Stages of Animation

Pre-Production

Script

The script is for getting the story across in a physical form, and is vital for the other stages of the animation. The script not only includes the dialog, but also the settings, actions and camera movements. Even though my animation isn't very story-based, it's still important  to write down what happens so that it's easy to time the storyboard.

Storyboard

The storyboard is made up of drawings in the form of a comic strip, and is used to both help visualise the animation and to communicate ideas clearly. It details the scene and changes in the animation, usually accompanied by text notes describing things happening within the scene itself, such as camera movements.

The storyboard will be useful as a visual reminder of the original plan; something that can be referred back to throughout the production.

Production

Layout

Using low-resolution models and basic blocks of geometry, the shots are composed and a rough animation is created. It’s essentially a 3D version of the storyboard.  This gives a good idea of camera movements, depth of field and the posing of the models.

Character Animation

I plan to animate the characters body, his face, and any props (such as blocks that he trips over). I will split the animation into two key parts: blocking out, and smoothing.

Blocking out the animation involves creating all of the key poses for the character and props. Key poses are the “key” moments that most clearly describe the important physical actions or emotional moments in a scene. They are so essential to the movement/acting that if you removed any one of them, the scene would no longer work.

Lighting

Lighters have a broad range of responsibilities, including placing lights, defining light properties, defining how light interacts with different types of materials, how the position and intensity of lights affect mood and believably, as well as colour theory and harmony. 

As lighting isn't my main focus, I plan to do a very simplified version of this, sticking to placing lights and deciding how they should affect the mood and believably.

Post-Production

Video Editing & Sound FX

Video editing involves taking all of the rendered shots and putting them together into one file, adding transitions between shots, and making sure the timings all seem correct.

Sound FX involves selecting and assembling the sound recordings, overlaying them with the video in Sony Vegas, and making sure any lip syncing (for gasps, exclamations) is lined up.