Animation process

To bring characters to life we need a few things. A succesful character starts with a good design and a clear vision. We can take your idea and transform it into moving living being. But first we need to do a few things. Firstly we’ll sketch your character to make sure we’re on the right track, make adjustments & re-present it to you before starting the modelling process.

Once we have a three dimensional character we need to make it move. This is called ‘rigging’ and it’s the process of giving the character an internal structure so that they can move. Think of it as the digital muscle and bones of your character – you never see them but it’s what makes the character live. Controls are created that make the computer model move & it can soon become a complicated task – what to know the equation for making a wheel role across a surface ? Basically if it needs to move it needs a control.

Once all the controls are created we test the 'rig' to check the movement is as expected and check the character is capable of delivering a performance that you and the viewer deserves. An animated test is called an 'animatic' - it's a great way to show the story we are telling as early as possible. The focus is on the content and not the style - does what we're trying to communicate work ?

The next stage is to render the character - making it look as good as it deserves before inserting it into the programme.