Contemporary Animation Production Pipeline illustrated with The Croods (2013) by DreamWorks
Every animation studio has a production pipeline,
i.e. a process which is followed when creating an animation. The pipeline
usually consists of three stages, namely preproduction, production and
postproduction. Each stage consists of a number of phases which are equally
important in creating a successful animation film (Furniss 88). Even though the
three stages have remained the same, the execution of the phases has changed
over time and today differs from studio to studio (Furniss 89).
For this post a contemporary animation
pipeline will be illustrated with the feature film The Croods (2013) by DreamWorks Animation Studios.
Stage 1: Preproduction
·
Idea & Concept
First someone will come up
with an idea for a story. The
development phase is very important as it can determine whether the film will
be successful. The director (in the case
of The Croods, Kirk De Micco and
Chris Sanders) will then approve the idea and assign a writer to write the
script or story.
·
Story & Script
In the story all the
concepts come together. The script contains the dialogue, indications of sound
effects, a description of the scenery and events, as well as the mood of the
characters (Keigher). It serves as a blueprint for every other aspect of the
pipeline and it is thus imperative that the scriptwriters consider their work
from various perspectives such as those of designers, animators, actors and so
forth (Furniss 69).
A part of The Croods script written by Kirk De
Micco and Chris Sanders can be seen below:
“The Croods Script”, 2013.
Screenshot by the author.
(http://gointothestory.blcklst.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Croods-The.pdf)
DreamWorks summarises the
plot as follows:
The Croods
is a prehistoric comedy adventure that follows the world's first family as they
embark on a journey of a lifetime when the cave that has always shielded them
from danger is destroyed. Traveling across a spectacular landscape, the Croods
discover an incredible new world filled with fantastic creatures - and their
outlook is changed forever.
(DreamWorks
Animation)
·
Storyboard
A storyboard artist will
then be assigned. He or she will receive the script and start drawing the
events that take place as he or she visualises it (Keigher). The storyboard
will serve as a visual representation of the script and includes details about
the camera movement, visuals and character actions. The storyboard may change
throughout the production pipeline (Furniss 73).
Ryan Savas is the
storyboard artist of The Croods. See
below one of his storyboards:
“Storyboards” Savas, n.d.
·
Animatic
From the storyboards an animatic
or story reel will be compiled. The animatic usually contains still frames and
sound elements such as the score at the actual running time of the final
production (Furniss 75).
Stage 2: Production
·
Concept Art & Visual Development
The development goes to
the Visual Development Department who develops the look and feel of each
sequence or scene (Keigher). This is
also where the characters are designed (outputs can range from drawings and
paintings to sculptures).
Below is one of the
character sketches by Takao Noguchi the character designer for some of The Croods’ characters:
“Character Designs” Noguchi, n.d.
An artwork by Jason
Scheier, one of the concept artists for The
Croods, can be seen below:
“Concept Art” Scheier,
n.d.
·
Modeling
From the character design
sketches the Modelers of the studio will then model the characters in 3D that
will be seen in the final animation feature. The wireframe models are made up of polygon
shapes which are linked together and are created in programs such as Autodesk
Maya and 3D Studio Max (Furniss 101).
“The Croods – 23,000,000 Years in the Making” DreamWorks TV, 2013.
Author’s screenshot.
·
Rigging
By rigging a wireframe
model controls are added through a process called ‘parenting’. By rigging the
model, the model is made moveable for the animators to animate it (Furniss 101).
Below is Eep rigged. The shapes around her is the controls.
“The Croods – 23,000,000 Years in the Making” DreamWorks TV, 2013. Author’s screenshot.
·
Texturing
In the texturing process
artist create the surface materials that appear on the characters and objects
in the film. Textures can vary from fabrics to rocks to hair to skin (Keigher).
·
Animation
The character animators
bring the characters to life by moving them with the controls created by the
riggers. The animators are also responsible for synchronizing the voice overs
to the performances (Furniss 101-102). In the case of characters dancing to
specific music the animator will receive either a rough track or similar track
of the music that will be used in the final feature to animate the character’s
movements to (Furniss 72). Between 300 and 400 animators worked on The Croods (Mearian).
·
Visual Effects & Lighting
After the animation has
been done visual effects and lighting has to be added. Visual effects may range
from water to explosions and fire (Keigher). Below is examples of both.
“The Croods – 23,000,000 Years in the Making” DreamWorks TV, 2013. Author’s screenshot.
“The Croods – 23,000,000 Years in the Making” DreamWorks TV, 2013.
Author’s screenshot.
The lighting not only
determines the time of day but can also contribute to the mood of the
particular scene. The hard light falling over the landscape as seen below
signifies danger coming.
“New World” The Croods,
2013. Author’s screenshot.
The soft warm lighting in
the following scene creates a romantic atmosphere.
“A Different Cave” The
Croods, 2013. Author’s screenshot.
·
Rendering
Rendering is where every
frame of the feature is rendered out as a image by means of a computer program.
This process takes very long often depending on how much detail is in each
frame. Certain objects such as hair take longer to render out than a flat
surface (Keigher). Most studios have a render farm which is a clusters of
computers designed for the sole purpose of rendering. DreamWorks has a render
farm of servers made up of about 20,000 processors. The Croods, according to DreamWorks Studios, took 80 million hours
to render (Mearian).
Stage 3: Postproduction
·
During the post production
phase everything is compiled and prepared for distribution. Colour correction
is done to the images and the final touches are done. The final sound is added
to the feature and subtitles typed out and added (Furniss 102-103).
The film is now ready for the big screen!
Works
Cited
DreamWorks Animation. “The Croods: Plot
Summary.” IMDb. n.d. Web. 20 May
2016.
DreamWorks TV. “The Croods -23,000,000
Years in the Making.” Online Video Clip. YouTube.
YouTube, 3 December 2013. Web. 21 May 2016.
Furniss,
Maureen. The Animation Bible. New
York: Abrams, 2008. Print.
Keigher, Adam. “Dreamworks CG Pipeline.” Adam Keighers Weblog. 16 October 2007.
Web. 21 May 2016.
Mearian, Lucas. “The Croods took 80 million
hours to render says DreamWorks.” DigitalArts.
26 March 2013. Web. 23 May 2016.
Noguchi, Takao. “The Croods: Character
Design.” Noguchin. n.d. Web. 20 May
2016.
Savas, Ryan. “The Croods.” Ryansavas. n.d. Web. 18 May 2016.
“The Croods Visual Development Designs by
Jason Scheier.” ConceptArt World.
n.d. Web. 18 May 2016.
