The Animation Production Pipeline: Part 1 [The Animation Industry: Preparing for a Career - Unit02]

The Animation Production Pipeline: Part 1

27/01/25 - 31/01/25

Visual development artwork taken from Dream Worlds Production Design for Animation (Bacher, 2012, p.12)

Introduction

This blog post explores the production pipeline and jobs in an animation studio. This post in particular focusses on the development and early preproduction phases of the production pipeline and a second blog post will focus on the latter phases. Whilst looking holistically at these phases this will also analyse the role of visual development in greater depth.

Lecture Notes


This week's lecture (Williams, 2025) explores the animated film production pipeline, focussing on the early phases of development and preproduction. The key learnings from this lecture are:

  • Full production pipeline :
    • Development
    • Pre-production
    • Production
    • Post-Production

  • Development :
    • Concept
      • The core idea of the film you're going to make.
      • High level
      • What if...
        • The toys come alive?
        • A kitchen rat becomes a chef?
        • There were monsters in the closet?
    • Outline
      • Expands detail on the concept to provide more depth on the idea and how it will pan out.
      • 2 - 3 page document that outlines the acts and sequences
    • Treatment
      • Much more detailed idea that maps out how the film will pan out, without dialogue
    • Script
      • Expands the treatment to include the final dialogue
      • 100-120 pages for live action
      • 80 pages for an animated feature film
      • Formatted correctly, final draft is the industry standard software.

  • Pre-Production :
    • Starting to spend more money on the film!
    • Storyboarding begins
      • Head of story and 8 story artists
      • One artist per sequence
      • 4-6 months
    • The story pitch
      • Story artists present the story to the director and explain the story for approval.
    • Editorial
      • Storyboard frames edited into a rough draft for each sequence and ultimately the whole film.
      • This produces the animatic with temporary music, sound effects and dialogue.
    • Proof of concept test
      • Short piece of animation to show investors what the film could look like.
    • Casting voice talent
    • Screening
      • Now the animatic is together its time to get a feel for how the film might feel. Essentially a quality assurance check.
    • Back to storyboards
      • Revise any scenes that aren't as strong as they could be based on feedback from the screening.
    • Visual development
      • What will the film look like?
        • Environments
          • How many environments?
          • How expansive are they?
          • What camera angles will you need?
          • What are the limitations so that we can plan our asset production. This will make sure that money is being spent on making assets and we are getting the most use out of those assets!
        • Characters
          • Turn around sheets
          • Model Packets - explaining how the character should be modelled by the modelling team
          • Character modelling
          • Character Rigging
          • Rig testing - are the rigs fit for purpose?
        • Prop design
      • How can we build a unified look and style to the film?
        • What is the shot progression?
        • How does the colour change throughout the film?

The Role of Visual Development in Preproduction

This section takes a closer look into the role of visual develop to gain a firmer understanding of how this role benefits a animated film. Lee (2018) describes the role as "... visual organization with a purpose." Whilst the core of this role is rooted in concept art of various environmental and character design, it is more about how these components are composed on screen to convey the story. Its about taking all the different available elements and understanding how they work together best. Walt Disney Animation Studios (2025) echoes this explanation of visual development, sometimes referred to as 'vis dev', however, communicate the role as exploring the look of a film, inspired by research, to capture emotion.

Visual Development Art, Moana 2 (2024), taken from Walt Disney Animation Studios (2025)


Visual Development Art, Wish (2023), taken from Walt Disney Animation Studios (2025)

Visual Development Art, Moana 2 (2024), taken from Walt Disney Animation Studios (2025)

Dream Worlds Production Design for Animation (Bacher, 2012) features an array of beautiful visual development work for various Disney films. The book uses the term 'production design' instead of visual development, however, the both descriptions align and shows difference job title names that essentially do the same thing. This also discusses the role as designing the look of the film in order for it to look 'expensive' and high quality. This shows that its all about how different elements can be composed on screen in the best, most artistic way possible so that it has maximum impact on the audience. The book stresses the importance of research, particularly when telling stories set in other cultures. Whilst research is always important ensuring that other cultures are represented accurately is of paramount importance so that misrepresentation is not favoured over artistic decisions.

The images below shows Visual development artwork taken from Dream Worlds Production Design for Animation (Bacher, 2012, p.12). This highlights the core objective of a visual development artist to design the look, composition and flow of the film. The process is to understand and work out what the composition of the shot should be so that it is presented in the best way possible. Leading lines and perspective are used to draw the audience's eye to specific parts of the shot. This is a highly skilled creative flow that ultimately enhances the audiences experience by communicating story in the most visually pleasing way possible.

