I’ve spoken before about what all goes into crafting storyboards for a feature film. While these static images are of immense help in beginning to determine and crystalize the look of your story, on their own they don’t tell a complete picture. They might do wonders when toying with stylistic notions or working out interesting camera angles or moves, but there are limits on their ability to translate the text of a screenplay to the living and breathing art form that is cinema. They can’t show you, for instance, the pacing of the film or how long a shot should linger. They can’t let you hear the voice of the characters spoken aloud or immerse you in the sounds of the world. They also can’t tell you how the individual shots fit together – how they flow. For that, you need to turn to another cinematic tool of the trade (and one that is in many cases intrinsically linked to storyboarding) – the animatic.
What is an animatic?
While there are many places we could start in a discussion on animatics, perhaps the best is the most obvious: what they are. An animatic, for those unfamiliar, is basically a roughly animated proto-version of a movie (or TV show, short, etc.) – hence the “ani” prefix of the word. As mentioned, these basic interpretations of translating the script into an audiovisual medium can apply to all sorts of media, not just in form but in function. Despite their animated nature, this important filmmaking tool is not limited to just those artistic expressions whose ultimate nature will be animated (i.e. CGI films, hand-drawn animation, and video game cut scenes). Rather, these basic interpretations of the final product can apply to all projects destined for the big (or small) screen – everything from the latest Marvel blockbusters all the way down to a YouTube video.
Why use animatics?
Animatics are useful for the ways in which they both differ from static storytelling (such as storyboards) and for those in which they mirror the eventual final product. They allow you to see the script brought to life in (relative) motion – to hear the dialogue spoken aloud and to watch the characters move in the space and interact with one another. They let you work out if there are pacing issues (scenes going on too long or events too hastily covered) that are not inherently obvious from the script alone. They let you hear both the sounds of the story as well as (sometimes) a rough idea of the soundtrack and score. They do all of this in a form that is infinitely more time, and most importantly cost, effective than producing the final work.
When do you make an animatic?
Unlike other more stringent timeline-related questions of the filmmaking process (the script must be written before shooting, color correction can only come after there is footage to correct), the question of when exactly the animatic should be created is open for debate. Besides the obvious answer that it should occur sometime in the Pre-production process (aka. before principal photography), there are many different theories on proper placement in the filmmaking timeline. Some people feel that such a task should occur directly before filming – a sort of last-minute check that things are working as planned. Others feel that the creation of an animatic should happen as early in the process as possible, to allow for any necessary changes, alterations, or additions to occur to the script.
The truth is, precisely when it is made is ultimately up to the filmmaker and their crew – that said, the scope and scale of the production and its budget will likely play a large role as well. After all, if you’re making a big-budget action film with a great many fight scenes, it might be difficult to animate or display the choreography of the said fight scenes without first consulting with the stunt coordinator (outside of the perfectly acceptable tactic of just inserting text to the effect of ‘Choreography TBA’). For me, personally, I found that making the animatic came directly after the storyboarding process (for reasons that will soon be explained).
How is an animatic made?
The question of how to make an animatic is one with no ‘right’ answer. The exact method of creation will be determined by a variety of factors unique to each production: budget, skill or knowledge base, access to tools, and time. In regards to budget, many Hollywood films typically have a dedicated artist (or team of artists) whose whole job it is to create the animatic. This can happen either just after some pre-vis artwork is created or even concurrently with the storyboarding process (with communication between the teams). In fact, most large films create fully-realized 3D animatics (with models at worst resembling early 1990’s to early 2000’s video game graphics). If you don’t have the funds to hire such a cadre, it is likely you might find yourself making your own animatic.
In that case, your individual skillset and access to viable tools will become the basis for how you will make your own. If you are someone who is likewise inclined to 3D modeling or animation and own (or know someone who owns) the proper software, then that might be a great direction to go in. You can craft all the necessary models, with whatever level of detail you deem necessary, and then merely puppet them around as you see fit. However, if such expertise is beyond your abilities (and you don’t feel like hiring someone), there is always the route of traditional animation. This can be done by hand or aided by computer software and is not necessarily different from storyboarding besides the further step of editing it into an audio-visual experience.
The final primary factor that plays into making an animatic is one of time (which is not wholly different from that of money). While the sheer man-hours required to create an animatic will depend greatly on the method chosen, the level of detail desired, and the skillset of its creator(s), it will also be subject to how many resources can be spared. To give an example, let’s I imagine that it will take 100 hours to make a storyboard with the applicable skill (it takes much, much more but we’re going for simplicity here). Assuming you have the skillset, you could either personally dedicate 100 hours to creating the animatic or pay 10 people for 10 hours of work each. While likely more costly, this would greatly reduce the time it takes until completion (while not reducing the total time it takes to make). Another option is to reduce the quality of the animatic itself which would, in turn, decrease the total time it takes to make. For yet further savings, a combination of the above could cut the time even more dramatically.
