Story Structure and Development A Guide for Animators, VFX Artists, Game Designers, and Virtual Reality

Professor Craig Caldwell’s Story Structure and Development offers a clear approach to the essentials of story. It lays out the fundamental elements, principles, and structure for animators, designers, and artists so they can incorporate these concepts in their work. As a practical guide it includes extensive insights and advice from industry professionals. Readers will learn the universal patterns of story and narrative used in today’s movies, animation, games, and VR. With over 200 colorful images, this book has been designed for visual learners, and is organized to provide access to story concepts for the screen media professional and student. Readers will discover the story fundamentals referred to by every director and producer when they say "It’s all about story". Key Features Consolidates into one text universal story structure used across the digital media industry Includes enormous visuals that illustrate and reinforce concepts for visual learners Organizes content for faculty to use sections in a non-linear manner Includes chapter objectives, review questions, and key terms to guide the reader

Story Structure (Plot). Plot. Setup (Act I). Conflict (Act II). Resolution (Act III). Genres. Story Elements (Character). Character. Character Elements. Character Values/Motivation. Story Telling (The Development). Where Do Ideas Come From? Beginning- Middle-End. Development. Audience. Story Mechanics/Elements. Interactive Narrative.

Craig Caldwell has worked extensively in both the screen industry and higher education. His industry experience includes Walt Disney Feature Animation Artist Development for such features as Tarzan, Tangled, Mulan, Dinosaur, Chicken Little. Not long afterwards at Electronic Arts, he led artistic training for such games as Madden Football and Superman. Currently, he is a USTAR Professor in Digital Media at University of Utah, where he co-founder the Entertainment Arts and Engineering master’s program, ranked #1 video game program by the Princeton Review. His academic experience includes Head of the largest film school in Australia, the Griffith University Film School with its interdisciplinary emphasis on animation, games, and film, and at University of Arizona where he was Chair of the Media Arts Department. He frequently presents on story at conferences such as SIGGRAPH, FMX, Mundos Digitales. His students have gone on to work for every major film and animation studio.