Episode 16 - Day in the Life - Storyboard Artist
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Storyboards are one of the earliest and most integral elements in an animation pipeline, and we have the pleasure of chatting with a couple industry superstars who have extensive experience storyboarding in both TV and feature film. Natalie Nourigat (@tallychyck) and Isabelle Gedigk (@isasketchbook) join us to talk about all things storyboarding, from what it takes to break into the industry, to what an average day for a storyboard artist entails, and more!
meet the guest: natalie nourigat
Natalie “Tally” Nourigat grew up splashing through creeks, climbing trees, and curling up with books in Portland, Oregon. She is currently a Head of Story at Walt Disney Animation Studios. She directed the 2-D/3-D hybrid animated short film Exchange Student for Disney’s Short Circuit program, which you can watch now on Disney Plus (Short Circuit: episode 2). Her latest graphic novel, I Moved to Los Angeles to Work in Animation, gives practical advice and a personal account of Natalie’s journey to break into the animation industry. In 2019, she was one of Variety’s Ten Animators to Watch. Her work has been nominated for the Eisner Award, GLAAD Media Award, and Oregon Book Award. Natalie loves traveling and learning languages; she majored in Japanese in university and lived in France 2013-2014. You can find her around Los Angeles with a coffee in one hand and a sketchbook in the other.
meet the guest: isabelle gediGk
Isabelle didn’t plan on pursuing animation until she took an animation class for fun while on a more academic path at New York University. After an incredibly inspiring semester, she decided she needed to transfer to NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts where she could study film and animation.
After graduating in 2013, Isabelle worked at Titmouse Inc in NYC as an animation cleanup artist. Pretty quickly, she realized she wanted to become a storyboard artist, and decided to move to LA. Since then, she’s worked as a storyboard artist in TV animation for about 6 years. She started at Bix Pix Entertainment, working on the Amazon series “Tumbleleaf.” After that, she moved over to Disney TV Animation where she’s worked on shows like “The Lion Guard,” “Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure,” and “Monsters at Work.” Isabelle is now working at Netflix Animation as a story artist on the feature film “Steps.”
episode outline
1) 04:06 Meet Isabelle GediGk
2) 06:50 Meet Natalie Nourigat
3) 17:38 Episode Overview
4) 18:24 What is a Storyboard Artist?
5) 24:46 What is your day to day like?
31:40 What does pitching entail?
39:10 What sorts of software do you use?
43:07 Do you go through crunch periods?
46:48 Describe the relationship between director, story team, and story artist.
50:52 What are typical quotas/deadlines/turn arounds?
55:09 How rough or clean does one typically draw?
58:41 Do you have advice for aspiring story artists who currently have weak draftmanship?
6) 1:05:35 Who or what types of people might enjoy storyboarding?
1:15:16 Do story artists come from random backgrounds?
7) 1:18:19 Do you have any tips for breaking into story? Can you describe what a portfolio might look like?
1:22:20 Speakerdeck
1:27:15 What is the typical balance of professional vs personal work?
1:30:30 Is it common to have to do tests?
1:35:45 What is the difference between board driven and script driven shows?
1:37:26 How important is it to match style on a show vs. having your own personal style?
1:41:10 How important are networking and referrals?
8) 1:46:02 What is your least favorite part of your job?
9) 1:54:03 What are your favorite parts of your job?
10) Listener Questions
2:03:55 How do you balance creativity for your work and for yourself? Any tips for not getting burnt out? Is there a work life balance in story?
2:08:29 Could you become a director from being a story artist?
2:09:40 What is story room etiquette?
2:13:40 How to board a personal project from ground zero with no script?
2:16:36 Any advice for high schoolers who want to break into story?
2:21:26 What are your favorite art of books?
2:23:18 What things held you back from improving when you were a beginner/intermediate?
2:25:05 What is your process?
