Introduction
Join veteran storyboard artist Woody Woodman as he shares his 26+ years of animation industry experience in this comprehensive storyboarding course. Having worked on major Disney productions like Mulan, Tarzan, and Lilo & Stitch, Woody brings unique insights into the art of visual storytelling. In this course, he breaks down the fundamentals of storyboarding, from basic drawing techniques to advanced cinematography, helping you work smarter, not harder in your creative journey. Learn more about AI-powered storyboarding tools at Shai Creative’s AI Storyboard Generator.
Course Overview
Blaze here and I’m really excited to let you guys know that I’ve got my good friend Woody Woodman here Woody and I used to work at Disney together we go way back 25 years I think and uh you know in our in our ongoing quest to continually expand all of our content at creature art teacher uh we asked Woody who is an amazing storyboard artist to come on over and teach a course and storyboarding what he’s got to experience all over the world all over the industry and he’s got a really great approach to storyboarding and storytelling and so we thought man it would be nice to get him in and so what do you want to talk a little bit about your course and what you were doing thanks Aaron yeah anyway I’m it’s a pleasure for me to work with Aaron again on somebody like this and he asked me to do the course and I thought well you already have a few courses what am I going to do that you haven’t already covered so obviously I I just thought about what I would want to learn and how I would teach this and I’ve taught this to several story artists all over the years that have gone on to be very good story artists so yeah I started with the basics a lot of times people will struggle with just drawing the character so that’s the first thing we started with the basics and then move into the sequential storytelling so how do you pose a character how do you tell a story with just the characters then you put the character in the environment right so if it’s in the environment then then we can think about composition cinematography so we cover all those basic foundations in the first four videos then I put the story artists in a different sequence because in the industry you’ll have some things will be slapstick comedy other ones will be maybe more dramatic sometimes there’s a conversation and you got to shoot something and you got to think about staging in an interior to make it interesting to make it you know fun yeah and then we get into a scary sort of chase scene so these are different kinds of sequences that a storyboard artist would would be uh asked to do yeah that’s one of the things I love with your approach to this course is just the way you break things down the way you are methodical and the way you you think about your approach to your shots and which I think is really great you know we’ve got several courses on our website already on storyboarding and so but what I really want to do more of and and I and I think the students really benefit from is to learn various subjects from the viewpoints of of different people and Woody brings a really great Viewpoint to the way he storyboards as well so I just think it really rounds out that that content every artist learns differently anyway yeah so I’m sure the method that I use is just the way it worked for me yeah and so I I just think that that’s the way I approach when I’m teaching story artists I say hey break it down write the beads first then work out the staging in the thumbnails before you start boarding I know artists that don’t do that they just goes they go straight from script and they start boarding in a straight ahead approach and that’s the way they do that’s the way they do it but anyway like I said we’re really happy to have Woody and uh so going over to creatureartteacher.com and check out the the course it’s really great and in the meantime I hope you enjoy this sneak peek and once you go out and put some beauty back in the world and we’ll talk to you next time thanks sounds good thank you [Music]
foreign board I’m Woody Woodman and thank you for purchasing my storyboard course I’ve been in the animation industry for 26 years and I’ve started at Disney uh working on big pictures like Mulan and Tarzan and The Emperor’s New Groove and Lilo and Stitch and I worked my way up into the story Department I worked on Treasure Planet Brother Bear and then later I went on to do other feature films with Lucas on Strange Magic I got to travel overseas I worked in England with the ardman we did Arthur Christmas and over the years I got to work with a lot of really great storytellers and really great artists and believe me every production that I ever worked on I got a chance to learn something right every sequence that you work on you get to learn something right so as I started in my career I moved from that animation Department into the story department and then I worked my way up into a leadership position as a senior story artist and a mentor so now I got to train a lot of the junior artists then I moved into the director’s seat now as a director I got to direct over 300 episodes on oddballs and Antics and some of these other animation series and again I kept teaching and training the story Department and I learned a lot over the years so this course I want to share some of that with you I’m going to help you work smarter not harder I’ll give you some tips about drawing how to basically start your sequence where to work and what you’re working towards right every sequence has a goal right you’re there to entertain the audience so let’s get started and have some fun
