Are you looking for the best Storyboarding tutorials online? If yes, we’ve put together a list of the best story boarding courses on the web. We’ve included courses suitable for beginners and advanced videographers, courses of a variety of lengths, and courses of a variety of price ranges, to give you a variety of options.
But first, let’s answers an important question – what is storyboarding, and what is it good for?
A storyboard is a graphic representation of how your video will unfold, shot by shot. Typically, a storyboard is made up of a number of squares with illustrations of pictures which represent each shot. These pictures are accompanied with notes about what is going on in the scene, and what will be said during the shot.
Videographers of all areas of expertise should be using Storyboarding because it is good for:
- Sharing your vision with others
- Making the production process much easier
- Saving time in the long run
To learn to master story boarding, you don’t need to spend hours at a college or university completing a videography degree. There are still plenty of online classes and courses that cover everything you need to know. Suitable for those of all levels, I have spent the time researching the best storyboarding online tutorials out there. If you’re looking to progress your videography skills, either for a career in videography, or to just to enhance your creative skill set, there will be an online course for you.
1. Storyboarding for Film: Illustrating Scripts and Stories (Skillshare)
- Level: All levels
- Completion time: 1h 17m
- Cost: 14 day free trial
- Certification: No
- Number of people who have completed the course: 4,144
- Course rating: N/A
Taught by Ryan Falkner, a filmmaker with over 15 years experience as a storyboard artist, this course is suitable for artists, writers, filmmakers and creative storytellers of any level, regardless of their experience or speciality.
In this course, you will learn to draw sketches that can be used as storyboards for your favourite films. You will take a look at why storyboards and scripts matter in filmmaking, what the core concepts of cinematography and camera angles are, and how to illustrate scripts from start to finish. You will also be exposed to revealing insider tips on how to think like a storyboard artist, see like a camera and draw from your minds eye! Furthermore, you will also get to take a look at downloadable additional resources that will help make this course engaging and solidify your knowledge.
2. Learn to Storyboard for Film or Animation (Udemy)
- Level: Beginner to Intermediate
- Completion time: 1h 45m
- Cost: $69.99
- Certification: No
- Number of people who have completed the course: 6,798
- Course rating: 4.5/5 (out of 1,290 ratings)
All you need to complete this course is a love story telling, film and visual language. You don’t need to be able to draw, as this course teaches you everything you need to know so that you can start storyboarding today.
Taught by Siobhan Twomey, you’ll learn how to draw acceptable storyboard panels for scripts. During this course, you will learn all the main camera angles and shots used in film, animation, TV and gaming. You will also learn concrete skills, like how to draw characters, layouts and scenes.
By the end of this course, you’ll have learnt the entire process of storyboarding, for animation or film. You should feel confident using directing and editing techniques, and you”ll learn how to draw basic characters and character models.
3. Storyboarding For Motion Graphics: An Introduction to Main Titles (Skillshare)
- Level: Intermediate
- Completion time: 1h 42m
- Cost: 14 day free trial
- Certification: No
- Number of people who have completed the course: 2,961
- Course rating: N/A
The course instructor, Maggie Tsao, is a Sports Emmy-nominated art director and designer. She was worked in Motion Graphics for over 10 years, and is excited to show you everything she knows!
In this course you will learn about different concepts and tools, including composition and typography. You will also look at storyboarding sequence, design, final frame and how to make final techniques. To top it off, you will also complete a hands-on class project to help you solidify your knowledge and skills.
4. Advanced Storyboarding for Film and Animation (Udemy)
- Level: Intermediate
- Completion time: 1h 6m
- Cost: $89.99
- Certification: No
- Number of people who have completed the course: 2,918
- Course rating: 4.7/5 (out of 261 ratings)
To complete this course, you should have a good foundational knowledge of drawing and know different camera angles and shots.
This course dives deep into the art of drawing storyboards professionally for film and animation. You will be taught how to draw dynamic character poses for animation, how to do gesture drawing and how to work with character model sheets and layouts. You will also take a look at advanced principles of drawing and animation, such as: composition, staging for the action, framing shots and how to lead the audiences eyes. After this, you will also learn directing techniques like when to cut a scene, when not to cut, and how to build audience identification with the characters of your story.
