What is the technical term for. . .

[Hoptoad]

I have my characters rigged. I recorded a vocal track. I've done the lip sync.
My next step is to create a scene combining these elements and a background in Moho.
What do you call this step, this combining of assets into one Moho file?
Blocking? "Mise en scene"?

After the elements are combined into one Moho file, I use the camera to zoom and pan and do jump cuts - all in Moho.
What do you call this step?
Editing?
But if this is editing, then what do I call the step when I use an NLE to combine scenes?

Note: there is no storyboard or animatic. I like making decisions spontaneously, on the fly.

[Greenlaw]

I would just call it animation.

Seriously though, that's what it's called, but maybe the distinction your looking for is pre-production vs. production?

Here's where each task generally fits in...

Pre-production is everything before animation is started. It's the stage where you plan your production.

• Script
• Storyboard - sequential drawings based on the script (not animated)
• Design - characters, environments, props
• Rigging
• Editing/Animatic - typically the animatic is the storyboard cut in a video editor with scene timings and audio track. The audio can be temp. Some of scenes can have limited animation but it's not necessary. This animatic is literally the blue print for the production, and you want flow and timing from one scene to the next, and the audio track to represent the final production as accurately as possible.

Production is when all the planning is completed and you start animating.

• Animation
• Compositing and FX (optional)
• Editing/Final
• Sound design and final mixing

This is a typical workflow but you can certainly do things in a different order when it makes sense, and some pre-production tasks might spill over into production. The important thing is to get as much of the planning (preproduction) out of the way first so you can focus on execution and finishing (production/post-production.) If you do the first part well, the second part should go smoothly with few delays or surprises.

Hope this helps.

[Greenlaw]

If you're wondering what post-production is, that's probably more significant in live-action production. It's basically everything that happens after the live footage has been shot, which can involve editing, visual effects, sound design, music, etc.

In animation production the distinction between production and post-production gets squishy because animating the scenes can occur concurrently with these 'post production' tasks.

Personally, I lump production and post-production under just production, but some big studios will make a distinction mainly because of how their departments are structured.

[Hoptoad]

I would just call it animation.
. . .
Hope this helps.

Haha. . ."animation." I laughed.
Thanks for the reply; it was helpful.

See, I have a calendar that I've started using to keep track of my progress on an animation project.
Every scene has a code number.
So "VOX D-01" means I recorded the audio track for scene D-01.
And "LIP SYNC D-01" means I recorded the lip sync for scene D-01.
All this information gets written on my handy-dandy calendar.

It's been working well, but now I want to start keeping track of two other things on the calendar: 1) assembling a Moho file full of assets, and 2) animating the scene.

Based on you reply, I think I'll call the process of assembling assets into a Moho file. . .PREPRODUCTION.

And I think I'll call the zooming, panning, and moving rig bones. . .ANIMATION.

Thanks again.
I think I was over-complicating things.

[Greenlaw]

Oh that's cool!

Yeah, tracking your progress is useful and can help your production stay...well...on track.

Professional productions may use a tracking system like AutoDesk Shotgrid, but for my own personal use, I like Google Sheets and Google Calendar. These apps are free and very capable, and can be run from any device. They can even be shared with a crew.

In my own Google Sheets document, I track each scene by its current status. For example...



The way it works: for each scene I enter info that means anything to me, and I can facilitate the process by using a pop-up list like the one shown in the Status column. The column is set up to change color depending on the item I pick from the list. When I begin the production, all entries are at the Animatic stage and appear in red. As I work though each scene, I upgrade the status. Anim is set when the scene is being animated, Comp is when I'm compositing the scene, and Final is when the shot has been dropped onto the timeline in my video editor. When I'm done, I should see nothing but green for Final.

Depending on the project, I'll make a variation of this format.

In the past, I've made posts in these forums about how to do this, and I have been meaning to create a full video tutorial. Can dig up some info later.

[Greenlaw]

Oh, one more thing: While the above example is specifically to track the status of individual scenes, I sometimes make a separate tracker for asset creation, like character rigs, background art, props, sound fx, etc.

In an asset tracker, I might have columns to list the scenes that use an item, and where they are in the creation process (i.e., design, rigging, ready (to use).) For asset status, color coding the asset name helps, for example red for not-yet-started, yellow for in-progress, and green for ready-to-use.

For a simpler project, I might just include this info the scene tracker's Notes column. Yeah, in fact, I often list exactly which assets (character rigs, backgrounds, etc.) will be used by each scene in its Notes column.

[Hoptoad]

Oh, one more thing: While the above example is specifically to track the status of individual scenes, I sometimes make a separate tracker for asset creation, like character rigs, background art, props, sound fx, etc.

In an asset tracker, I might have columns to list the scenes that use an item, and where they are in the creation process (i.e., design, rigging, ready (to use).)

Thanks for sharing your scene tracking system.

An asset tracking system sounds like something I should be using.
If you have something like that that you can share, I'd love to see it.

[Greenlaw]

Sure! I'll put some examples together along with instructions for how to adapt it for special needs. It's really not hard once you see how it works.

[slowtiger]

Do lists! Do lots of lists!

Whatever method, there will be the moment when you need to document your project at least rudimentary. You can keep the whole movie as it should look in your head, but you can't ever do the same for the progress of the individual parts.

Most of my jobs fit on one sheet of paper which, after the film is finished, is quite rugged and crumpled. I prefer paper plans, it fits my personality and it gives such a nice satisfactory feeling when I can cross out an element.