in this course we’re going to be covering a lot of basic stuff for storyboarding and we’ll slowly get more advanced okay I have two questions what makes a good storyboard panel and then what makes a good storyboard sequence so here’s some examples that you can look at a storyboard is telling the story it conveys an idea or an emotion clearly in a visual way the emotion the acting has to be in the boards it has to be when you look at a good storyboard panel or a sequence it has to be very clear without any explanation and in a good design so you’ll see that even though it’s loose and rough the basic characters in that panel or the action is very clear in this silhouette there’s going to be a range of emotions in the acting the storyboards are really the key frames that then later on will sort of outline the sequence for the animators and you’ll have to draw from your imagination you will not have time to basically get photo reference for every pose you’ll need okay so you’re going to be very familiar with drawing these characters and drawing the human figure in any angle that you might need for your sequence this is an underwater sequence they’re fighting some kind of giant uh octopus it could be a very dramatic scene you know so you have to understand your cinematography and lighting and so on to create that mood when you’re looking at the panels the drama that’s got to be captured in those in those storyboards and comedy as well so this requires an understanding of cinematography and film language okay so we’ll cover that of course in the course so these are emotional moments in the boards that has to be captured you’re going to capture that emotion this poor guy Sage is he’s sort of drying out he’s not going to make it Daisy’s trying to help him she’s pushing him up the hill but he’s gonna basically expire so there’s that touching moment between the two the two characters as he’s slowly sags down everybody reacts so you’re capturing that emotion in the panels and in the editing and there goes Sage this is when from Timbo he’s stretching out to reach a little Beetle and of course in the performance so you got to be very aware of the characters and the performance and the anatomy so he reaches it cracks it starts to you know wobble around and you just get all that wonderful emotion in the boards and there’s a sweet moment with him and his mother where he finally gets the beetle he lures them and then you know this is another sequence from uh Timber but this elephant’s having a little conversation with his trunk he has sort of a split personality and he decides to charge the wall but he accidentally you know he hits his own trunk and this is like a squash and stretch kind of moment right so you get to get that gag you gotta understand basic uh animation principles as well this is from Planet Sheen he’s he’s sort of standing there and on top of this uh creature’s head and she’s not happy about being woken up early and this is where you you can get the extreme comedy in some of these um uh TV series where the whole castle will pop up and drop so it’s knowing how to how far to push that that comic uh gag so to do this well it takes time okay you can’t rush this and you really want to learn it step by step and you want to learn it well so you can perform at the level you need to perform you know to work in this industry everyone when they start drawing every kid myself everyone they draw like this the world when they look at a piece of paper is very flat and very limited so notice how the characters are always facing front The Grass Is Always at the bottom the sun is always in the corner and the the student is always going to start in the middle and they just work out until they fill the page okay and everybody starts out this way here’s another example the sun is in the corner the characters are always walking on that horizon line everything’s presented very flat okay again another example everything’s flattened out no no kid when they’re starting out they don’t really understand perspective it has to be taught it has to be learned as they start to develop right if you develop as an artist another example of a road with no perspective most kids just start in the middle somewhere they draw until they fill the page the character on the right is standing on on the page the other one on the left is just they started at the head and they drew down until they ran out of paper that’s very common and everybody starts off this way this is a drawing I did when I was eight years old before the internet we had a library so we used to go to the library and these were these dinosaurs were from a library book so they were they’re not bad I was able to copy what I’m looking at and that’s how kids learn right they just kind of look and they copy and after a while you get pretty good at copying notice the background though all the background was was made up from my imagination okay it was it has I’m not copying from reference here’s another example where the student is basically drawing the head then they draw this shirt then they’ll draw the arm then they’ll draw the pants then they’ll draw the boots so they’re drawing it in little puzzle pieces okay they’re