5. Storyboarding Your Film (CreativeLive)
- Level: All levels
- Completion time: 3h 32m
- Cost: $2
- Certification: No
- Number of people who have completed the course: 1,900
- Course rating: 80% recommend this class
Instructed by Chris Prynoski, an animator, director and producer, and Christy Karacas, whose work has been show in festivals and screenings worldwide, this course is designed to get you feeling confident storyboarding.
Through 10 lessons, you will learn everything you need to know to get to grips with storyboarding so that you can use it as a blueprint for your production. You’ll be show how to develop simple, effective storyboards which allow you to tackle all kinds of filmmaking. You will learn which projects to storyboard, what alternative uses and mediums there are for storyboarding, optimal tools for storyboarding creation, and how to storyboard for severe films. Once completed, you should feel confident incorporating advanced storyboarding techniques into your storyboarding.
6. Introduction to Storyboarding (Domestika)
- Level: Beginner
- Completion time: 2h 30m
- Cost: $49.99
- Certification: Yes
- Number of people who have completed the course: 2130
- Course rating: 100% positive reviews (outs of 73 reviews)
In this Domestika course, you will discover how to tell your stories with create and professional storyboarding by learning the fundamentals of visual storytelling.
Taught by Laura Ewing, who is an award winning storyboard artists and character designer, you will learn her step-by-step method for creating beautiful storyboards that capture the essences of each of your scripts. You will be taught how to create a character design for animation in photoshop. On top of this, you will also learn to tell your individual story through a lens, using cinematographic techniques and other professional methods. , such as the rule of thirds, how to work with an axis line and how to create depth.
After completing this short course, you should feel confident creating beautiful storyboards that communicate your ideas clearly with others.
7. Jodie Foster Teaches Filmmaking (Masterclass)
- Level: Beginner
- Completion time: 4h 3m
- Cost: $15 per month
- Certification: No
- Number of people who have completed the course: N/A
- Course rating: N/A
Jodie Forster is a two-time Oscar-winner who has created her first online tutorial to show you how to bring all your filmmaking visions to life! Suitable for beginners, this course delves a little deeper into the filmmaking process than just looking at the pre-production storyboarding, and gives you a little insight into the entire filmmaking process.
In this tutorial, Jodie will discuss her filmmaking experiences with you. She will run over every single step of the filmmaking process, from storyboarding to casting. You will learn how to explore big film ideas, how to create a vision for your film, how to construct a scene, what to do when shooting your film, and much more!
8. Animation Foundations: Storyboarding (LinkedIn Learning)
- Level: Beginner and Intermediate
- Completion time: Approx. 1h
- Cost: 14 day free trial
- Certification: No
- Number of people who have completed the course: 18,109
- Course rating: N/A
Suitable only for those who want to get into cartoon animation, this LinkedIn Learning course will teach you everything you need to know to get started with storyboarding for cartoons.
Course instructor, Dermot O’Connor, will demonstrate all the fundamentals of storyboarding of animation cartoon characters. He will cover how to demonstrate action, maintain continuity, what film grammar is and different techniques for illustrating action, angles, composition, character and drama.
Conclusion
So, there you have it… the 8 best storyboarding tutorials online that are suited to anyone who is wanting to become an efficient, dedicated and resourceful videographer!
There are lots of online options available for you to progress your storyboarding skills! There are free courses that take only a few hours, and there are more expensive courses that take over 10 hours to complete! Some courses are suitable for those who have never even shot a video before (i.e., complete beginners). Whereas other courses are better suited for those with excellent video editing skills, but are looking to increase their skill set work more efficiently.
The online classes in this list are the best of the best. Each is taught by an experienced and dedicated teacher, and they all have lots of satisfied and happy customers.
So, which course you decide take depends on your experience, funds and spare time. Are you a complete storyboarding newbie? Or have you already got a pretty good eye for storyboarding and just want to refresh your knowledge? Do you have a huge amount of money to spend on your skill development? Do you have a lot of spare time, or are you just looking for a quick, but effective, skill top up?
