Phase Two

The process of putting together all the content derived from the design stage to create a complete animated movie is done in the production stage. Here we incorporate and combine many different production elements such as:

  Character animation
  Once the sequence is working well in layout, the animators start bringing the characters to life in the computer. They articulate the thousands of controls that were created during the character-rigging phase to bring each character to life and to synchronize them to the voice performances. Now the characters really look like themselves, but not quite. Remember, this is just the animation; the scene isn’t quite finished yet.

  Lighting and Visual Effects
  After the camera moves have been set and the characters have been animated, the next steps are Visual effects and lighting.

Typical tasks in this stage is to create visual effects such as rain, snow, footprints, fire and even waves. In a live-action film, it’s easy to photograph the above mentioned examples. However in computer animation, these simple things are all designed and animated by the effects artists. In other words, if it’s not acting, but it moves, it’s visual effect.

In lighting, the mood and emotion of the stories can be enhanced — and the character's performance reinforced — by leading the viewer's eye with strong, effective composition. This is where the animated movie's look is finalized.