The Art of the Storyboard, 2nd Edition: A Filmmaker's Introduction

This book was very helpful to me. I am a professional animator and storyboard/layout artist, even though I have a very good grasp of drawing, this book helped me improve my composition(balance, contrast, flow, etc) and cinematography skills. The illustrations are from great old time classics like Battleship Potemkin (which is frequently used as examples in top film schools across the world) and an numerous other examples. The simplicity of some of the drawings illustrates how you don't have to be the best artist to draw a good storyboard, other drawings show how you can do pretty psimple but photorealistic renderings in a few minutes. Although this is not the all in one stop for storyboarding, it is a must have for aspiring storyboard artists. The one thing that could use improvement is the discussion on perspective drawing, but this book helped me improve so much that I still give it 5 stars. Note: This is not a how to draw book, If you have a solid foundation in drawing, you will benefit more from this and similar books.

This book covers storyboards ranging from the most basic to the most detailed. The author recreates frames from classic films--old and new--to illustrate how a storyboard can include light, movement, perspective, and shadow to offer a more complete view of the scene. I found this book to be as much about the art of observing, which is essential to anyone involved in the filmmaking process.

John Hart's book is the very best I've seen on storyboarding. He skillfully draws shots from every camera angle, relates them to story context, and offers his rationale for many shots from classic films--which he draws as a storyboarder would. Also very interesting demonstrations on use of light and shadow.