The Nine Steps of Animation Production

The Nine Steps of Animation Production

Our Production Process Guide

Sketch My Picture Animation Process - 9 Step Guide

We make videos for many different companies, organisations & artists. Whatever the challenge you have, we can help you by creating a custom made video to help solve it. Every project is different, but here is a step-by-step guide to help you understand how it works. The steps can vary a bit depending on the type of video, the timeframe, animation style and budget. Don’t worry, we’ll guide you through each step in the process. If you would like some more details or have any questions, please get in touch and we are happy to help.

1. Brief

Animated Video Production Step 1 - Brief

We need a brief from the client. Please use our Contact Form or send us an email to explain the basic idea, concept, the type of video, the length, when you need it by and your budget range. We will get back to you asap. This basic information will allow us to provide you with a ballpark estimated price range. If you have a script or storyboard at this stage, this helps to provide an exact quote.

2. Script

Animated Video Production Step 2 - Script Writing

Please provide a signed-off script that includes the voice-over narrative. Keep your story short, simple & easy to digest. Consider who it’s for to ensure the video is relevant to them.

3. Storyboard

Animated Video Production Step 3 - Storyboard

We recommend you provide a simple sketch storyboard for your video, outlining each scene. Please include scene numbers, scene lengths and any animation notes. It’s a good idea to include the voice-over script for each scene below the panels. If you need any help, we can also send you a couple of examples of storyboards from our previous animated video projects for inspiration. We even have our own custom blank storyboard template for print, which we are happy to send you when you are ready to partner!

4. Design / Visual Style

Animated Video Production Step 4 - Design & Visual Style

Here we start coming up with the best visual style direction for your video. Please check out our portfolio for examples and let us know what you like. A big part of our production process is creating a 100% custom video for each project.

5. Voice-Over

Animated Video Production Step 5 - Voice Over Recording

Here, we need your finished VO recording. This will be needed for the next step, animation. We prefer if you provide the VO because then you can hire the perfect voice-over artist for your message and it saves time because you deal directly with them. If you need us to hire a voice-over artist to provide the VO recording instead, please let us know from the start and we will add this cost to the quote.

6. Illustration

Animated Video Production Step 6 - Illustration

Here we start creating all the artwork and illustrations required for animating each scene in the animation. We create all these from scratch, in-house. This includes the design of characters, props and backgrounds. Please note that we don’t use stock characters, stock artwork or drag-and-drop, which makes our videos more unique and different.

7. Animation

Animated Video Production Step 7 - Animation

Here we animate each scene to tell your story, based on the storyboard and script. You know what you want to communicate and we are here to help you do it with our own custom designs and animations. When the animated scenes/shots are completed, we render them out. Next, we apply post effects such as colour manipulation, colour grading, visual effects, noise and any other adjustments. We then perform the video editing to combine all the animated sequences.

8. Music & Sound Effects

Animated Video Production Step 8 - Music & Sound Effects

The last stage in the production is sound mixing. Here we add any sound effects and help you find the perfect royalty-free song, to further enhance the animated video. It’s amazing how much difference music and sound effect can make!

9. Delivery

Animated Video Production Step 9 - Delivery

Once finalized, rendered and encoded, we upload the video in beautiful 1080p HD resolution (4K optional) for approval. Once approved, you can download it in full quality and use it on your website, YouTube, Vimeo, trade-show, email, sales-meeting and anywhere else you want. As part of the process we give you free, custom embedding code to have it embedded anywhere you want in a single step, including on your website, blog, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google & Twitter.

“It is without a doubt that I can say Anders is a unique animator because his goal is not to finish a project and move on, it’s to make something he enjoys to make and has pride in and the final product shows us his love of animation.”
Jeff Rolfzen
The Lark and the Loon

We work remotely with all clients worldwide. Please have a look at our client testimonials page. Have a question about our production process above or about our services? Simply ask and we’ll get back to you asap. Feel free to contact us via email or call us at +44 7531 800 711 to speak to Anders – your experienced animated video director.