Previsualisation in contemporary animation

Pre-visualisation is the process of planning out complex scenes ahead of time. Processes such as storyboarding fall under this category, as does the process of creating an animatic for animated productions. As the technology evolves and proliferates, so too do the methods which artists and creators have at their disposal for pre-visualising their projects. Most animated productions nowadays employ digital methods of pre-visualisation, which vary from production to production. These processes can range from 3D software for visualising complex scenes in a 3D environment to digitally produced hand drawn sketches for character concepts, animatics and storyboards.

In animation in particular, the pre-visualisation process is important to ensure an efficient workflow. With animation being such a labour intensive, time consuming process, studios often divide large teams into specialist areas for efficiency sake. Usually this starts with the concept phase of production, depending on the nature of the project, most projects begin with artist sketches based off some sort of treatment or project briefs. These may include things like character designs, environments or prop designs. Before a character design can be used by a group of animators, they must be formalised, in the case of 2D animation, with model sheets depicting a turnaround of the characters drawn to scale.

Storyboarding is also important in the case of film animation, as a storyboard artist plans out ahead of time the staging of a scene and any directorial decisions such as camera movements. The storyboards are then often converted into an animatic, where the pace of the editing is decided upon. Depending on the production, the animatic can either consists of a set of storyboards set to sound or some early design assets, such as keyframes or backgrounds played in a sequence to act as placeholder until the assets have been finalised. This allows animators and directors to notice and pre-emptively iron out any problems in the pacing of a scene or timing of a motion and minimise the construction of unnecessary components.