Story Structure

Once the general story planning is complete, all that’s left is to get down into the details. The next step is plotting your story out and organizing where your beats land. A beat is a moment or active step that moves your story forward. It is necessary to plot these out in a way that creates the most impact and meaning for your story.

Three Act Story

The three-act story is a very traditional storytelling structure that helps organize your beats into three different acts. Each act plays an important role in the story and together they form the fundamental story arch.

Act 1: Setting up Character and Conflict

Act 1 should introduce your characters, establish what they want, and bring to light a  problem that is standing in the way of them reaching their goals.

Act 2: Working Toward a Solution

Act 2 is where your character fully commits to solving this problem they are facing, but there is not one clear solution and they run into many obstacles along the way. 

Act 3: Attaining the Big Solve

At the beginning of act 3, due to the roadblocks, it will almost seem impossible for the problem to be solved. In this act, the character will be facing their problems head-on and come up with an unexpected solution that brings a resolution to the story.

Nonlinear Stories

Another type of storytelling is nonlinear stories, which are those not necessarily told in chronological order. These stories often have moments where the timeline of the story shifts. These shifts come in the form of flashbacks, time travel, and dream sequences, to name a few.

Structure 1: Book Ending

Book Ending a story is simply when your story begins and ends in the same place with the characters having been changed by their journey in between.

Structure 2: the Beaded Necklace

The Beaded Necklace refers to the effective employment of a well-created soundtrack in a story. The soundtrack is made to draw in the audience with unique sounds or music.

Structure 3: the Countdown

Creating a story with a build-up for a long-awaited moment that brings that satisfaction it deserves is the best example of The Countdown.

Structure 4: the Puzzle

The Puzzle is meant to draw in audiences by allowing them to interact with characters by having the feeling of solving a mystery together.

Structure 5: High Concept

When films commit completely to an idea or message, despite logic or a traditional sense of story, they are considered High concept for their focus.

Narrative form

The Narrative Form is how a writer will structure their story from beginning to end.

Exercise #1: Clear Conflict, Reveal it Early

Making your story’s conflict come early, as well as clear, is a crucial step in making it memorable and good. 

Exercise #2: Start Later

Make your audience engaged quickly as possible, leave the backstory and more complex details later in the story. Front loading the information will cause people to disconnect.

Exercise #3: Biggest Secret

Having your character be known to the audience is important for creating a bond. Leaving a secret or two about them keeps the audience engaged and interested in them. 

Exercise #4: Get Graph-y

Keep your stories familiar to audiences for greater attraction. Understanding what stories are best liked by audiences will help your work be liked too.

Experimental form

Experimental writing comes when people try to find new ways to tell their stories. It gives the creator much more freedom to shed the conventional story structures.

Experimental Form #1: Visual Music

Rather than keeping music in the background, you bring it forward into the story. You have the notes change the scenes or even the story overall.

Experimental Form #2: Pure Poetry

Pure Poetry is when your work shows the interpretations of the words on the page. Not following a literal path but a more emotional or imaginative one.

Experimental Form #3: Repetition/ Evolution

Having a change to a story by showing the same image over and over but each time slightly changed. By the time it’s over, the image should look completely different than what you started with.

Experimental Form #4: Continuity/ Diversity

Continuity/Diversity is the idea that you need predictable and constant elements within a move. The elements could be anything but are there truly for reference.

Experimental Form #5: Anthology

Anthologies are a collection of stories that work together to show a certain theme.

Experimental Form #6: Cut it Out & Play!

Reverting back to more childish effects, using cutout pictures as a visual can help to broadcast a tone or message. By using cut-outs, audiences have a more whimsical experience with the content. 

Storyboarding

To deepen the visual planning of your animation, storyboarding is a necessary step in the process after the narrative is complete. It is a prime opportunity to work out the visual elements in your story, including shots, framing, and staging. Before storyboarding, you can always start out with some thumbnails that can be used to help yourself save time on detailed sketches. Storyboards don’t just contain the visuals, but space should be left for dialog, as well, helping to pair up the timing of the visuals to the audio. Working through a storyboard can help clear up any timing issues, discover which shots work better, and more. Because this stage allows for trial and error, it will make your animation even better in the end, as storyboarding can help and work through the kinks and problems that may arise while animating. In the long run, they will save time, money, and a lot of frustration. 

When thinking through a storyboard, there are some key things to keep in mind, one being shot composition. Like photography or film, planning the shot composition is the exact same thing but, in this case, for animation. The shot composition can change the entire feel of a scene, by using shots, such as an extreme long shot to show a vast natural beauty, or a close-up to show an intimate moment between characters. 

Another important element in storytelling is framing, which is all about providing eye-catching visuals that keep the audience interested. One easy way to keep your framing entertaining is by using the rule of thirds. Just as with photography or film, the rule of thirds is the same for animation, breaking the frame down into thirds and making sure the subject is lined up with interesting points. 

Lastly, another element to keep in mind is staging, which is a balancing act between the subject and other objects in the space of the scene. Just as with photography or design, the staging should include a visual hierarchy between the objects and characters in the frame. 

Continuing to learn animation

Continuing from last weeks blog, where short animated gifs were examined and explored to introduce animation to beginners, here, we will look at cinemagraphs, another short form of motion graphics, A cinemagraph is a photograph, a still image, that was taken as a video, allowing for movement within the image. 

Cinemagraph Examples  

Here are some strong examples of cinemagraphs that explore different types of ways to include motion in photography.

This example, while simple, is a great example of a cinemagraph. The subject is completely still while the water runs over and down, looping seamlessly. It is very simple, but executed well and it is a great example of where a beginner should start their own cinemagraphs.

This next cinemagraph is a bit more unique than the last. It is creative and brings in an element of magic/ the impossible. With the glass floating above the man’s hand, it feels like the cinemagraph contains a frozen moment of the sorcery, as it enchants views to keep watching.

This cinemagraph is a creative moment that captures a woman getting ready. While the true version of her is still, the version in the mirror is moving and continuing on getting ready, as if the woman was still moving.

Here is a great example of how cinemagraphs can be used in high end fashion. It truly adds a touch of pizzazz that makes the photo come to life.

This last cinemagraph is definitely the most impressive. It is very complex and contains a lot of different moving elements. From the moving compass, to the wiggly bunnies, and gleaming shoes, this cinemagraph is beautiful.

My Cinemagraphs

In this first cinemagraph, I wanted it to be as if my phone was taking a picture and capturing a moment, while the world around it keeps moving. To make this cinemagraph, I first took a video of my holding my phone in front of the fountain. I then used Photoshop to trim down and loop the video, while adding a still layer on top of an image grab from the video with a clipping mask. 

For this cinemagraph, I focused the motion on the shadow of the object and kept the flower still. I created this one in After Effects, which was a little more difficult for me to work in than Photoshop, since I don’t know the program as well. I think it turned out alright, even though, looking back, there are a few things I would change.

This last cinemagraph I also made in photoshop. I used the same technique as before to create this. For this cinemagraph, I was obviously inspired by coffee. As a bit of a coffee addict myself, this cinemagraph seemed like a necessary one to make. I first spun the coffee with a spoon to get it moving and took a still frame from that motion that layered over the moving drink. When I filmed it, I wanted the image to feel cozy, so I used a fuzzy grey blanket as the backdrop for the scene.