Once a project is green lit and is slated for production, the studio which is awarded the job has to figure out how they will actually get it done.
Most of this information is presented at the bidding stage in terms of a schedule and budget – how many people are needed for each department – ie. layout, modeling, animation…and how long each step in production will take.
A production pipeline refers to the production schedule. It’s a pre-decided action plan that outlines the order in which each step in production will occur and on what dates.
The pipeline can be likened to a factory assembly line. It’s important that one step in production happens before the next so that each step is completed smoothly.
When one step isn’t done properly (and it happens), you often have to go back however many steps necessary and then re-do the steps that come after it. I’ve had this happen quite a bit and because we work with deadlines and a tight schedule, it can cause a lot of stress, late nights (I’ll stop there and keep this a happy post).
Here’s the order in which the steps in production take place. Keep in mind this is general – some productions will have additional steps.
Premise
—–Scripts
————Voice record
——————Designs (character and environments)
————————Storyboard
——————————Lieca Reel
————————————Sequencing/Scene planning
——————————————Modeling (if 3D), Breaking/Rigging (if 2D)
————————————————Color styling
——————————————————Layout
————————————————————Background paint/color (if 2D)
——————————————————————Scene Assembly (if 2D)
————————————————————————Lighting/Textures/Shading (if 3D)
—————————————————————————–Lipsync (if 3D)
———————————————————————————-Animation
—————————————————————————————Render
——————————————————————————————–Picture edit
————————————————————————————————-Audio Post
——————————————————————————————————Final Sound Mix
This entire process (all the steps above) can take approximately one to two and a half years to complete one season of a show. Also, notice the pipeline is a little different for 2D and 3D productions.
After each step in production there are always retakes/fixes/changes and finally approvals. For simplicity, I didn’t include them in the steps above but you’ll sometimes see them on a real production schedule.
So, depending on the nature of the project – 2D or 3D (or both), and the complexity of the project, studio owners (or producers and directors) begin the daunting task of deciding/estimating which of the steps will be used in the pipeline, how long each step should take and how many people will be needed for each step.
