T-SBCON-003-003

Arrows and annotations are extra indicators that can be added to a panel to help clarify an action or movement. These are not visible in the final production and are only used during the storyboarding process.

Arrows

Arrows are a clear way to indicate to the viewer when a movement is happening. They can be drawn in all sizes and directions to show perspective or direction in a movement. You would use these when you feel the artwork alone is not clear enough in portraying a movement.

Here the arrow is showing not only where the creature is leaping from, but also in which direction it is leaping.

Annotations

An annotation is an extra bit of information added on top of the artwork in a panel. An annotation will indicate something important, such as a character entering a scene, or a panel that needs to hook up with a panel in another scene. These can be written simply as abbreviations on their own, or coupled with arrows.

Some often used annotations are:

  • IN - When a character or object enters a scene.

  • OUT - When a character or object exits a scene.

  • HU - Hook up. This indicates that the pose of the character(s) in the previous scene should match up when cutting to the next scene.

  • CUT - Used to indicate a cut to a new scene.

Here, the IN annotations indicates the creature is entering the scene, and the arrow further illustrates the direction of the movement.

With the introduction of software like Storyboard pro, annotations are not used as often as the software allows for animation and visual cuts as opposed to written indicators.