THE ANIMATION PROCESS

An Animation Production can feel overwhelming, depending on the style or duration! Here are 9 easy steps to help you find your way thru the animation process. if you would like to know more or if you have a brief or an idea you would like a quote. Please get in touch and I will get back to you.

1- THE BRIEF

Every project starts with your brief: You will tell us about your company and what you need. What are your expectations - your targets - budget and deadlines. We can also chat over the phone, skype, zoom or in-person if we are in the same country. We will discuss the range of animation styles that will best suit your brand and your target.

2-SCRIPT 

Once we know our objectives and our aims a clearly defined, We start brainstorming together with a copywriter from our team of collaborators. We will research and develop a few ideas tailored to your brand. We can do this together with you, back and forward, until we are in the right direction.

Our scripts will have a description of what you see, describing the actions, the transitions and together with the narration of the Voice Over (if you need one). We will use image references for us to start to visualize the story and to understand how the narration is working.

If you have already a script that has been written by your team, then we can help you to visualize your script, before we move to the next step.

3-DESIGN

Now that we know the Story that you are happy with and we have an idea of the visual material we need; We can start developing the style of the Graphics, The Characters, the colour palette.

At this stage, we will give a few concept designs and colour palette options for your team to choose from, when you are happy with the style we will proceed to create Key designs. this can be the main characters of your story or/and some key backgrounds and graphics elements that deliver your key messages.

Here you can see some DESIGNS examples

4-STORYBOARDS 

Now that the Script and Designs are approved, we will start making the Storyboards! These are black and white sketchy drawings explaining the actions of the characters, the emotions, the transitions of the graphics, displaying the titles if you need them.

This stage is where the story starts to come together, you will be able to see how the narrative flows together with the drawings, you will be able to make adjustments to the script if you think you are missing something.

We will do a few reviews with you and your team until your story is clear and all the pieces of the puzzle are in the correct place. once you are happy with the storyboards we will move to the next step.

5-ANIMATICS

The Animatic its basically a storyboard on a timeline with guide voice-over and music. Its main objective is to figure out the flow of the film, how the images register while listening to the narration, and also we check the time for the audience to register the actions and to read the text (if any)

We use a guide Voice-over to visualize the story, and there is something you want to change on your script it can be done at this stage

6-ANIMATION

Here is where all the magic happens!. We will complete all the designs following the Storyboard’s instructions and will get them clear by you and your team. We’ll start doing the animation, This stage is usually split into 3 parts: Blocking, Animation & Transitions. but it can vary for each different animation production

Blocking is basically an assembly of simple Character animation & Backgrounds and camera movements.

Animation, Here we clean up and perfection the animation and apply any feedback from you.

Transitions, here we do all the smooth transitions and effects.

7-VOICE OVER

This stage can be done before animation if you need lip-sync; otherwise, it can be done after. We will provide you with a list of different Voice Over artists and you can choose which one you would like to go for; and together with a sound studio, we record the narration with the Voice artist of your choice, following your comments and directions and the animation time and emotions.

8-MUSIC & SOUND EFFECTS

We work in collaboration with Sound Designers and Musicians to create bespoke music specially composed for your animation given a unique soundtrack to your piece.

The advantage with this is that when can match the animation narrative and energy with the musical instrumentation following your feedback.

We have also at our disposal numerous music library and soundtrack with available Copyright for your animation.

9-DELIVERY

After the music & effects are on place, you will have time to review your animation and give us final feedback. There are always small details that we spot at the last minute.

After your final review, we will make any changes and deliver on any format you need, if its: HD, or Square format for Social Media or for mobile phones. We also offer marketing support for your video which can help your video to stand out.