Storyboard artist salaries: Storyboard Artist Salary | Salary.com

What is a Storyboard Artist — Job Description, Duties & Salary

The best animated movies in history all began with simple sketches. Creating these foundational sketches is the storyboard artist. The decisions and drawings from these artists influence the rest of a film or TV show. But what is a storyboard artist responsible for other than creating sketches? A whole lot. In this article, we’ll take a look at the role and responsibilities of a storyboard artist, how much they are paid for their work, and how to become one.

What is a storyboard artist in film?

Storyboard artists explained

Many people assume that storyboard artists simply draw out the story from a script. While this is true, they must also make critical visual decisions that require filmmaking knowledge.  Let’s take a look at the storyboard artist definition to learn more about the role. 

STORYBOARD ARTIST DEFINITION

What is a storyboard artist?

A storyboard artist creates the initial visual representations of a story’s narrative. In collaboration with the director, storyboard artists visualize the story from a script or treatment. They then make visual decisions that develop how the story looks on a storyboard panel. 

Simply put, these artists create what can be considered the “raw footage” of the show or movie. The raw footage consists of sequential drawings and/or sketches that help visualize the beats of the story. These storyboards function as the foundation of the next phases of the production process.

What does a storyboard artist do?

• Visualize the script and story
• Draw the initial sketches for the narrative
• Contribute to creating animatics

Storyboard artist job duties

What does a storyboard artist do?

Storyboard artists are involved throughout both the live-action and animation processes. In the beginning stages of the production, these artists read and visualize the script along with the director.  

These artists try to compose their boards in a way that best serves the story of the script. They take their ideas and develop rough sketches and drawings that help the team visualize the beats of the story. This is called a ‘thumbnail pass.’

This is essentially the “raw footage” of the animated show or film. It lays down the foundation of the next phases of animation. Check out the initial storyboards that were created for Frozen, one of the best animated movies. 

You’ll see how the storyboards led to the final animation. 

Storyboard artists work on Frozen

After these initial panels and boards are drawn, the artist may also be asked to contribute to developing the animatics of the project. An animatic is a string of storyboard images edited together with sound to illustrate how a sequence will flow in motion. It’s a next-level technique after storyboarding. 

Oftentimes, these artists will clean up and add detail to their initial storyboards to create a more complete animatic. This can be character or background details that fill out the panels like in this animatic from Rick and Morty. 

What is a storyboard artist?  •  Rick and Morty

For both the thumbnail pass and the animatic, artists receive feedback and notes from the director. They take these notes and apply it to their next round of revisions. All in all, working as a storyboard artist entails a whole lot of drawing every day. If this sounds enticing to you, let’s take a look at how to become a storyboard artist.

Storyboard artist qualifications

How to become a storyboard artist

Like any role in filmmaking, there is not one distinct path. For the role of an artist, your journey can begin in various ways to obtain various storyboard artist qualifications. Many artists begin by going to a university to study either art or filmmaking. 

Becoming a working artist requires both the knowledge of filmmaking principles such as different types of shots, camera angles, and camera movements. But it also requires a high level of draftsmanship (ability to draw) as well as an understanding of animation software.

Once you’ve developed these skills in either a university or on your own, it’s time to get your foot in the door. The best way to do this is to work as an intern at an animation studio. Check out the video below to see how experienced storyboard artist Patrick Harpin took on an internship that opened countless doors in his career. 

What is a storyboard artist? With Sony’s Patrick Harpin

To reiterate Harpin’s advice, becoming a board artist is more than just being able to draw well. It requires a creative intuition for telling stories and being able to visualize a story from a script. As Harpin did, develop your portfolio so that you have something to present when an opportunity (like an internship or gig) presents itself. 

