#Storyboarder: Johane Matte

[toa-archive]

You too can spend so long fighting Indesign that you have to belatedly grab some boards for the week. ANYWAY how about a few panels from the Trollhunters episode, Recipe for Disaster?

If anybody is understandably wondering, Nastaha (Now Natasha Presler-Wicke) with a single exception does not have any of her work public. These are all we have from this episode at this time :)

Source

[dinsicle]

somebody on twitter brought up the fact that Johane Matte, a storyboard artist that worked on ATLA and LOK made storyboard art of adult gaang and omg this is the adult aang that we deserved instead of that white man 😭😭 side note: sokka looks so much like hakoda, tlok animators fumbled the bag

[conceptual-oranges]

I've been seeing this piece of art floating around recently, and I want to take a moment to talk about it!

This is an unofficial storyboard panel created by Johane Matte, aka rufftoon, storyboard artist for ATLA and LOK! This panel features the Gaang as adults, and was done purely for fun! Some quick fun facts;

This is part of a collection of fake storyboards created by Johane, and were presented during the New York Anime Festival. The scene shown above is a parody of the epilogue in Harry Potter.

Many think the child next to Zuko and Mai is their daughter, and possibly an early concept of Izumi, but it's not, it's actually their son! The son is unnamed, but Johane and fans jokingly decided to name him 'Prince Scorpius-Zhao Jet Yue Cabbage.'

The necklace Aang is wearing is similar to Monk Gyatso, and Johane notes that Aang would wear similar clothing to his old master.

Source!

[artbook-pages]

The Art of Trollhunters - Tales of Arcadia - Storyboard Sequences by Johane Matte and Boulhem Bouchiba

[aangsglider]

Unofficial storyboard art from Avatar storyboard artist- Johan Matte.

And just look at how Aang looks at Katara.

[makingtoothcostume]

Johane Matte is such a brilliant artist. When she drew her ‘Fourth Movement’ Rise of the Guardians cartoon while storyboarding the movie she gave Tooth a rather different sword from William Joyce’s books. Joyce’s swords are pretty heavy and the fairy would struggle to wield one in each hand. But Matte’s sword is perfect for her. Like Tooth herself, the sword is naturally beautiful and not embellished with adornments. It is fairly light so she would be able to wield it with great effect if needed. After quite a lot of digging around I was thrilled to discover that Johane hadn’t just made up any kind of sword- she’d done the research and drawn an actual sword that actually exists. It's a Persian scimitar called a shamshir. And here it is- the sword she drew, in real life! We are certainly looking forward to having some fun with this! You really won’t want to be getting on Tooth’s bad side now.

[eleyctra]

Water Tribe 5 0256 by rufftoon

Love following this comic for the past...oh, decade. Rufftoon, a.k.a.: Johane Matte, a.k.a.: the lady who storyboarded some of the Avatar TLA show, and the comics.

[thirdchildart]

Hi there, I love your art/boards a whole lot!! I really want to be a storyboarder once I graduate, but sometimes I find it hard to create interesting/visually appealing boards, instead they look a bit flat and lifeless. Any tips on how to incorporate interesting perspective/composition?

So! Composition! I’m gonna start out with a disclaimer: any of these suggestions can be broken for artistic expression. These are starting points when it comes to building an interesting dynamic scene! BIG POST. CLICK THE READ MORE!!!

Composition is the arrangement of SHAPE, LINE, CONTRAST, or COLOR that leads your eye in a path around the screen.  You don’t want the audience to search the screen for info--they should find and follow easily.

FIRST THOUGHT: Where in the frame?

Where does your eye go on each of the following images? And why? Can you connect them to a sensation or emotion?

Faces will draw attention. Movement will draw attention. Bright against dark will draw attention. Dark against bright will draw attention. And, despite size, we will look at in-focus items first.

Avoid creating static, balanced shots ON ACCIDENT. Avoid straight lines, perfectly stiff characters, and perfect shapes.  Let your characters lean, slump, slouch, reach, stretch. Act in a mirror!  Act out your boards. Now, you can use precise/stiff drawings and symmetrical shots for style on purpose (it’s Wes Anderson’s signature). But if you don’t make an effort to put flow and rhythm in your composition, it will feel static and dead.  Organic, living, designed shots will have imbalance, they will have weighted area of the screen, and interesting use of blank spaces.

