Mix Monsters - Book 1 Storyboarding!

Hey Guys! Natalie here!

Okay, so this video showcases my development process in drawing out the storyboards—this is actually from the first book!

A lot more goes into this than you might realize. First, we develop the scenes in 3D. I personally use Blender, but plenty of artists use ZBrush, Maya, 3ds Max—honestly, any 3D software package can work. In my case, I prefer Blender because it’s open-source, well-supported, and well-documented. This was actually the first scene I’ve ever developed, and it had a pretty big learning curve. I’m VERY new to 3D, but I had a blast!

I built out and did a rough lighting pass for the kids’ bedroom scene, which we’ll see a lot in the first book. Now, I can take shots from any angle I want as the basis for my hand-drawn scenes.

Starting with a screen grab, I find the perfect angle, drop it into my 2D animation software, and start laying down the line work. This is the fun part—where I take a fairly static and robotic-feeling 3D scene, with all its perfection and hard edges, and really add some character.

Speaking of characters, I also start drawing in the kid character—who will eventually be replaced with your child’s avatar! This placeholder will be swapped for the fully customized character you’ll get to create using Jeff’s character creation system (there are a few other articles up about that if you’re curious!).

From there, I just plug away at it—sketching, refining, and then laying down the final line work. This is how I build out the storyboard, start to finish, for each scene. This particular scene is just one of over 40 shots total for our first book! The goal is to refine and iterate during this stage before we finalize everything and build the full scene from the ground up.

I love diving in, getting the quick sketch done, refining it, and watching it all come together—especially adding all the little fiddly details (I’m a total detail hound!). There’s so much gratification in seeing a scene start from nothing and transform into a fully fleshed-out shot!

For this scene in particular, we’re laying the foundation for our stories, so we really want to get the kids’ room just right. Having that 3D model lets me test and play around with different angles to find the perfect composition.

I love this shot—it’s just so adorable! The kid, passed out, smiling in their sleep, snuggling their little stuffed animal and holding onto their wand. It’s moments like this that make all the hard work worth it.

This one took me about an hour, so you can imagine how 40+ shots (some even more complex than this) really add up.

And that’s where your support comes in. All of our VIP members who pledge to gain early access to articles and behind-the-scenes sneak peeks like this help us buy back our time from the daily grind and focus fully on this project—something I hold very close to my heart.

So, with this scene wrapped up, let me just say a heartfelt thank you for supporting us and helping bring this hand-drawn world to life. Every single line comes with a little love!

That’s it for now—stay tuned for more updates as we move closer and closer to the finish line! Jeff and I have so much more to show you as we work tirelessly to bring Mix Monsters to life.

For now—lots of love and thanks from both of us! ❤️