How to Plan Your 2D Animation Project: A Production Manager's Guide to Success

Shoot for the moon. We’ll show you the way

Commissioning 2D animation services isn’t quite rocket science. That said, Neil, Buzz & Mike didn’t just rock up on the day, strap themselves in and pray for the best. It took preparation.

Admittedly, animations do have a lot of moving parts in the initial stages, much like a rocket.

In order to achieve a successful launch things have to happen in a pre determined order.

This whistle stop guide will give you the basics and I’ll park the rocket analogy there.

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Where do I start, you ask?

The chances are you’ll either have experience in marketing already or have some experience of content creation, but not necessarily animation.

No matter what experience you do or don’t have, our expertise lies in taking you through this journey in the most straightforward & strategic way possible.

First though, you need to think about your master plan.

You’ll have likely already decided commissioning 2D Animation services is the right thing to do for you.

First and foremost it’s essential you and your stakeholders have a common business objective that this animation will achieve. From here you’ll set goals, for example, what kind of investment are you looking to make and what does 2D animation ROI look like for you?

We briefly touched on stakeholders but arguably, this is one area you need to put on a pedestal to ensure your journey to your 2D animation timeline runs smoothly.

We learnt years ago that the biggest spanner in any new animation project is likely to be hidden stakeholders. Perhaps you’re a marketing director, a communications consultant or a sales manager and you’ve got the budget signed off. You believe you understand what you and your team want and the process is well underway (detail on that shortly). Then out of the woodwork a colleague, probably senior management, who at first had no interest in your shiny new animation project, decides that they want to put their stamp on the script or even the way it looks. 

This has happened more times than I care to remember. But, it happens and understanding the impact of this on budget & timing before we commence will hopefully start you asking questions such as; who internally has the most knowledge of the subject in the animation? Who is ultimately going to sign off? Will the legal team need to sign this off?

Now you’ve done the groundwork it’s over to us…

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The road to takeoff

Our process is backed by ISO9001 certification so it’s guaranteed that we’ll deliver what we say, when we say it.

Let’s make the assumption that this is your first rodeo and a 2D animation timeline is new to you. Let me break it down for you…

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It starts with the end

Let’s be honest. If you have goals and objectives, you have a deadline. Be it a product launch, a live event or just a “it would be nice to have it for x day”

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The brief

Our team will take a comprehensive brief to ensure our collective objectives steer the project to ensure the deliverables meet the requirements.

You’ll meet your team, including myself who will be your dedicated project manager and contact throughout production. I’ll keep the rocket chat to zero.

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Scriptwriting

No one knows your business better than you but no one can tell a story better than us. You’ll provide us with the top line information, the data, detail and the “must haves”. 

We’ll use our wide industry experience to create the perfect story for your audience.

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Mood Boards

A mood board gathers all of our references and inspiration into a document we discuss with you and your stakeholders. This will steer the creative approach.

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Style Frames

The style frames take the agreed style from the references and create a handful of moments using your script.

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Sketch Storyboard

The sketch Storyboard shows how the animation will work over time, giving the indication of pacing, key events and information on screen.

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Final Storyboard

The final Storyboard delivers all the key moments of the animation in their final static form, it’s our blueprint.

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Voiceover

You'll be given a handful of voiceover samples to choose from earlier in the process and this this now be recorded.

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Animatic

The animation production phase is the most time intensive phase. Beautiful animation and motion come from detail and nuance. We take the Final Storyboard and start to map it out along with a voiceover and music to guide the audience through the piece.

Once we have this animatic we check in again to make sure everything is coming together as expected.

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Animation

After the green light, we put on our headphones, dial up the music and start putting the detail and memorable moments of movement into the project. This is where the magic happens.

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A guide to success

You’ll be guided through each of these stages and given a 2D animation timeline at the start of the project which sets out key date milestones for each.

We have a sign-off process at the end of each of these phases which ensures that our process, which is very much designed to go one-way, does indeed go forward. Our pre-production foundations aim to mitigate any uncertainty or back and forth on amendments and scope creep.

Best practice has us presenting each phase to all stakeholders and seeking sign-off after the fact. That way we can be responsive to feedback and ensure the whole team is aligned.

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Houston, we have no problem

Yes, I’ve slipped back into the rocket analogy. Apologies.

But it’s a perfect representation of how our projects run. There is always a member of the team ensuring that objectives align & our high quality standards are being met.

We’re not talking about the balance of life & death as with a rocket launch but we are talking about things nearly as important. Budget protection, scope management & hitting the deadline.

At Tricks we pride ourselves on unparalleled quality & client management. Our ISO certified process means that you can rest assured that your reputation & success is as important to us as ours. 

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Did you ever think it would all be so simple?

If you want to hear more about how our 2D animation process can lead you to success then please reach out to myself or Gordon.

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