Deadlines in Animation!!

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Deadlines in Animation!!

I recently had an oppurtunity to direct the animation for a 90 second traditionally animated pilot. I was incharge for the project and it was my responsibility to see it through its various stages like Lay outs, rough animation, inbetweens, clean-up, digital ink and paint etc. I evaluated the project at the beginning and set a deadline and needless to say, I ended up overshooting it. Now my question is why are deadlines so hard to meet in animation??

The obvious answer is lack of planning and foresight. Here are some of the pointers which might help overseas animation supervisors to get the projects finishing within deadlines.

1. [B]Understand the style[/B]: A clear understanding of the animation style which is desired by the client will help reduce retakes in animation considerably. Before starting animation make sure to ask client if there is any other existing style, similar to the project which you are going to work upon. Client will most surely point out a tv show, film, commercial etc which could be taken as a refrence point. Make sure to view this example and don't do the animation in the style of your favourite tv show. Usually a good thumb rule is to follow the slugging on the x-sheet.

2. Understand the process and time it takes: Animation is exciting and the biggest mistake which you can do is to jump right ahead into it. Have a clear understanding of the different processes involved and different proffesionals who are going to work on it. Usually while planning supervisors tend to overlook the time it takes for retakes and corrections. Assign judicious margin time for errors and retakes if you are embarking on a brand new style. Animation artists tend to carry the hangover of previous projects they had been working upon.

3. When in doubt, ask: This is crucial, if there is a model sheet missing for a character or a prop you ask for the client to provide it, or get your version approved by the client before you end up animating it. Sometimes clients tend to overlook certain things until very late in the production process and correcting mistakes by then is usually very time and money consuming.

4. Ensure checking before drawings go into the next stage: While handling traditionally animated projects you are going to be working with drawings. Sometimes animators tend to make a drawing but forget to mention it in the x sheet. Make sure that all the drawings, and levels are apropriately seperated and mentioned by the animators before the scene goes for clean up and IB. Checking is equally crucial after the scene gets Final cleaned up. These are the drawings which Ink and Paint artists are going to paint and audience is going to see on the screen. It can be very frustrating to see a line not matched properly or a prop not drawn when the scene is in the ink and paint stage

5. Be prepared and have fun: This is perhaps the most important point. Animation is a very dynamic process and any surprise can creep up from anywhere. It could be unavailability of artists or somebody calling in sick or computer breakdown or anything. Another thing is usually when the deadlines tend to get closer people tend to get more edgier. Avoid pointing fingers and speaking in confrontational tone. You dont want your artists to be down on the morale when deadline is closer (or perhaps already gone).

Hope these points can be of some help to the animators in this forum, Do feel free to contribute your ideas and critique. Looking forward for your inputs.

HS.

deadline deadline

I think you have made some very valid points but you might only be scratching the surface. You could probably write a book on all the things that can go wrong in a production.
It sounds like the animation on your project was done overseas? If that is the case you could add time differences and even cultural nuances to your list. If your instructions need to be translated it can cause delays in understanding what you meant.
The level of experience of the crew can have a major factor. There is a project I know about where the producer assumed that animators could do 2 minutes of complete animation each a week in flash but drawn traditionaly..... This assumption of course was flawed but the entire schedule was based on it. Needless to say it got behind schedule. I'm not saying that is what happened in your case. It is only an extreme example.
Teamwork can have a profound effect of a pipeline and the biggest factor in making an effective team is communication. Knowing the right questions to ask at the right time and constantly revisiting where you are at any given department. Trying to anticipate where the slow downs may occur before they occur.
Constant data and a good understanding of the personalities involved in your project can go a long way.
That being said it seems that it is rare for a production to be on time in every department. As long as the most important one gets there. The last! I've seen projects where animation was six weeks behind but the delivery of the show was on time.
Too many variables! I guess if we were making shoes it would be easy. Each shoe is exactly the same size, has the same number of parts.....

