PREVIZ 2015

The animation pipeline

Roles

	Director I need to be able to communicate my vision to a storyboard artist. At the moment this involves a lot of backwards and forwards, taking multiple attempts to get it just right. I need a tool that shortens the storyboarding phase by supporting collaboration. I'm really busy, so any tool that I use needs to be quick.
	Storyboard artist I convert the director's verbal descriptions and doodles into storyboards. Sometimes I have to do this at great speed, as they're talking. Pencil and paper are still the best tools for this. I am concerned with storytelling, composition within the frame, creativity and facial expression, rather than how it will look or be achieved in 3D.
	Editor One of the things I do is make animatics by combining the storyboard panels with audio (dialog, sound effects and music). This allows us to see the story in motion. I need tools that help me synchronise the images and audio, as well as simulate basic camera movements like zoom and pan. I am concerned with timing and emotional beats, rather than creativity or 3D.
	Senior previz artist I use 3D software to do the first conversion from storyboards into 3D scenes using low fidelity or stand-in assets. I need to verify and finalise position and angle for the cameras and characters, as well as experiment with camera lenses. Since the director and storyboard artist are working in 2D, they sometimes compose shots that don't work as hoped in 3D and the director may request further changes. Previz is not my favourite task, because it is time-consuming and no audience ever sees my work, but I still need to do it rather than a junior animator because of the technical difficulties. I'd like a tool that achieves the same accuracy more quickly and easily. Then a junior artist could do quite a lot of it, freeing me up to do more fulfilling work.

Simultaneous comparison

The video below shows a simultaneous view of the animatic, previz ("blocked animation"), software interface ("Blender view") and final sequence for Big Buck Bunny (2008)

"Animation pipeline" is an online addendum to Viability of a tangible tabletop for industry storyboarding [Rix 2015].
Illustrations by David Rix, movie by Sacha Goedegebure / Blender Foundation.