What are the steps to making a film like this? Here is a breakdown of my production process:
Pre-production:
- I wrote the script over many, many months. The script will serve as the backbone for the entrie production process (read the script here).
- We create an animatic of the whole film. An animatic is a rough version of the entire film. It contains the basic acting, timing, camera angles, and sounds of the final version. I am currently working on animatics for each scene of the 10 scene story. Then they will be edited together and tweaked so it tells the story as strongly as possible. (example) The individual drawings are done in Photoshop and edited together using Premiere.
- Then we work on the look of the film or the Visual Development, of the film. What will the film look like? Make important decisions about character designs. Background designs. Color schemes. Every decision should contribute to reinforcing the story (an early example).
Production:
Production boils down to animating the final versions of each shot in the film (See notes below). There are lots of shots to finish! Scene 2 has 36 shots alone. I’m not sure of this yet, but I might animate each scene in order, but within each scene, prioritize and do the most important shots first.
The process of animating each shot can be broken down into the following:
- Do small thumbnail drawings of the animation on paper. Work out the acting with strong, specific poses.
- Draw the background. Usually on paper first, or directly in Photoshop.
- Rough animation: Draw a rough version of the character in the key poses of its acting motion. Then put in the breakdown poses, the poses that show how the character is transitioning between the key poses. Then fill in the inbetween poses. (software: Flash or ToonBoom. See notes.)
- Cleanup. New, cleaner versions of the drawings are drawn on a layer above the rough drawings. Those drawings will be the final version. (software: Photoshop or ToonBoom. See notes.)
- Paint the background. I wait to paint the background just in case the drawing needs to be edited to better fit the animation. Important to keep track of the coloring process to make sure the backgrounds within a scene are consistently colored. (software: Photoshop)
- Color the animation. Color of characters should be adjusted to fit better with the bg.
- Compositing: The animation of the characters, plus and effects animations are layered on top of the background. (software: After Effects)
Post-Production:
There is not a lot of post-production in animation since all the editing is really worked out in the pre-production stage. Animation is so much work you don’t really want to animate whole scenes that will end up being cut.
- Editing the shots together: As each shot is finished, it can be added to the Animatic, replacing the older, rougher version. As shots are finished gradually, and in different orders, we can start to see the film come together in its final state. Changes are made to individual shots if they are not working with the rest of the film. (software: Premiere)
- The final sound effects and music are added to the film (this will probably happen even as the animated shots continue to be completed).
- Credits are added.
Production finished! Next:
- Have a big Party.
- Send off to Film Festivals.
Notes:
I’m not quite sure about the animation pipeline yet. I’ve used Flash mostly in the past, then Toon Boom. But I understand most people don’t have Toon Boom. I would like a system where as many people can help as possible!
I’m thinking that the rough animation can be done in ToonBoom or Flash. But the cleanup animation could be done in Photoshop.
(If you have any thoughts about any of this, I’d be happy to hear them! Please leave a comment, or email me at larkinheather@gmail.com)