ABSTRACT
Always keep an open mind that, although you are genuinely putting down your best
ideas for a scene, the concept might be changed quite significantly by the direc-
tor or technical director, or as the scene begins to be animated. This could mean
that even you, yourself, change things as you sketch and work from the thumbnail
version of the scene or sequence, finding better solutions. The bottom line is that
you have to remain flexible and open to new thoughts and ideas about everything
as you float in this creative, inspirational moment of production. You may even find
that bizarre, off-the-wall thoughts, outside of the original, storyboarded approach,
will pop into your mind. Scribble them down! Most times they will be irrelevant,
but occasionally the renegade thought is the one that adds that touch of magic to a
scene that no one else thought of, directing your sequence of ideas along an entire-
ly new track of thought altogether. This is fundamentally why I find the thumbnail
process so valuable. It doesn’t commit to the more time-intensive process of fin-
ished animation drawings but does give the mind a chance to roam free, creatively.
