The 3D Animation Process

We love animation. Today I wanted to share an overview of our animation process working with our clients. This process is close to what you can expect working with an animation company. It’s important for you as a client to understand the animation process so you know what to expect and how you can make it go more smoothly!

What are the steps?

The animation process can vary from studio to studio. Today we’re going to go over our process that has worked the best with our clients and may work great for you too.

Animation Process Steps:

Creative Brief
Asset Transfer
Animatic
Style Frames
Voice Over
Animation
Sound Design
Final Delivery

At VM, our animation process will differ from project to project. As an animation studio, it’s important to be able to adapt to different client needs. However, the underlying process and general order of production will remain consistent

If you've never done an animation or motion design piece before, the process isn’t always intuitive and the nature of sign-off at each stage can seem a bit daunting, especially in the earlier stages, but studios like VM will help guide you through the process.

Below are the 8 steps most of our animation projects go through when we create a standard animation product video.

01_Creative Brief

The creative brief is one of the most important parts of the animation process. This is the foundation we build with our clients to get on the same page and knock it out of the park. Without a clear creative brief, our animation team is shooting in the dark and really has no idea what the client has in mind.

So what are the important elements of an effective creative brief?

High level project description
References
Delivery requirements
Rough timeline
Text callouts
Music choice (If possible)
Text style
Environment description
Concept

As the studio, we want to listen to your objectives and goals to understand the story you wish to convey.

Below is an example of an incredibly clear and effective creative brief from one of our best clients PowerA. As you can see, they’ve included everything we as the studio needs to understand their vision.

As you can see, the creative brief is clear and concise with photos and links to references to help us understand the vision of our client. It’s alway good to do a project kick off call and go over the creative brief together. This will allow us the studio to go over the brief and tell you if anything isn’t clear or if the deadline is reasonable or not.

If you’re new to animation, VM can collaborate with you to create the perfect brief.

02_Asset Transfer

Before the animation can begin, it is important for you, the agency or client to deliver all the needed assets to us, the animation studio. These will usually involve CAD files that the we will need to take and texture. Along with CAD files, it’s incredibly helpful for us to receive real life photographs of the product so that we can accurately texture the CAD models to make them look as realistic as possible.

We like to use a service called frame.io and give our client access as a collaborator so that they can upload the needed assets to an organized channel. We also use frame.io to get client feedback on animatics, style frames, and cuts.

(Above is a frame.io project organized into folders.)

03_Animatic

Once we’ve received the creative brief and assets, we can begin on the animatic. In our case, we do a very basic animatic without much detail in the product or environment. This give you an easy video to view which shows the direction the video is headed in.

In our experience, the animatic will give the client the best understanding of how the animation will turn out and assures that we as the studio and you as the client are on the same page in terms of vision throughout the process. (See an animatic example below)

Here is an example of an animatic we delivered for the Enhanced Wireless Controller animation video for Nintendo Switch. As you can see, the animation is simple, the product is not finalized, and there is no finished environment. But this allows the client to see the direction we are headed without having to put in a ridiculous amount of detailed animation work.

It’s very helpful to have the music already chosen before we start the animatic. Not every client will commit to a song before the animatic, but we recommend finalizing the song choice during the creative brief process so that the rest of the process can move quickly.

04_Style Frames

Once the animatic is signed off on, it’s time to move to style frames. This allows us to create a fully detailed still frame for each shot and scene with full detail in the product and environment.

This allows us to make sure we are on the same page before we really dive in and spend the long hours animating each shot.

(Above is a style frame with full product detail, 3d lighting, text copy, and environment design)

05_Voice Over

Not every video requires a VO. But for those that do, now is the time to record it. We work with talented VO talent from all over the world to make sure you get the perfect voice to tell your story.

06_Animation

With the animatic, style frames, and voice-over signed off, it's time to start animating. Animation is not a fast process and this step may take several weeks to complete, depending on the length of the project. This is why it's essential we collaborate and have you sign off the previous elements so that we remain on the same page.

(Above is one of our Cinema 4D projects in the works)

07_Sound Design

Once the animation is signed off on, we move to sound design. Any relevant sound effects are now added, huffs and puffs from the voice-over removed and the chosen music track are mixed together to bring life to the whole piece.

08_Final Delivery

The animated video files are exported to your technical requirements and delivered to you in a download link! Time to have a beer!