The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself. My Blog: Strange Thoughts

There's one thing about animation done overseas that I've been wondering about for some time now: Why in all the 25+ years that stuff has been outsourced overseas has NONE of it really gotten any better?

The same dumb mistakes get made--the same shifty tricks with changing timing charts happens, the same layout mistakes, the same, same, same.......
Doing 'board's here for overseas these days means pretty much doing layouts.......things are specified to a much greater degree today...............yet the quality hasn't improved at all.
Aside from the cheap rates, I see zero advantage to outsourcing work overseas--but cheaps wins over just about anything else these days.

"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)

Why in all the 25+ years that stuff has been outsourced overseas has NONE of it really gotten any better?

That's the real 30 cents a frame question isn't it? I might be wrong but I think you need only look at who has been involved in the consistantly bad animated shows over the past years.
Are they produced by the same parent studios? Studio heads have a habit of making the same mistakes
Are the same producers involved over a variety of studios? Same as above. Of course people can be snow balled as well if they don't do the research. " I heard that such and such studio does work for Disney so they must be good". But how much do you need to fork out for the "A" team and not the "C" team.
It's been said before but in T.V. land money is power and creative is a close second but second is the same as last sometimes..... There are always exceptions to the rule of course.
In "Band of Brothers" an officer looks at a cowering recruit and says something like," your problem is you just need to realize that you are already dead. Once you except that you'll be fine".
From the perspective of a fictional broadcaster:
"Once you realize that T.V. shows are only there to keep the attention of the viewer untill the next commercial you'll be fine"
That is where they make thier money after all.

No worries.... It always works out in the end!

The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself. My Blog: Strange Thoughts

That's the real 30 cents a frame question isn't it? I might be wrong but I think you need only look at who has been involved in the consistantly bad animated shows over the past years.
Are they produced by the same parent studios? Studio heads have a habit of making the same mistakes
Are the same producers involved over a variety of studios? Same as above. Of course people can be snow balled as well if they don't do the research. " I heard that such and such studio does work for Disney so they must be good". But how much do you need to fork out for the "A" team and not the "C" team.
It's been said before but in T.V. land money is power and creative is a close second but second is the same as last sometimes..... There are always exceptions to the rule of course.
In "Band of Brothers" an officer looks at a cowering recruit and says something like," your problem is you just need to realize that you are already dead. Once you except that you'll be fine".
From the perspective of a fictional broadcaster:
"Once you realize that T.V. shows are only there to keep the attention of the viewer untill the next commercial you'll be fine"
That is where they make thier money after all.

No worries.... It always works out in the end!

but that is TRUE though isnt it. they dont require the same quality as Film. the same research doseng go into it. recently for a pilot i set something in a castle. so i culled a lot of research (some personal photos) and we created a complete set of how we wanted the thing to look. it was accurate or based on reality to give an authentic feel for the era. but in essence it wasnt required because the person who saw it didnt care for the research.

Hi Robert, Ken and Skinny lizard,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this thread. Robert, you are absolutely right in saying that awareness about the experience and ability of the artists will go a long way in Planning and timely delivery of animation projects. Infact this is one area where I seemed to have screwed up and got into that Flash project like situation you had mentioned. Anyways I have learnt my lessons and hopefully I wont make the same errors again.

Meanwhile, Ken if the same mistakes have been done for past 25 plus years then there has to be something wrong on both ends. One of the reasons why making storyboards for outsourced projects could be like almost making layouts because it is indeed a difficult task to get an artist at the other end of the world to make things exactly as they are in your mind. Like Robert says it would have been easier if we had been making shoes. Skinny lizard is also right in saying that talent keeps moving on and if you are really going to go for cheap rates then you are gonna have to compromise on quality too.

I think Robert has summed it up by saying "Once you realize that T.V. shows are only there to keep the attention of the viewer untill the next commercial you'll be fine". I can think of a story which I'd like to share here.

