#animation production management

[artinandwritin]

I'm making a lil paper animation with the concepts of stopmotion for school based on the httyd books! All I gotta add in now is Toothless jumping onto the rock but I have to do that digitally sadly. It's a pretty fun process ngl and the result is looking great to me

#my camera moved a bit in the middle of this and i nearly burst out in tears #that wasn't fun LMAO #but hey it is what it is #i managed to get it good in editing it afterwards #when the final product is finished ill put it on here as well! #httyd #how to train your dragon #httyd books #how to train your dragon books #hiccup horrendous haddock iii #toothless #animation #stopmotion #paper animation

[stargazerlillian]

Color guides for various Greek gods and goddesses in Disney’s “Hercules: The Animated Series”.

(Source)

#🌠 #Disney #Hercules: The Animated Series #Production Art #Model Sheets #Zeus #Hera #Poseidon #Demeter #Athena #Ares #Apollo #Hermes #Hephaestus #Aphrodite #Repost because I managed to find more model sheets and wanted to switch up the order soooo yeah - here y’all go LOL.

[artsekey]

I'm not super into Lackadaisy, but I am super into animation, and...

How are they planning to finance an entire season with just 1,000,000?

(Everything below assumes that they're aiming for episodes that are comparable to the pilot & that they plan on fully financing the season with solely the donations on Backerkit. It's likely they have additional financing through merchandising, the pilot, and/or Iron Circus's other projects, but since that information is not available, I'll go off of what I know. Additionally, production management and budgeting are extremely project dependent, so the "averages" listed below may be far off what the PM on Lackadaisy's got quoted.)

[EDIT: It’s been brought to my attention that the episodes are 10-12 minutes long, which means it’s MUCH more doable than I was expecting! They budgeted for a lean (but doable!!!) production. Thank you to those who clarified! I’ll leave this post as-is for those interested, but read it knowing they’re considering roughly half the time I used to calculate everything below!]

Quick preface as to why I wanted to talk about this and Why I Feel I May Have Valuable Things To Say: I'm an indie filmmaker and professor of animation, production management, and VFX. I'm not trying to call out the company or the production because-- and I cannot say this enough-- I truly do not know what's happening on the back end. Every production is wildly different. Their original goal was 125,000, with 45% going to animation-- that includes rough, cleanup, & color. That means that for a ~27 minute animated episode, they've got $56,250. If we collect all facets of production together-- story, layout, animation, compositing, and editing-- we wind up with a grand total of $82,500. Even if we estimate at the lowest average production cost of $8,000 a minute, this budget would account for ~11 minutes of animation.

An animator's average hourly rate is ~$36. With the outlined budget, the Lackadaisy production would be able to afford ~1562 hours of animator manpower. Let's assume (for the sake of this discussion) they'll split that over at least four animators, leaving us with about 10 weeks of full-time work (~390 hrs per person) for four people.

Now this may seem like a lot of time, but as far as I can tell, the pilot was largely animated frame-by-frame without the use of 2D rigging. This means every frame needs to go through roughs, then cleanup, then color, then composite. Every frame you see on-screen has been worked over at least four times-- six if you count layout and story. Ten weeks is simply not enough time to finish 27 minutes of 2D animation.

Now, I know what you might be thinking; Artsekey, they never said their production period was ten weeks! And you're right! However, that's how much production time they can afford. Whether it's split over 20 weeks or a year, they only have enough money to pay their animators for 1562 hours of labor.... if they're paying them a competitive hourly wage. To be completely clear, I am not insinuating that they're low-balling their animators; there're a dozen unknown factors that play into this, such as:

The level of animator they're hiring (an apprentice animator may make ~$17-$23 an hour whereas an experienced pro may make ~$43-$45.)

Whether they're actually hiring animators as opposed to contracting animators (I assume their model is likely relying on the latter based on the fact that I'm seeing a lot of animators that worked on 1-3 shots). They may be doing single-sum deliverable based contracts rather than hourly.

The use of tools like EBsynth (which is listed among the programs they're using) and smart frame management (which they're definitely doing!). This can, if used properly, cut down on the number of in-betweens animators need to get done.

The amount of money the studio is planning to re-invest on their end. The goal on backerkit may just account for the additional funds the studio needs to enter production, meaning their budget may be far larger than what's listed. However, if this were the case, I'd hope they'd disclose it! If I were considering backing the project, knowing that the studio was going to be buying in would increase my faith in the fundraiser.

