Introduction

The deadline for pre-production work is the 9th of December. This means that I am working on pre-production work as of writing this blog post. Here is a recap of some important elements of pre-production and more specifically pre-vis.

Previs

Previsualisation or previs is the process of visualising scenes from a film before principal photography or production. This can be especially useful for scenes with heavy CGI as VFX shots can be created in low detail 3D as a basis to create full shots from. Previs can also mean things such as concept art or other similar pieces of work that will visualise the film. This is useful for directors, actors, set designers, costume designers and VFX artists as well as many other roles in film production.

Storyboards

Storyboards are a sequence of images which outline the shots of a film or animation. They are made for directors, animators and production designers (like set, costume and prop designers) to use during production as a reference material.

A good storyboard will include:

• Shot composition
• Shot type notes
• Camera movement notes
• Actor movement (can be noted with arrows)
• Location information (INT/EXT or night/day)
• Scene and shot number
• Description of the action

Animatics

Animatics are like storyboards but animated. They convey timing and show how animations will look visually before they are fully animated – like a ‘sketch’ layer for an animation.

Conclusion

In conclusion, considering these types of previs will help me when thinking about the design of my own animated short film, and what I will need to include when I hand in my pre-production work on the 9th of December.