not really constructing the figure first and then putting the clothes on later this is something you learn later in your development this is a drawing I did when I was 12. Again by this time I could look and copy from something I’m looking at so Conan looks about the same as John buscema’s Conan but I didn’t understand Anatomy I didn’t really understand I couldn’t draw this character in multiple poses on model I couldn’t do that okay I’m just copying you know from something else another two-dimensional surface this is another student just doesn’t understand perspective okay so they just have trouble drawing a stool it’s kind of floating it’s a little wonky they just need more basic Foundation before they can really successfully storyboard now later in college they start having you draw from real life which is the first time most kids don’t draw from from observation so once you go to college they start having you draw still lives you start drawing from life and this is really this is really important but at that time I was rewarded because I would render I would spend a lot of time rendering the the subject but really I still needed to learn a lot more about composition okay which comes in time learning basic forms learning about space learning how to arrange these things okay that’s what needs to it needs to happen first and start with these basic objects okay organic objects here’s where you’re developing a contour line how to describe details and features with that line okay so when you’re drawing these kind of organic objects like the bananas and grapes you’re training that contour line which we’re going to talk about okay these are just more examples of basic Foundation drawing hats clothing how to construct the figure and then place the clothing around the figure then you start learning to draw from the human figure okay these quick gesture drawings drawing from an actual model you can see the the drawings on the on the left are a little bit flat right the student is still trying to trying to figure out the anatomy and the drawings on the right obviously I’m able to draw through and construct the figure with a little bit better perspective so these kind of drawings they’re quick but you’re learning about Anatomy proportions drawing from life so these are very important you can’t skip this development okay learning about shape really pushing shape learning about design this is a turnaround but you’re drawing the subject from multiple angles okay and really I’m using tone to really improve my design in each of the drawings okay this is just more drawing from actors in costumes trying to capture a story if you can get if you can capture the story in the sketch that’s what you’re going for storyboarding it’s a very very important thing to do to be able to capture an emotion or the acting in a sketch this is just more drawing from your um from your sketchbooks right draw everything from the Cars to the trees to the houses to the people people in those places and then of course animals right which don’t they don’t sit still very often right the animals so you have to kind of study the anatomy then you go out and draw from light and it becomes a very um it becomes a habit but it develops those basic core skills that you need as an artist okay learning basic drawing and Design
Understanding Design
what is design because that definition is different from from person to person but the way I that the way that I understand it is this okay it’s a visual language just like any other language but this is a visual language as an artist we are using this visual language uh to achieve a particular goal right you try to tell a story or you’re trying to convey an idea through this visual language okay a composition is how you take those principles and elements of design and how you arrange them that’s what I was talking about when you’re drawing from life and you actually arrange these things you’re composing just like a composer would would compose music okay so the principles I can I consider them laws or rules okay they don’t change okay those are laws and rules of the visual language such as contrast and proportions okay elements of design are the tools that we use okay those are the tools as an artist okay line shape tone space lighting repetition and color those are our tools that we work with the way that I kind of I may look at this different you may talk to another artist and they’ll they’ll explain things a little differently but this is what made sense to me okay I looked at my basic laws of contrast allowing to be able basically to see something with contrast then proportions anytime I’m drawing anything I have to be aware of the proportions in that subject the elements are those tools line shape tone lighting space repetition and color but then on that third column that’s the effect you want okay so if you if you if you understand if you’re working on something white and you make a black line you’re using contrast if you repeat the line you might get pattern pattern is the effect that you want so that column over there with pattern Rhythm mood emotion emphasis Harmony texture and in a sense balance because ultimately when we’re looking at an image it should be balanced okay if the image is if the subject is placed in the right place if it’s framed correctly that’s something that we want to achieve a focal point or have balance in the composition so that’s the way I