Obviously, the team loves animation. It shows through in the pilot, and I think that it's clear in their mission statement that they stand against the exploitation of animators. But... I also know that indie production is like trying to wring water out of a log. I'd personally like a more comprehensive breakdown of their expenditures not because I think there's anything suspicious happening behind the scenes, but because as someone who teaches production management for animation and who has an interest in indie production specifically, I'm wondering what choices they're making to stretch their funds.

And what about sound?

While I'm not an expert in audio design, I do live with a professional voice actress/audio engineer, and she had a few thoughts I'd like to share.

At their original goal, roughly ~12500 was set aside for:

Sound Design

Music Composition

Voice Acting

Now, I can only refer to my own experiences as an indie filmmaker regarding price, but the rate I received-- from friends-- for sound design was roughly ~325 per minute, and this was a very, very good deal for what I personally needed. The audio engineer can be responsible for collecting and/or recording foley, or the sound effects you hear in film. This can be expensive and time consuming. They're also responsible for editing all the foley, music, and voice acting together in a way that feels seamless. If we were going off the rate I was given (which was very reasonable given the amount of work that needed to be done), ~27 minutes of full foley, complex sound design, and mixing would run about ~8,000. This number could fluctuate significantly depending on whether they need the sound designers to create the foley, get some ADR in, or just mix the audio, but let's assume that Lackadaisy has a pre-existing foley library and that the price falls in a lower range of ~5,000.

Music's a complete wild-card. In my experience, most composers charge per-minute, and most of the indie composers I've worked with were at a rate of ~$100 per minute of music. That'll land at a nice $2,700.

Now where my friend got particularly heated was the rate for the voice actors. As a voice actress herself, she was floored that the budget for voice was so low-- particularly because the project's pilot pulled industry voices like ProZD. Obviously, the price for voice can vary wildly based on how many lines an actor has, their experience as a voice actor, their personal terms, ect. The cast for the pilot included 11 credited actors. I can't assume their rates or whether they charge a fee to even get in the booth (my roomate charges $100 flat at the start of a session), but if my other estimates are in the right ballpark, their goal budget accounts for roughly ~500 per VA (and it's extremely unlikely that it's divided equally for obvious (and logical) reasons). Honestly, for a full episode of animation, that's... about average. But average in the voice-acting community doesn't necessarily mean good. Voice actors are notoriously underpaid, and-- as previously mentioned-- bigger names with more lines are going to be taking in more of that pay-pool.

And, of course, the Production Managers.

I'm not going to speak on this for too long, but the original budget held 8750 for the admin team. I assume admin includes their PMs, director, and leads (if they have enough specialization to need leads). Assuming it's just one PM and one director, they're pulling in ~4375 a person. For the duration of the project. There's no way that prepro, production, and post would take less than 8 months. Of everyone involved in a production, these roles are on-board from start to end, and it's simply not enough! PM's are absolutely critical to success!

Not to mention the editor!

In animation, the editor is the director's right-hand man, and is working to edit the storyboards, reels, scratch music, and the final cut. This role is also on the production from pre-to-post, and their original budget allows for.... $2,500. What? If I go extremely low on the hourly for the editor, you maybe get one part-time weeks' worth of work for several edits of a 27 minute episode. With most everything else I've talked about, I've mentioned there's a lot of wiggle room because of all the factors I simply don't know, but in no universe is $2,500 enough for this editing job. (Even at the current budget of 1,000,000, $4,000 an episode is super low.)

But, hey! They've got more money now!

Of course, all of these concerns go out the window when you consider that the team's already raised a whopping $953,000 (as of 7/31/23) with the fundraiser only up for five days... right?

Well... It certainly alleviates some of the strain, but their stretch goals were scope increases! This means that once they reach their 1,000,000 stretch goal, they're adding on four additional ~27 minute episodes. This increases the budget-per-episode to 200,000 (yay!), but that still leaves the project with about $7,400 to spend per-minute... which, in the world of animation, isn't much!

All in all, I think that the original goal of 125,000 -- if there was going to be minimal investment from the company-- was completely insufficient, and it would have been irresponsible to try to produce a 27 minute long pilot with that budget. At the same time, I imagine the PM/Admin team could reasonably expect a strong outpouring of support from the fans based on past success and low-balled the original goal. Now that they're near 1,000,000, I think- and hope - they'll be able to swing it.

If anyone has any insight into the production of the pilot (either because you worked on it or know someone who does), please feel free to add context to this post! Again, I am not trying to call out Iron Circus. I'm fascinated by indie production and have been following the successes and failures of crowdfunded animation since it started picking up, and while the goal for Lackadaisy raised some concerns for me up-front, I think they're making strategic choices based on hard data (that we the public are not privvy to). They've already done it once, so they should be able to do it again!

