Whenever you are producing a motion graphics or animated spots, you should always start with storyboards or style frames. Before getting into the lengthy process of animation, it’s very helpful to get a sense of how things will look with a set of frames that outline the story and the overall look of the piece.

You may or may not be the best storyboard artist out there, but there are several artists who make a living at doing great storyboards for their clients. In some circumstances, it may be worth hiring an outside artist to create a set of storyboards. And at the very least, it’s smart to look at some of the work of these great artists for inspiration and ideas on how to present your next project.

Here are 5 of the top storyboard artists around, along with some of the work that has proven their skills.

Top Storyboard Motion Designers

Kim Dulaney is an extremely talented illustrator with a wide range of looks to pull from. She’s equally capable of creating visuals with black and white line art, multi-textured bold colors, or photorealistic composites.

Kim has created work for Red Bull, Nokia, Coke, and Airbnb (for which she’s won numerous awards), so it’s clear that she knows how to handle the big clients.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a style of design that Dulaney couldn’t pull off if it’s based in the world of illustration.

Eddy Herringson is a longtime art director and designer out of Sydney, Australia who has had a hand in a lot of things that you may have seen before. Some well-respected pieces that have come out of big studios like Elastic and Nexus have crossed Herringson’s path.

Although he has worked as a designer, animator, and art director, Herringson has an impressive set of boards that he’s created while working on several of his high-profile pieces.

Take a look at just a few of the boards he created for Halt & Catch Fire, Tom Clancey’s The Division, and Honda’s Grrr commercial.

Lucas Casagrande is a relatively young, but super talented artist and designer out of Buenos Aires who is building an impressive portfolio of work.

Whether he’s tasked with doing flat illustrations, complex composites, or high-level 3D renders, Casagrande always seems up to the task. His wide range of clients from commercial brands to television networks allows him to flex his design muscle in a variety of ways. And everything he creates is inspiring and top-notch.

Carla Dasso is another Buenos Aires-based graphic designer and art director with an extensive portfolio of work in a variety of styles.

Dasso’s boards include lots of broadcast design work for networks like HBO, Fox Life, and Nickelodeon.

Many of the boards here focus on polished 3D looks with bold geometry and slick rendering. Dasso is really good at this and serves as a great resource for inspiration in 3D geometry.

Not to be missed.

Lauren Indovina’s work has been commissioned by the likes of PSYOP, BL:ND, and many other top studios. She must be doing something right, because she is highly sought after, and her work shows exactly why.

Indovina does beautiful illustration work, some like fine art paintings, some hand-drawn, but she also knows who to build rich photo composites that will amaze.

Lauren Indovina is one of those artists that seems to feel comfortable in any environment and that’s why she’s got such a strong portfolio and discerning eye for beauty and originality.

Remember the importance of good motion graphics storyboards when you sit down for your next project. Put everything you can into creating strong storyboards and it will really help in the process of building a great final project. Remember, you can hire talented artists to help create boards like these and get your clients to love you all the more!