Still, no matter how you slice it, time will be required – that is why some people choose to omit this step entirely. In my opinion, that’s a grave mistake.
My Process
We have finally reached what I hope might be the most informative part of this article – the part where I explain, for better or worse, how I go about creating an animatic (and thus, how it was done for Forbidden Dish). While I am certainly not saying this is the best method, it is one that works for me and best fits my workflow. It also, as I will soon explain, helped improve the movie as a whole. So let’s get to it!
Form
As mentioned in my earlier discussion on storyboards, I chose to create the animatic of Forbidden Dish out of the storyboards themselves. In my case, the storyboards were hand-drawn in Photoshop and numbered over 6500+. This choice was made as a matter of expedience (the storyboards took a lot of work and time and thus using them for duel purposes is beneficial) and practicality (I don’t dabble in 3D animation).
Storyboard Method
While I won’t recount my entire process (just go read the article), I will mention something that was only really hinted at previously. Part of the reason that my storyboard count was so high was that I always knew that they were going to double as my means of creating an animatic. As I wanted my eventual animatic to be as fluid and life-like as possible (given the inherent constraints of the method), I knew I had to create a real sense of movement. As all forms of video or film are merely just a rapidly shifting series of still images, the more individual images (or ‘frames’) I could create, the more representative of the final product the animatic would be. As a result, a single shot that might show someone crossing a room and opening a drawer (whose action via still images could be communicated via 1-2 boards) might instead consist of 10-14. While this was certainly labor and time-intensive, it ultimately had the desired effect of helping to bring the world of the script to life and the characters off the screen (to a greater degree than would have otherwise been possible).
Dialogue Recording
While large productions oftentimes bring in their main cast to record lines for use with the visuals of their animatic, smaller productions often don’t have that luxury – either due to cost constraints of the fact that the cast has not yet been hired. In my case, as a matter of both, I found it most expedient to record all lines of dialogue for the film myself. With a decent microphone and an acoustically-friendly space, I quite simply acted out the script (often recording lines many times to give myself options in the edit).
While I made every intention to portray the lines as they would be performed (with proper inflection and timing), I made no effort to alter my voice or change the pitch or tone between characters (or genders). This was due, in part, to avoiding constantly shifting dialects as the movie went on as well as allowing me to focus on the best possible (and hopefully film-accurate) reading of the line. While a movie full of voice-clones won’t likely win any best picture awards, it gets the job done while also allowing you to see if the strength of the dialogue alone can help to differentiate and distinguish characters. Recording it yourself also allows you to see, and adjust, where certain lines might feel clunky or unnatural and find in-the-moment ways to correct them.
Sound Editing
My next step was to take the cavalcade of raw recording data (full of a myriad of re-takes and adjustments) and whittle it down to a dialogue-only radio play of the script. Given the sheer scale of readings, as well as the tediousness of cutting each one into its own separate chunk, this took some time. During the first step, I only worked on separating each individual dialogue reading into its own entity, regardless of quality. Then I worried about weeding out the takes with flubs, mistakes, or which were objectively bad. From there, it was about listening to each individual line both in isolation and in context with the surrounding dialogue to determine which fit best. As anyone who’s ever edited anything before will tell you, sometimes the best line reading is a combination of a few different takes – a luxury afforded by my audio-only process. Once things were sufficiently narrowed, it was time for the proper editing to begin.
Video Editing
If 6500+ storyboards sound like a lot in a file folder somewhere, you can only imagine the hell that is them imported into a timeline. In fact, the scale was so great as to require the project to be split into nine (9) parts for sheer manageability. That said, just like with audio, it was then time to begin culling the herd. While most storyboards followed logically one to the next, there were many instances where particular scenes were drawn in a few different ways, thus allowing for options in the eventual edit.
By combining them with the newly-culled dialogue, and altering the length of each static image to fill the video time required, I was able to finally get an in-context view of which ‘take’ worked best. Oftentimes I was wowed by just how much more I preferred one to the other once they began to ‘breathe’ in (relative) motion. Still, the sheer length of time it took to adjust static frames for the few seconds they would be on screen was no laughing manner. Unlike editing video, where the movement is inherent, with this method you have to craft it all one beat at a time (not unlike stop-motion).