The movie screen has 5 specific areas most action takes place in: upper right, upper left, lower right, lower left, and dead center.

Since the point of a film is to cut from one shot to the next to the next to the next, we don’t want our audience to work too hard searching around the screen for their next point of information. So to avoid static, square compositions, story artists will think of the screen split into thirds.

And keep our points of interest along those lines, and those dots.

You can break out of this of course, but be kind to your audience. If you direct them to the far side of the screen, be kind and bring them back! Even with messy, simple drawings, I can help your eyes follow a simple story: Person lights a lighter.

We look at faces first--even ‘symbolic’ faces.  Those two dots? You know they are eyes.  You probably looked at the face first, then traveled down to that NEW blue spot in frame two, so I took you in for a closeup in panel 3 to get more information about this point of interest.  Did I leave the new point of interest in the same spot?  Nah, I bumped in a little closer to frame center.  This leaves your eye readier to jump to my next shot more easily.

SECOND THOUGHT: What’s the Line of Action?

When you looked from the eyes to the lighter in their hand, you followed my Line of Action for that composition.

Line of Action in an art sense is the path your eyes travel to gain the information in an image.  We usually start at the point of highest interest (a face, a bright spot in the dark, a green stone on the yellow sand) and then look around the frame to see what else we can learn.

When I storyboard, I focus on 4 basic lines of action: vertical, horizontal, diagonal left and diagonal right.  Below are some examples from movies.

Your eye can travel up and down one character, move back and forth between two points, or following around the screen to gather multiple pieces of info.

Put the characters in a clear and interesting distance from camera. How much of the screen does your character fill up?  Do we need to see their face, their body, or the set they are standing in the most clearly?  Does their body language act more, or subtle facial cues? Here’s those same shots with JUST the characters blocked in.  To you, what different information does each piece represent? What does the feeling of someone very far from camera say vs a face SO CLOSE we can see their pores?

Things moving through frame can also follow these lines!   Having something move closer or farther from camera can give you more interest.  

THIRD THOUGHT: How do my shots stitch together?

For very short shots cut close together, I use my line of action to make sure your eye is heading towards the next point of interest after the cut.  If the eye is moving left, the next shot should have focus on the left side of the screen.

Mad Max: Fury Road has lots of beautiful, varied compositions--but always keeps the point of interest super close to DEAD CENTER, so eyes don’t have to travel far at all to follow the fast action!

 In a slower scene, with longer cuts like a conversation, I’m fine with letting the audience bounce left and right, like watching a tennis match.  BUT I want each of those slower shots to be something slightly different and interesting either by changing the composition or acting (but this post isn’t ABOUT acting, so none of that today!!!!)

Hey, guest star time: Every Frame a Painting, can you talk to us about shooting conversation basics?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UE3jz_O_EM

(ALSO WATCH ALL OF TONY AND TAYLOR’S VIDEOS TO LEARN SO MUCH MORE THAN WHAT I COVER HERE)

A simple scene doesn’t mean complete repetition of shots. You can have similar compositions with slight differences that make them more interesting. AND we’re gonna back that up with an example drawn by one of my favorite board directors, Johane Matte.

Original found here: https://www.deviantart.com/rufftoon/art/Last-Airbender-Spoilers-02-170233494

Now, if your interest is built off of acting, repeating shots is a-ok! 

Take this sequence from the West Wing.  If you are unfamiliar with the episode, it’s Thanksgiving and Charlie, the President’s aide, has been trying to find a new carving knife for President Bartlett. Charlie has presented MULTIPLE knives throughout the episode, and the President has turned down every one so far. 

  https://youtu.be/LQlUVfz_qbg?t=21

I’d split this scene into 3 parts, plus a transition out.

Part 1: President and charlie banter, same energy level as they enter the scene. It’s a classic walk-and-talk that West Wing fans know--they switch around spots as they walk, are sometimes close, are sometimes far. It’s fun and interesting!

