Pre-production is the initial phase where you lay the groundwork before the main animation production process begins. In the pre-production stage, you craft the story, develop characters, and design the environments for your animation piece.
For any animation project— whether it’s an animated marketing video ad or an entertaining story— various pre-production stages help you establish and clarify your ideas. Not only that, these pre-production stages also contribute to the success and impact that your final video will have.
Today, we’ll explore six essential stages of pre-production for animation and show you how to maximize each one for the best results. Ready? Let’s dive in!
1. Strategy
This is the stage where you set clear goals for your animation project and how you intend to achieve them. Ask yourself, “What do you want to achieve?” and, more importantly, “How do you achieve it?”.
At this stage, you’re deciding things like the people you’ll need to work with—for instance, voiceover artists, animators, storyboard artists, sound designers, and other key collaborators who will help bring your idea to life.
Additionally, based on what you intend to achieve, the strategy phase will be a good stage to determine the run-time for your video. You’re also deciding what type of animation to use for your video— will it be character-based, motion design, typography, etc?
When strategizing your animation project, clearly outline your objectives. Whether it’s to entertain, educate, or convey a message, a well-defined goal provides direction for your entire project. It’s also important to identify your target audience so you can tailor your animated video to resonate with them.
Additionally, as you plan out your strategy, be sure to set realistic timelines for each stage of the pre-production process. By doing this, you’ll achieve a more organized process that’ll enhance your success rate.
If you’re using the animated video for your marketing purposes on your, you also need to identify how you’ll measure the performance of your video. Thanks to tools like Google Analytics, it’ll be easy to do this. Just ensure that you’re using the new GA4 implementation.
2. Concepting
Concepting is the creative phase of pre-production for animation. This is where your ideas start to take shape. Here, you’ll begin to define the visual and thematic elements of your animated video. As you develop your animation concept, you’re brainstorming and refining ideas that align with the project’s goals. Here are some notable areas of focus in this stage:
- The story and theme: this is where you determine the central message. For instance, are you telling a heartwarming tale of friendship? Or are you taking your audience through a thrilling adventure?
- Features: What are the common elements to emphasize your message? Which characters will you add to make your narrative more compelling?
- Flow: How does the story begin and end? What type of scenes will help to make your animation video more impactful?
- Characters: What type of characters will be featured? How will they look? What will their personality be like? Will your major character have unique mannerisms? Should these characters have names?
- The voiceovers and sound effects: Will there be a theme song? How will the voices of each character be pitched?
In the concept development stage, be sure to encourage open dialogue among team members. These collaborative sessions allow you and your team to explore diverse ideas. With this, you’ll be able to uncover diverse perspectives that can enhance the result. Remember, that no idea is too small when it comes to creativity. Thankfully, Generative AI tools like Writer can also make it easy to brainstorm powerful concepts for your animated film.
Other generative AI use cases that may benefit you include coming up with remarkable voiceover scripts for your video and defining the tone of your message. Note that more detailed prompts will give you better results and also remember that the tools are there to help rather than hinder your creative freedom.
Once you’ve been able to collect and refine animation ideas, prioritize them. When doing this, consider the core narrative or message you want to convey and ensure that there’s a significant alignment. Your focus should be on identifying compelling ideas and themes that are more likely to resonate with your target audience.
Overall, a well-defined concept will give direction to subsequent stages of your pre-production process.
3. Storyboarding
Storyboard creation is another crucial component of pre-production for animation. A typical storyboard serves as a visual representation of the narrative of your animation video– it’ll most likely contain sketches accompanied by descriptive notes.
When storyboarding, you’re creating a sequence of images or panels that represent key scenes and transitions in the story. With a well-curated storyboard, you can be sure to have a tangible flow for your overall story.
As you create your storyboard, it’s important to plan out the composition of each scene. That’s how your team will be able to visualize your storyline and better understand what you have in mind. So, it’s crucial that you highlight key moments and transitions in your entire story.
Also, pay attention to the overall visual language and how it conveys the intended emotions and atmosphere of each scene. Be sure to include essential details like character expressions, camera angles, and major actions. This will help to create effective storyboards that allow animators to understand your concept.