think about design and that’s what during the course we’re going to be using this language so I want to make sure you guys are aware of of how I’m looking at design and how I use design in the storyboard process okay so here’s an example right this is from Treasure Planet when silver comes downstairs and he’s gonna berate the crew they got in trouble right so I want you to look at these panels and we’re going to break down some of those things in design that I just talked about so if you look at the image you can look at it in terms of its linear okay how was the frame divided using line and also shape okay if you see the foreground characters you see silver silhouetted in that doorway those are the positive shapes in the image in Orange then I’ve in yellow I’ve indicated sort of that background or the space between or around the subject we call that negative space or negative shapes okay very important when you’re doing an image to to be able to see those two things the silhouette of your main subject and the spaces and the shapes around the subject okay foreground areas smaller shapes within the bigger shape you see the other pirates in the room that background wall around silver which frames silver and these little shapes big middle and little you always have to have Variety in your design there’s silver back there so now we get to another shot this is a close-up of silver take a look at the people get confused between lighting and tone lighting is how the light is affecting that area or the subject so you can see that he’s backlit and and there’s a light that comes from behind him and putting his his face and the room in Shadow tone is assigning tone to anything in that image okay that’s using your grayscale from white to the Grays to the dark okay so that’s how you’re you’re using tone in your design or your lighting but they’re two different things two different tools space if you look at the actual space there’s two things there’s the depth in the image but there’s also the size of the image if you look at the size of the subject relative to the frame this is a pretty wide shot if you look at the depth it has some depth that has some perspective you can see that the wall sort of limits the the depth will cut off there now you put in those those foreground Pirates again I’m using tone to separate the background foreground and the middle ground using different tone now this one is an interesting shot where you have a back shot but look at the lighting condition the lights coming in from above through this sort of grate on top of the deck above him so that’s a lighting condition you see how the lines are repeated that’s that repetition in that pattern over his head and then this is how we’re using contrast by using the light in the shadow coming from above you’re creating you can push the contrast higher or lower depending on the mood that you want here’s a close-up of silver he’s really angry but notice what we do with our basic elements of design we could add color which creates emphasis on the eye we could increase the contrast in that light and Shadow we can increase it and make it darker or lighter we could use color and color the entire panel to increase that emotion or move in the panel okay so that’s how we’re using the basic principles and the elements to sort of push the emotion or whatever we’re trying to create in that sequence here’s another example a much wider shot so look at the the initial lines that you might sketch you’re going to basically divide that frame in your composition then we start to add the main subject we put some smaller little astronauts in there adding more detail look at how the line is organized okay larger lines in the foreground the lines get smaller as they go back in space okay then we can add tone so now you can see I put tone on the whole panel we can increase that contrast in the foreground notice even the repetition of the flowers we have larger flowers in the foreground and they get smaller as they get to the middle ground and they disappear in the background I’m adding a little more light and Shadow now we put the highlights this is going to create emphasis in the image that the ship and the astronauts are going to pop they’re going to pop because of that contrast okay I’m adding color just to tell you exactly what size the shot is you can see the size of that ship relative to the frame it’s small the the astronauts are very small so we know that’s a very wide space and I could use the color in the panel if I need to really see something quickly that’s the focal point I could increase the contrast in the lighting and create a more dramatic light and Shadow by punching it up but depending on my situation or depending on that sequence you may not want that high contrast you may decide to have less contrast okay so here I’ve taken out that high contrast because of the mood it depends on the situation and the context of that shot in the sequence okay so design is a visual language used in illustration and storyboarding so you need to really learn that visual language and get those foundations first and then you’re going to have a better time when you’re storyboarding okay this is what we’re going to be covering in this course okay there’s there’s going to be 12 lessons and then each lesson will focus on one particular area of storyboarding starting with number one we’re going to be doing just working on drawing the key poses