What Does an Animation Editor Do?

Movieola

The Film Editor is one of the most important and creative roles on any production. The animation editor is involved in every process of planning and production, from the earliest stages, including cutting and editing the storyboard animatic.

Making an animated film is a collaborative effort and is almost always completed with a team of people; the editor is one of the key creative roles on any production.

We encourage all our students at Escape Studios to try their hand at film editing, it's an important job and one of the most interesting seats to occupy on any production.

Adam & Eve Mk II - edited by Sebastian Kuder

Animation is Different from Live Action
Animated films are not made like live-action films. In live action, you shoot a bunch of footage, including multiple versions of scenes, and multiple takes of scenes. In animation, the storyboard artist and editor work together to cut a storyboard animatic of the film. Once the animatic is complete, this becomes the blueprint from which to animate the film.  As Ken Schretzmann, editor of Toy Story 3 and Cars, puts it: "On live action, you shoot first and edit later.  In animation, you edit first and then shoot it later."

Editing an animated film
In animation, the editor is one of the key creatives on the project. The editor works with the writer, director and board artists to make the animatic as good as it can be. 

The editor will help to time out the boards, add sound effects and also add a music soundtrack - where needed.  Sound is, after all, 50% of the viewer's experience.  Cutting, voice overs, sound design - these are all areas where the editor needs to gain experience.

Film Editing at Escape Studios

Jerich0 - edited by Daniel Dutton

At Escape Studios, we assign a students to act as editor for all of our film projects. This is usually someone with some experience of using Premiere Pro, which is the principal editing software we use at Escape.

Animation Dailies

The editor acts as the fulcrum of the production. During animation dailies, the edit gets reviewed on a daily basis, and each night the editor will find him or herself busy cutting in all the latest elements - storyboards, 3D layout, Animation, final comp - whatever stage each shot is at. This involves keeping track of a great deal of material, and making sure that each shot is up to date and the latest version.  A good editor is a film-maker, but also needs good organisational skills, to ensure that the production runs smoothly.

Rules for Editors

Storyboard with mask shows shot & frame #

Some basic rules for editors: 

• Update the edit every day. At the end of each day, artists send their files to the editor to update the edit, and the editor exports a new video file every morning for review in animation dailies.  
• Add a mask over the edit, showing important information such as the shot number, frame count, which artist did the work, and what stage the shot is at, such as "3D Layout", "Animation Blocking" etc.  This way the person reviewing the work knows exactly what they are looking at. 

• 

  3D Layout with storyboard cropped in

  When adding 3D Layout scenes to the edit, crop in a small image of the original storyboard in the top left hand corner. This helps to show the viewer what the original story point was, so we don't lose track of the story. 

Film-making Resources
For more information on making animated short films, follow the links below:

Development & Pre-Production

• How to Write a Story
• How to pitch your film idea
• Why Animators Need Mood Boards
• Why Animators Need Colour Scripts
• Managing Group Projects
• Why Animators Need a Storyboard Animatic
• How to Record Voice-Overs

Production

• Why Animators Must Wreck Their Rigs
• What an Animation Editor Does, Exactly
• How Animation Dailies Works
• Why Animators Must Check Their Hookups
• What are CBBs? (Could be Better)

Post-Production

• Working with Composers
• Colour Grading your film
• Thanks and Special Thanks - Getting Film Credits Right
• How to Create the Perfect One-Sheet Movie Poster (and Why You Need One)
• Getting Yourself (and your film) Listed at IMDB

The Escape Studios Animation Blog offers a personal view on the art of animation and visual effects. To apply for our BA/MArt in 3D Animation, follow this link.  To apply for our storyboarding evening class, visit this page here.  For the next 12 week animation course, click here.