Why Animators Need Production Design

"Street Ratz", Production Design by Austin Hill

Animators, as everyone knows, are actors with a pencil - or a mouse. But as well as performance, animators need to think about design and composition. 

It is especially important when working on an animated scene to consider the environment the character is inhabiting.  

One of the most common mistakes made by student animators is to combine a realistic character (say, a dinosaur or dragon) with a cartoony environment. The character and the set come from different worlds, and they don't always work well together.

Consistent Visual Style

Cartoony dragon by Shauna Ludgate

When animators download free sets from sites like Turbosquid or tf3dm.com, it's important to be consistent in the overall style of the shot.   

Of course, in a studio environment the set design will be done by  someone else, but it's a different story when you are working from home and building a demo reel - you have to build your own environments and make your own visual choices.

Realistic -v- Cartoony

Dinosaur by Edoardo Sartori

The trick is to ask yourself - does the character and the environment inhabit the same world? A very cartoony character like "Monty" works well in a cartoony set.  

A realistic character, such as many of the photorealistic animals created by Truong CG, work best in a realistic set (see right).  Try to keep character and environment harmonious, so that the overall style has a consistent flavour.

Colour Design

Animators also need to think about their colour palette, in particular whether or not to use warm or cool colours. Colour, like everything else in animation, is a choice, and a good animator makes choices based on the mood and feeling they are trying to create. To see more about Colour Design for animators, watch the video below.

 

Escape Studios Film-making Resources

For a variety of information and resources on the making of animated short films, follow the links below:

Development & Pre-Production

• How to Write a Story
• How to make a short animated film
• 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
• Sound Design for Animators
• Why Animators Need Production Design

Production

• Why Animators Must Wreck Their Rigs
• What an Animation Editor Does, Exactly
• Ten Rules of Animation Dailies
• Why Animators Must Check Their Hookups
• What are CBBs? (Could be Better)
• Using Lighting to Tell the Story

Post-Production

• How Animators Work with Composers
• Royalty-free music at Bensound
• 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.