okay uh putting the character into any particular pose trying to create some uh emotion through body language we’re going to be paying close attention to anatomy and proportions and the drawing structure right how to construct a figure number two sequential storyboarding without a frame we’re only going to focus on storytelling finding key poses in a sequence that tells a story we’re not going to worry about putting those characters in a setting or in a frame yet number three composition so this is where we’re going to be really looking at space looking at arranging the subject in a frame okay so this is where you just start learning your cinematography okay number four we’re going to concentrate on cinematography so all of the shots shot selection camera camera movement the characters how the characters move in and out of the frame this is the basic Foundation of any kind of filmmaking or videos animation you need to have that basic film language of cinematography number five how to beat board a story beadboards is a different kind of storyboarding okay but this is the one uh lesson that we will be talking about some elements of Storytelling and character development this course is not um obviously we can teach a whole course on just storytelling and story structure but this lesson I’ll be showing how to tell a story with those key moments of the story okay beat boarding number six this is going to be a sequence on staging a conversation so when you have to set up the camera inside an interior and have a conversation between two characters that are having some kind of debate or something um number seven we’re going to be setting up a gag so this is in one shot with very limited camera movement but you’re going to be basically setting up a gag in one shot number eight we’re going to be staging for a mechanical gag so you’re going to be using a prop and we’re going to be talking about how to set up a mechanical gig these have no dialogue number nine fill in a sequence around a particular set or location okay the entire situation is based on a prop on one location okay so it’s interesting how to set that up how to Stage for that kind of sequence number 10 how to reveal a character in a unique and interesting way so a lot of times in a film or in a movie you’ll be having to introduce characters into a scene or into the movie make sure it’s an interesting way right meet the character in an interesting way um number 11 working in a montage so montage is a very different kind of sequence usually driven by music it’s much more abstract you’re telling a story through a series of images and music and movement and finally number 12 we’re going to put it all together in an action sequence so you’ll be focusing on editing and action to get drama and suspense so that’s what we’re going to be covering in the course we’ll take it step by step you must crawl before you can walk and then walk before you can run and that’ll wrap it up for us so let’s get started hello and welcome back to the drawing board I’m Woody Woodman and today is going to be Lesson Four of the storyboard video course and we’re going to be talking about cinematography okay
Lesson 4: Cinematography
cinematography uh the the learning objectives are as follows one is we’re going to be identifying shot selection uh that we’ll be working with we’ve already started to introduce that in the composition uh lesson second of course is framing and composition so again everything that we’ve started learning in the previous lesson we’re going to build on okay as we start putting characters human characters or um you know animal characters in in a scene uh uh how this subject will enter and exit the frame a lot of people don’t think about that we’re going to explain the 180. I mentioned the 180 in the last lesson but I didn’t go into detail so we’ll go into detail on that rule of the 180. how to work around the 180 because this will be a problem that we want to be able to use our different techniques cinematography techniques to work around that dilemma I will be covering camera movements the different movements we have to work with and continuity and Screen Direction so when you’re watching a sequence you can follow the geography you understand where people are it’s very easy to follow okay we’re telling a story with a series of pictures or camera movements we call this film language okay cinematography is a language in itself film is a language so we have to kind of cover these basic rules and um and things we have the shots that we have to work with in this cinematography before we start coming up with amazing sequences right
Shot Selection
