Animation production stages:

• Preproduction: Ideas, narrative development, storyboard, Leica reel, visual research, character and background prototypes, etc.
• Production: Animation, creation of backgrounds and artwork, photography and scanning, etc.
• Post-production: Picture and sound editing

At any given time, as an animation artist, you might be involved with a variety of particular production situations. Whether a project is complex and involves a long and involved plot line, or if it is quite simple and only requires a short movement phrase, it is important to plan the sequence as much as possible, before you begin to create the animation. Projects often require exhaustive amounts of work. Therefore, you must practice a series basic preproduction steps at the beginning of the process, otherwise it is likely that you will run into problems later on, which will undoubtedly bring you grief and frustration.

As a result, it is important that you put your animation plans through a series of tests and modifications, beginning with a simple outline. First of all, you should set a few objectives by asking yourself the following, basic questions:

• What is the animation about?
• Who is meant to see it or who is your audience?
• How do you want your audience to react?
• What form will the animation take? What technique will you use?
• How long will it be?

Project Brief

After considering the questions, you should organize a short document called a brief. Generally, a project brief should:

• Functions as an overview
• Be written in outline form and one or two pages long
• Explain your ideas and intent
• Indicate a target audience
• Comment on technique and materials
• Describe narration or dialogue (if necessary)
• Include plans for visual treatment, such as inspirational images, reference material, sketches, and prototypes

As a starting point, you should set aside some time to sit down, go through an idea-generating and writing exercise, and compose a first draft. In doing so, you will probably discover several apparent limitations within the project (if you cannot clearly decide on a narrative structure for example). However, if stumbling blocks appear, you shouldn’t worry: creative struggles are an inevitable part of any design process. You would be in a better situation if you were to discover creative problems at an early preproduction stage, rather than during the project’s production phase.

Once you have composed a first draft of brief, you should then present it to several people. If they are confused by the draft, you should then listen carefully to their comments and rework your ideas. If people react favourably to your plans, you can subsequently move on to designing a storyboard.

At this point, it is important to give the project a "working title."

Storyboard

A storyboard is the working guide or visual outline that an animation artist will use in developing narrative ideas, similar to the way a writer will rework successive drafts of a story or play. By its very nature, a storyboard is meant to be flexible, used to refine your ideas as you continue to work with an animated project, over its many production stages. In particular, by referring to a storyboard as a kind of road map, the visual guide should to help to flag any potential problems that might appear during production. It will be more effective to face questions of meaning, character development, plot, or film structure at the storyboard stage. At this point, you can correct storyboard panels and make important adjustments, rather than change long segments of animation that you have already animated.

To make a storyboard, you should produce a series of drawn images that graphically portray the actions described in your brief. The storyboard will:

• Establish the film's structure
• Propose staging and camera angles
• Block character movements
• Provide a visual flow

Without question, you will find your storyboard to be an indispensable document, which you will use in the general planning of a project. It serves an important purpose during the exciting "behind the scenes" part of animation production.

Rough Storyboard

You should draw the images separately on flipbook paper or index cards. This will allow for changes, as editing can be done conveniently. Each major scene change, sequence, or concept should be shown with a separate sketch. Furthermore, you should create each image quickly by drawing loosely, using a kind of "storyboard shorthand" that allows you to use simple sketches to stress key plot points.

As a storyboard is primarily used to figure out how narrative elements link together, you should organize your ideas by shifting the order of the index cards:

• Pin the images up on a bulletin board, or spread the sequence out large table or floor.
• Show the rough version to your friends and colleagues. While listening carefully to their critique, write down their suggestions. Then you should make the necessary changes to the storyboard by shifting the arrangement of images or by quickly drawing a sketch onto a fresh card and inserting the new panel into the sequence.

There is an optional middle step in the making of a storyboard: a presentation storyboard. You can read a detailed description on this topic, following the information below on production storyboards.

Leica reel or animatic

After you have worked with several versions of a storyboard, you should then bring the static images to more of a “time-based form” and develop the document as a Leica reel or animatic (the terms are synonymous). This is when you would use a program like iMove, Adobe Premiere, or Final Cut Pro, to drop storyboard panels in a timeline and assign duration for shots and scenes. In a time-based context, you can then begin to critique narrative threads, address the timing of poses, actions, and shots. Even at an early preproduction stage, you should be able to figure out the pacing of a work and predict whether or not your cinematic and structural ideas require development. Moreover, you should make sure to present Leica reel drafts to colleagues and friends in their role as a “pre-audience,” to make sure that imprtant elements communicate effectively. Based on their input, you should be prepared to rework your ideas and work at creating subsequent drafts of the animatic.

Production Storyboard

Once you are satisfied with the narrative structure -- particularly if you had made changes after showing storyboard and Leica reel drafts to a pre-audience -- you should arrange the drawings as a guide document, which you will then refer to during the animation production phase. A production storyboard is usually designed in a document format, with three or four images on a page.

• Design the storyboard to fit an 8.5 x 11 layout. Leave margins so that the pages can be photocopied without the risk of cutting off important information, with enough room for three-hole punch holes and scuffs on the paper edges. The storyboard should fit into a standard size three-ring binder, folder, or envelope, something that can be quickly shoved into your backpack.
• Add more details to the images and clean up drawings that are too rough.
• Provide a space below each panel for notes on narration, music, and sound effects, to provide a sense of how all elements will fit together.
• To indicate how long sequences will be, you should "slug in" the duration of shots, using seconds or frames as a unit of measurement.
• Each camera move should be noted with movement lines. To avoid confusing pictorial elements and camera directions, design the movement lines to stand out graphically, so that they do not blend in with characters or backgrounds.
• The storyboard must be able be photocopied and faxed, so design drawings accordingly. They should be able to survive the worst kind of fax transmission. Every so often, you should photocopy your images to see how they look, or send a test fax to a friend, before you transmit the real thing.

Presentation Storyboard

An optional storyboard design stage

Sometimes, it may be necessary to make a formal presentation storyboard, to present as a proposal to a group, client, or producer, or if you intend to send it away to a competition. A presentation storyboard is used to describe a film's visual approach or "its look,” describing the project's physical environment (set design, locations, etc.) through staging, lighting, mood, tone, etc.

There are not specific rules for making presentation storyboards, as each different project requires its own treatment. By using your own artistic criteria, you should consider a visual style that is interesting. For example, you could work a picture book theme, where each panel is seen as an individual page. As someone turns a page, a new shot is revealed. Your overall design can be distinctive, unconventional, or unusual, but it has to look professional, because a presentation storyboard is meant to impress someone, like a prospective client.

• Show off your drawing skills and make the images interesting to look at (e.g., with architectural details), composing the images with a variety of line weights. Use heavy and dark lines for foreground elements, and thin or broken lines for background details, etc. The pictures must not be too small for people to see.
• Experiment with graphic styles to represent what the film will look like (e.g., hatching and cross-hatching, stippling, light watercolour washes, pencil crayon, etc.).
• It is essential to include a visual treatment for the project. For example, if you intend to use two-dimensional paper cut-outs as your production method, design sample images that will look as though they are frames from your finished film, to give an indication of what characters and sets will look like.
• Use specific visual language that is appropriate for the story. If your project is meant to be humorous, be sure to design the characters to suit the narrative’s content.
• Check your spelling and grammar. Better still, you should ask someone to proof read the briefs and storyboards. A person must be able to read and understand the images and text; otherwise, your work will not be taken seriously.