Blocked Animation: Planning

Character Studies from a long time ago.

I am the executor of other people’s projects.

Clients give me a script, an image, or even a half-formed thought, and I churn it around in my head and turn it into a design, an illustration, or an animation. I do this for a living, so you’d think that it comes easy to me. The doing part does. But the idea part — the process of transforming that wisp of a dream, or that sketch that has a glimmer of potential, into something — that’s the thing that I can’t seem to do for myself.

So that’s why I’m here. Because I saw the Side Project Challenge in my Medium feed, and my brain said, “Yes. Be accountable to others (even if there’s only a small handful of you out there), and that will force you to do something creative for yourself.”

For my Side Project I’m going to work on a short animated film that has been percolating in my mind for the past three or four years. When it plays in my head it’s a silly story about a squid named Quincy P. Tintenfisch who has a seriously bad case of writer’s block. But in writing this, I realize it’s also something more. It’s a kind of meta analysis of my own problems with creating. I flex the doing muscles so often — sitting at my desk turning out graph after graph for a healthcare course, or spending hours key framing so that a walk cycle looks just right — that I have forgotten how to make for myself. I spend so much time goldilocksing styles for picky clients (Can you make it more accessible? Now it’s too cute. Can you change that color? I don’t like blue.) that when I sit down to draw, I find I no longer have any style to truly call my own.

This is a journey for me, and I hope you’ll come along; check in every once in a while and see how I’m doing. Maybe at the end of this I’ll have made something worth watching.

This Sketch-A-Day journal was my resolution in 2013. I didn’t even make it two months, but the seeds of this project were planted.

Now to the details. What does it take to make an animation by yourself in a year?

Plan it. (January)

You’re reading it; I need to stick to it!

Write a script and storyboard the scenes. (February)

I have a rough idea of the story, but before working on any art, I need to turn my soft, squishy ramblings into a rock. It’s almost impossible to make changes late in the process, so before I begin drawing I need to know that my concept works.

Make concept art and an animatic. (March and April)

An animatic is a moving storyboard that has all of the timing and movements of a final animation. Once the timing and pacing are worked out, then I can figure out how I want the animation to look. These concept illustrations will help me figure out what programs I’ll be using for character and asset animation. Any artwork that is going to be animated will have to be created for use in a specific program. For example, I can do 2D animation in either Harmony or After Effects. Each program has pros and cons and vastly different workflows.

Find music and record voice overs. (May)

I’m not a composer, so I’ll have to hire a composer or buy music for this part. Same goes for voice actors, if they’re needed.

Yay!

Work on backgrounds. (May, June, and July)

Here I’ll spend time making all of the background elements needed. I’ll do this first since it’s easier to alter a background than it is to make changes to a character. I’ll likely do most of this work in Photoshop and Illustrator, although I’m hoping to use some painted/water colored elements as well.

Character animation. (July, August, and September)

Now it’s time for the star! (Or to look at it another way, it’s time for the hard part.) I’m not sure what animation techniques I’ll be using yet, but this is the point where I will get down to the tedious work of key framing lots of tiny, tiny movements.

Compositing and final adjustments. (October and November)

This is the home stretch! Compositing is putting all the elements together. During this phase I will watch the animation over and over, frame by frame, many, many times, trying to catch tiny mistakes.

That’s it! Simple, right? In my next post I hope to have a finished script and storyboard. So please stick around and see what I come up with.

Did you like this piece? Recommend it 💚 !
Interested in other cool projects? Check out and follow the One Side Project Challenge publication. I will give project updates on the 3rd of every month, so stay tuned.

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Rachel D’Erminio is a freelance illustrator/animator. Her website is raetastic.com