uh first up shot selection so the size of the subject relative to the frame that’s what determines how wide or how close the shot is and I know what you’re thinking I have my cell phone it’s always the same size what are you talking about well we’re gonna look at it carefully here you’ll know what I mean we’re going to start with What’s called the extreme wide shot okay in an extreme wide shot I want you to at least and they also usually in an extreme wide shot we call that an establishing shot where are we are we in the future are we in the past are we in the desert are we in whatever this is going to tell you where you are and sometimes it’ll tell you when based on the architecture or whatever but look at the size look at the size of the um the subject in this case the subject is this Palace or this Castle or kingdom is somewhere in the middle of the forest you can see that there are larger birds in the foreground and then they get really really small as they get closer to the to the Palace that’s going to give you scale so you get a sense that this is really a big place but look at how much space around the subject okay that’s the sky that’s the forest that space is what’s letting you know what size shot it is okay in a wide establishing shot like this you won’t see any people that you recognize if you see people they’re usually little bitty dots little bitty people in cars in the city okay that’s called a wide or extreme wide establishing shot okay and you can get really wide you can be like outside of the earth and so you’re telling the audience we’re outside in space and the Earth is very small in that space so wide establishing shot okay now this is a little bit closer isn’t it if you this is considered a wide and you can see the uh in color here I’ve the people all the little people that were looking down on this is some kind of interior space where they have some kind of God or deity where they’re gonna they’re gonna have some kind of wizard or some kind of witch or some kind of Priestess she’s going to do a ceremony or whatever so it’s it’s a wide space but what determines that space is the size of the subject in this case those little people down there that’s the subject all the other white space around is that negative space okay and it’s very wide because the people are small okay sometimes you can start with a shot like this which is establishing that we are inside a palace somewhere but you’re starting inside the interior I still can’t tell who any of these people are I can’t recognize the actor and say oh that’s you know Keanu Reeves or something you can’t identify any of these characters in this wide shot so it could still be an establishing shot it’s just not an extreme wide okay it’s determined by the size of the subject to the frame okay here’s an upshot we’re kind of looking up at this Priestess with this deity behind her and we can see a group of people in the foreground so you get a some sense of perspective but this is still a wide shot okay because you got to look at the again look at the subject which are these foreground characters and the main character who’s who’s doing some kind of chanting or ceremony look at all the white space around the subject so it’s still a wide shot okay there’s a lot of space to allow for that subject whatever that that mood or whatever that uh the story point you need to make this is still a wide shot because of the space okay so this is also a wide shot but now we’re dealing with a foreground character so this Priestess she’s here in the foreground and then the other characters anytime you have more than three people you can just call it a group okay so this is just a group shot of the four main characters and then it’s surrounded by all the other minions and soldiers that are not nearly as important to the shot so you can look at the main subject we are looking at those four characters okay look at how much space is around them we’re clearly in a wide shot now the foreground character she’s being cut off right somewhere around her waist so we would call that a middle but if you look at the subject of the shot the subject is not the back of her head the subject is the gang of four people okay that’s really the subject so that’s why we would call this a wide shot is still considered a wide shot even though there’s a foreground character okay this is a different point of view right now we’re still dealing with a group of four people so that’s called a group but it’s a pretty wide shot if you look at the amount of space around the subject you’re going to know that that is a wide shot I also wanted to mention it’s staged flat because the characters if they’re lined up on one line moving like horizontally or up the hill like this it’s staged fairly flat okay it’s a flat staging so we’ll be talking about when you’re in your staging and thumbnailing when you’re staging for flat and when you’re staging for something that’s more dramatic or has more depth I also want to mention framing okay so now we can use the foreground trees the roof there’s some pots and and all kinds of stuff growing in the foreground and with tone or lighting we can create a darker value and look at how we can frame these characters as they go you know walking up the hill this is a little different now this kind of staging has has greater depth because the characters are small in the background and they’re moving on what’s called a z-axis okay they’re walking from the back and towards the camera or sometimes the characters are walking into the shot in the foreground very large and they’re walking and getting smaller so when we’re walking in perspective like that coming in or away from the camera it’s going to have greater depth it’s just the way that it’s been staged it’s the way the camera is looking at the subject okay so we call that the z-axis but you can see the depth you can see the the path they’re walking towards the camera or away okay now this shot’s interesting because the characters are being cropped their bodies being cropped off but depending on the action if you look at this this guy is doing some kind of magic trick and he’s juggling this Balls of Fire the action of juggling you need to allow for more space above