3D animation is a highly resource-intensive endeavour. To give you a sense of scale, simply researching the production budgets of your favourite 3D animated films will reveal just how costly this art form can be. The level of quality our team aspires to achieve is undeniably ambitious, but we’ve been working towards this goal with intentionality for over a decade. Our overarching company vision, which we began developing as early as 2011, is grounded in what we refer to as an “economy of faith” or an “economy of communion”. While the pre-production phase officially began in 2021, the foundation was laid years prior as we envisioned creating an engine that could generate sustainable revenue to provide greater opportunities for orphans, rescued children from human trafficking, and underprivileged youth. The animation industry, with its global reach and robust market, was the ideal platform through which we could manifest this mission, all while providing our audience with trustworthy media founded on Christian values.
As we now embark on this journey to bring that vision to life, we want to invite you to be a part of our unfolding process. Our hope is that by sharing the intricacies of our work, you will gain insight into the elaborate efforts involved in our pre-production phase, while we continue to seek the necessary funding to complete the full 3D production.
At this stage, what we’re sharing is not the polished animation you may expect to see in theatres or at home. Instead, it’s an immersive look into the groundwork of production—storyboards, concept art, animatics, and even an illustrated book series that lays the narrative of each project. Before the final 3D animations take shape, these elements represent the heart and soul of the creative process.
What is Concept Art?
Concept art marks the first visual representation of our ideas. After translating the project’s vision into written form, our team begins to develop preliminary visual options that define the look and feel of the characters and environments. Each project carries its own unique aesthetic identity, so we explore various artistic styles, testing how different treatments can shape the tone of the story.
Once a style is selected, the real work begins. For each character, our artists produce multiple concept illustrations—typically three different versions per character. Upon finalizing the design, we move on to create “Character Sheets”, an essential tool in the animation process. These sheets provide a comprehensive turnaround of the character, showing it from multiple angles (front, side, back and ¾ views) to ensure consistency during 3D modelling. The sheets also include facial expressions, allowing us to see how the character conveys personality and emotion—critical aspects that will inform the animation process.
Character sheets serve as a vital blueprint for the next phase of production, as they guide the 3D modelling team in bringing these designs to life in a tangible, animated world. This attention to detail and deep immersion into the character’s personality ensures the final product will be as emotionally resonant as it is visually compelling.
We invite you to walk with us through this exciting chapter of pre-production, to see firsthand how stories transform from ideas to illustrations and, eventually, to fully realized 3D animations. Our mission is bold, but with your engagement and support, we believe we can create a powerful engine for both storytelling and social good.
What is a Storyboard?
A Storyboard is a visual roadmap for a film, animation, or video project. It’s a series of sketches or images laid out in sequence to show how the story will unfold, much like a comic strip. Here we add annotations on what type of sounds we hear, the duration of each shot, camera movements, etc.
What is an Animatic?
An animatic is essentially a rough draft of an animated film or series. It's made up of a series of storyboard images, often made with temporary sound and dialogue, that are played in sequence to give a sense of timing, pacing, and flow for the final animation. Think of it as a moving sketch or blueprint of the final product.
Purpose of an Animatic:
The animatic serves several key purposes:
Timing and Pacing: It helps determine the length of scenes, how fast or slow the action should be, and how smoothly the story transitions from one scene to the next.
Storytelling Feedback: It allows the creators to check if the story is working visually and emotionally. They can make changes easily before moving into more expensive parts of production.
Character Development: It also helps as an exercise to develop the personality of our characters as we work on some of their expressions and mannerisms that make them unique. It helps the animators know what sort of "acting" each character should and should not do.
Collaboration Tool: Directors, animators, and other departments use the animatic to ensure everyone is on the same page about the look and feel of the project before investing time and resources into detailed animation.
This is an example of one of our animatics for our Coming of The Messiah™ 3D animated series. It gives us a glimpse of Eve waking up in Eden seconds after she was created... Just imagine!
Coming of The Messiah™ - Episode 1: Paradise Lost - Eve Awakens.
Pipeline Process and Where the Animatic Fits In:
In a 3D animated production, the pipeline refers to the stages a project goes through from idea to final product. Here's a simplified version of the pipeline and where the animatic fits in:
Pre-Production:
Concept Development: The idea for the project is created.
Scriptwriting: The story parameters are developed and the story is written.
Concept Art: the first art is created including character & Environment sheets.
Storyboarding: The script is turned into a sequence of drawings showing key scenes.
Animatic Creation: The storyboards are assembled in sequence with temporary audio to form the animatic. This is the first time you see the project in motion, even though it's rough. The animatic allows the team to make changes before committing to full production.
Production:
Modelling: Characters, props, and environments are created in 3D. This stage also includes other steps such as look-development, textures, fur, etc.
Layout: Rough placement of models and cameras is set up based on the animatic to establish framing and movement.
Animation: Detailed character movements are added.
Lighting/Rendering: Final lighting and textures are applied, and the scenes are rendered into full 3D.
Post-Production:
Compositing: Layers of animation, effects, and lighting are combined.
Sound and Music: Final sound effects and music are added.
Final Edit: The video is polished and prepared for release.
The animatic is an essential step in pre-production because it saves time and money. It allows the team to experiment with pacing, visuals, and story direction before investing in the labor-intensive stages of 3D modelling and animation. Our animatics are done either in grayscale, which allow us to see depth of field, lighting, etc, or in colour to better understand the motif and atmosphere we want to create for each scene. An animatic is composed of very lose sketches that are not even polished enough for a book, for example. Here is an example to show you this difference:
This is a lose colour sketch for our Once Upon a Parable™ animatic:
This is what that same image would look like for our illustrated book for that same series:
During our fundraising period, we will be sharing our **animatics** with you. It’s important to understand that these are not polished, final pieces of art, nor should they be mistaken for 2D animation. Rather, animatics are an essential step in our creative process, serving as a blueprint for the level of quality we aim to achieve in the final 3D production.
By offering these glimpses behind the scenes, we want you to not only get acquainted with the story but also gain insight into our studio’s meticulous workflow. You’ll witness the immense amount of artistry involved in the pre-production phase—work that often remains unseen in many studios. Here, however, we believe in celebrating and sharing the incredible effort our artists pour into every phase of the project. Their creativity and dedication deserve to be showcased, and we’re confident you’ll appreciate the artistry as much as we do!
Thank you for being a part of this exciting journey. We’re thrilled to have you along as we bring this vision to life!
Written by: Frida Abaroa
Founder of 3NITY
© 2024 3nity Creative Corp. All rights reserved.
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