With the birth of storyboarding, as a term, and a regular tool, being largely attributed to Disney, it's also of note to mention what was then called the 'Leica reel' as being pioneered by them too . Essentially, a Leica reel is a crude pre-cursor to the animatics we see so often today in the pre-production pipeline. An example below of Disney's 'Fantasia' can be viewed.
To kick things off I thought I'd showcase one of the entertaining instalments of Pixar animation studio's series of films The Incredibles, directed by Pixar veteran Brad Bird.
All praise aside to the storytelling and special effects from the bigwigs behind Pixar, there is something in particular that I wanted to focus upon- the modern Animatic.
An animatic, for those who remain in the dark, is essentially a mock up video of the storyboard edited together with sound to crudely show the pacing of a particular sequence in any given film- no different in concept, then, than the original Leica reel, which is especially useful and perhaps essential in animation productions. It also highlights in advance any potential flaws in the visual storytelling that can quickly be altered before any principal photography or production itself kicks in!
A peak at one of the animatic sequences prepped for the character 'Dash's sprint against ze bad guys:
It seems like a simple case of scanning in the original drawings from the 'beat' boards/storyboards and then using Photoshop to polish and adjust, then into Adobe After Effects, or some In-house variation of that programme, to move the images around for fluidity and animation, and of course- if you spotted them- the computer generated models of the flying blade thingamajigs- no doubt in Maya or, again, another In-house variant. I should stress that the level of quality in that animatic is insane, and by no means would other film reels look nearly as polished. We are talking about Pixar here, after all.
For me this animatic absolutely demonstrates the importance of pre-visualizing a sequence, so as to raise any flags before you commit to production. It also show-cases the principles of animation beautifully, and successfully tells the story with deep immersion, despite the crudeness of its finish. This is a milestone for animatics. Where it was once considered merely a visualizing tool, it has now almost become as beautiful as an art-form in itself.
But winding back to another important leap in pre-visualization takes us to the early 2000's. There are two examples that I particularly wish to highlight. Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and George Lucas' Prequel Star wars trilogy (with particular emphasis on the second instalment, Episode 2 Attack of the Clones).
Storyboards were used heavily, and most obviously, for all of the action sequences that were in particular CG-heavy. Peter Jackson's sprawling battle sequences had to be realized with a much tighter method than simple storyboarding, or even turning those thumbnails into a workable animatic. The very same issues arose when staging the final blow-out of the clone war at the end of Geoge Lucas' Episode 2. The answer? Computer generated animatics. Or as they called it, the 'Pre-vis' sequence.
With the Lord of the Rings trilogy, that came about in the same time frame as the Star Wars prequel trilogy, they too had tasked themselves with an overwhelming feat in regards to CGI accomplishments. To realize that vast and sprawling world of Middle Earth, Peter Jackson and co had to tread new ground in regards to both the pre-production and post-production process, even merging the symbiotic relationship between the two so that jobs of the one became responsible for the other, and vice versa. This was apparent with the same approach as George Lucas with the use of CGI rendered animatics. The documentary video below covers much of the design approach Weta Digital took to the first film, The Fellowship of the Ring, and how they problem solved. The second is another, this time from the third and final film, Return of the King, which illustrates how far they had come and how their pre-visualization technique enabled them to execute a crucial climactic sequence, they wouldn't otherwise have been able to do.
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