Previs was an integral tool on Pixar’s most recent short, One Man Band, about a peasant girl who encounters two competing street performers competing for her attention and coin. © Pixar 2005.

While previs is the big buzzword in live action, very little has been written lately about its utilization in animation. After all, previs has its roots in storyboarding and animatics. And while live action previs has fully embraced the virtual 3D world of the computer as a tool for the director and the visual effects and art departments, previs — or rough layout — continues to thrive and evolve in animation. In fact, in some quarters, there’s even an attempt to introduce some live-action previs principles to animation to make it more efficient. VFXWorld surveyed a number of animation studios and filmmakers to explore the differences between previs in live action and animation and how they are merging together.

“The outstanding difference between previs in live action and animation is that the animation process actually requires the layout, so that the raw materials within the layout process are utilized by animation and lighting and all the other departments down the road,” explains James Williams, head of layout at Sony Pictures Animation, who recently worked on the first animated feature, Open Season. “In terms of the process, they are very closely related. We employ the same techniques and creative expressions and work closely with the directors to translate the story into 3D. We have a lot of discussions about camera lenses and camera moves and what will lend themselves to a particular project. We also give crude reference to lighting direction and more specification direction to character blocking, all of which is there as a blueprint for the departments that come after us.

“We tend to start rough layout directly after the storyboard has been approved and edited, so that we actually have timing reference for the shots that have been created. The way in which a scene or sequence is broken down into shots is determined by our art department. We would regard the layout process as the first step in production, which is the difference between layout and previs, so we very much are under the clock to produce work for animation. Our schedule tends to be dictated by when animation starts. Things like making sure we have characters that are correctly rigged, props that are correctly rigged, models that are ready to move into production — all those things have to be prepared during our process. Visual development works prior to us and at the same time as us. Obviously, we use a lot of reference from them to help us get a feeling for how the movie is going to work. The dominant relationship is with the directors. “

Because of Sony’s unique infrastructure in which the new animation department works closely with Imageworks, the elder visual effects department, Williams adds that it is the hope that “Sony Pictures Animation can produce a much more detailed blueprint for Sony Pictures Imageworks and our relationship to make sure that we make the transition from story into production as efficient as possible.”

James Williams of Sony Pictures Animation, who recently worked on Open Season, emphasizes that the main difference between previs in live action and animation is that animation actually requires the layout process. © Sony Pictures Animati

Meanwhile, in terms of the Imagemotion hybrid of performance capture and animation within Imageworks that was launched with The Polar Express and has continued with Monster House and Beowulf, Williams says previs is handled slightly differently. “Most of that previs is actually done with the production company themselves and so we inherit that at the studio and then we try to translate that into a functioning scene. On Polar Express, we had artists that were loaned out to [director] Bob Zemeckis and worked directly with him in his Carpenteria studio and they were very beneficial to the process because they understood the pipeline at Sony Imageworks and that whatever was produced there could work. I believe the other projects have roughly the same breakdown as we do here; the only difference is that on Monster House [which Zemeckis did not direct] the previs department was actually on site.”

At Pixar, previs is adopted differently for each feature, depending on the specific needs of the director. It was also an integral tool on the studio’s most recent short, One Man Band, about a peasant girl who encounters two competing street performers competing for her attention and coin. “Every film since The Incredibles has utilized it,” says Band co-director Andy Jimenez, who came to Pixar after working with Brad Bird on Iron Giant. “Brad wanted to be a little more complete with the story reels, whereas [on Cars] John [Lasseter] wanted to get a little more in the 3D later on. We’re trying to find that fine line between doing all the work in story and shielding the story process from all this other technical stuff. But once the story is locked, then we want to open the floodgate and utilize all this previs camerawork that we’ve done.