"Onion skinning" in animation is a technique that allows animators to see multiple frames at once!

Production Designer -

Oversees entire look of the film, from bluesky to final composite

Provides feedback and manages teams

Mainly responsible for Look of Picture and creation of style guide

More communication heavy role than design/labor intensive role

Producer -

Facilitates communication between roles

Conducts weekly check-ins with each department

Ensures deadlines are met

Maintains production schedule and makes sure we’re on track

STORY

Story Supervisor -

Does a rough board pass for the entire film after ideation night

Revisionist -

Revises and cleans boards, helps clarify story, provides finished boards for animatic

CHARACTER DESIGN

Lead Character Designer -

Provides finalized character design, turnarounds, and expression sheet

Exploratory Character Designers -

Bluesky exploration of potential character designs

VISUAL DEVELOPMENT

Production Designer -

Oversees entire design process and style guide, involves visdev team via assignments, provides look of picture

Environment Artists (Environment, Props) -

Contributes to style guide, provides concept art, color script, and exploration of story’s world

ANIMATION

Animation Supervisor -

Assigns shots and oversees animation quality, gives notes to team

Key Animators -

Executes Key Poses and Breakdowns, One (or two) per character

In-Between Animators -

Executes InBetweens from Keys and Breakdowns

Cleanup Artists -

Clean up rough animation

Colorists -

Color final animation

BACKGROUNDS

Production Designer -

Gives notes on and approves layouts and finals backgrounds

Layout Artists -

Creates layouts for animation department using storyboards

Background Painters -

Paints final backgrounds from layout department

POST PRODUCTION

Lead Compositor -

Leads development of compositing style w/ team, assigns shots, composites

Compositor -

Completes shots assigned by lead

Editor -

Creates final cut of film using shots completed by compositing department

We have weekly general meetings. Most roles have additional team meetings.

Join the Discord and Instagram to stay in the loop!

Yayyy! We will do our best to teach you. A good starting point is to familiarize yourself with TVPaint, our 2D animation program of choice.

The role of an "animation colorist" on a film is great for beginners dipping their toes-- it is essentially filling in each frame like a coloring book.

Of course! Animated films are not created by just visual artists. We work with musicians and composers, editors and compositors, and writers, to name a few. Feel free to attend meetings just to hang out and see how you can contribute!

The semesterly film frequently changes hands, and many duties for roles last only a few weeks. You may be too late for some roles situated earlier in the pipeline, such as visual development or storyboarding, but many positions, like animation inkers and colorists, as well as compositors, are needed to finish up the film!

It depends!

To simulate studio settings, we try to use industry-standard programs. For production shot organizing, we use Google Sheets. For editing, we use Premiere Pro. For our 2D animation, we use TVPaint. For background layout and painting, we use Photoshop. For compositing, we use After Effects.

Many roles, though, such as music composition and visual development (especially exploratory) have more leeway since there isn't as much need for specificity!

Cintiqs are available in the SCB-102 lab with access to these programs, in limited quantity and at limited times with priority to Animation + Digital Art majors.