How much do storyboard artists make

Storyboard artist salary

Storyboard artists’ work is seasonal so they are typically paid week-to-week rather based on the gig. However, the seasonal work typically lasts anywhere from 9-10 months which is a good chunk of the year. The average salary for these artists is around $115,000 per year. However, this can range from $85,000 – $150,000 per year based on experience and the level of production. 

How to Become a Storyboard Artist

Find storyboard artist jobs

Finding storyboard artist jobs will depend greatly on your network. You’ll typically find these jobs based on referrals or word of mouth on jobs you are already working on or from people you’ve worked with in the past. 

To get started, however, it’s worth looking into internships or gigs on hiring websites like EntertainmentCareers, Glassdoor, or Indeed. Be sure to consistently check the internships page on your favorite animation studios as well. Working an internship will help get you more jobs down the road.  

Up Next

Discover more filmmaking roles

The importance of storyboard artists is too often overlooked in the animation process, but hopefully now you’ve learned their value.  To continue through our series of the various filmmaking roles and positions, you can explore similar jobs like cinematographer, producer, or editor, you can jump over to our Film Crew Index to browse the entire range of filmmaking roles. Understanding what everyone’s role on a film set is will help make you a better overall filmmaker and a more efficient crew member.

Up Next: Explore more crew positions →

Storyboard Artist Salary (Actual 2023 | Projected 2024)

Salary

Storyboard Artist
Salary in The United States

4.8

61
votes
for Storyboard Artist Salary

The average Storyboard Artist Salary in The United States is $90,000 per year. Salaries range from $72,200 to $118,300.
The average Storyboard Artist Hourly Wage is $50.00 per hour. Hourly wages range from $40.10 to $65.70.
Salaries and wages depend on multiple factors including geographic location, experience, seniority, industry, education etc.

What is the

Average Annual Salary of Storyboard Artist in The United States?

$90,000
/ year

Avg. Salary (USD)

What is the

Average Hourly Wage of Storyboard Artist in The United States?

$50.00
/ hour

Avg. Hourly Wage (USD)

Wage	Hourly Compensation
Highest Hourly Wage of Storyboard Artist in The United States	$65. 70
Average Hourly Wage of Storyboard Artist in The United States	$50.00
Lowest Hourly Wage of Storyboard Artist in The United States	$40.10

Where do

Storyboard Artists earn more in The United States?

Where do

Storyboard Artists earn more in The United States?

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About the dedication and difficulties in the work of Japanese animators – Anime on DTF

Small salaries and inhuman overloads are the realities of Japanese animators. Even Ghibli has not escaped the rumors and scandals. Let’s talk about the main problems of the anime industry and their causes.

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Shot from the series “Shirobako” about the backstage of the anime. In the very first episode, the animator girl was found at home unconscious due to overwork during burning deadlines.

The recycling culture is part of the Japanese mentality. But the situation with the schedule of animators excites even Japanese minds, giving rise to a separate term – anime syndrome. A condition in which the artist is so exhausted by night work, irregular and unhealthy meals that it comes to hospitalization.

In 2015, the Japan Animation Creators Association (JAniCA) published the results of a survey of 759 animators. It turned out that 84% of respondents work more than eight hours a day, of which 15.9% – more than 350 hours per month: on average, this is more than 14 hours per day with a six-day work week.

Are such sacrifices compensated with money?

Alas, no. In conjunction with overtime, there is a second problem – low salaries. At the end of 2018, the average salary for an animator in Japan was ~100,000 yen per month, about $900.

Japanese animators’ standard rate per drawing is only 200 yen, which is about $1.78. Since artists typically create no more than two drawings per hour, this works out to just $3.56.

Irie Yasuhiro, director of JAniCA.

According to JAniCA, the average annual salary in the anime industry is:

Chief Animation Director – 5. 683 million yen or $46,900,

Given that the production center is based in western Tokyo, where the cost of living is one of the highest in the world, junior employees have to work on several projects at once and have parental support until adulthood. And this applies not only to small companies, but also to world-famous studios.

