Enrique Sahagun

Things one must know when asking for an animation.

After working with some people who requested animations for presentations I noticed that there was a communication problem between the designer and the client. And this problem lies mainly on one fact: the client doesnt know how animation process works. And this is not a client's problem. He is paying the designer because HE DOESN'T WANT TO KNOW HOW IT WORKS. THAT'S DESIGNER'S BUSSINES.
But despite of this fact, we have to accept that knowing each other (client/designer) can improve both the relation and the final product. So I told myself I will try to explain some keypoints in the animation process that would help the clients in the understanding on the creation/evolution/developement/ of their product. Here it goes...

1.- If time is YOUR problem, then time is MY problem.
If we both have time enough to develop your product, misunderstandings translate into small conflicts. If the product has to be finished for, lets say, yesterday, misunderstandings are catastrophic.
To solve part of this problem one has to ask himself: WHAT DO I WANT?
The answer to this question is not “something like…”. The answer is “I want exactly this”. Once one has the answer, he has to communicate it to the designer in the most detailed way.
Assuming that there is no time to render previews of your project, there is even less time to do corrections. So this step is crucial.

2.- MY problems are YOUR problems.
I’m a designer and my goal is to give you the higher quality presentation I can. But I can not guess what your expectations are. So it is important that:
  a) You give me all the information that can be important for your project: photographs, previous presentations, previous videos, plans of the elements, dates, etc.
  b) We develop a strong relation in order to solve problems during the development of your product.

3.- Your knowledge = the quality of your product.
Your understanding of the process will improve considerably your product. At this point, efficiency turns into time. AND WE NEED TIME!!! So we need to be efficient. And one way to reach this is through your understanding of the process. Here it goes a short description:

An animation is divided into two parts: The creation of the master file and the render of the animation.
  a) The master file is the file that will give birth to the animation. Here is where the designers works. We have to model all the elements of your animation, texturize them, light the project, design the animation process (camera movements), animate the models, etc.
  b) The render of the animation is the execution of the master file and as result we get the animation as a video file or a sequence of images. Here is where the machine works. And as opposed to the creation of the master file, the time consumption depends on the computer. THE RENDER TIME CAN NOT BE ACCELERATED BY WORKING MORE HOURS, OR BY SLEEPING LESS HOURS.
There are several ways to reduce the render time:

    b1) Working with several computers: each of them render a part of the master file.
    b2) Working with better machines.

Let’s say that we can not change this fact in the four days you give me to finish your product. So let’s jump to the third solution.

     b3) Reducing the details that slowdown the render. This is not strictly bad. It depends on your expectations. If you wanted a photorealistic product, the answer is NO WAY, four days is not enough time to produce a high quality detailed video. But if you wanted a more schematic product, this quality reduction does not represent a problem. In fact, in general, if your aim is to explain a process with the help of an animation, schematic approaches work better than complex (but beautiful) products.
What do I mean by quality?
         b31.- The number of frames/second. A frame is each of the images that compose a film. In principle 24fps are enough to see a good quality sequence. But the human eye can detect an improvement, going to 30 or 40fps. So a high frame rate gives more quality but consumes more time. A low quality video has less quatily but its production is much faster.
         b32.- The lights. A complex illumination is more expensive to render (in terms of time) than a simple illumination. Complex illumination and good textures are the key point to reach photorealism. On the other hand, simple lighting and shadows (depending on you product) can give rise to clearer, schematic results being its production much faster.
         b33.- The textures. Reflections, transparencies and normals are expensive to render. Simple textures=faster renders.

But, above everything, what slows down the creation of an animation is TO INTRODUCE CHANGES DURING THE RENDER. Obviously this is not possible. Imagine this:
You finish the master. Then you execute it to be rendered and so, the video (each frame) starts to be rendered. When you have rendered half of the video, lets say 8 hours, you decide that you dont want a cloudy sky but a sunny one. This means that you have to go back to the master file, remove the clouds and change the lights. This is not big deal. It can be done in a few minutes... but YOU CAN THROW TO THE BIN THE VIDEO AND THE 8 HOURS YOU'VE BEING RENDERING THE VIDEO. This is why it is important to know WHAT DO YOU WANT, before rendering de video. So to ensure the fast production of a good quality animation it is important:

- to establish a strong communication channel. - to share all the available information as soon as possible. - to establish a clear idea of what do we expect.

The rest is my bussiness