but pretty important if you want to communicate your ideas properly.
I like the way I compare “normal people” vs. “CG people” .. ha ha ha. No offense, but some of those computery terms are pretty strange, you gotta admit.
Normal person: "I’m thinking of moving to New York City.“
CG person: "I’m thinking of translating to New York City.”
Here’s some guides I did to point out the differences between boarding for a 2-D show and a 3-D show. For the most part, all traditional film making theory still applies, but you have a lot more freedom when moving the camera.