Motion Storyboarding

Jumping into After Effects without a plan wastes hours on motion that doesn't serve the story. A motion storyboard is a series of keyframe illustrations showing the major states of an animation: the starting position, key intermediate states, and the final position. Between each pair of frames, annotate the transition type (fade, slide, scale), duration, and easing curve. This document serves as a blueprint for production and a communication tool for client approval and developer handoff. Planning a 30-second animation sequence typically takes 1-2 hours in storyboard and saves 4-6 hours of production rework.