Pre-Production - Planning

There are many stages in the planning. after making the story and script. The first suggestion is a mood board. A Mood board is primarily a collage of images and texts, explaining what your idea is, what the story and how you want to present it, highlighting the styles you are looking at, the main points of the story, etc.

the main areas in planning are creating layouts and character designs. Layouts are mainly for the backgrounds and how the character should be made, i.e. their clothing, facial expressions, an so on. Its okay to create as many different designs you want on the character, as these ideas can be discussed until everyone is satisfied with it. these are also simple drafted drawings to give an idea of the setting for a story scene. showing the scene at a certain distance or angle can be an interesting look to appease the audience.

Other forms of character designs are made by a lot of drawings. so, some ideas should be tested out as concept art. these help give an idea on what style would look best on them, and whether or not the design looks on the character, or the character itself. once getting an idea of the character that is approved, you should create a model sheet of the final character to highlight the character shape and form. there should also be a series of other drawings expressing his movements and emotions, and any other possible outfit designs that could suit him/her. These final design sheets will help other artists and animators with the character creation and animation in the later production.

While characters and settings are worked on, the story can also be drafted in the form of a storyboard. Like a comic strip, but with captions at the bottom, you can simply explain the story in process, highlighting any proposed camera angles, how light or dark the scene could be, the position of the characters, being either close or far away, or if the camera is just on the one character. the storyboard should tell the story entirely as you've written, so it will take a lot of drawing spaces if you wish to give a full detail of the film.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/myplacemyspace/images/inline/filming/storyboard-sample.jpg

The final step is putting everything into an animatic version of the film. This is simply using the storyboards as a source, and timing them to the length that you want for each frame. this will also have to synchronise with the sound effects and dialogue made during the pre-production of the film. The animatic should be as long as the film you intend to have. this can then be looked at the rest of the crew, and discuss any changes they wish to make in the story, etc. Once the final draft of the idea is positive, the idea will be taken to the production pipeline.

Pre-Production - Scripts

If you wish to have a character talking in the story, then they require dialogue. And for dialogue, an actor needs a script. A script is a written book of the story, with the actions and lines the characters would deliver. This gives the actor an idea on how to perform the character they are going for, and how they could deliver a voice for the character.
In this example below, we can see how a script should be laid out, making it easier to read for the actors. the text for dialogue should be aligned in the middle, separating the rest of the text which are the actions. the brackets in the dialogue illustrate the emotion or volume the character should deliver. In animation, only the dialogue is needed from the actors, but they still need to know how they should present it. acting it out can sometimes help them understand their character better, in order to feel more comfortable delivering dialogue.

source: http://filmschoolonline.com

Pre-Production - The Story Arc

The first thing that should be done in animation is the story. Whether its your own idea, or adapting from a book, you still need to write up the plot, the characters and the settings that are involved. In some cases, the plot can be at an ongoing process, like a book with many chapters. The story will take a lot of writing to make until it is satisfactory. sometimes, you'll have to re-write it a few times if some changes are needed.

There are eight points in the structuring a story. all of which flow into the plot and development on the character and background. If it is an everyday life scenario set in the story, that is called the "Stasis". In many major stories, there is the "trigger" and "quest" which involves the protagonist/hero and what they aiming for, like finding a map to an ancient treasure. Your story can have "surprise" which are several elements somewhere in the middle of the story, involving the character facing obstacles, conflict with another and any other type of trouble or danger. There should also involve the character having a "critical choice". This is like choosing the path between good or bad. If you aim for a unhappy ending, then it is most likely to consider the character making the wrong choice. All of this will result in the "climax" of the story. Almost drawing the end of the scene. The consequences of the choice can end with the "reversal" result on a character, changing their status and so on. And finally having the story resolved, having the character changed, but also ending the story. what reflects in the choice and climax, and even the reversal, the "resolution" can either be a good or bad ending for the character.

So in summary, an story arc requires:

1. Stasis
2. Trigger
3. Quest
4. Surprise
5. Critical choice
6. Climax
7. Reversal
8. Resolution

Summary

During my course, I have been learning about the types of animation there have been throughout the world, and how an animation is made through the production pipeline. Here I shall be explaining through the departments, and the animation pipeline itself. Animation can be made from any department:  2D, 3D or Stop-Motion. A 2D animation is made from drawing a series of frames by hand, which are then taken to be animated into a full-motion film. The most popular companies that have made Hand-drawn animation in the past are Disney and Warner Bros. Today, 2D can now be done by computers, using software like Flash. 3D animation is when the film gives a more realistic look. The depth and angles made by the cameras bring more life to the characters. 3D is more popular today after the success of Pixar and Dreamworks, as many other film companies are using 3D software to create an animated film. Stop-Motion is like an earlier form of 3D animation. With Stop-Motion, you can bring an inanimate object to life by a simple process of using a camera to take pictures of the object you’re using, moving it at a different angle or position at a time. The frames then taken from the camera can be pieced together into a full-motion animation. Aardman is an example, for they produce stop-motion animation

