1. Idea, brief, treatment, Script and Production Planning.
To create an animation first of all you need a brief idea of what its going to be about to be able to develop that idea later on. You need to do a script to make sure you know and show what the characters are like and what the storyline of the animation is.
You will also need to know roughly what the budget is going to come up to to get a rough idea of how much its going to cost.
2.Concept Design
This is something which is done during the pre-production of the animation. This is done to illustrate the narrative and it gives a chance to the animators to play around with the characters and thei personalities.
3.Storyboarding
The storyboard is where the director and the storyboard artist or artists sit together to decide how the want the stort to be shown. For example if something awful has just happened the director might want a close up of one of the characters to show emotion.
The storyboard shows how the narrative flows (continuity) along with the shot type and short description of what is going on in the shot.
The smoother and more detailed it is the better and easier it will be later on into the project.
4.Production Design and Visual Development
This is where the Production Designer and/or Art director will create the type of animation for the characters and also for the setting.
5.Recording the Dialogue
This is where the Producer and the Director will cast the voices. Ofter the actors will like to have a read through the storyboard to get to know their character more and get to see what they look like so they have a better and more professional idea of what their voice might sound like which is really helpful.
6. Building the Models, Rigging
This is where modellers will transfer the drawings into CG which will allow the animator to move the stuff around to get an idea of what he/she wants to do with the characters and props used in the scene.
7. Layout Animatics
In 2D and CG the layout is different as they are not the same even though the aim of this is the same, to get all the cameras set up.
You know what the layout should look like thanks to the storyboard, so like i've said before the smoother and more detailed it is the better and easier it will be later on.
On larger CG there are often two layouts, the Rough one and the Final one.
8. Animation
The Director or Animated Director will assign the animator or animators to work on the scene and animate it. Sometimes there is only one animator which means it might take longer as he/she has to do everything.
This is where you put everything together, the shots from the storyboards, the characters, the props, the voice recordings and the setting.
9. Final Background and Colouring
In Stop Frame the background has been done before the animation and this is designed by the Art Director.
in 2D paper animation if often scanned into a computer and cleaned before its being coloured using one of the softwares for it.
Depending on the style some art work is still getting done by hand and presented by hand too.
10. Lighting and Composition
The lighting and composition is a very important step in animation as you have to decide what you want the set to look like. For example if its an animated tv series for children you would expect the setting to be really bright to stand out and get their attention.
This is where backgrounds and effects are combined together.
11. Post Production
This is mainly where all the sound gets combined and put together such as the score (music/soundtrack) sound effects and so on to create the set more realistic and give an atmosphere. This is linked to the action happening in the scene.
To create an animation first of all you need a brief idea of what its going to be about to be able to develop that idea later on. You need to do a script to make sure you know and show what the characters are like and what the storyline of the animation is.
You will also need to know roughly what the budget is going to come up to to get a rough idea of how much its going to cost.
2.Concept Design
This is something which is done during the pre-production of the animation. This is done to illustrate the narrative and it gives a chance to the animators to play around with the characters and thei personalities.
3.Storyboarding
The storyboard is where the director and the storyboard artist or artists sit together to decide how the want the stort to be shown. For example if something awful has just happened the director might want a close up of one of the characters to show emotion.
The storyboard shows how the narrative flows (continuity) along with the shot type and short description of what is going on in the shot.
The smoother and more detailed it is the better and easier it will be later on into the project.
4.Production Design and Visual Development
This is where the Production Designer and/or Art director will create the type of animation for the characters and also for the setting.
5.Recording the Dialogue
This is where the Producer and the Director will cast the voices. Ofter the actors will like to have a read through the storyboard to get to know their character more and get to see what they look like so they have a better and more professional idea of what their voice might sound like which is really helpful.
6. Building the Models, Rigging
This is where modellers will transfer the drawings into CG which will allow the animator to move the stuff around to get an idea of what he/she wants to do with the characters and props used in the scene.
7. Layout Animatics
In 2D and CG the layout is different as they are not the same even though the aim of this is the same, to get all the cameras set up.
You know what the layout should look like thanks to the storyboard, so like i've said before the smoother and more detailed it is the better and easier it will be later on.
On larger CG there are often two layouts, the Rough one and the Final one.
8. Animation
The Director or Animated Director will assign the animator or animators to work on the scene and animate it. Sometimes there is only one animator which means it might take longer as he/she has to do everything.
This is where you put everything together, the shots from the storyboards, the characters, the props, the voice recordings and the setting.
9. Final Background and Colouring
In Stop Frame the background has been done before the animation and this is designed by the Art Director.
in 2D paper animation if often scanned into a computer and cleaned before its being coloured using one of the softwares for it.
Depending on the style some art work is still getting done by hand and presented by hand too.
10. Lighting and Composition
The lighting and composition is a very important step in animation as you have to decide what you want the set to look like. For example if its an animated tv series for children you would expect the setting to be really bright to stand out and get their attention.
This is where backgrounds and effects are combined together.
11. Post Production
This is mainly where all the sound gets combined and put together such as the score (music/soundtrack) sound effects and so on to create the set more realistic and give an atmosphere. This is linked to the action happening in the scene.
