Our Animation Production Process
Are you interested in understanding how our outsourcing animation production process?
This brief guide below gives a step-by-step process of how our production process works and were both you as the client and us as the media production company partner together to make your project a reality.
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We provide a team of animation specialist's to work diligently on your project and manage the production process; from pre-production to completion.
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Considering a different guide for your project? Take a look below to see which process would suit your project best.
1. CREATIVE DIRECTION AND DEVELOPMENT
In this stage we will begin by asking what your needs are and what solutions we can provide. We will ask you pre-defined questions that aid us to have a good understanding of how we can assist you.
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We then move onto research where we will take a look at which style of animation would suit for your audience as well as the industry. We may bring in consultants if the animation is in a specific field or we are advertising a product and create a style that matches that.
We will provide you with The Proposal, with detailed information outlining the project, what we have discussed, key milestones for the full project as well as the delivery deadline.
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This is an important step as it ensures that we are both on the same page, both in terms of animation and who is responsible for which aspect within the production.
2. SCRIPTWRITING DEVELOPMENT
Once we have agreed with the scope of the project and the budget decided we move to the scriptwriting process of the project. This focuses on what your animation will say and what key factors will be mentioned within the animation itself.
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This process is very important as many factors need to be taken into consideration when planning the animation. This can include pauses for viewers to absorbs the information and making sure the chosen voice artists sounds natural and really fits the dialogue throughout the animation.
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We have a team of talented copywriters that can help bring your project to life.
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It's important to mention any key words, key stats, anything you feel that would be vital to showcase your brand within the animated project. We will involve you in this creative development process for ideas and feedback. You may also be further in pre-production already and have a script for the video and we can both oversee it and use it for the video project.
3. STYLE FRAMES
Once we have a finialised the script, we'll move onto the style frames for you. Style frames are the building blocks of concept images designed by our animation team to give you a sense of what the animation might look like.
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The frames will include aspects such as text design, colour palette, icons and other supporting illustrations. Once these designs have been confirmed we can begin to think about the direction of the video. This process is open to suggestions and feedback to our animators which will then add any additional changes to finialise for the animation stage.
4. CHARACTER DESIGN
Once we have a finialised the script, we'll move onto the style frames for you. Style frames are the building blocks of concept images designed by our animation team to give you a sense of what the animation might look like.
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The frames will include aspects such as text design, colour palette, icons and other supporting illustrations. Once these designs have been confirmed we can begin to think about the direction of the video. This process is open to suggestions and feedback to our animators which will then add any additional changes to finialise for the animation stage.
5. STORYBOARD
Once the style of animation has been signed off we then begin the structure of the project by storyboarding each scene distinctively . This will be a scene breakdown of how the script will be visualised throughout the video. This process is similar to a comic book strip but in short, each image will detail what is happening within the scene frame by frame and include a short description to detail it.
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With this process we have three rounds of feedback and amendments to ensure you are happy with the narrative and visual story. It is also better to ensure we get through any corrections in this stage so we iron out any amends down the line as this could be more time consuming to change later. We encourage you to be creative as possible, communicate amongst your team and most importantly, communicate any suggestions you may have with us.
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Storyboards could be pencil sketches or they may be a series of images to breakdown the workflow. This can depend on what best suits the style or animation techniques we are using.
5. TEST PHASE
To ensure these animations would work well for the project we would do our own tests to give us a sense of how the timing of the visuals will work.
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These tests are useful because they help us picture the final animation will work. Aspects will change in each frame depending on how long the expected shot will last within the video. Pacing is the utmost crucial aspect of your animated video as the goal is to not only fulfil your own needs but keep the audience engaged throughout.
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We don't always show the test phase to clients as we do not want to alarm clients to think that this will be the final piece. These test phases usually go through our team and different phasings are added to test the animation such as voiceover's and music.
6. ANIMATION
Our animation team will take all the pre-production planning and begin creating the animation. The team's ambition is to bring the visuals to life by creating a visual pleasing video which is engaging to watch. Once a first draft is ready, this will be shared with yourself for feedback.
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Once you are pleased with the animation, our next step would be to get the script professionally recorded by a voiceover artist. Of course, we will run this by you so you have some thoughts on the right voiceover actor for your video. You may have a voiceover artist you already have in mind and that is something we can discuss. Either way, we will ensure that we capture the right voice for your business or brand.
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After the animation has been corrected we will incorporate the sound design. This process includes professionally recorded sound effects and music that matches with the project.
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Finally, we will incorporate all of this into the final animation draft and provide you another opportunity to give feedback. We want you to be fully y happy with the final animation and we will work hard to ensure we match your needs.