#lackadaisy #animation #indie animatio #long post #production management

[thatrobotkid]

rj sketches for the pilot

courtesy of billy and mandy creator, maxwell atoms

source: instagram

#whtrj #robot jones #whatever happened to robot jones? #pilot #robot jones pilot #behind the scenes #animation #animation stuff #animation production #i managed to capture the first photo from his story so if you check out the insta link and only see the second one that’s why… #sorry folks :/ #but the other one very cool nonetheless and both are very rare!

[creativeamma]

"If you require PDF of this digital product click here https://creativeamma.etsy.com/listing/1705027874/monthly-financial-review-financial

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#marketing #digital products #motivation #self help #self improvement #anime #kpop #bts army #music #fashion #time management

[aotgdevblog]

Day 3 of Pre production management schedule

1_3_24

Finished cleaning up the organization department for the schedule. Started working on preproduction. Managed to get to the storyboard department as far as clean up goes. Didn't have that much time to work on it today because of my day job, hopefully ill be able to get more accomplished tomorrow since ill be getting out of work earlier. Its getting there. I know what needs to be done, its just a matter of doing it. Next step will be finishing preproduction, then go to production and post production. Its going along fairly quickly since its just clean up, so hopefully I don't run into too many road blocks.

-----

AOTG is a fan series that takes place after the 2012 movie Rise of the Guardians.

Disclaimer*:

Rise of the guardians is the intellectual property of Dreamwork's animation. Lumifox Productions is not affiliated nor contracted by DreamWorks animation to produce the following content. AOTG is not monetized and is a project made by very weird and passionate fans.

#animation production blog #devblog #production design #rotg animation #rotg fanart #rotg jack frost #aotg dev #riseoftheguardians #guardians of childhood #animation #making animation #rotg #2d animation #3d animation #management schedule

[yellow-yarrow]

they are screening the animation i made at uni at a festival and now i got an email saying that there will also be a segment where the audience can ask from the directors augh noooo im shyy

never felt impostor syndrome more than now but at least I can be there for a couple days for free so, why not. not like i could afford to go on vacations so at least i'll have this lol

#'is this animation about gay people' 'yes thats the subtext. goodbye' #ugh god i cant rewatch it again its full of mistakes how the hell did it even get in. theres a scene where its animated 8fps and then #jumps to 24fps cause we didnt have time to finish it and someone in the team had a hard time understanding what their job was #like the rest is 16fps why did they animate it in 24fps right at the end of the semester. so much time wasted #being the director writer designer production manager layout artist and animator while also managing other people's work is hell #while we had like 3 months to animate it #what im saying is that i dont like to direct #..... kinda miss that rush of the last 2 weeks before the deadline where i was going crazy. i might be a masochist

[birdricks]

every time i draw bp he looks completely different 😭

#heartbreaking. #think its a product of me being tired rn lol #ok actually FIXED IT KIND OF. #im kingggg of zero consistency #BTWWWWWWW actually making actual progress on this pmv. YAYYYYY #i WILL finsih smth for once. #getting an ipad has done wonders for me artistically. i can just draw wheneeverreee i want now #dreams still Sucks btw. for animating #at least for me #but i managed to shove all my thumb #thumbnails into it for like timingsss. i fear this might go crazy

[beeapocalypse]

ouugh mayhap a specialty product that marie loves to work w is fabric that has been partially digested by a dragon b4 getting thrown up where the Reality of it started to break down but not to the point of Complete insubstantiality so it floats and is far more flowing than the typical stuff bc it literally loses itself in the matter of other things

#like thru the digestion process bugworld dragons break apart the very existence of whatever theyve eaten. not to the extent that-- #--they Never existed+are forgotten (except in the case of ancient dragons ?? idk but its a fun idea) but still a complete erasure of-- #--their matter. would either need Some source of fresh new matter in the universe or to lean further into the concept of-- #--reality itself being a finite resource but idk which yet #also like the idea of dragons being sentient beings in bugworld since alamanni already plays w the 'nonsentient huge animals' idea and-- #--while honey sweet dragons are sentient they are also viciously hunted and never rlly get a chance to establish-- #--themselves in the cradle. while still a bit solitary bugworld dragons Are amenable to treaties and meetings and-- #--all sorts of other 'small world politics' as theyd view it. marie gets all her product from a single specific dragon #^ all of the above is entirely to justify the idea of maries signature cuffs w scarf attached (signature entirely bc it is the only-- #--piece ive managed to design for her LOL) being all floaty so it doesnt completely obscure her. i love worldbuilding <3 #bugworld

[totally-not-deacon]

Awesome, now that I've realized me and dairy no longer get along, I went ahead and got a hold of some vegan/dairy free cheese and...