Sound Effects and Music
While technically part of video editing, it was a unique enough proposition to warrant its own section. Again, while video might have audio intrinsic to it, any and all sound effects for the animatic needed to be recorded and properly inserted – kind of like Foley on a full film, only scaled back. While it would be a fool’s errand to attempt to add in each and every footstep, sliding chair, or minute noise, it was imperative that certain scenes be fleshed out with sound – lockers closing, machines whirring to life, and sounds for other less-traditional locations. These bits of flourish help to immerse the eventual viewer just that much more into the (rough) world on screen.
Additionally, being able to add in some (limited) music into the scenes gave them yet another take on life. While it is unlikely (though, I suppose, possible) that you might have some part of your score written, I did not. That said, I was very aware of specific songs and artists that were to be featured (or that could at least stand-in for the eventual choice). Not only did such inclusions add a sense of urgency and immediacy to animatic, but they also helped distinguish which worked as intended and which did not.
Viewing and Focus Testing
Once everything was edited together in a work-print state, it was then time to watch my creation. Displaying it on a TV, and watching it as though I would any other film, was both a wonderful and horrifying experience. Wonderful in that it was incredible to see the project coming to life in such a vibrant way and horrible because I realized just how much more work was necessary to fix technical flaws or clunky sequences. After multiple re-edits, and just as many re-viewings, I managed to become relatively happy with my creation (and completely un-objective). As a result, it was then time to show off my work to a few close acquaintances for feedback.
Just as I did on my own, I sat down (this time with people!) to watch the animatic. Let me tell you this: if you think you noticed issues – particularly pacing issues – when you watched it alone, then you can only imagine coming next. To say that every possible flaw is magnified 1000x would be an understatement. Putting aside the rough nature of an animatic itself, there will be moments that you will want to crawl under the sofa. Problems, previously invisible to your accustomed eyes, will leap off the screen and into your subconscious – and this all before you actually listen to the feedback. Must like a test-screening of a finished film, you will then take this newly acquired information and use it to improve the animatic. Cut it as though you would a film because, in essence, it is.
Repeat this process as many times as necessary until showing off the animatic becomes a thing of pride and you, nor your viewers, can no longer find glaring issues to correct.
Revising the Script
This is the part of the process that, in truth, was the biggest (and, for me, unforeseen) benefit of this particular methodology. Once I found myself as happy as possible with the animatic, I then went back to the script. I read along as the animatic played, stopping and rewinding as necessary to see how closely they matched and where they did not. When I came across places, large or small, where the script and the animatic disagreed (a slightly altered line of dialogue or a removed scene) I revised the script to match the animatic.
While the script was (and still is) a wonderful blueprint for building the proverbial house of a film, the animatic was a tried and true scale model. It, and the practicalities it unveiled, paved the way forward for making the film the best it could be. It was a symbiotic circle of the animatic being crafted upon the script and then informing (and improving) the script itself. The changes made here were the difference between (in my own opinion) a good movie and a great movie. Alone, they nearly justified the entire process. Combined with the benefits of a working and representative animatic, however, it only served to highlight the importance of the entire storyboard-to-animatic journey.
Conclusion
Now, while I will re-iterate that this was only my personal experience of the animatic process (there are many other ways to do it), I will say that without a doubt it was a key factor in visualizing, planning for, and improving Forbidden Dish. It clarified the length of the film (proving relatively true the one page per minute rule often touted by books on screenwriting), aided in the script breakdown process (by allowing me to actually see what props or set dressings were in the frame, even if they weren’t explicitly listed in the script), informed the shot-list (by showing exactly which would be necessary to bring the script to life), and helped naturalize and polish the dialogue between the characters – all this besides actually helping to trim unnecessary scenes and lines from the runtime.
While there are no-doubt myriad reasons why skipping or hurrying through the animatic process might be appealing (cost, time, effort), as someone who has been through it I can say without question that there is no better way of clarifying and improving your own knowledge of the movie you are making. There are insights gleaned throughout the course of animatic production which, while perhaps not impossible to find without it, were integral to making the best film possible. As a filmmaker, you can become more intimately aware of both the shortcomings and strengths of your finished film without ever shooting a single scene. If an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, then the same can be said for an animatic: the bang-for-your-buck insights it provides are well worth the effort of bringing it to life, not to mention the benefits of having a tangible visual reference to share with cast and crew.
Simply put, the benefits of an animatic are numerous and impactful. Just as there is a reason for every tool in the carpenter’s chest, so too does the animatic serve an important role in film production. While the specifics of each animatic might vary from project to project, there is no better way to get a sense of the final product, much less improve it, before ever setting foot on stage. As a result, I am more convinced than ever of just how invaluable the animatic is to the filmmaking process.
Now, go bring your stories to life!
Chris