I used to work in this animation studio which was animating television shows for a French company. We were working on a tv show for preschoolers and apparently we had a very lenient director back in France who used to look at the pencil tests and approove the scenes. He would ask for retakes in a scene only if there was a glaring error, other wise he would be unmindful of little mistakes. So once, My boss happened to travel to France to attend to some business matters and he met this director. My boss asked him that how come he let goes of the errors which other directors would have scoffed upon. The director replied "Why bother because its going to come and go on the screen and audience is not gonna watch and rewatch the scenes to find out the little mistakes, besides kids don't really care."

I am sure this is not the way most directors think but yes research levels and money spent on different projects are different which eventually decides the quality of a show.

Until Next time,

HS

there is also a question of practicality however. The director if he knows his audience and knows the mistakes dont murder overall quality then i reckon its ok to get away with stuff. i know it might sound wrong but i wouldnt push this point of view if something was being done for say Cinema.

Meanwhile, Ken if the same mistakes have been done for past 25 plus years then there has to be something wrong on both ends. One of the reasons why making storyboards for outsourced projects could be like almost making layouts because it is indeed a difficult task to get an artist at the other end of the world to make things exactly as they are in your mind. Like Robert says it would have been easier if we had been making shoes. Skinny lizard is also right in saying that talent keeps moving on and if you are really going to go for cheap rates then you are gonna have to compromise on quality too.

I don't think the problem is being grasped here.

If the talent "over there" is actually getting "better" and moving on......then where are they moving on to???
Other studios? Seems like 90% of the stuff going overseas comes back awful and the remaining 10% comes back adequate--and its been that way for the past 25 years. That's the constant.
If the talent and studios over there are becoming more familliar with the methods employed over here then the same mistakes should not be made over and over again. If the talent is getting paid "X amount" do do project "Y", then if they have gain any experience in time then they should by rights have an easier time of doing the work on project "Z"--assuming the rate is the same.
Or are the studios over there constantly dropping the pay-rate each project?
Over 25 years, that makes no sense.......

This is what I don't understand. If the turn over is so constant that almost every project has new blood working on it, then where is this "talent pool" coming from and where are the experienced ones going?

"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)

This is what I don't understand. If the turn over is so constant that almost every project has new blood working on it, then where is this "talent pool" coming from and where are the experienced ones going?

Just a thought... What if the teams that make the mistakes are never really given the opportunity to know what those mistakes were. The studios back in North America get fed up in trying to comunicate and just have teams of artists do revisions on the work. They get the overseas supervisor to do a lot of it and just try and fix it as best as they can with the time left!

I can think of oh, at least a dozen series that I have had the pleasure of working on, have exactly that happen.

So, if you don't know you aren't doing things right how are you supposed to fix them.

Not to mention that there aren't two studios in North America that do production in the same manner. There is no standerd procedure. Yes of course layouts, posing etc. but in varying degrees of detail if not order.
Every team figures they can do it better their way, which is probably the case, for them but how do you, in and overseas studio, know exactly what the differences may be? Communication is always the first victim in a production. That's sort of simplified I know but the first thing I was taught in film school, when trying to produce something in a short time, KISS- keep it simple.. stupid- was the way to go.
I think a lot of people forget that early lesson.

The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself. My Blog: Strange Thoughts

i reckon they move upto higher paying studios where the bigger projects go?

There's one thing about animation done overseas that I've been wondering about for some time now: Why in all the 25+ years that stuff has been outsourced overseas has NONE of it really gotten any better?

The same dumb mistakes get made--the same shifty tricks with changing timing charts happens, the same layout mistakes, the same, same, same.......
Doing 'board's here for overseas these days means pretty much doing layouts.......things are specified to a much greater degree today...............yet the quality hasn't improved at all.
Aside from the cheap rates, I see zero advantage to outsourcing work overseas--but cheaps wins over just about anything else these days.

ill hazard a guess. its probably because the studios being used are being used for the bottomlin. the animators get better, get expensive and they move on. so its always the least common denomintor situation (which is cheap)

dont people outsourcing send across somoene or a group that can monitor things AT the studio to ensure things are being done how they are supposed to?