Griffith: A Storyboarding Tool Designed with Japanese Animation Professionals

The “E-conte,” storyboard in English, is commonly referred to as the “blueprint” in Japanese animation (anime) production, consisting of scene illustrations, timing information, and textual descriptions. This paper introduces “Griffith,” a digital system for creating these storyboards. Due to its highly cultural and domain-specific nature, the tool design entailed an in-depth study of the E-conte process and a longitudinal collaboration with an experienced anime director and producers. The resulting system contributes not only domain knowledge, but also generalizable insights into a creativity support environment for visual storytelling, including the importance of vertical timelines and discrete yet integrated tools. To reflect on the interaction design, we presented Griffith to professionals with diverse roles in anime production. Our findings highlight the benefits of the Griffith user interface and the need for a socio-technical focus in designing creativity support tools.