Part 2: The characters plant, and have a small face-off as Charlie respectfully confronts the president. Most of the shots are the same--it’s a shot reverse shot with the patter-patter-patter of the dialogue driving the cuts.

Part 3: When the emotion gets more intense, we cut in CLOSER and really let the actor reactions land.

Transition out, they say goodbye and Charlie walks away.

Now this is a simple scene driven by dialogue and the personality of each character. We don’t need EXTREME shots or incredible close-ups.  This scene has solid blocking, clear compositions, but isn’t flashy--it doesn’t need to be.

So...when is it time for flash?

THOUGHT FOUR: ACTION AND FIGHTSSSS!!!!!

LINE OF ACTION. SO IMPORTANT.  You want your action to happen fast? Lots of cuts, lots of motion, lots of EMOTION!??!  Guide the eye!!!!! GUIDE the EYE.

Here’s a breakdown of a short fight sequence from Voltron. This features only the silhouette of the two characters, and how much of the ground we see. Forget the story and characters for the moment--focus only on these two enemies andthink of the following questions: How much of the screen does each character they fill? WHAT side of the screen are they on?  How does their size or position change from shot to shot? How does their size or position change INSDIE each shot? If the camera were held by a real person, how high or low would it be?  

FIGHT SCENE!!!!  

Now watch the screen and ask the same questions but add in this: How long does each shot take? When does the camera move, and when does it stay still? And what emotion does that convey?

FINAL THOUGHT: How to apply...?

I’ve asked a lot of questions throughout this post.  Now it’s your job to ask yourself those questions every time you storyboard a scene.

[toa-archive]

This week is sliiightly different than usual though on the flipside the tumblr post with these which still goes round sometimes is completely unsourced. Still a win? Anyway.

From the Trollhunters episode Creepslayerz we have these three panels by Johane Matte aka Rufftoon! She had this to say about them:

Source

As ever any of her work is a genuine delight to see.

[aryisacapricat]

I don’t know what he’s doing with his eyes here but it’s hilarious.

[loopy777]

WATER TRIBE IS BACK, SLUSHMUCKERS!!!

For those who don’t know about this gem, Rufftoon is Johane Matte, a storyboarder and sequential artist who worked on both AtLA and LoK. ‘Water Tribe’ is her fanfic comic about the theoretical return of Zhao, casting him as a villain protagonist and exploring some of the corners of the AtLA world that didn’t get fully fleshed out in the cartoon. It’s exciting, funny, beautiful, and always entertaining. And it’s completely free, all right there on Rufftoon’s deviantArt.

It came to a kind of ending, but with enough loose threads that a sequel could clearly be told.

Well, here’s the sequel. Rufftoon isn’t sure if she’ll finish it, but a return to this world is a joy for however long it lasts. Especially with her gift for facial expressions. (Trust me, you haven’t lived until you’ve seen her Azula verbally spar with Zhao.)

Slush yeah! Best AtLA comics in existence!

[wixiart96]

so I revist some old sketches of Rufftoon on Deviantart (Johane Matte) - she was a storyboard artist on Avatar and The Rise of the Guardians 😋 I freaking looove her drawing style and going through her stuff it inspired me to do these little doodles. P.S Im still working on Raps and Cass cause Im not 100% happy how they look in that style. 😊 The guys surprisingly look better than girls lol 😅

[dyanjong]

Miyavi - Hush Hush ft. Kang Daniel MV from Dyan Jong on Vimeo.

artists MIYAVI & Kang Daniel

director Dyan Jong

executive producer & producer Mariah Morgenstern

executive producers Daisuke Iwase Jeff Miyahara Fabiano Soriani

production company New Royalty

post production company Pyramid3

storyboard artist Avery ota

us miyavi shoot

1st ad Maria Astorga

2nd ad Maddie Lewis

director of photography Matt Plaxco

1st ac Ai Dang

2nd ac Kevin Lin

steadicam Dalton Price

bts photographer Joshua One Nine Productions

key grip Jason Younger

grip Johan Garcia

bbg Joseph Sokmen

gaffer Wess Alley

electric Junfu Wei

bbe Ian Carre-Barritt

hmu artist Yukina Mitsuhashi Liu

wardrobe stylist Tiffani Moreno

covid compliance officer/medic Morris Brown

production assistant (set) Alex Green

production assistant (set) Jesse Newman

production assistant (truck) Jeffrey Ramos

korea kang daniel shoot

director Jae-Hyun Lee (Core.A Creative)

