Animation Phases

The Creed employees were impassioned all the while they listened throughout Alexander's animation software lecture.

They also could only sigh when the projector would cut short as the boy had some school activity to catch up on.

The little boss is said to have invented the program. These employees knew that the achievement could knock the park on all the science fair competitions and tech conventions. Yet he had to go to school because of some trivial science project.

Frankly, it was a waste of his time. Sullivan lost count of the people that wanted him to move Alexander's learnings to genius programs.

He had the same thought as them but given that Alexander refused it, he could only oblige as a doting grandpa.

In any case, the little boss is a genius of programming and film production in the eyes of the employees.

Perhaps some enemy spy has broken news out to the competitors about Alexander's peculiarities and invention but the Creeds didn't worry much as it was an open secret that the enemies seem to think was a lie.

Of course, girlfriend Jennifer also got to join in on one of his animation lectures and he earned plus points in her heart for educating hundreds of adults.

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By some point, the fuss of the PowerPoint-esque lectures had died down and the people in the animation workshop were doing their magic.

The employees were the elves while Alexander was the nominal Santa.

With some notable point persons to divide some of the leadership, the computers and planning tables were in full force.

Throughout his months drifting along the tedious hours of school, his notebooks and papers were filled with different ideas and doodles.

Some had already been translated into film, are undergoing production, or are in the early planning stage for the next batch of films.

Aside from notable movies and shows, his notes carried with them a lot of animation projects.

Storyboards were filled with squares. Inside those squares are characters and designated positions. Below the squares are supposed dialogue.

Like a comic, each square is read from left to right. Most of these drawing squares are made up of bond paper that was cut into quarters.

The downside was that the wood board had a lot of holes from the pins. There was no doubt that after it would be torn down, it would look no different from a dart target.

If some sticky note company accepts specialized orders, then Alexander would have used custom-sizing that fits their storyboarding needs.

Supplementary images of the background and some of the materials were also illustrated in different angles and scenarios.

The storyboarding phase is what can be considered the pre-production stage of film production, only that it is in animation.

The previous phase which is researching, conceptualizing, and scripting was essentially breezed through by Alexander who nitpicked from all the finished products he can remember.

Storyboarding is also relatively flexible and something that Alexander has much experience with.

He shuttled through the many projects of the animation teams and pointed out where, when, and how things should be.

Each project has a different style, theme, topic, and story but he somehow managed due to all the practice he has been having.

Working with ADs, turned true directors, during their respective films made all the difference.

Most of the animation projects are about 5-8 minutes long, which is a step down from all the hour-long durations of things he worked with.

The chosen team leaders were there to finalize his vision and manage the rest of the process.

The storyboarding phase also has a play on the styling phase. Themes and methods of animating varied from one animator and project to the next.

What is important is that their different thoughts can pull through in the end.

Essentially, this group activity also serves as an evaluation of the animators' strengths and weaknesses.

Some can work on He-man-like aesthetics while others can opt to fine-tune their Jhonny Bravo style. There are very few anime-esque stylists and Alexander hopes to change that.

As much as how the American style has achieved, the soft edges and style of Japanese character designers had much success in being somewhat acceptable.

If one asks future children to choose between a Kirito and He-man picture, there is a likely chance that Kirito is much more appealing.

The edgy face styling of 90s American cartoons would be forced out when the new century comes around.

The 80s action figure era is coming to an end and Alexander would be stupid if he sticks to it.

The 90s is the start of the Rebel era with animation styles such as Rugrats and the Simpsons being hip and trendy.

The 2000s is the Geometric era with Dexter's Lab, Powerpuff Girls, and Fairly Oddparents becoming easy and simple to do.

For CalArts students, the 2010s was their very own era with the style of Adventure Time, Steven Universe, and Gumble being headliners.

With every change of era, the last decade's animation style became phased out and considerably cheesier and awkward.

Throughout those decades, in Alexander's opinion, the anime style was consistent and had much more staying power.

That doesn't mean, Alexander wouldn't use the other style though, he had an open mind to be the best of those era.

After storyboarding and styling, voiceovers and recordings came next. Voice actors were unnecessary at their current stage, so they had to make do with those who fit their description.

Contrary to movies, where most dubbing comes later, the animation uses sounds and recordings before the actual animations.

Timing the opening and closing of mouths is crucial for the flow of the process.

Japanese animation is said to employ the opposite with voice actors perfectly timing themselves with the finished animations.

Creed Animations didn't have the luxury of professional voice acting schools, so they made do with the 'voice before everything' solution.

After the sound technicians and Alexander felt that the voice recordings were perfect and coherent enough, the true animation process is what followed.

Editing, layering, working on every movement clip, blending every image, and all the works became the next phase of choices and decisions.

The animation phase and sound effects phase are generally intermixed to be able to achieve the desired finished product.