Post Production for Animation

In this post I will be examining the final stages of the animation pipeline, post production. This is done after everything has been created and is done by a completely separate team.

• Rendering: The rendering process crosses over between the production and post-production areas. Rendering is done when the elements and frames of the animations are complete and are ready to be exported as the final file e.g. AVI, MPEG 4 etc. These files are now able to be edited in software such as Adobe After Effects or Premiere where the frames can be linked together to produce a seamless film. Also, some parts may have been produced in layers, so rendering them out as files with alpha transparency allows them to be placed together during the compositing stage. 

• Visual Effects: Visual effects are similar to the compositing stage, the same idea applies. After the frames have been produced it may be necessary to add more effects that could not be made during the production process, such as explosions or an added example in The Hobbit film. During this film they needed the main dwarf to walk through trees that were on fire, of course this would have been quite dangerous so they added CG after the scene had been filmed. VFX are also required for creating things that do not exist, such as the use of magic. Visual effects are also necessary in examples like below, where an actor has been required for motion capture of a character. The final overlays and textures of the character need to be placed.

• Synchronisation of sound to animation: Another important aspect of post-production is the synchronisation of sound to the on screen animation and film. This includes ensuring that the voices  are synced to the character's mouth movements and expressions, soundscapes are introduced at the correct frame and ensuring special effect and foley sounds are all in time with the actions they represent. This is also done using layering techniques, which allows the video to be played at the same time, ensuring accurate syncing. This an important process because if it isn't timed perfectly the whole feel and atmosphere of the film can be lost and would lead to a very unfinished piece of work. Dope sheets are used in this process. Below is an example of a program called Final Cut Pro which is specially for this job, although other programs such as AfterEffects also achieve the desired outcome.                                      

• Compositing: Compositing is a process used after the rendering of all the different visual components is complete. During the animation production processes different layers for one scene may be made separately such as the background and then the foreground with the characters. This allows them to be produced quicker as different teams of people can work on the individual elements. This also allows for different animation speeds to be achieved easier. When all the rendered images and files are complete they can be layered on top of each other in a timeline and be editing separately. Once this is done the frame will be rendered and appear as one frame. Software such as Adobe After Effects is used as it is designed for post-production purposes, although other software such as photoshop and CorelDRAW can also achieve this, but with not as much ease and precision. 
  

• Credits: Credits and also title screens obviously come at the end of production as these are the final parts to be added. These are types of motion graphics that contain the names and titles of the people and companies that have all worked on the project to produce the final piece. These are produced with scrolling typography and again can be produced in software such as After Effects.