Animatics and storyboards

When involved in the video production then this concept is absolutely not new animatics and storyboards are two essential elements in the production of animated video. In order to give a better idea of the motion and timing of complex animation sequences and VFX-heavy scenes, the pre-visualization department within the VFX studio creates simplified mock-ups called “Animatics” shortly after the storyboarding process. These help the Director plan how they will go about staging the above sequences, as well as how visual effects will be integrated into the final shot. The Storyboard helps to finalize the development of the storyline, and is an essential stage of the animation process. It 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, often accompanied by text notes describing things occurring within the scene itself, such as camera movements. Not only can storyboards be especially useful when working in group environments, something quite common in the animation industry, but they also provide a visual reminder of the original plan; something that can be referred back to throughout the production. So animatics and storyboards are among the major components of the video production specially the pre production stage. They are the main tools which help in giving the exact shape and the effectiveness of the video and any changes can be done with the help of these tools even wastages are also saved of time and money by these two solutions offered by animation companies.

Layout Animatic

The layout animatic is all about design. It’s where the raw ideas and basic characters come to life with color, definition, and refined staging that showcases the drama of the story. It’s the “art” of animation if you will.
Most of the blocking is already set during the storyboard stage, but this is our chance to refine camera angles and tweak framing before animating extraneous characters or landscapes. As you can see in our example, the first scene changes significantly from our storyboard to layout design. The female character is removed from view, and the perspective is flattened to a 2D perspective to focus on the storytelling element of the gas station attendant and the motorist pouring over the map together. The change is subtle, but serves to focus the narrative.
Layout animatics are where we design the characters and background style, using color palettes and templates to evoke the proper mood. The layout animatic is more than just refining images – it’s the carefully crafted bridge between concept and execution.

Line Test

A line test is shot (nowadays often onto video or reproduced on DVD) without the backgrounds, and still using the line artwork. The purpose is to verify that the movements are correct and that characters interact accurately. In some cases, this may reveal problems and those sections will have to be reworked. If the line test is accepted, and on film rather than video, it can then be spliced into the Leica test (animatic), replacing the corresponding section of stills. The animatic thus evolves towards the complete movie. Indeed those of us who are used to computers have to remind ourselves that the product at any stage is simply the current piece of film: the task of recreating this from the drawings is much greater than that of splicing together computer files. At the end of the process, the film is the totality of what is required: all of the drawings can be disposed of. Colouring the drawings, The outlines are then colored. In the computer environment color consistency is no longer a practical difficulty: all characters will have their colors precisely defined so that they can be mixed in a digital palette. Special paints are no longer needed either as translucent and other special effects can now be controlled more accurately within the digital environment.

Rendering

The artwork for each frame is now illuminated and shot within the computer environment. Some special effects can be added at this stage but compositing and other effects are completed post rendering. Unlike the original rostrum cameras which are physically massive and only offer limited facilities for moving backgrounds, the digital camera offers much greater flexibility and control; it also allows us to try ideas without committing to the final shot, thus saving time and a lot of money.

Soundtrack

The final soundtrack is then synchronized with and added to the movie. At the outset, the sound was used to
drive the animation timing: in the end, the fine adjustments needed are made the other way round.

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