MAPPA

The studio is known for its work on the latest season of Attack on Titan, The God of High School and many other projects. On May 14, 2021, a studio senior animator named Mushiyo posted a series of tweets accusing MAPPA of factory treatment of lower-level artists and unhealthy working conditions [Sorry, the author’s account has been deleted at the time of writing. We refer to the online edition of animenewsnetwork].

Source

According to him, the work of junior MAPPA artists was to endlessly correct drawings over and over again, including at night. Mushiyo claims that the studio is working on four projects at the same time. And he added that instead of such a download, resources could be spent on proper training of the team so that the need to correct the drawings simply did not appear. He assures that he is not the only one who thinks so:

As far as I know, about 80% of employees had such complaints.

Around the same time, MAPPA announced the recruitment of employees, fans quickly associated this with the recent scandal and mass layoffs.

Source.

Almost immediately after Mushiyo’s announcement, another animator, Ippei Ichii, revealed that he was being offered 3,800 yen ($34) per frame at the studio. The artist claims that this rate is below the generally accepted minimum, and urges the studio to pay more.

“I am participating in a joint project between MAPPA and Netflix. The producer offered me 3,800 yen per shot. But 3800-7000 yen is the budget for a local TV series. If you agree to this, the cost of the animator’s work as a whole will decrease. Better negotiate at least 15,000 yen.”

MAPPA quickly denied the information, pointing out that the project is only under discussion, and the leaked information is not true.

Madhouse

Another major anime studio, known for Black Lagoon Pirates, Death Note, and the first season of One Punch Man, became involved in an employee hospitalization scandal in 2019. In April, a production assistant, who wished to remain anonymous, joined the Black Company Union and demanded compensation for overtime work.

“The work did not stop at night and even on holidays,” say the representatives of the trade union.

According to the hospitalized employee, he worked almost 400 hours a month. In Japan, the government has set a “risk line for overtime death” of 80-100 overtime hours per month. With an eight-hour working day, Madhouse employees work more than 200 hours. This is well above the set threshold. In fact, the employee lived at work and came home three times a week to take a shower.

One morning on the way home he lost consciousness. The man was hospitalized and diagnosed with a functional neurological disorder (Functional Neurological Disorder), caused by overwork. He demanded full payment of overtime, reduced working hours, and at the same time accused the company of harassing staff.

At the end of April 2019, the Black Company Union tweeted that it was preparing a collective agreement with Madhouse representatives. Unfortunately, the trade union did not specify the details of the agreement.

And Pierrot ibid

In 2015, KOTAKU aired an interview with New York-based artist Henry Thurlow, who shared his experience of working in Japanese studios, including Pierrot.

Before getting into the desired studio, Henry worked for eight months at Nakamura pro, where he earned only $300 per month: $1 per drawing, from 5 to 25 per day. In Pierrot the situation is better, but still bad: $2-4 per drawing, so it came out to about $1000 per month.

The animator’s resume includes some impressive projects: Akatsuki no Yona, Tokyo Ghoul and The Last-Naruto. But, by his own admission, the work took away from him absolutely all the time.

The norm is a six-day work week of ten hours a day. People here are so overworked that they simply vomit at the workplace from overwork. On the other hand, in New York I had a lot of free time, but I didn’t really like the work. Here the artist in me is completely satisfied.

Henry Thurlow

In “Tokyo Ghoul: Jack”, Henry handled in-between animation and cleanup.

What does such a return to work lead to

In March 2017, director Kazunori Mizuno, who collaborated with Pierrot for about 30 years, died at 52.

His death was quiet: neither the studio nor the director’s relatives made official comments about his death. But soon, statements by Mizuno’s colleagues began to appear on Twitter, suggesting that he had burned out at work.

“Kazunori Mizuno, anime director, died on March 19th. I understand that my conclusions may be unfounded, but they say he died while napping at work. This dark reality haunts the anime industry in Japan. Although news about karoshi [death from overwork] is often found in other industries as well.”

