A decent story is a first and most crucial component in making any movie. People won’t like seeing a movie, no matter how beautiful it is, if the story isn’t compelling and well-told. Before moving on, be sure your story is air-tight. And believe me, even if you think it works right now, it’s going to change a lot as the manufacturing goes on.
Using an Animatic
The movie adaptation of your storyboard is called an ‘animatic.’ An animatic is more like a movie, but a storyboard is more like a comic book. You import every board into an editing program and time the editing to be accurate. Just enough sound effects and temporary music should be included to express the various character beats. When you’re done, the first draft of your movie is complete and available for viewing. Even while storyboards are fantastic, an animatic actually offers you the first taste of what your finished movie will look like. Once you are completely satisfied with the way the video functions, show it to other people, get feedback, and make any necessary adjustments to the boards, time, and pacing. Then it’s time to enter three dimensions.
Rigging Your Models
Rigging a model refers to the process of building a digital skeleton with various controls for movement. Our models were like statues before we rusted them. However, they now resemble action figures more, albeit with much more subtle motions. In order for us to generate whatever motion or expression we require, the rigger makes sure we have distinct controls for every area of the body and face. After that, we load our rigged models into the 3D software and begin building our shots. You arrange all the components where they should be and build a 3D camera to take the picture. You put the cameras and actors in their respective locations just like you would if you were filming a live-action movie. After that, it’s time to add animation to the photos to give them life. But there’s still one more crucial step I need to take to make sure the tale holds together before I begin the final animation.
Making a Previz
Making a ‘previz,’ often known as a pre-visualization, is the glue that holds your story together. This is our animation’s subsequent incarnation. Use your 3D models this time. All of the photos were prepared in a 3D program with the final camera angles moving and giving the characters fairly simple animation. Just enough to indicate what they should be doing. Then, much as with the animatic, we import all these shots into the editing program. At this point, we have a previz version of our movie with the appropriate 3D models and camera motion. Since animation takes a very long time and would be a major waste if we had to change the story after that, this is truly the last step in which you may still change elements of your movie. So once more, I’ll show it to more people, receive more input, and ensure that the movie is perfect before I release it.
Modeling
Modeling is where we begin. In essence, we produced all of the movie’s computer models: the settings, sets, props, and, naturally, the characters. We construct a model based on the concept art and model sheets produced earlier. The models’ initial capabilities are somewhat limited. They can be placed in our scenarios, but until we rig them, they won’t actually move.
Is a Script Used?
To identify any problems with your story before you begin production, it’s critical to put your idea into words as soon as you can. You can write your scripts using a number of different programs, such as Final Draft or Celtx. It doesn’t really matter which writing program you use; I personally use Scrivener, which is perhaps the best all-purpose writing application available. Following the completion of my script, I made an effort to produce as many pieces of concept art as I could in order to begin developing the film’s visual aesthetic. When I say I, I really mean my fantastic concept art team, who came up with all of the ideas for the movie. This is a tremendously enjoyable process because it gives you the first opportunity to see scenes from your movie come to life on paper. Exploration and experimentation are key.
Creating a Storyboard
The next stage in planning out your film is to create a storyboard, which is perhaps one of the most crucial steps. Storyboarding enables you to examine your movie as a whole and identify pacing and story problems. Additionally, creating one gives you something to show others when requesting feedback. A storyboard typically elicits more responses from viewers than a script does. I now adjust my plot and make modifications until I’m happy with the storyboards and prepared to begin creating the animatic.
Animation Time
My favorite aspect of the filmmaking process is animation. We give the movie its ultimate spark at that point. As the characters begin to move, the movie’s heart begins to manifest itself in front of our eyes. It’s incredible to witness. But it takes a lot of time, and not doing it right might damage your movie. Poor animation is akin to poor acting. Even if the writing and plot are excellent, if the delivery is poor, people won’t see it. We move the controls we made when we rigged the models to animate the characters. We work with those controls to position our characters correctly, after which we produce a keyframe that records that position in the computer, move the controls to the next position, and so on. Technically, there is obviously a lot more to it, and this is just an overview of the process. Then, we must texture our models before exporting our images.
Texturing Your Models
This entails producing several materials that we assign to the various components of the models. Some of them have the appearance of metal, some plastic, and a few even have the appearance of skin. To imitate how real lights function as closely as possible, we give them the proper colors and use virtual lights to illuminate our photos. One main light that simulates sunlight illuminates the entire landscape as on a movie set, with a few spotlights on our main points of interest. We begin rendering after our shots are properly illuminated and detailed.
Designing Sound and Music
Since the first day of production, I’ve been collaborating with my musician to ensure that the music complements the film’s message and the film as a whole. The music controls a lot of the time. Usually, you can’t just put some music on at the end. I wish to hold it about while filming so that it contributes significantly to the narrative. The sound designer then completes all of the movie’s sound effects, such as folly, ambiance, and voices, as well as mastering and combining the movie’s final audio.
Importing Onto Your Editing Timeline
Now that we have them, we import them back into our results and outputs and replace the older, unfinished images with the new, finished ones, exactly like we did with the animatic frames. For the first time, we can now watch our completed movie on the editing timeline. But it’s not quite done yet.
Color Grading and Correction
We need to grade and adjust the colors. Each shot’s colors are adjusted during color correction to make sure they match those of the shots before and after it. Additionally, we make sure that no portion of any photo is very white or overly black. In essence, our goal is to ensure that the film’s color is accurate and constant throughout. The more enjoyable and creative part of the process is when we grade the movie. Here, we aim to develop a color palette for the entire movie in order to give it a unique appearance. In this movie, I really wanted to push the pinks and purples, so I used pastel hues to produce a washed-out aesthetic that I really adore. Then, before we finish, there are two important issues that need to be resolved.
Rendering and Compositing
Rendering is the technique through which the computer analyses all the information in our scenes and produces still images. After extracting the essential information and photographs, we mix those images in a compositing application like Nuke or AfterEffects to produce the final results. Unfortunately, it would be impossible for me to get into the technical details of this rendering and compositing process in this essay. However, if you’re interested in that, you can discover some in-depth lessons on how the process works by searching for these two terms on YouTube. So let’s get back to the pictures. This was a fairly succinct rundown of the procedures necessary to make an anime short film. This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.