the character’s heads for that action so you always got to think about what your character is doing if your character’s hand is waving or if there’s something above his head you’ve got a frame for that action you don’t want to cut that off right cut the character off by the hand you have to allow for more space that’s why this is still considered a wide shot okay it has to do with the context of what the character is doing okay see you can look at the space that negative space around the character there is just much more space needed for the action okay this is another uh situation where of a character’s he’s being eaten or he’s Tangled Up In The Vines he’s going to be acting and moving around so his body is is is is full it’s inside the uh frame but depending on the action you’re going to need a little more space around the character so the action is not too tight to the frame okay I told you in the last lesson about composition be very aware of where the character is relative to the frame okay so when you look at a character and he’s going to be doing an action struggling with the vines you’ve got to allow for a little more space so this is still considered a wide shot okay so this is another example like we saw earlier with the where we had the the the girl in the foreground if you look at the character in The foreground he’s being cropped off at the legs but if you look at the subject of the shot he sets some kind of village on fire here again it’s It’s gotta you’re gonna feel that space around the foreground character he’s he’s in a wide shot we need we need more space for that action okay I also wanted to mention um in the composition we talked about thirds I think a little bit in the last lesson so where you place the character you might want that character dead center and split the frame equally but you may not so this is another rule of thirds that we use in composition just knowing exactly if we place the character on a third there’s a counterbalance on the left and the right okay so it’s just a way to to make this scene less symmetrical and knowing where when to offset sometimes your subject okay so that’s a wide shot as well okay this is something about framing okay so here where the subject is the pig right and he’s sort of being surrounded by the Buffalo and the farmer and the professor but let’s just talk about framing now we’re still just like we did with the teapot uh exercise we want to be aware of those shapes so in this case if you if you follow the dots right you can go across the characters and it creates a triangle so we’re framing that subject okay a different option of framing you got the character is in a full which we haven’t really talked about but that’s a full his full bodies in the shot but look at again we talked about that tension last time with with the foreground elements on the teacup and the teapot exercise same thing here with your with your with your characters okay it’s another triangle that could be a triangle that could be more like a column where it’s it’s your your comp you’re composing in a square right but if it’s a lighter moment then again I might Circle the character we’re looking down now and look at the composition see we’re framing in a circle circles are a little bit lighter a little bit fun right not as dramatic as a triangle for example okay let’s talk about the next size shot here we talked about the extreme wides we talked a little bit about the wides and some of the differences in the wides now we want to talk about the full right so now the characters they’re full body from head to toe is in the frame but there’s a couple things that I want you to be aware of okay I I’ve in yellow I’ve I’ve just colored filled in so you can see the silhouette you can see this there’s a little space at the bottom of the feet between the feet and the frame there’s a little space between the head and the frame okay don’t do this a lot of times you’re not paying attention to how much space is between the head and the frame or the feet in the frame you don’t want your characters like this walking on the frame you don’t want their heads touching that’s going to create that tangent that visual tension right so don’t do this say is too tight you got to let the character breathe a little bit right that’s the term we’ll use and let the characters breathe they’re running out of Errors eh they’re too tight let it breathe a little bit okay now this is a middle shot okay it’s middle because you’re you’re cropping some of the character off you know somewhere at the legs of the or the um the thigh or the the shin there’s different places that we should crop there’s other places we do not want to crop I also want to mention that when you have a two shot we call this a two shot because there’s two characters in the shot it’s from the side and it’s fairly flat so depending on the context of your scene you may want to shoot it flat if it’s comedy if it’s lighter if you want to have some light performance out of the characters then stage it flat if you want something more dramatic then we’ll pick a different angle that has more depth it’s more dramatic okay so here the the the hero he’s got his head partly cropped so I I won’t have his head touching the frame but you can cut it off a little bit right cut them off at the forehead you just don’t want to cut some character off of the neck or at the waist with the knees at the joints so she said that