Holy crap it's like, REALLY good.

#it's follow your heart's smoked gouda #it may actually taste better than the regular stuff imo #with this and the dairy free coconut yogurt i'm really managing to drop more animal product stuff pretty easily #tummy is MUCH happier with me either way

[studentofetherium]

the most interesting thing about a hypothetical new season of Monogatari anime is that it would have to come with a new director. Bake and Kizu were directed by Tatsuya Oishi, who promptly vanished off the face of the earth afterwards (and according to rumors, left Shaft entirely) the director who replaced him from Nise through the end of Owari, Tomoyuki Itamura, has also left Shaft, now working as a freelancer on Vanitas and Yofukashi no Uta. i doubt either would want to return for more Monogatari (although, who knows what else Oishi has spent the five years doing)

like, Zoku Owari didn't even have a director. Shinbo worked as the creative overview for the project, as he does with every Shaft project, but there was no one else leading the project but him. instead, it was six episode directors. that works for a movie, but if you're doing another full season, you definitely need something more than that

#monogatari #lowkey i suspect this is at least part of why Monogatari's anime stopped #Itamura left and the studio managed to keep the production rolling for six more episodes #but the team might have fallen apart after that #it would be exciting if it turned out that this was another seven year production of Oishi's but i haven't heard any rumors of that #so it would be nothing but a pure guess to say that might happen

[yaminerua]

Thinking about the unique circumstances that led to life developing on Earth and the eventual creation of fertile soil and greenery, the growth of blossoming plants and towering trees, of soft grass and verdant green leaves that almost seem to glow as the sun shines through them

And I think of how we’ve yet to find another planet out there that has definitely undergone a similar process. That for all we know at this current point in time, this blue, watery rock with all its flowers and plants and trees, is the only one of its kind.

That in all of the vastness of space we might live on the one rock where wood exists, and in all of what little we’ve glimpsed of the universe, we share our home with something so rare and precious and beautiful that it might cease to exist anywhere else altogether if we let it die.

#Life worked hard to grow here and we don’t have the time to be trying to kickstart that process on another planet #we’ve got what we’ve got here and we could preserve it for as long as our own species manages to persist if we could just #start protecting it. Start actually valuing how precious an rare and irreplaceable it is #with climate change causing more and more fires and deforestation ravaging the wild forests #And the effect this all has on the production of food and the survival of animals and people #the rage I feel for those in high places who have sat stubbornly and let this happen despite evidence and fact #the fact that little people like me can and do try to do what they can on an individual level but that it ultimately needs the Big Changes #to have any real effect.. #the fact I’ve heard about all this stuff since I was tiny and we should be further along in combating it by now #I’m just … looking at that post about the big trees has me feeling some kind of way

[skywitchmaja]

sometimes it does feel like everyone in world is conspiring to piss me off. but at the same time.. people also say nice things to me, so it’s hard to say really

#i can’t say i recommend stage managing one show and being the only person who can mix sound at another show #and also starting a new job with a good 40 minute commute #it’s just a lot and like i don’t even know very much about anything technical— i avoided those classes in film school and i started doing #this stuff i dunno 8 months ago but at the same time #i’m like the only person who knows anything about technical stuff #and i’m asking important logistical questions in the production group message and no one is ANSWERING because someone ELSE is whining about #how no one is paying enough attention to them in the group message!! and this person is at least a decade older than me!! #also other people are inadvertently saying mean things to me and i know they didn’t mean it that way but still ouch you know? #like saying they could train an animal to do sound op when that was what i did for their last show #sorry i’m being like. a little hypocritical and annoying it’s just hard and also i’m on my period

[lezzian]

People aren't angry that you're vegan we're angry that you try to harrass people into making the same choice and act like it is The Only Moral Way and that's bullshit.

Okay well I don't act like veganism is the only moral way for everyone, I just know that it is the right thing for me & it has been for 6 years. Why are you mad? Because sometimes people are annoying on the internet? Have a hot chocolate and watch a nice movie with your friends and you can forget all about them, I promise :)

#When was the last time people on the internet managed to harass you into not buying animal products??? #like grow up and disconnect bro

[creativeamma]

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#marketing #digital products #motivation #self help #self improvement #anime #kpop #bts army #music #fashion #time management

[creativevisinories]

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