Intermediate
Storyboarding
Pro Animators Mentor You to Be Successful
Our workshop gives you to learn, practice, and get 1:1 feedback and reviews from our mentors who are professional storyboard artists. You will then have the chance to learn from them in this 6-week workshop, taught by an award-winning industry veteran who shares insights about what studios look for and works directly with you to grow and improve your skills.
Why Take Intermediate Storyboarding at Animation Mentor
1-on-1 Feedback From a Studio Pro
During this 6-week workshop, you'll have live Q&As with your mentor each week in addition to receiving an assignment designed to build your skills. Plus, your mentor will review and critique each of your assignments and provide you with a video of their feedback so you can improve your work.
Learn From an Award-Winning Industry Veteran
With over 25 years of experience in the industry, Mike Kunkel will guide you through the essentials of storyboarding, and will work with you to understand the workflow and thought process of a professional story artist.
Live Weekly Q&As
Join weekly live Q&A sessions with your mentor, where you can ask questions, get feedback, and dig deeper into the craft of storyboarding alongside on-demand lectures and assignments.
Build a Storyboard Reel
Develop a strong understanding of the skills and techniques used in the storyboarding industry, and walk away with portfolio pieces that prepare you to generate and present your own stories.
What You'll Be Able to Do
- Implement a concept or script into a clear, visual story
- Use reference effectively to inform poses and scenes
- Storyboard conflict, tension, and the reveal of a scene to drive the narrative
- Story-pitch your animatic and storyboard, and present it clearly
- Apply image reference to inform poses and shots
- Take a script and storyboard it successfully
- Confidently create a storyboard set of your own narrative
- Build the foundation for animating complex characters and dialogue shots
Skills You'll Gain
What You'll Build
This 6-week workshop is built around hands-on assignments (one each week) that build into a storyboard reel demonstrating that you can take a story from concept to a finished, pitch-ready sequence.
Reference-Driven Sequence
A storyboarded scene built using strong reference to inform your poses, staging, and shots.
Conflict, Tension & the Reveal
A sequence that uses information to surprise the audience and drive the narrative, where the outcome can be comedy or drama but no matter what it is, it's an emotion.
A Pitched Animatic
Your own invented story, storyboarded into an animatic and story-pitched, a portfolio-ready piece that shows you can generate and present your own work.
The Intermediate Storyboarding Curriculum
Using Reference
Reference can be used to inspire and guide a visual storyteller.
Learn how reference can be used to inspire and guide a visual storyteller, in storyboarding we want to have a reference that we can use to give your storyboarding a boost. In this session, we'll use to give your demonstrations to examine a scene's flow and learn how reference can help every artist.
- Why reference matters
- Finding and using reference
- Letting reference inform poses and scenes
Visual Story Guiding
Imagine you're planning out a story. Where should an audience look?
Imagine you're planning out a story. Where should an audience look? Is that the right shot for this scene or moment? Is everybody going in the correct screen direction? When we storyboard, we can get caught up in the story on the page, forgetting that as artists, we get to direct that, guiding the eye. In this session, we'll refresh our story skills and find ways to draw an audience's eye.
- Directing the viewer's eye
- Screen direction & continuity
- Choosing the right shot
Conflict, Tension, and the Reveal
How do we reveal information or surprise the audience with something?
How do we reveal information or surprise the audience with something? Keep your audience curious. Make them ask, "What's gonna happen next?" introducing a "Tension Moment" between characters or into a situation engages the audience's curiosity and creates anticipation. It connects and bonds characters. The outcome can be comedy or drama, but no matter what it is, it's an emotion.
- Building tension
- The reveal
- Comedy and drama beats
Inventing Story
Telling a story that matters is our goal as storytellers.
Telling a story that matters is our goal as storytellers. Funny, dramatic, poignant, sad, triumphant: it's the end we want to tell stories that connect with an audience. We learn how to come up with stories/ideas where we're stuck? This session will share ways to spark imagination and create stories. It will help to guide your creativity in scenes, sequences, and overall storytelling.
- Generating story ideas
- Finding what matters
- Building a narrative that connects
Story Pitching, Animatics, and Portfolios
Once you've completed our workshop, you'll have a solid understanding of the skills used in storyboarding.
This is where it all comes together. Learn how to story-pitch your animatic and storyboard set, and build a portfolio that shows what you can do. Once you've completed our workshop, you'll have a solid understanding of the skills and techniques used in the storyboarding industry, preparing you to generate and present your own stories.
- Story pitching your work
- Building your animatic
- Assembling a storyboard portfolio
Ready to Start Animating?
Intermediate Storyboarding is a 6-week, mentor-led workshop with weekly live Q&As. Enroll at Animation Mentor.
- 6-week mentor-led workshop
- Weekly live Q&As + 1:1 feedback
- Taught in Toon Boom Storyboard Pro
- $899 USD
Frequently Asked Questions
Storyboard artists are tasked with the important job of crossing the first visualizations of scripts and narratives. They work across a variety of mediums, ranging from animated films to commercial advertising.
Storyboard artist salaries vary by medium, studio, and experience. This workshop is designed to build the skills and portfolio that help you pursue storyboarding work in animation, film, and advertising.
A storyboard is a sequence of drawings that plan out a scene shot by shot. An animatic takes those boards and edits them together with timing. In this workshop you'll story-pitch your animatic and storyboard set.
This is a 6-week, mentor-led workshop with weekly live Q&As. Each week you'll receive an assignment designed to build your skills, plus a video review and critique of your work from your mentor.
This workshop builds on the fundamentals of visual storytelling, so we recommend students who already have a solid base. Alternate mentors will be available to ensure students get the concepts at your own pace.
Enroll at Animation Mentor. Register now, and you'll be set up to start the week of August 17, 2026.
