Using Storyboards: Thinking Through Visual Storytelling

A storyboard is simply a planning device used to visually "sketch out" the actions of a story that will be told in a visual medium like animation, multimedia, a Web page or video.

Storyboards are linear because they tell a story that runs along a straight line from beginning to end. When telling complicated or multistep stories, however, it can be helpful to begin with graphic organizing techniques, using idea organization programs or the outlining functions in presentation programs.

Some storyboards are very simple; for example, a simple animation project, such as a flip book of a dot moving across a page, can actually be the storyboard for later creating an animated GIF on the computer. On the other extreme, storyboards for a video need to include not just the action of characters in a scene but placement of lights and camera as well. Long before you get to those sophisticated storyboards, however, you should introduce the basic storytelling concept with an activity like this one on the YouthLearn website.

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