Unlike movies that are filmed on location with actors, props, and sets, animated movies require a different realm of components and a different process toward creation. What are the steps involved in the creation of an animated movie? Ever since the first color animated feature film, “Snow White,” (1937) was created by Disney, the process has been refined to a state that has been used for decades. The process maximizes on the efficiencies of time, artistic, and voice talent.
The Pitch
The first step in the process is to pitch the story to a development team or studio. Often plots are taken from well-known stories or novels. The basis for “Shrek,” for example, was from William Steig’s picture book “Shrek!” The movie greatly expanded on the storyline and made creative changes to the animation. The pitch is critical to the process to gain support and financial backing to move forward.
Text Treatment
Second, a text treatment is developed by the creative team. A text treatment is a synopsis of the story to provide a full overview. Often more than one treatment is created to refine and take the best parts for the ultimate and final product.
Storyboard Development
The third step is where a lot of creative energy comes into play. This is the step where illustrators and animators develop the scenes for the movie and refine the overall appearance of each character. Frames of scenes are developed by character teams based on the text treatments and further refinements of the story. This is almost like creating a comic book version to develop and refine the visuals.
The storyboard phase enables the team to conceptualize the various emotions, facial contortions, scenery, and costumes that the movie will employ. The voice talent is often involved in this stage to help develop the characters’ facial features, voice characteristics, and body movements. Storyboards help refine the overall direction of the movie and the director is able to make major adjustments during this phase.
The Voice
The casting for the voice talent is often as involved as casting for a live-action movie. Voice talent is selected during the initial steps when the creative team envisions the primary quality of the character. The storyboards are further developed into reels to provide movement and match the voice to the animated character. The director will work with the actors to provide guidance.
Often the voice actors are by themselves in a sound booth recording the dialog in a variety of ways. The director will pick the best version, or the voice talent will return to further develop the dialog. While several characters interact on the screen, often they were not even in the same sound booth or same place during recording.
However, “Rango,” the first full length animated movie by ILM, used a technique that director Gore Verbinski calls “raw and kenetic.” Rather than the traditional sound booth capture, Gore created a real set complete with costumes and props for the actors to fully interact and “get into character” with one another. The main voice talent worked side-by-side, unlike sound booth capture films.
The Environment
While all of the previous steps are occurring, the art department is busy creating the environment in which the movie takes place. The tone, the moment in time, the color palette, and basically all of the movie sets are created by this team. Often the lead illustrators and animators take discovery trips to places that provide inspiration.
For instance, for the movie “The Lion King,” teams went to Africa to experience the topography, wildlife, and fauna to create a realistic backdrop. The set design is as important as a character to the overall quality of the movie. The images shown in this article are from the most recent “Cars 2″ movie, showing the concept art for a few architectural elements, including the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
3D Modeling
Once the characters are fully developed on paper, they are then sculpted in clay to provide a full 3D image. Sometimes they are modeled into 3D directly on a computer rather than sculpted. One way or another, they are computerized and the computer animators give life to their characters with the ability to make as many facial movements as any human — if not more animated.
Putting it All Together
With the final script in hand, the art department finalizes the sets and the character teams complete the finishing touches on each character. The director works with all of the teams to bring the movie to life. Because this is animation, the act of computer rendering involves huge amounts of data that are processed by large systems that can translate the information into stunning, lifelike animation frame by frame. Lighting and shading provide realism to each scene and are incorporated into the scenes just the same way as a live, non-animated movie would be done, only with digital light and shading. This helps create the tone and mood the director wants to convey.
First Looks
During the entire process the marketing department has its foot in the door and takes reels of work to create what will become the ads and first glimpses for eager fans. This builds the hype and excitement for the audience, and is often like looping back to the first step, the pitch. Only this time it is for the audience to get them excited enough to want to see the movie. If the advertising and marketing team did its job, you’ll soon be in a theater near you enjoying an animated movie.
From start to finish, the timeline for creating an animated movie is often longer than a live-action movie, oftentimes taking an average of three to four years. The Walt Disney animated movie “Tangled” took about two years. The next time you watch an animated movie, hopefully this has shed some light on the process and given you a greater appreciation of the work involved.
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