Production Pipelines The process for producing animation generally has the following stages:
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- Idea, brief, treatment, script, production planning.
- Concept Design
- Storyboarding
- Production Design and Visual Development
- Recording the Dialogue
- Building the Models, Rigging
- Layouts and Animatics
- Animation
- Final Backgrounds and Colouring
- Lighting and Compositing
- Post Production
Idea and Planning
1. Generally the first step in the production pipeline of an animation, is to first present the idea to the company which the writes wish the peoduction to be made by, for example, Diseny and/or Pixar, Dreamworks or Sqaure enix, this is the writen treatment, to sell the ieda, after which a script is written and an outline budget estabilshed when the idea and concertp have been pitched and a go-ahead gotten and the final budget estabilshed, the crew is the put together.
Concept Design
2. Next is the concept design will often start during the pre-production phase. This is the first stage of design, doing preliminary work to illustrate both the narrative and possible visual treatment of the project, a time to experiment with characterisation and style.
Storyboarding
3. The next time is for the director to work closely with the atrist to viualise the script. “The Storyboard illustrates the narrative, composes the shots, demonstrates action, indicates camera moves and maintains continuity”, (http://www.skillset.org/animation/careers/article_3768_2.asp#Storyboarding) the storyboard is ofter revised to suit the needs and comment of the director, the Producers and/or the client. “The more defined the final storyboard, the smoother the rest of the production process should be. Storyboard panels may be shot and edited to a preliminary guide track which can be called a story reel or animatic” (http://www.skillset.org/animation/careers/article_3768_2.asp#Storyboarding).
Production Design and Visual Development
4. The Producers Designers and/or the Art Director will then work to create/develop a sytle of production and produce a final design to the character and the enviorments. “For 2D, model sheets and turnarounds of characters together with key backgrounds will be produced; for Stop Frame, characters and sets will be designed; for CG, designs for characters, environments and special effects will be produced” (http://www.skillset.org/animation/careers/article_3768_2.asp#Storyboarding).
At this satge most of the design will be drawn whether-or-not there are any final design techinuques, but that all depends on the woprking style of the Producer Designer/Art Director depending on the size of the production and aritist team.
Recording the Dialogue
5. The Producer and Director will cast the voices and the Director will supervise the recording which is usually attended by the Editor as well, with the recording of the dialogue often all the actors are required to attended and the dialogue is often recorded in one or two sessions “However, producers work in various ways and there can be many good reasons for recording all the actors individually and assembling the dialogue track afterwards”’ (http://www.skillset.org/animation/careers/article_3768_2.asp#Storyboarding)
The dialogue track is then edited before animation starts and, if it involves character lip synchs, those voices will be pre-recorded to ‘final production standard’, for the performers it helps to see the design for there characters and the storyboard, before the recording is finalised the editor will assemble the dialogue and produce a soundtrack to the length of approval of the Producer.
Building the Models, Rigging
6. From the approved designs, the modellers will make Computer Gengerated models of the charcters and enviroment but before it can be animated the “Riggers” have to create a moving skeleton or structure, working parts, joints that could the allow the animators to move the model.In stop-frame, the “model making department” will use the aprroved design to makes models, puppets and set, they will work with the director and the storyboard to decied how much movement each charactors needs.
Layouts and Animatics
7. “The first pass at timing is done with the story reel or animatic; in Stop Frame this is likely to become the working reel and there will be no layouts” (http://www.skillset.org/animation/careers/article_3768_2.asp#Storyboarding).
The layout in 2D or CG is a difficult process but the perpose of these techinques is to stage every scene and camera setup Layouts are made based on the storyboard and approved designs to provide scene planning, camera movements, visual information about character action and backgrounds.
“Layout is a very key process, which can involve and affect the later work of many departments. The completed layouts will be shot and either assembled into a layout reel or dropped into a storyboard reel. On larger CG, projects there will often be two phases of layout, Rough and Final”. (http://www.skillset.org/animation/careers/article_3768_2.asp#Storyboarding).
Animation
8. The animation is started when the animators have the approved layouts, designs, timings, models and voices tracks, the director or animation director then assigns different scenes to different animators which, when reocrded in sequence, create the illusion of movement.
“Depending on the project and technique, there can be a single Animator working alone or a large team in which there may be a range of talents and skills from lead animator down to junior assistant”. ”The Director approves the animation or, on a larger project, this may be done by the Animation Director or Supervisor. As scenes are approved, they are cut into the working reel/layout reel so they can be viewed in context before moving on to the next stage. In most cases, Effects Animation will be done after the main animation is complete”. (http://www.skillset.org/animation/careers/article_3768_2.asp#Storyboarding).
Final Backgrounds and Colouring
9. In 2D the final colouring and background can be added from the aprroved layout onwards, they should reflect the design and will be supervised by the art director, in cg the basic enviorments to made by modellers before the animation and the dressing and colouring is added at a later date.
Lighting and Compositing
10. The lighting is a very important stage in the creation process of CG, showing the final colour and atmosphere of each shot. “Compositing” can apply to all techniques of animation and is the point where the visuals are added including animation, backgrounds and effects, which are combined into the final image.
Post Production
11. During the postproduction, music will be recorded, sound effects added and the soundtrack finished, the digital picture is then combined with the completed soundtrack as the master copy or “Edit Master” and “can then be output either at broadcast standard or onto film, depending on the delivery requirements” (http://www.skillset.org/animation/careers/article_3768_2.asp#Storyboarding).
