Visual Storytelling : 5 Essential Building Blocks

Visual Storytelling : 5 Essential Building Blocks

Have you been stuck in developing a visual story that you've had in your mind for some time, wanting to utilise your rendered character scenes in DAZ Studio?

This tutorial will help you write and build visual stories using building blocks such as shots, scenes, and acts. The process of moving from shot to story allows writers to begin with simple story elements and create complex stories for comics, graphic novels, illustrated novels, and animated films.

Peter von Stackelberg's approach will help you progress in building a visual story and move your creative process forward with a series of simple steps.

Creating stories is a complex task that can seem overwhelming. Adding visual storytelling to the process can make it even more difficult. The process of building shots into scenes, scenes into acts, and acts into stories lays out “bite sized” steps that makes the creative process more manageable.

Peter has more than four decades of writing experience and more than a decade of research into transmedia storytelling – the use of multiple forms of media to tell one or more stories.

Course Contents:

  • Tutorial set video running time : 3 hours and 15 minutes
  • 9 PDF resource pack including mini graphic novel and 184 slide set

You’ll Learn:

  • How to write graphic novels and other illustrated narratives from scenes (the basic building block of stories).
  • Building a scene from a single image.
  • Building a story from that single scene.
  • Moving from scene concept to completion.
  • Identifying key scene events.
  • Identifying basic scene elements – characters, settings, and significant objects.
  • Building dramatic tension in a visual scene.
  • Creating a scene with as few as five images.
  • Using shots to create dramatic and dynamic visual stories.
  • Blocking out shots in Daz Studio
  • Fitting scenes into plot points and story structures.

Who is this Course for?

  • Digital artists keen to start and structure their visual story.
  • Visual Storywriters needing a modular approach to building a story.

About the Presenter : Peter von Stackelberg:

Peter von Stackelberg is a writer, story architect and worldbuilder, university lecturer, and futurist. He has more than four decades of experience as a writer and photographer. He currently teaches transmedia storytelling and journalism at Alfred University in Alfred, New York.

Peter has a B.A. in Journalism from Ryerson University, a M.S. in Studies of the Future from the University of Houston-Clear Lake, and a M.S. in Information Design & Technology from SUNY Polytechnic University.

What's Included and Features

  • Visual Storytelling: 5 Essential Building Blocks
  • Tutorial Sessions Content : Session 1 (.MP4)
    • Running time:1 hour and 50 minutes.
    • From shot to story
    • Building a scene from a single image
    • Building a scene with questions
    • Questions for Setting, scene structure, characters
    • Class member example of DAZ Studio artwork
    • Events to scenes
    • Making events into stories
    • Dramatic tension
    • Dramatic tension example: Morgana's Run mini graphic novel
    • Scene structures
    • Shots in more detail
    • Definition of a shot
    • Shots in graphic novels
    • Shot types
    • Shot angles
    • Shot lists
    • Blocking shots in DAZ Studio
  • Tutorial Sessions Content: Session 2 (.MP4)
    • Running time: 1 hour and 25 minutes
    • Events and stories
    • Events and causality
    • Story concept development
    • Identifying story purpose
    • Identify genre
    • Identify conflict
    • Identify premise
    • Identify controlling idea
    • Identify tagline
    • Identify plot summary
    • Story concept example: Iron man
    • Narrative arcs
    • Simple narrative arc
    • Drafting a story: example artwork from Artbreeder
    • Software resources: Artbreeder, DS, Photoshop, Arkvis Sketch
    • Storyboards
  • PDF Resources
    • Pillars of story structure
    • Morgana's world - mini graphic novel
    • Story concept - Iron man movies
    • Story concept development worksheet
    • Story structure - Book plot examples
    • Story structure details
    • 3 Act play structure
    • 109 slide set for session 1
    • 75 slide set for session 2

Compatible Software:

Daz Studio

Install Types:

DIM, Manual Install

Daz3d