Pre Production

Pre-Production

Overview & Timeline

Core purpose: “We are really settling into the animated filmmaking process”
Duration: “This could take years to complete”
Foundation: Building from the strong concept and world established previously

Team Structure & Logistics

Logistics Team

Personnel: Producers, production managers, coordinators, assistants
Primary responsibilities:
Figuring out “who is going to work on the team”
Determining “where they’re going to work”
Identifying “what tools they’re going to need to succeed”
Resources needed: Software devices, design instruments, audio booths, edit bays, “whatever is needed to get going”

Creative Team

Personnel: Directors, visual development artists, storyboard artists
Primary focus: “Starting to give structure to the movie”

Core Focus Areas

Story Foundation

“Pre-production is where we focus on the story, and storyboards, and how all of that is going to be told, how the script is going to be visualized into life.”

Transform script words into series of drawings
Create storyboards for visual storytelling
Focus on timing and emotional beats

The Animatic Process

Definition & Creation

What it is: “A very early version of the movie, created entirely from hand-drawn storyboards”
Components: Cut to temporary dialogue, music, sound effects
Purpose: “All of this is going to be refined over time to ultimately serve as blueprint for our film”

Why Animatics Matter

Cost consideration: “Animating can be so expensive, and doing all the official pipeline stuff is a very expensive process”
Early validation: “You want to get the movie up in a watchable, playable format before you even get into any of that”

Storyboard Function

Early benefits: “Storyboards, especially early on, really get the timing and the beats of the movie out”
Efficiency approach: “You try to draw just enough that you can get the emotions of the characters and tell the story”
Foundation building: “Just having that basic foundation of the movie laid down, that everyone can see, that you can put music to”

Screening Process

Audience: Directors, producers, execs, studio execs
Key questions:
“How is this script playing in a viewable way?”
“Is it something we like?”
“Is it going in the right direction?”
Critical requirement: “They have to make sure they like the movie a lot before we get into production”

Version 1 screening: Gets screened for “team of people responsible for the film’s success”
Holistic review: Team watches to identify:
What’s working
What’s not working
What’s missing
What needs attention
Feedback loop: “This feedback from screening of version one will then be collected and used to inform version two, so on and so forth”
Completion criteria: “Process is repeated until eventually the team has arrived at a version of the animatic that everyone’s happy with”

Pre-Production Outcomes

Final Blueprint

“By the end of pre-production, this final animatic that we’re left with is the blueprint for our final project. This is our movie.”

Solid Foundation Elements

Character understanding: “How our characters are going to move, how they feel, how they sound”
Visual design: “How our sets going to look”
Technical planning: “How the visual effects are going to be used to bring our director’s vision to life”
Budget planning: “Even how much budget we’re going to need to get all this to happen”

Transition to Production

“So, we’ve got our plan in hand, and we’re ready to move into the next phase of the pipeline, production. This is where more magic happens, frame by frame.”

Quiz Question: What is an “animatic”?

Correct Answer: A rough scene built from hand-drawn storyboards

Pre-production transforms the approved concept into a detailed blueprint through extensive storyboarding and animatic creation. This phase ensures the entire team understands the creative vision and logistics before expensive production work begins, using iterative refinement to perfect the foundation for the final film.