- So I've recently released my third animated short film,
Tasteful, and I thought I'll make a video showing all
the different steps behind making 3D animated short film,
from start to finish.
And explain them as simply as I can.
So that even if you're not from the animation
and visual effects industry, you'll be able to get an idea
of what it takes to make an animated movie.
Oh, and there's a very cool surprise at the end,
so make sure you watch it all the way through.
So the first, and probably the most important part
of making any film, is a good story.
If you don't get your story right, then no matter how
great your film looks, people will not enjoy watching it.
Make sure your story is good and that it works,
before you move on.
And trust me, even if you think it works now,
it's gonna change a ton as we move on with the production.
So the first thing we do after we have our story,
is write it in a script.
It's important to transfer your idea into words
as soon as you can, so that you can spot any issues
with your story, before you get into production.
There are a few programs you can use
for writing your scripts, like Final Draft or Celtx.
I personally like to use Scrivener, which is probably
the best all-purpose writing program there is,
but the program doesn't really matter.
Then once I wrote my script, I try to create as many
concept art pieces as I can, to start establishing
the visual style for the film.
And when I say I, I mean my concept art team, made out of
awesome artists, who are the ones who created all
the concept art for the film.
That's a really fun step and the first chance you get
to see parts of your film come to life on paper.
It's all about exploring and trying things out.
Next, is creating a storyboard, which is probably
one of the most important steps in figuring out your film.
Storyboarding allows you to look at your film as a whole,
and spot story and piecing issues.
Making one also provides you with something you can show
other people, for feedback.
Most people react better to a storyboard than a script.
At this point I tweak my story, and make changes
until I'm pleased with the boards, and ready to move onto
making it animatic.
An animatic is the movie version of your storyboard.
Storyboard is more like a comic book, and an animatic
is like a movie.
You bring all the boards into an editing program
and edit them with the correct timing.
Add some temporary music and sound effects,
just enough to convey the different story beats.
When you're done with that, you have the first version
of your film, ready to watch.
As great as a storyboard is, an an animatic really gives
you the first glimpse of what your film is going to be like.
Show it to people again, get some more feedback, tweak
the boards, the timing, and the pacing, until you are
very happy with how the film works.
Then, it's time to get into a 3D.
We start with modeling.
Basically creating all the digital models for the film.
The environments, the sets, the props, and of course,
the characters.
We use the concept art and model sheets we created earlier,
and model based on them.
The models when first created, can't really do much.
We can place them in our scenes, but they can't really move
until we rig them.
And that's our next step, rigging.
When we talk about rigging a model, we mean creating
some kind of a digital skeleton with different controls,
to move it around.
Before we rigged our models, they were like statues.
But now, they are more like action figures, only with much
more nuanced motions.
The rigger makes sure we have different controls for each
part of the body and face, sow e can create every action
and expression we need.
Then we bring our rigged models into the 3D program,
and start creating our shots.
You place all the assets where they need to be,
and create a 3D camera to capture the shot.
You position the cameras and characters in place,
just like we would have if we were shooting
a live action movie.
And then it's time to bring life into the shots,
with animation.
Before I start the final actual animation though,
there is one more important step in making sure
the story works.
And that is creating a previz, or a pre visualization.
This is the next incarnation of our animatic.
This time using your 3D models.
W set up all the shots in the 3D program, with all the final
camera angles in motion.
And create very basic animation for the characters.
Just enough to convey the action
they're supposed to be doing.
Then we bring all these shots to the editing program,
just like we did with the animatic, and we now have a
previz version of our film,
with the correct 3D models and camera motion.
This is really the last step you can still make changes in,
because animation takes a very long time and it will be
a huge waste if we had to make story changes after that.
So again, I show it to more people, get some more feedback,
and make sure I'm completely happy with the film.
And now it's time for animation.
Animation is my favorite part of the film making process.
And that's where we finally bring life into the film.
The characters start to move, and we can see the soul
of the film come to life in front of us.
It's an amazing thing to see.
But it also takes a lot of time, and done incorrectly,
can ruin your film.
Bad animation is like bad acting.
Even if the writing and story are solid, people won't
see it if the delivery is wrong.
The way we animate the characters, is by moving the controls
we created when we rigged the models.
We manipulate those controls, to get our characters
in the right pose, create a key frame, which captures
that pose in the computer, and then we move the controls
to the next pose, and repeat.
There's of course a lot more technicality to it,
but this is the gist of it.
Then before we can export our shots, we need to texture
our models.
That means creating different materials we assign
to the different parts of the models.
Some that simulate metal, some plastic,
and even a few for skin.
We give them the right colors and light up our shots
with virtual lights, replicating as closely as we can
how lights work in the real world.
One major light for the whole scene, acting as a sunlight.
And a few spotlights on our points of interest,
just like a movie set.
Then when our shots are textured and lit,
we start rendering.
Rendering is the process of the computer calculating
all of the data in our scenes, and creating still images
from it.
We then take those images to a compositing program
like Nuke or After Effects, extract the necessary data,
and pictures, and combine them to create the final images.
This process of rendering and compositing is very technical
and unfortunately too complicated for me to get into
in this video.
But if you're interested in that, search these two terms
on YouTube, and you can find some in depth tutorials
on how the process works.
So, back tour images.
Once we have them, we bring them back to our editing program
and replace our previous shots with our new finished shots,
just like we replaced the animatic shots with the previous.
We are now able to see our finished film
on the editing timeline for the first time.
But it's not really finished yet.
We need to do some color correction and grading.
Color correction is the process of manipulating
the colors of each individual shot, so that it matches
the one that comes before it, and after.
We also make sure each shot doesn't have parts that are
too white, or too black.
Basically working so that we get a consistent
and correct color all throughout the film.
Then we grade our film, which is the more fun
and creative part, in which we try to create a visual style
for the colors of the whole film,
to give it a distinct look.
I tried to push the pinks and purples in this film,
and created some kind of a washed out look
with pastel colors, that I really like.
Then, before we are done, there are two major things
we have to take care of.
And ones that we have probably been working on
all throughout the production, and that is sound design
and music.
I've been working with my musician
from day one of production.
Making sure the music fits
what we're trying to do with the film.
And making sure that the film works with the music, too.
A lot of the timing is dictated by the music.
Music is not usually something you can slap on at the end.
I prefer to have it with me throughout the production,
so it becomes an integral part of the story.
And then the sound designer finalizes
all the film's sound effects, like folly,
ambience and voices, as well as mastering and mixing
the final audio for the film.
So this was a very quick overview of what it takes
to make an animated short film, but if you wanna learn more,
I have a cool surprise for you. .
I've created a complete 30 lessons video course,
detailing each of these steps with much more depth,
as well as a lot of other topics related to making
a film, like making a poster, or a trailer,
creating a website for the film, how to submit to festivals,
and much, much more.
And it's completely free.
If you enjoyed this video,
you're probably gonna like the course.
It is the only course in our library, that is free.
But trust me, it doesn't feel like a free course.
Go sign up at bloopanimation.com/making an animated movie.
(upbeat music)