Pierrot, in turn, neither confirmed nor denied these rumors.

Studio Ghibli Tragedies

Perhaps one of the most high-profile stories of the anime syndrome is associated with the name Ghibli. Hand drawing, perfectionism and total control of Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata brought them not only success with the audience, but also exhaustion of employees.

The most famous characters from Studio Ghibli.

In 2018, one of the founders of the studio, Toshio Suzuki, published a book in which he directly states that working with Takahata “destroyed a lot of people.” In particular, Yoshifumi Kondo, who died in 1998 at the age of 47, a year after working on Princess Mononoke. The cause of the tragedy is overworking and lack of sleep, which provoked aortic dissection.

Yoshifumi Kondo was a friend of Hayao Miyazaki. He served as senior animator on Grave of the Fireflies, The Witch’s Delivery Service and Just Yesterday, and made his directorial debut on Whisper of the Heart.

A frame from the film “Whisper of the Heart”.

“You will be overworked and exhausted. Prepare to break down,” Suzuki described the grim prospect of working at one of Japan’s most famous animation houses.

Attempt to hand over the reins to the younger generation

You Can Hear the Ocean Here is the studio’s first production not supervised by Hayao Miyazaki or Isao Takahata. This picture was entrusted to young employees of the studio at the age of 20-30 years, and 34-year-old Tomomi Mochizuki became its director.

You Can Hear the Ocean Here is a drama about a teenage love triangle.

According to Miyazaki, this project was aimed at discovering young talents. To relieve pressure on the team, the film was previewed on television. This would reduce the budget and shorten the time. Even the motto of this project sounded promising – “fast, cheap, high quality.” But the change in format did not mean simplification of the art or any indulgence, so already at the stage of storyboarding it became clear: the plan was frustrated, and the work had acquired the character of time pressure.

Mochizuki himself later stated that due to the stressful working conditions in Ghibli, his health had deteriorated greatly. The busy schedule led to the director collapsing on the way to his own bathroom. Doctors later diagnosed the man with a duodenal ulcer caused by stress. Unfortunately, his sacrifice did not bring the desired results. “Here You Can Hear the Ocean” did not delight the audience and in the list of all the studio’s works is in the shadow of Ghibli’s cult projects.

What are the reasons for this situation of animators?

The question arises: why do animators work overtime and for a penny, if the anime industry has been growing and getting richer for the last 20 years? Between 2002 and 2017, the Japanese animation industry doubled to $19 billion a year.

In recent years, the situation has only improved, and all new films and series are released in the west, in particular on Netflix.

Yasuke is a joint project between Netflix and MAPPA, launched in 2021.

Why is this happening?

Structural problems

Each frame of anime is usually worked out in great detail, so it takes a lot of time and effort. Shingo Adachi, animator and character designer for Sword Art Online, said that around 200 anime are produced in Japan every year, and finding enough qualified artists is almost impossible. Instead, studios work with a large number of low-paid freelancers.

At the start of a career, the artist most likely works as a freelancer. He draws in-between shots after executives create storyboards and mid-career artists draw keyframes. At this stage, the animator will not earn more than $2 per drawing, and given the attention to detail in anime, the artist will spend at least an hour per frame.

Shingo Adachi

An example of drawing the 2016 anime “Your Name”.

When working with freelancers, studios don’t have to worry about compliance with labor laws. A freelancer is an independent contractor, so you can keep up the pace and save money. And since there are always a lot of people who want to get a cult anime in their portfolio, it makes no sense to change the conditions.

Making anime is a very meticulous process, and this is its main problem. 3-4 animators work on one scene. I make sketches, then they are checked by two more people: a senior animator and a director. They are then returned to me for correction and cleaning. And only after that they come to the intermediary who makes the final drawings”

Zakoani, animator from Studio Yuraki and Doga Kobo

By the way, we have an interview with a freelance animator from St. Petersburg, where he talks about his experience with Pierrot and the terms of cooperation.