Keep in mind that storyboarding is an iterative process, so be open to feedback and revisions. Regularly review and refine the storyboards based on input from the team, ensuring that any adjustments align with the project's goals and maintain narrative coherence.
4. Animatic
An animatic is a rough preliminary version of the entire animation. In this pre-production phase, you’ll add movement, transitions, and temporary audio elements to the static content of your storyboard frames. A thorough animatic provides a more immersive preview of your animation project— details like character movements and scene transitions are better captured. The example below shows the animatic from the movie, Zootopia, alongside the final video.
With an animatic, your team can assess important attributes like pacing, overall flow, and narrative coherence before committing to the full animation production process. The animatic serves as a valuable tool for refining the storytelling elements and identifying potential issues in the early stages.
When creating an animatic, focus on capturing the entire story rather than polishing the details. You can use simple animations and placeholder audio to convey the intended mood and pacing that your video should have. Doing this will help you save time and also allow for quick adjustments based on feedback, especially in cases where the final sound design or voiceovers are not ready.
Using temporary audio can also provide a more immersive understanding of how sound should complement the visual elements in your video.
Additionally, consider the timing of each scene carefully and ensure that the pacing aligns with the narrative beats of the animation. Remember, the animatic serves as a blueprint for the animation's timing, and adjustments made at this stage can significantly impact the final video.
5. Design
In the design phase of animation pre-production, you’re shaping how everything will look— characters, backgrounds, surface properties, objects, and other digital effects that will be featured in your animated video. The goal is to establish a cohesive and appealing design that emphasizes the message of your story.
To optimize the design stage of your pre-production process, consider developing a visual style guide. This style guide will outline visual elements, color palettes, and design principles to be followed throughout the animation. It’ll be a reference point for consistency. This way, you can get collaborators on the same page regarding the visual direction.
If you’re working with character designers, they should also be able to provide technical guides on how these characters can be reproduced or animated.
When designing elements for your animated videos, focus on what matters most visually. For instance, if certain elements, like characters or important scenes, have a big role in telling the story, give them the attention they deserve. This approach helps to make the animation more impactful.
Lastly, consider how visuals can tell a story on their own. Keep in mind that character expressions, background details, and visual themes can add to the narrative without relying only on words. For the animation background layout and environment designs, details like aspect ratio and motion should also be considered. Think about how characters will interact with these scenes and ensure that everything scales properly.
6. Timeline
This is where you create a detailed schedule that outlines the sequence and duration of tasks in your animation workflow.
Consider setting realistic deadlines for each task in the timeline. Be mindful of the time required for concepting, storyboarding, animatics, design, and any other relevant stages. Realistic timelines contribute to a smoother workflow, reducing stress and improving the overall quality of the animation. Here’s an example of a detailed timeline by seasoned illustrator and designer Cory Kerr.
If you’re working with an animation team, you also want to indicate who is responsible for each task on your timeline. Project management tools like Trello or Asana can be helpful here. You may also work with a spreadsheet like what we have above.
It’s okay to review and adjust your timeline when unexpected challenges pop up. This flexibility allows you to adapt without compromising on the quality of your work. Also, note that communication within the team is key to addressing issues quickly. Make sure to schedule time for thorough reviews and revisions. Checking the quality at each stage ensures the animation matches the project's vision.
While meeting deadlines is important, leave room for creative exploration and improvements. Since video animation is typically a creative task, you should be particular about not rushing the process.
Conclusion
Pre-production is an effective way to optimize your video animation process. We cannot overstate the importance of laying down the groundwork for your project through the various pre-production stages we’ve highlighted today.
To recap, pre-production kicks off by establishing the foundation, defining goals, and strategizing for a clear direction. Concepting follows, fostering creativity and collaboration to generate compelling animation ideas. Storyboarding refines these ideas into a visual narrative, setting the stage for the animatic—a dynamic content that previews the pacing and timing of your animation video.
Next, you design video elements like characters, environments, and objects. Finally, you create an orderly timeline that serves as a roadmap for your entire deliverables.
By following these six stages thoughtfully, you’ll be able to achieve a seamless flow throughout your actual animation process. That’s how you end up with a successful animation video.
For those looking for already existing animated characters or animated items that can be used on your video projects, the LottieFiles library is filled with Lottie animations that can be added to your video projects.
Good luck!