But my recent project is too large. The first two parts have 200 and 300 scenes already, I have a team of 6 animators, and the client's bookkeepers want to see some proof of progress as well. We're doing it in a Google document which is visible for all. Each line is a scene, columns show sequence, BG, NA (no animation = still frames), dialogue/silent, TH (talking heads = the easy stuff), which characters are in it. Then, once I've prepared the shot, which animator I gave it to, when did it come back for approval, approved, colored, rendered with BG.

[Hoptoad]

Do lists! Do lots of lists!

I'm going to try. My calendar is a kind of list, and as simple as it is, it's been truly helpful.
It reminds me how much I can accomplish in a single day. It keeps me organized (it complements my folder system on my computer).
And, perhaps most of all, it reminds me that eventually my project will be done.

. . .But my recent project is too large. The first two parts have 200 and 300 scenes already, I have a team of 6 animators, and the client's bookkeepers want to see some proof of progress as well. We're doing it in a Google document which is visible for all. Each line is a scene, columns show sequence, BG, NA (no animation = still frames), dialogue/silent, TH (talking heads = the easy stuff), which characters are in it. Then, once I've prepared the shot, which animator I gave it to, when did it come back for approval, approved, colored, rendered with BG.

Six animators? Wow. When it's done, would you mind sharing your experience as the leader of a team of animators? Like, was everybody of equal skill level, and if so, how did you manage it? How did you decide who was assigned each scene? Did you improve the animation in anybody's scene rather than ask them to do it? Did any animator ever try to convince you to do something a different way than what you wanted?

Hm. Back to the original topic: technical terms.

Did you come up with "TH" for Talking Heads? Or is that an industry term?

I'm no longer liking PREPRODUCTION for collecting assets, audio, backgrounds, and rigged characters into a Moho file. As the lip sync has already been done by this point, it's not really PRE. . .production.

I may go with PRODUCTION. . .or STAGING.
I think the word "staging" is used in film production to describe the placement of objects in a frame, and camera locations. That seems pretty close to what I'm doing with my Moho file prior to animating: getting everything together and ready to use, so I can stay focused on animating without needing to make a vector drawing of, say, a potted plant, or record the sound of an eggshell cracking.

Or maybe BLOCKING would be the more accurate filmmakers' term to borrow?

Ugh.

Maybe I should invent a new term.

CABA: Combining Assets Before Animating.

[Lukas]

In this case I would probably call it layout.

We always use productioncharts made in Google Sheets. Especially when working together it's such a versatile way of managing projects.

I can recommend trying to create an animatic before actually hopping into production by the way, it might really make a big difference in your output. There's things to be said about keeping it loose and going with the flow, but 99% of the time a good animatic will improve your project a lot.

[Greenlaw]

Where I work now, layout is the first stage of animation, and it's literally only key poses and maybe an in-between here and there. All the keys on the timeline are stepped, so the perceived motion looks very 'poppy'. At this stage, the animator is focusing ONLY on the key posing and timing. This limited focus helps the animator work quickly with the animation supervisor to get to exactly the animation required for the scene. Other animation studios may use different terminology. For example, at the studio where I worked a long time ago, this stage was called blocking.

Once the layout or blocking is approved, the animator moves onto the primary stage. This is when the step keys are converted to spline (or smooth or whatever it's called in your program) and the animator starts working on the movement and details.

For large productions involving many scenes and animators, working in stages like this is an efficient way to keep things rolling along, but I find having clear steps to follow is helpful even for my tiny personal projects.

And yeah, SlowTiger is right: Lists are your friends! In fact, that tracker example I showed is just a fancy list you can edit.

As I write this post, I realized I've been mainly thinking about 3D animation (because that's what I'm mostly doing these days,) but this subject applies to 2D animation too.

[slowtiger]

In the studio where I learned, "layout" was what some experienced artist did from the storyboard: creating a sketch for the BG artist, indicating character position and size for the animators, and create a field guide (for camera position / moves) as well. That was in the olden analogue days, so it was a bunch of paper in a folder, which was given to some animator eventually.

Sometimes a storyboard asked for too many different backgrounds, so it was my job to condense and simplify this, doctoring the storyboard as well as doing the layouts.

That recent project will have potographed backgrounds for all outside shots, which are goingto be produced by local teams on 3 continents. I just had a video meeting with one of them, explaing my storyboard sketches and floor plans to them. Because of deadline, animation has already begun, but I can only give out all talking head shots because there the BG doesn't matter (it will just be very blurry). All scenes showing complete characters, wide angle shots, everything with visible ground, has to be on hold until the photographs arrive, because I need to make the layout fit the photo.

[Greenlaw]

In the studio where I learned, "layout" was what some experienced artist did from the storyboard: creating a sketch for the BG artist, indicating character position and size for the animators, and create a field guide (for camera position / moves) as well.

Oh, I think you're right. Sorry, I'm confusing layout with primary.

Layout is where all the assets are placed into the scene and framed up for the shot. Primary is the 'blocking' (key poses and timing) stage, and Secondary is the final animation stage. That's what these terms mean where I work anyway.

I need more coffee.

[Hoptoad]

In this case I would probably call it layout.

LAYOUT!

Thank you. After reading the other posts, I think "layout" is the term I've been seeking.

Like Greenlaw said, it's "where all the assets are placed into the scene and framed up for a shot."
That's the step I do after lip sync, and before animating.

By the way. . .I like to lip sync early, because it's methodical and time-consuming, so I like to get it out of the way.
If I recall correctly, Kilian also does the lip syncing prior to animating the characters in "Phungus and Mowld," which is animated in Moho.