producers Sarah Kim, Vicky Gim

production designer Alex Ryu

production company Core.A Creative

dop Jin-Hyuk Lee (13rolls)

gaffer Jung-Hwan Heo

executive producer Saerom Bong

a&r Charles Yoon Yongjin Jo

management Gyohyeok Kang Duho Han Dongyun Jeong

content planning Youngjun Seo

recording producer Chancellor

recording engineer KayOne Lee

recording studio Fluent

hair Haebin Kim

make-up Anna Lee

wardrobe stylist BeungKyu Kim SeulHee Yoon

post

editor Anthony Chirco

rotoscope & composite SoloVFX

3d design team Xiaobo “Daniel” Ma Xi “Jake” Wang

2D animation artist Kexin Yang

kd beauty vfx Tonia

color producer Sam Cesan

colorist Dante Giani

visual effects SOLO VFX

vfx supervisor Soheil Asghari

cg Amirreza Moghadam

compositors Thongchai KhorsungnoenAli Jebeli

Thang Bin Aida Ghazi Cao Thanh Tin

rotoscoping Luong Thai Nguyen Ngo Vo Hoang Quan Hau Quang Vinh Vo Dinh Hai Luong Thong Nhat Le Thi Kim Lien Nguyen Minh Tin

matchmove Luong Thanh Thang Le Huu Minh Cao Thanh Tin Pham Thi Hien Dao Khanh Duy

made in unreal engine

miyavi staff

miyavi mgmt (j-glam) Richard Frias Hisashi eryu kento nakagawa miyavi mgmt (ldh) Ichiro Shimizu Mari Nomura

miyavi publicist Ari Kilian

universal music Hiroshi Kakizawa Kazuhiko Tatebe

kang daniel staff

kang daniel mgmt Konnect Entertainment

presented by klktn

chief executive officer Daisuke Iwase

chief creative officer Jeff Miyahara

chief technology officer Fabiano Soriani

chief business officer Hannah Cho

executive producer Julien Beaupré Ste-Marie

producer Deanna Woo

creative director at large Hank Park

creative director in residence Kevin Woo

vp of operations Ryan Naayem

director of marketing Ping Lam

director of business development Naoki Matsuo

associate, business development Takayuki Tsuji

public relations japan Sayo Okajima

digital strategy head Priya Kapoor

assistant manager, digital content marketing Jacqueline Chiu

creative project lead Sungwon Jeong

community manager Eric Budd

product designer Masa Watanabe

product designer/engineer Tori Zhao

product designer Victor Jianto

product manager Andrew Lee

senior software engineer Brian Ho

senior software engineer Alfred Liu

software engineer Ervin Mamutov

software engineer Jad Haidar

software engineer Daniel Ishigaki

seo specialist Cezary

legal advisor Yayoi Shionoiri

director of strategy & operations, korea Shinae Kim

song credits

written by MIYAVI, Lenard Skolnik, Seann Bowe, Jeff Miyahara, Kang Daniel, JUN

vocal MIYAVI Kang Daniel

guitar MIYAVI

[animationdesk]

Animators:

Bryan Konietzko

Character Designers:

Aaron Alexovich, Joaquim Dos Santos, Li Hong, Bryan Konietzko, Angela Mueller, Giancarlo Volpe

Storyboard Artists:

Michael Chang, Michael Dante DiMartino, Joaquim Dos Santos, Li Hong, Bryan Konietzko, Johane Matte, Lauren Montgomery, Kenji Ono, Justin Ridge, Bobby Rubio, Giancarlo Volpe

[toa-archive]

What's this the preview might be working this time.

This week's boards are an all time classic from the Trollhunters episode Becoming by Johane Matte!

If this preview decides it doesn't feel like working anymore the tweet can be found here. Johane added a bit of commentary as well!

Jim sure is having A Time.