Wee! Back to writing about cartoons.

This is not a movie review.

But in case you were wondering: I liked Bolt. No complaints really.

Well, except that I was forced to wear glasses on top of my glasses so I could watch it in craptastic ‘Real 3D’.

The 3D thing was totally useless for this movie. Useless, I say! There was no reason for it but to gauge me an extra $3 for a ticket.

And the fact Disney gave away all the funny hamster bits in the trailers leading up to the movie release. (Yeah, thanks guys.)

But I digress.

I thought it would be a good movie to learn some lessons in action sequences.

Ahh, the action sequence.

Some board artists love ‘em. Some hate ‘em.

In a script they sit as cute little paragraphs. Seemingly harmless.

Then you start to thumbnail them out. And that cute little three-line paragraph suddenly morphs into a beast of pages upon pages of storyboarding hell.

I am not all that fond of them. I’m more of an ‘acting and dialogue’ kind of gal.

But they can be fun sometimes.

The opening sequences of Bolt have some really great ones. Because they are kind of spoofing action movies, there is a lot of cliched fun going on.

So let’s take a look at a few.

The Quick-Cut Mini Montage

I actually really like doing these. They are dynamic, fast and cut to the chase.

And are awesome ‘cheats’ to tell a lot of information without worrying too much about hook-ups.

Penny and Bolt are about to be chased by the bad guys. So Penny needs to get out her super-scooter thing.

How exciting would it be to storyboard this on a wide shot?

Bor-ing.

So with a series of quick little cuts from different angles, we get all the information we need.

Up shot on Penny lifting the scooter into shot.

Zing! The wheel comes to camera.

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Well I may as well finish off this series about online portfolios and the like.

Then those of you who are digging it can know all the information I want to share. And those who are bored to tears can say, “Uh, thank Gawd that’s over with!”

So there was the online-presence stuff with the warning not to be an ass on the internet and why are you hiding on the internet?. Then some online portfolio stuff with why you have that blog to begin with and what to do with that portfolio blog you already have and some other free website options you have available.

Which takes us to the last steps in an online portfolio.

The ‘Not Free’.

Don’t worry, it’s not as scary as it sounds. We’ll take it in baby steps.

If you have a bit of money to spare, I would suggest you invest in a domain name. It could be your name, a business name or something else. For a personal portfolio, it’s probably a good idea to have your own name registered.

But it’s up to you.

If you go with something else, just make it easy to remember and easy to spell.

Don’t be clever, be clear.

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Okay, I’m back talking about that budding portfolio site of yours.

You can read about other online-presence goodness with the warning not to be an ass on the internet and why are you hiding on the internet?. Then some online portfolio goodness with why you have that blog to begin with and what to do with that portfolio blog you already have.

I can hear some of you frantically tweaking your Blogger blog to make it a little more functional as a nice portfolio site. That’s great.

But I want you to see what else is out there.

Because a Blogger blog is just that. A blog. And maybe a blog isn’t the best way to show off your best work that is your portfolio.

What am I getting at?

Static Pages.

Blogger doesn’t have a static page option. And that, in my opinion, is what makes it a less desirable choice for a portfolio site.

If you made some of the tweaks I suggested in my last post on your Blogger site and are happy with it, cool. But if you want to take it one step further and still keep it FREE, read on.

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Lookie! New stuff in the sidebar!

(If you’re reading this in a feed reader, head on over here and take a peek.)

I’m starting a little club.

The Storyboard Club.

At this point, it’s just a free mailing list. But it will turn into more.

With this list, I will occasionally keep in touch with you by email. I might send out a monthly ‘blog round-up’ of the month’s posts with some extra insights. Or a newsletter-ish thingy. Or give you a link to something cool I won’t necessarily post on the blog.

When I make an eBook or host a webinar, you will hear about it first. And you will get it for less money than the general public. First dibs, baby.

Because when you’re part of my ‘club’, you’re all special and stuff.

If this appeals to you at all, I’d love you to sign up!

To top it off, you get a cool free thing when you do. A big ol’ Storyboard Template Pack and Short Film Tip Sheet.

If you like the free templates I already offer, you will love this thing. Head on over to the Download Page for all the juicy details.

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Well, since the ‘blog paranoia’ is riding high, I feel I should continue this little series I have going on.

You’ve had the warning not to be an ass on the internet. Then I posed the question, why are you hiding on the internet? And the next question, why you have that blog to begin with.

Have you given that some thought? Good.

Because now I get into some nitty-gritty. Some practical advice on what to do with that willy-nilly, half-assed portfolio blog you have going on there.

Please keep in mind I am no expert on this stuff. Heck, I even make fun of some people who ‘blog about blogging’ for crying out loud.

And here I am.

Blogging about blogging. *sigh*

Oh well. Some of you need the help, so let’s get cracking.

Even though the last post may have looked like I was crapping on Blogger blogs, I really wasn’t. It’s just that a lot of animation types seem to start out on Blogger.

And guess what? That’s OK. Really.

Again, I want to stress that I am talking to people who have (or want to have) a blog as a PORTFOLIO. Some of you are trying to do it and some of you are doing it wrong.

Why?

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I’m just full of questions these days, aren’t I?

So I guess I’ve started a bit of a series here. Sorta.

It started with watching what you do on the internet so you don’t look like an ass. Then it was about being lost and found on the internet.

And because I still have more to say about the whole portfolio/blogging thing, I will.

First, a bit of a disclaimer.

I’m not picking on anybody in particular. You can turn off that tiny paranoia button. I’m just talking out loud and all of this is just ‘food for thought’.

I’m not talking to other ‘bloggers’ here (OK, Friar? ). People who blog because they like to write about whatever. That’s awesome. Keep doing it if it makes you happy. Read no further.

I’m talking to the young animation artist (or any professional artist for that matter). The artist that has a blog up on a free service like Blogger. Because there are a LOT of you. It’s to you I pose this question and offer some advice.

Why do you have that blog?

There could be many reasons.

• Is it just a fun thing to update family and friends to what you’re up to?
• Is it a place to discuss your favorite movies, comics and animation?
• Is it to show off your latest sketches and share some fun videos you found?

If it’s any of those, feel free to keep doing what you’re doing. Those are the perfect reasons to have a blog. That’s putting the blogging platform to good use. Enjoy and have fun.

But.

• Is it your internet ‘business card’ to showcase your portfolio and your resume?

Then that free Blogger blog (that looks so much like everyone else’s Blogger blog) may not be the best place to do that. And if you’ve combined this reason with any of the first three questions I posed, you might want to think twice about mashing it up all together.

Finally, do you have a Blogger blog just because everyone else has one?

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So a few weeks back I wrote about your internet presence and how it can bite you in the ass.

About what would happen if you Googled yourself and some nasty, embarrassing stuff showed up that you can’t erase. Not so good.

But there’s a flip side to that.

Last night my manfriend wanted to show me a blog of a colleague of ours. He’s been in the animation business for a very long time and is super talented.  And apparently he has a little blog where he posts up some work and writes stuff now and then.

You know. Like you might be doing.

So we Googled him.

I found some politician in Australia, and a few entries that might have been him, but no blog. My manfriend then remembered he called his blog something else, it wasn’t under our colleague’s own name.

Which is fine. But my manfriend couldn’t remember the other name.

I went searching again today and found a site that mentioned his business name. So I went on the lookout for that and I finally found his blog. He used the business name before the blogspot.com.

So it didn’t really take too long when I knew what to look for.

But it got me thinking.

What about you?

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