Storyboard & Animatic
Angles – dynamic perspective, consistency, 180 degree rule (screen side)
Composition
Easily readable – what is the story? Does your audience understand what you’re making
Character acting & posing – are they being expressive
Pacing and timing of the animation – do we have the feeling of an introduction / ending (are you giving the audience a moment to breathe?) Do you have too many shots? Reduce, reduce!

Character designs
Complexity – is this too hard to animate?
Consistency in the turnaround – between poses using grid lines
Having dynamic shape language in both front and side view

Backgrounds
Mood – what is the intention of the piece and how is this supported through the mood
Composition and staging – will the characters fit into it (links back to SB)

Aesthetic choices
Background vs character – how will these be different/same?
Colour palette – does it support the overall intention & mood

Mouth Shapes

Mouth shape sheets cover the basic shapes, providing reference for people to add new in-between shapes. We often have different mouth sets for different expressions (usually a different set for ‘happy’ ‘neutral’ and ‘sad’).

When creating your mouth shape sheet, try and cover the following:

• M, B, P
• TH, L
• O, U, W, Q
• A, I
• F, V
• K, G, H
• Closed teeth consonants (S, C, Z, D, N, SH, T, G, CH, J, N)
• Closed mouth

Drawing the whole head, try and keep the eyes/brows in neutral and focus on the movement of the chin and cheeks to emphasize and accommodate the mouth movement.