Obsolete standards

And this is not so much about cultural aspects, but about the economy. Structural development of the animation environment happened in the 1950s. Astro Boy creator Osama Tezuke launched a toy and candy line alongside the series to support production if the series failed.

Anime was underestimated, but merchandise sales made even more profit. This precedent started a tradition of separate budgets for television networks, manga production, toy production, and animation. At that time, less money was invested in the latter than in other areas, since it brought the least income.

Today the complexity of one frame of anime is much higher than in the 50s. But the principles of budget distribution remained the same.

For comparison: the trailer for the original Astro Boy anime.

And the 2003 remake.

At the same time, the profit from films has increased markedly, especially with the increased demand for anime abroad. But when entering the market, Western companies are forced to play by the rules of the Japanese market, so they leave with good earnings, and simple animators and even entire studios remain out of work.

A 2016 Teikoku Databank report showed that the top 230 Japanese animation studios saw a 40% decline in revenue over 10 years.

“In order to further develop the animation industry, it is urgent to improve the economic situation of animators and reform the profit structure of the entire industry,” the report says.

Henry Thurlow believes that simply raising the salaries of animators is not an option:

Without global changes, this will lead to the bankruptcy of most studios due to financial constraints. The studios need to come together in a big world and produce Hollywood-level films, with mass marketing and content adapted to the average viewer.

Text written by Yulia Khlebko, author at Smirnov School. We train concept artists, level artists and 3D modelers for games and animation. If you come to our course, don’t forget to ask about the discount for DTF readers.

CV Storyboards storyboard artist, comics artist, illustrator, Moscow, 3,000 rubles.

per month

Resume #3414453

Updated January 15, 2011

Storyboards storyboard artist, comic artist, illustrator Was more than a month ago

3000 ₽

45 years old (born December 24, 1977), married, no children

Moscow, remote work, ready to move, ready to travel

full time

Citizenship

not specified

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Education

• • 0028
  • Part-time
  • 2007

  Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University

  Faculty: Humanities

  Specialty: Psychology

  9002 8

• • Specialized secondary education
  • Day/Full-time
  • 1998

  Art Lyceum them. Chuikova

  Faculty: Graphic Arts

  Specialty: Graphic designer, designer, calligraphist

About me

Professional skills:

Before coming to Moscow, from 2002 to 2006, he founded and managed the “Comics and Cartoons” studio, at the Department of Aesthetic Education of the Kyrgyz Republic SU (Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic Univer -t, branch of Moscow State University), Bishkek (Frunze) Kyrgyzstan. Conducted classes in the following areas: dramaturgy of a graphic novel (comic book), graphics, frame construction (creation of scenes), character development, comic book style, etc.
Monthly published with his graphic novels (comics) in local periodicals – the children’s newspaper “Ai-Danek” (comics-tales) and the youth newspaper “Lemon” (comic-series “Barsback”).
Computer skills:
Fluent in: Adobe Photoshop, illustrator, CorelDRAW and Flash, as well as Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro (creating video clips and special effects, animation).
Freehand drawing (pencil, ink, charcoal, watercolor, gouache, oil) – classical school of drawing, dramaturgy skills – storyline creation, character development, comics, film illustrations, etc.

Additional information:

I have the skills to create a full-fledged feature story (animated films, feature films, plays and performances, comics). I have a lot of experience on the set, both as a storyboard artist and as an assistant director. Sociable, stress-resistant, positive life position.
Currently, I accept orders from individuals and legal entities for the creation of 2D graphics (layout, design, comics, illustrations, characters, backgrounds, etc. for print and electronic periodicals, film and video studios) and video clips. Work at home.
Advanced training: I take courses in directing, screenwriting and staging.

Foreign languages ​​

• English – technical

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