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Rating: 
Summary: Storyboards:Motion in Art
Review: ... I'm an illustrator myself with 23 years of storyboarding experience. This book is an excellent tool for both the novice and the seasoned, old grizzled vet like me. For the novice it explains the process, offers guides to how to approach a board, what's important, staging, mood, the different types of boards markets, billing, promotion... the whole gammut. For the vets, it jogs our memory. We tend to fall into patterns of how we do things and it gets comfortable and perhaps a bit common place... or even sloppy. The book reminded me that there's more than one right way or any single solution and maybe the 1st and easiest way isn't the best. There are some great samples of different styles of boards from different artists and a good focus on thinking before drawing. It's a good, usefull addition to my ever expanding library and anyone in the field or wanting to be in the field should consider getting a copy. Make sure it's the 2nd edition... a far more extensive and complete book than the earlier edition. (I now have both)
Rating: 
Summary: Deceptive title
Review: I was amazed by this book because of its lack of actual information that related to drawing storyboards! There are many chapters telling you how to dress for your interview and pages dedicated to checking you attitude for working in the industry. Subjects of various aspects of the fields inner workings. Sadly the number of pages used to teach storyboard techniques from methods of describing camera tracks and pans and all the other essential descriptions are bascially nonexistent. There may have been 2 pages in which the author attempted to poorly describe a pan or zoom in. I was very angry and confused that the title had been so misleading, if this book is used in classes as I have read in other posts, then that is the class to avoid! Mark Simon is a very poor artist also and relys often on other storyboards to illustrate the few examples in this silly waste of paper. Among them Alex Savik, who was once a artist for Marvel comics. I had often wonder where he had gone to? Aside from that, there was nothing of value within these pages that could not be gotten from viewing better artists boards. This seems to be an attempt by an artist that doesnt make money doing boards to bring in extra cash without giving out any additional information on storyboarding so as to not enable any others to take work from him, if he should get so lucky. This is not a scathing review merely obvious!
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Text.
Review: The experience and practical wisdom that Mark Simon shares with his reader is what makes this book special. He offers an exceptional understanding of what is needed to start a career in animation and storyboarding. He then continues by presenting an overview of his own patterns for entertainment industry success that are relevant in nearly any career field. In addition to his own ideas, I especially enjoy the sharp contrasts he draws by comparing how his colleagues would handle similar projects. This is an amazing chapter that I often re-read to keep my own thought process open. I do teach a program in animation, and we do use Mark's book in our classroom. It has been a valuable part of our curriculum. On occasion we have even invited Mark to present chapters to our classes and are never disappointed.
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Summary: Good explanation of the bigger picture
Review: This book addresses several subjects that are all relevant to individuals who want to make a living from, or involving, storyboards. It is fully illustrated by a variety of artists, a feature that is important for up-and-coming artists to have exposure to. There are many diverse styles of illustration out there, but successful storyboard artists all share an awareness of certain principles of filmmaking, that this book also covers. By virtue of its many explanations and illustrations, it presents a broad and clear description of the business of storyboarding. People who want to pursue this field need to know that being able to draw is not the exclusive interest of a production artist, but also cinematic conventions and marketing of their product. I recommend this book to my students who express interest in the field, and for further exploration of specific concentrations I suggest "Directing: Shot by Shot" by Katz, and "How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way" by Stan Lee.
Rating:
Summary: Good explanation of the bigger picture
Review: This book addresses several subjects that are all relevant to individuals who want to make a living from, or involving, storyboards. It is fully illustrated by a variety of artists, a feature that is important for up-and-coming artists to have exposure to. There are many diverse styles of illustration out there, but successful storyboard artists all share an awareness of certain principles of filmmaking, that this book also covers. By virtue of its many explanations and illustrations, it presents a broad and clear description of the business of storyboarding. People who want to pursue this field need to know that being able to draw is not the exclusive interest of a production artist, but also cinematic conventions and marketing of their product. I recommend this book to my students who express interest in the field, and for further exploration of specific concentrations I suggest "Directing: Shot by Shot" by Katz, and "How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way" by Stan Lee.
Rating: 
Summary: Best for learning the art and business of storyboarding.
Review: This book is the number one training manual for teaching storyboarding at universities around the world. The second edition, due out in January 2000 adds over 500 samples, 4 exercises, interviews and 45 new chapters.
Rating:
Summary: A terrific resource
Review: This is by far the best (of the very few) books on storyboarding available. It is clear, concise, has plenty of illustrations, and even addresses the business side of storyboarding for movies, television, and commercials. It also gets at the heart of the matter, which is: the storyboard artist is often a film project's first (uncredited) director by sketching set pieces, camera shots, and plugging plot holes. Highly recommended.
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