The stages of animation production
The stages of animation production
Working with an animation studio for the first time? Here's a handy guide to the production process in 9 steps.
1. Kick-off
Global campaigns, short films, cheeky sticker packs – they all need to start somewhere. Cue the project kick-off, a meeting to set everyone up for success.
Here, you'll meet your dedicated animation team, director and producer and spend time aligning on the creative goals for your project. You'll also be guided through the production process to ensure that the creative review and feedback plan works for you.
2. Style development & design
Whether it's devising original creative or jumping off from existing style guidelines, at this stage the creative team will establish the best visual language for your project.
Outputs might include mood boards, character sheets, style frames, colour palettes or concept art.
3. Script
For narrative or explainer animations it's important to define the story you want to tell. Whether it's refining an existing script or writing one from scratch, in this early stage the animation director can support you with optimising your script for animation.
4. Storyboard & animatic
At this point the script is translated into rough visuals.
The storyboard sketches out all of the key scenes, shots and actions for the animation, while an animatic plots this against a timeline so you can get a feel for the pacing, camera angles, transitions and overall duration of the piece.
5. Production
Time for your animation team to really get stuck in. In this joyful phase, the design and story framework that’s been established in the pre-production stages is animated shot-by-shot.
Depending on the style of animation, this might be linework and artworking for hand-drawn animation (also known as cel) or character rigging followed by animation for 2D vector or 3D animation (if you're unsure what these terms mean, see our FAQs).
6. Midway retro
Landing during production, this is when your dedicated account manager will meet with you away from the bustle and fizz of production calls to find out how you’re finding the partnership on a more holistic level.
Here at Animade, we’ve found this to be a priceless session that has created some of the most meaningful relationships, which have spanned many projects over the years.
7. Sound design
While this isn’t called for on every project, sound has the power to enhance any animation. Building the soundscape whilst creating the visual opens up an even richer dynamic, adding a new dimension to your work to help it fly.
At Animade, we have a network of trusted studios who provide carefully selected library tracks or bespoke compositions and sound designs to meet our clients' needs.
8. Render & delivery
Once you’re happy that the work sings as you dreamed it and you’ve hit the locked-and-loaded button, your animation team set their machines a-whirring to render out all your deliverables to the highest quality before sending them over.
9. Retro & wrap
Once your delivery is tied up, this is the time to meet with your dedicated team once more to celebrate the results and exchange thoughts on the successes and learnings of the project.
Our team at Animade believe the best work is made when we have long-lasting, meaningful connections with our clients. In our 15 years we've continually honed and tweaked our approach until it's as close to perfect as we can get it – but we think there's always room to grow.
That's why we make time to listen to our clients' feedback and find out how we can make the process even better next time!
No two animation partners are the same and there’s no one-size-fits-all formula, but we hope this helps demystify the animation process a little. Animation is a powerful tool that can make instant and long-lasting
connections with people in a way that no other medium can. If you have a project you’d like to collaborate on, or just want to find out more about our process, drop us a message.
