As this was before the days of e-mail, we averaged 20 to 30 faxes a day to each other, trying to get a handle on the project. Fighting off packs of diseased dogs on the way to work helped Catherine limber up for the physical work ahead. As the entire studio took a daily nap, she would often have to climb up on the artists' desks to the shelves above in order to find missing scenes. (At some overseas studios, it is customary to sleep under the desk or on a cot since the crew literally works around the clock to get the work completed on time.) Meanwhile, back in L.A., the artistic supervisor wanted to keep tweaking key elements even after they were approved. As production in certain countries was on hold until they could get the materials, Zahra had to do evening reconnaissance missions to keep the show moving. Staying until everyone had left, she would search and find the artwork. The next day she would get the director's approval and coax the artistic supervisor into relinquishing the scenes in order to ship them out.

Image by Wilbert Plijnaar.

Somehow, through all the chaos, we managed to revise the schedule so that it was manageable. We put a tracking system in place and got scenes completed through production. Most importantly, we were able to motivate our team and finish the picture on time. It took a lot of emotional fortitude and diplomacy, as we were in the middle of a war zone with very high stakes and fiery tempers. At the end of it all, we both naively assumed that there had to be an easier way to produce a film. Over the years however, we have discovered that the complexity of the medium almost prohibits the possibility of a stress-free and orderly production. Many of the obstacles encountered are the direct result of the creative process itself and should be expected. However, many of the production snags are unnecessary and can be avoided with good planning and foresight.

Bridging Divides
Beyond committing to paper the nuts and bolts of producing animation, a primary purpose of this book is to help less experienced decision-makers (those new to the animation business, such as corporate executives and creators) to make smart, production-savvy decisions. Producing animation can be a highly rewarding experience. When developing a new project, there are no boundaries for creators, writers and artists, as the characters and their world can be created from scratch on a blank piece of paper. The rules of the physical world do not apply. As a result of this freedom, the possibilities are limitless. Achieving the appropriate balance between the creative goals and fiscal limitations of a project is the inherent challenge of every production. Despite having infinite potential paths to take, there inevitably comes a point in every production where choices have to be made and finalized. Having worked with many talented professionals, we have witnessed -- and also experienced -- the struggle to commit to creative decisions. Because this is so difficult, we have both wished we could refer these professionals to a source that explains the animation process and the implications of decisions made to the overall project.

On a project that I (Zahra) worked on as an associate producer, the development executive had an impressive live-action background, but no experience in animation. With the best of intentions to improve the film, this development executive took it upon himself to rewrite the dialogue for scenes, many of which had already been animated not just once, but multiple times. With the project rapidly falling behind schedule and going over budget, my job was to figure out which scenes could be safely worked on. Doing this would allow the project to meet production objectives and maintain momentum, as sufficient inventory would become available for each department. However, it was no easy task, as it seemed that no matter how I reworked the schedule and each department's weekly workload (also known as quotas), we were unable to move the project forward at a pace in keeping with the schedule. My top priority was to find a way to avoid the backward step of changing dialogue once a scene was animated. I had to devise a system that would allow us to catch scenes that required changes and stop them from entering production.

In order to get the work flowing through the animation department, I realized that I had to get on the same page as the executive. As an initial step, I invited him to attend dailies so he could get a sense of the process involved in animating a scene. (During dailies, scenes that have been completed through rough animation, cleanup animation, effect or color are viewed by the producer and director for approval.) While looking at the footage, the development executive was clearly impressed by the artistry that went into drawing each scene. My next step was to show the large stacks of drawings that made up the scenes we had just viewed. By his reaction, it was evident that the executive had not been aware of the staggering amount of work that went into getting the scenes animated.