Animatics

In animation and special effects work, the storyboarding stage may be followed by simplified mock-ups called "animatics" to give a better idea of how the scene will look and feel with motion and timing. At its simplest, an animatic is a series of still images edited together and displayed in sequence. More commonly, a rough dialogue and/or rough sound track is added to the sequence of still images (usually taken from a storyboard) to test whether the sound and images are working effectively together.

This allows the animators and directors to work out any screenplay, camera positioning, shot list and timing issues that may exist with the current storyboard. The storyboard and soundtrack are amended if necessary, and a new animatic may be created and reviewed with the director until the storyboard is perfected. Editing the film at the animatic stage can avoid animation of scenes that would be edited out of the film. Animation is usually an expensive process, so there should be a minimum "deleted scenes" if the film is to be completed within budget.

Often storyboards are animated with simple zooms and pans to simulate camera movement (using non-linear editing software). These animations can be combined with available animatics, sound effects and dialog to create a presentation of how a film could be shot and cut together. Some feature film DVD special features include production animatics.

The Following List Incudes Both the Procedures and Grading Criteria for this Exam:

1) Individually scan each of the scenes that you created for your storyboard. Scan these into the Adobe Photoshop program. Include the following settings, during the scanning stage:

Keep the proportions 4X3 - you want a 800X600 pixel output, Set the color Mode to RGB, Set the resolution to 72 ppi

Save each file in the .tif format with layers, and LZW compression - 20 points maximum, only if the quality of the image display with quality craftsmanship, for all of the above settings listed in step 1.

2) Select a color scheme that is appropriate for the message of the animatic - 10 points maximum.

3) Colorize the storyboard images by using the painting tools in Adobe Photoshop - 10 points maximum.

Suggestion: Paint the images on separate layers so that you can easily trash a layer if you make a mistake.

4) When the grapics are complete, use the "Save for Web" dialog box and save the painted images as GIF files - 10 points maximum.

5) Launch Director MX 2004 and import your graphic files. Stage size 800 X 600 - 10 points maximum.

6) Animate the storyboard to fill at least 250 frames and a maximum of 350 frames with the frame rate set at 15 fps - 10 points maximum.

7) Include transitions between each storyboard cell - 10 points maximum.

8) Animate (tween) TWO complete cell sequences - 10 points maximum.

9) Import 4 audio files. Two audio files are narriations about the action happening in Step #8. The third sound is the sound of Billiard balls hitting, and the fourth audio file will be the sound of the cue stick hitting the cue ball - 10 points maximum.

10) There needs to be two button in each Cell that jumps to the "Next" marker or to the "Previous" marker. They should each have 3 states (up, highlight, down).

Use the Menu Button Behavior from the "Transitions" project - 10 points maximum.

11) Save the storyboard as a .dir and as a shockwave file (.dcr) with it's .html file - 10 points maximum.

12) Upload the .html, and the .dcr files to your tripod.com account. Make sure that you know the URL - 10 points maximum.

13) Present the Animatic to the class from your Tripod account - 10 points maximum.

14) Send me the .dir, the shockwave file (.dcr) with its .html file to my hotmail account. Include them all in one e-Mail - 10 points maximum...if any
of these elements are missing, the exam will not be graded.