All of these departments however take a long amount of time to make an animated film. The Animation production is made into 3 processes. Pre-production is the start-up point of an animation, and it begins with making a storyboard. A storyboard is like making a comic strip, but while explaining the scenario and what actions the characters are doing. The storyboards are then taken to be examined, in order to make the character and background layouts. The characters will be made as model sheets, showing the size and design of the character, as well as creating sheets to show their expressions and movements. All of these drafted ideas are then taken to make an animatic of the film, showing the plot and the characters in the original design. The animatic is then taken into discussion as to what should be changed, i.e the character’s design may be changed if the original design’s body, face or what it is wearing is not approved. Then once the final concept is approved, it will be taken into the production line.

The production line is when you officially begin work on the actual film of your animation. In a 3-D animation, the character has to be modelled as followed from the design, providing it will be fully functional to the character’s movements. The character is also considered by how many features are needed to be made, for example the amount of fur or hair it has, and how would they react to the character’s motions. In 2-D, every drawing is made onto a Cel, which is then painted and taken to the camera to be shot. The process of the animation production line will vary depending on how long your film is aiming for. A Full-length feature may take over a few years to make.

The final process of an animation is the Post-Production line. Here, the film is taken to be edited by computers, which will add any effects to the film, and what needs to be cut from the film if any certain scenes are considered not to be in the final render. The sound will also be edited and given more depth to the dialogue and actions when played over the animation. The sound and video will be then synchronised and made into the final film. The film should then complete and ready for distribution, unless unapproved by the project manager.

In an animation, there are a few key elements to consider. When you look at a cartoon, you should look at what types of principles are used in an animation, which were introduced by Disney. Some examples include the squash-and-stretch effect, which helps build the body of the character, and its flexibility. Timing is also important, as it gives the cue for the character’s reaction and how long before the story leads to a pun.  The staging for the film will help give more audience attention, by showing the important part of the scene you are telling in the story. The character should also give more appeal to the audience by how it acts, to give it more life into the film.

So, from what I have learnt, there many alternative methods to making an animation. It is still used today to make animated films, but also to create short pieces for advertisements, television and other business needs. There are many ways you can make into the animation, which will make the audience more appealing when watching a fully-animated picture. However, in any department, making an animation is a slow-moving process, which will require a lot of time to produce, but can be easier to master on what department you want to work in.

Animation Pipeline - Post-Production

Production takes a long time to process. But once this has be made, the animation can be taken into the final stages.

The Production of an animation is simply editing the video and audio alone, and then together into the final film. The audio quality should be checked whether it has been clear and easy to sync with the video. the video quality should also be clear, to give the visual effects more depth and appeal to the audience. When checking through the results, you may be asked to make somes changes. whether being something missing, or needs to be added or removed.

The final step is putting the entire film together and finalizing the project.everything should be rendered in the order you've planned, like what order the story should tell, and so on.

Animation Pipeline - Production

After planning your idea, and going through the pre-production line, the next few steps are as follows:

In 2D animation, you start making a rough animation of the characters, background objects, etc, following from the animatic that was made beforehand. once the scene is approved, it can be refined and coloured into a full animation.

If you are making a 3D animated film, you need to start making layouts of what is needed in the animation (characters, objects, backgrounds, etc). once you've laid out everything, you can model the characters and objects you need in the scene. the character needs to be fully functional, in that the model requires bones and joints to help the animator move the character around and give more life into it.  once the models are approved, you can add colour and texturing to the character to give it more personality and edge to the story.  the textures can be a combination of simple plain colours, otherwise a more advanced texture would be needed to show the depth of the character or object. for example, the character's skin - what tone would it have? how much hair does it require. if it's an animal, does it have fur?

When you start rendering a test run, you'll see the animation is quite dark. Therefore, some lighting is needed in the 3D animation to highlight the contrast of the character, scenery, anywhere that's important. there are a series of lights which can be used on any 3D software, such as spotlights, which will help brighten or darken the scene you are working on. once the lighting is fixed, you can rig the rough animation, to see if any specified changes are needed. Then once it's approved, it can moved on to the Post-Production process.