Process Example

Here’s an example of a typical process for a fully animated video, in this case, 3D animation. Since the process work I’ve done for tech companies the last few years is under NDA, I went back a number of years to my independent days as a freelancer and dug up a project I did for an ad agency in SF. Even though this is an older piece for a healthcare client, the process is still relevant and a good case study for a 1 person (almost) job.

From start to finish the project took roughly 6 weeks, if I remember correctly: 2-3 weeks up front for concept development, the back and forth on the script with the client, and then another 3-4 weeks for the production.

In this case, I concepted, designed and animated the final production. I hired an additional animator for a few days to focus on the “flocking” simulations that you’ll see with the school of fish and the butterfly swarm.

We rendered this on Macs at the agency as the budget was tight. The renders are from 9 years ago, so the look is a little dated and render engines are far more advanced today, but the final result was great by the standards at the time.

The Ask

The brief from the client was to create a :60 TV spot that distinguishes the hospital as a national leader and a destination for premiere healthcare. Essentially, they gave the agency a list of stats, awards and accolades and wanted them to make an infographic commercial.

1. Concept and Direction

We presented 3 different ideas, but the client immediately was drawn to these simple handmade and playful paper-craft interpretations of the landscapes on the Monterey Peninsula. They thought it separated them from other healthcare commercials and when we presented, believed we had actually built the models practically and photographed them instead of creating them digitally. Since I was involved at the concept stage, it was easier to set and manage expectations and design and plan accordingly. This is the treatment and outline of the concept:

2. Storyboard

From the above outline, we generated the script, refined and fleshed out the full storyboard:

3. Board-omatic

This is a stage where the storyboard is edited in video form against the script and/or voice narration with music and any other sound for testing and timing.

4. Animatic

This stage is the development of animation. Often here, you will see rough passes (called blocking), wireframes, lo-fidelity lighting and other tests. The main goal is to get the timing and action locked in before setting up the final rendering since that is so time intensive. There are usually a few rounds of this:

5. Final Beauty Render and Composite

In this stage the final shots are rendered from the 3D software and then composited, edited and color corrected with any other finishing in editorial software.

I hope all that makes sense. Although it’s an older project, the process is still pretty much the same. Thanks. -jb