STORYBOARD ANIMATION - Camo (Music Video 2018)

The storyboard animatic for the music video CAMO by JJUU JJUU

This side-by-side comparison shows the storyboards next to the finished 2D animated music video, and how certain scenes changed.

Storyboards Save Time!

I mostly planned out the first half the music video with storyboards. When the rider goes into outer space, I ditched the planning stage and went for a more experimental style – which allowed for the animation to be more trippy and weird than If everything was planned too strictly.

All of these storyboards were drawn at a 1920 x 1080 aspect ratio, which allowed me to trace over the storyboard drawings as key frames.

Storyboard 2D Animation Music Video

2D Animation Storyboard

Drawing For Camera Movement

The camera movements are indicated in the storyboard, therefore, any scene that requires camera movements will need careful planning.

Backgrounds have to be drawn at a resolution bigger than the screen resolution if the backgrounds are going to move. The girl riding the motorcycle across the town needed a really wide background of 12,000 pixels since it would pan across quickly.

As a small independent studio, drawing storyboards as layout drawings and keyframes saves a TON of time, because drawing the storyboard becomes part of the animation stage. It’s like tackling two jobs at once.

music video storyboard

Concept For The Music Video

The concept for CAMO was pretty open for interpretation. Here’s the basis of what we had to work with from JJUU JJUU’s frontman Phil Pirrone:

I don’t know why but I’ve always pictured a first person motorcycle ride through the streets of Calcutta (Kolkata?). Some really far away looking/feeling place. Slums. Tight Streets. Laundry hanging on clotheslines… kids in the street. Narrow alleyways. And then maybe it gets weird, maybe he breaks free of the city and enters a beautiful jungle or desert or mountain scape (or all 3). Maybe it’s not all first person/point of view. Maybe some shots you can see the cyclist/motorcycle.

The motorcycle is ramshackle – like a homemade vintage Honda. Probably has some random, non traditional parts to make it work. Maybe the rider is transforming into different beings or shape shifting. Maybe there’s some kind of psychedelic tinge to the visual. Maybe the rider is riding so fast that colors and visuals are blurry… but not in a cheesy/boring way… if that makes sense. Maybe the rider is female.

Dave added – “I’m picturing a motorcycle ride like you said, but with some kind of accident or death at around 3:40, and then a rise from the dead, and motorcycle ride into the afterlife/space/heaven for the remainder of the song.”

I like the ascension… maybe instead of death, it’s intentional blast off into space… maybe the rider encounters a black hole, a hologram of itself is produced… maybe it goes through hyperspace to other universes of the multiverse… maybe it experiences a big rip or big crunch and another big bang?

More Things To Check Out:

1. Sign up to my EMAIL LIST to be notified of significant projects I work on. I’m working on e-books about animation topics and freelancing.

2. Recent Animation:

Liked it? Take a second to support buzanmusic@gmail.com on Patreon!