Visual development artwork taken from Dream Worlds Production Design for Animation (Bacher, 2012, p.12)


Visual development artwork taken from Dream Worlds Production Design for Animation (Bacher, 2012, p.13)

Becker (VISUAL DEVELOPMENT AT DREAMWORKS- HOW I GOT THE JOB, 2013) discusses the process of getting a job in visual development. To no surprise, having a strong portfolio is one of the leading factors. However, having a portfolio with a style that is tailored to the studio you're applying to is important because it shows them that you can provide the type of art that that studio needs and can therefore do the job. Furthermore, having a portfolio that shows what type of visual development you're good at, e.g. characters or environments etc., is even better. Kurinsky and Vignali (Sony Pictures Animation - Visual Development Portfolio Tips, 2019) mirror this opinion by discussing that you should put your best work first and then show other work towards the back to demonstrate some versatility. This highlights how important it is to curate and tailor your portfolio to the skills you're best at and the studios you're applying to. 

Furthermore, Becker (VISUAL DEVELOPMENT AT DREAMWORKS- HOW I GOT THE JOB, 2013) explains that in order to stand out your portfolio to stand out you want to explore your own style and include storytelling elements. Opposed to just doing art that demonstrates core character design you could think about how you can use research to explore different cultures to make your character's background stories really shine through their design. This demonstrates creative skill beyond the raw ability to design and render artwork and therefore a very sought after skill because you will really breathe life into the productions you work on.

There are a range of core skills needed for this job role. Mastery of art theory and concepts (light, colour, composition, perspective, volume etc.) is key so that you have the artistic ability to produce images (Sony Pictures Animation - Visual Development Portfolio Tips, 2019). One of the harder skills is the creative understanding to determine how a shot should be composed to most effectively communicate the emotion and story in a particular shot. This impacts the final final because if a shot's composition is well planned and figured out in the preproduction stages, when it is brought to life by the animators and 3d artists, then overall quality of the final shot will be much greater. This creative perspective will grow as a visual development artist gains more experience and understanding of what was most successful. 

Conclusion

It is clear to see how this job role affects an overall film. Skilful composition will take a shot from looking amateur to professional, however, working out what the key to this is the challenge. The skills linked to this job role I am interested in developing in my own preproduction practises because taking time to consider the overall look of a film will enhance the overall perception of quality. This impacts so many different aspects from environment design to the shape language in the character poses. Perfecting how these different elements are composed together brings harmony and supports storytelling significantly. 

This is a particularly challenging skill set because understanding what a good composition is is very difficult and depends on a range of factors from camera angles, set design, colour, mood, emotion, value. However, understanding how these elements work together and trying out a variety of ideas for each shot is the key to success. This can be experimented with simply in the preproduction phase through iterating through concepts, trial and error and reflection, however, will only be mastered through experience from one shot to the next and one production to the next. This process will develop experience which is often the most impactful factor when developing an artist's ability to produce high quality outcomes.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Understand the key stages of the early production pipeline, including concept development, storyboarding, and pre-visualisation.
  2. Identify the importance of pre-production in setting an animated project's creative and technical direction.
  3. Reflect on the skills and roles involved in the initial stages of production.

Reference List

  1. Bacher, H. (2012) Dream Worlds Production Design for Animation. S.l.: Routledge.
  2. Lee, N. (2018) What is Visual Development in Animation? Available at: https://www.animationmentor.com/blog/what-is-visual-development-in-animation/ (Accessed: 31st January 2025).
  3. Sony Pictures Animation - Visual Development Portfolio Tips (2019) YouTube video, added by Ethan Becker [Online]. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrEweKcDgnE (Accessed: 31st January 2025).
  4. VISUAL DEVELOPMENT AT DREAMWORKS- HOW I GOT THE JOB (2013) YouTube video, added by Sony Pictures Animation [Online]. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fF43pMRZamw (Accessed: 31st January 2025).
  5. Walt Disney Animation Studios (2025) Filmmaking Process: Visual Development Available at: https://disneyanimation.com/process/visual-development/ (Accessed: 31st January 2025).
  6. Williams, A. (2025) 'The Animated Production Pipeline - Part1' [Video Lecture], 7WCT2011-0105-2024: The Animation Industry: Preparing for a Career. University of Hertfordshire. 24th January.

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