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Storyboard Studio Work

CUMI draws the storyboards, animatics and concept art that get an idea ready to be shown and signed off. We have worked this way for Microsoft Bing, Merck, Uppercut Films and Scream Films, finding the story and the look long before anything is animated in full.

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From the sketchbook

Storyboards, design frames and concept art from our archive, drawn for advertisers, broadcasters and our own stories.

  • Two storyboards on one page. Above, a pencil storyboard for a short drama about a character called Clay. Below, the 20 panel storyboard for Microsoft Bing's Jerry's Story, drawn in grey and orange.
    Pencil storyboards for a short drama, and the 20 panel storyboard for Bing, Jerry's Story.
  • Two colour storyboards for Crayola toy adverts, 3 in 1 Picture Magic and Doodle Penguin, with a numbered voice over line under each panel.
    Advert storyboards for two Crayola toys, drawn for Lambie Productions.
  • Two rows of frames. A scallop shell on a beach opens to reveal a cricket ball, for a BBC World Service Trinidad and Tobago promo. Below, glowing microscopic germs in concept artwork for Dettol.
    Design frames for a BBC World Service promo, and storyboard concept artwork for Dettol, made for House Media.
  • Sepia comic book storyboard panels for Commando On The Front Line, showing recruits arriving by train, a soldier in long grass, an explosion and a landing craft at sea.
    Comic book storyboard panels for Commando On The Front Line, for Uppercut Films.
  • Two concept frames of a boy in green fatigues fighting a crowd of red robots, one in a dark smoky street and one splashed with black ink.
    Concept frames for one of our own stories.
  • Character design sheet showing a boy in combat gear and a gas mask in several poses, riding a bike and asleep, and a girl with a laptop, a toolbox, a small robot and a panda.
    Character designs for a series that never went ahead.
  • Three wide painted scenes. A sea turtle among floating plastic bags, a turtle beside a stegosaurus on a prehistoric shore, and a mother and baby dugong under water.
    Painted scenes for an ocean conservation story.
  • Four animals built from planks of reclaimed wood, an elephant, a rabbit, a tortoise and a monkey, each with its name below.
    Concept designs for Wooden Zoo, animals built from reclaimed wood.

Selected storyboard work

Projects where the storyboard or concept art was a big part of what we delivered, from a 20 panel storyboard for Microsoft Bing to a comic book title sequence for a Royal Marines documentary.

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Get the story right first

A storyboard is the cheapest place to change your mind. Every shot, cut and camera move can be tried, questioned and redrawn on paper before a single frame is animated. Concept art does the same job for the look of a film, settling the characters, colours and worlds so that everyone signs off the same picture. It is how we start our own animated films, and it works just as well on its own for directors, agencies and brands who need the drawing done well and done quickly.

Storyboard, animatic or concept art

A storyboard sets out the film shot by shot, with the action, dialogue and camera for each moment. An animatic puts those frames on a timeline with a voice or music track, so you can feel the pace before production begins. Concept art explores the look, from a single character to a whole world, and helps everyone agree what the finished film will look like. Many projects need all three and some need only one. We will tell you which will help most.

What we create

  • Storyboards for animation, advertising and television
  • Animatics that test timing and sound before production
  • Concept art for characters, worlds and key moments
  • Design frames that fix the look of a film
  • Pitch documents that help an idea get signed off

Rough and fast when the idea is still moving, clean and polished when it needs to be shown to a client or a commissioner.

How we work

  1. Read the script.

    We talk through the script or idea, the audience, the running time and where the finished piece will be seen.

  2. Rough it out.

    Quick thumbnails and rough frames test the order of shots and the look, so the big decisions are made early.

  3. Draw it properly.

    The agreed direction becomes clean storyboard panels or finished concept art, with rounds of review built in.

  4. Time it and hand over.

    Where useful we cut the frames into an animatic with sound, then deliver the files ready for your team or ours to take forward.

Drawn with animation in mind

We storyboard as a studio that animates. That means shots that can actually be made, camera moves that make sense and characters that stay on model from panel to panel. If another team is animating the finished film, the boards still arrive ready for them to use.

Related disciplines

Explore Animation to see storyboards carried through to the finished film, Character Design for the characters that concept art helps to find, or Illustration for finished artwork built from the same drawing skills.

Have a script that needs drawing

Send us the script, the idea or the pitch you are working on, and tell us when it needs to be seen. We will suggest the quickest way to get it onto paper.

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