Animation is a systematic activity with a step by step procedure. Just a ten second animation clip could take a whole week to be created from a team of animators from a scratch by a team of animators. Any basic course in animation might start by explaining the animation process.
1.Researching and brainstorming- The creators writers and animators come up with idea for the story of animation research. Research is done to look into the specific aspects of the plot. The creators wonder into the subject of animation who will be the primary and secondary characters, and when and where the story will be set on. They chalk and plan out the basic outline where the story is going to begin and where it would stop.
2.Scriptwriting and story boarding- A sequential outline of the story is written with dialogue for each character and the happenings and occurrences that are going to take place in each and every scene. A script is essentially a textual form of how the animation process is going to like. Based on the script a brief handmade or computer aided 2d sketch of every scene is known as story board. The story board serves as the basis of all further animation process.
3.Dialogue Recording- To give life to the characters voice over artist record the dialogues of different characters reading from script. They add to the personality, expression and the specific accent of the characters and this helps the animators to create exact mouth movements of the characters as they speak.
4.Animation Production- At this stage the actual job of animation begins. A layout of characters is created showcasing the characters size shape and environment. A 2D animation is used as a layout for 3D animation. After that a geometric surface representation of each object is created in Modeling texturing, is done to add surface properties to various objects. Rigging involves putting a bone structure into object so that animators may move specific parts of the object. Lighting is done to set a certain mood for a scene shadows of objects and characters. Finally all elements of animation such as characters objects and backgrounds etc are separated into different layers in the process of rendering.
5.Animation post Production- In final stage Compositing is performed which puts together the different layers rendered layers rendered previously. Visual effects such as dust raindrops, park blasts etc are added into animation if required. Sound effects are recorded for different objects and events of animation sequence.
6.Choosing software – While creating animation the first step is to choose the software that best fit ones need, budget, and skill level. There are free and paid options with various features and pros and cons. Popular and accessible software include Blender a free and open source 3d animation software. Adobe animates paid 2d animation software, Vyond a paid online animation a software with a drag and drop interface, library of templates characters and assets. Powton paid online animation software with more customization options and style. Each of these may create realistic or stylized animation, motion graphics and visual effects, video editing, animated videos for business education, marketing animated presentation, explainer videos and social media content.
7.Plan your animation- The next step to create animations is to plan ones animation. This involves defining your purpose audience message and style. One should write a script, story board and animatic to outline your animation. Design ones assets- The third step to create animation is to design one assets. These elements make one animation such a background , characters, props and text . Depending on ones software and style one may create ones assets from scratch use premade assets .
8.Voice over Narration-Choosing the right Actor- The crucial animation step involves bringing the script to life with the right narrator. It is important to choose a professional voice over talent that may help set the tone of the video. In this phase of animation production process one may listen to a pool of talented voice over artist and select the favourite one. One may find it pretty hard to choose only one to help one narrow down the talented voice over artist.
9.IIustration- Creating the characters and background.- Once we get your approval on the style frames and all the previous animation process, it’s time to start working on the design of the different graphic asset. The illustration step may be processed using traditional animation methods such the hand drawn technique or using computer software using Illustrator or Adobe Photoshop or both. While illustrating with digital tool the artist may sketch their character and background ideas using different digital brushes provided by software. They may start working directly on canvas or separate layer to allow for quick adjustments and to easily undo or change stroke. By separating the different layers one may prepare them for rigging and animation.
Each of the layer may be manipulated and animated independently in the next stage for the process using different software. Once they are happy with sketch they may refine line art and begin coloring shading and adding texture to the illustration.
The artwork is created with high resolution to ensure clarity and detail and it is exported in suitable file format such as PNG and JPG for individual image files or PSD And AI for layered files. Integration- Putting together everything, as apart of final stage of animation production every digital asset and individual frame must undergo rendering. This mean they will combine into a single video file according to the artist specification. The animation process will be customized one may set desired resolution aspect ratio, frame rate and more parameters depending on project requirement. One may think that rendering may be one of the time consuming part making animated video particularly if one is dealing with complex scene or high quality output.
10. Deliverable: Fine tuning the detail- The animation process is over. All one have to do is to adjust the video to one liking. Since one is committed to satisfy the clients to the fullest as part of animation production workflow one may like to do changes.
