Several years ago, I got to do some work with
Green Grass Studios, an excellent animation company in Dallas, Texas, headed by Jesse Sandifer, Ryan Iltis & Brian Cole. I was asked to work on a very cool assignment: to storyboard for a one-minute cg-animated cinematic that was to be used for the looped video on slot machines in casinos, titled "2 Minute Warning".
In our meeting, we talked over the concept and agreed that the video should be about one dramatic play in a football game that ends with a touchdown.
The deadline was rather tight, so this is one of those times I only did storyboards in a thumbnail form, which is a proportionately smaller version of what finished boards would look like, a time-saving measure. This worked quite well because there wasn't any dialogue to plan out in and amongst the action.
The research was fun. I cobbled together every bit of reference depicting exciting football maneuvers, and started to flesh out the storytelling in broad strokes. Afterward, I did a tighter version that would fit as closely into a one-minute format that I could, from which Jesse Sandifer was able to have his team flesh out a fine looking piece of animation. Quite a successful collaboration, I think.
