Animatic Research

One of the crucial parts of creating an animation is testing the storyboard animation. Animators call this method ‘Animatic’ where they test the storyboard then do a small animation of something moving to test how many frames there are, whether they’re enough, there’s too much or they need more. The best examples of these are comparisons between the draft version and final version as you will see below.

This video of Team Sonic Racing Overdrive is a comparison between the draft animatic and final version of the episode. It shows certain features from the draft that were tested and thought out, and a few altered or cut out. Like for example, Sonic’s slight eye twitch as he nods in the draft isn’t in the final cut, Dr. Eggman’s art style in the final cut is different compared to his appearance in the draft. His smirk is probably the most noticeable difference. Then there’s the bomb explosion in the next scene. In the draft, it appears before announcement, while in the final cut, it appears after announcement, but both go off at the same time. As Big makes his way over to the gift stall, you’ll notice his draft version starts walking across before his final cut does. Likeliness, they added in a few more frames before moving on to the walking animation. To show a major difference between the draft and the final cut, notice that the cars they’re driving are just 3D rectangles in the draft while in the final cut, they’re of better detail. This shows that in an animatic and in storyboards, the animators don’t go straight into detail as they work on the storyboard.

Another good example, this scene from Disney Pixar’s UP, showing us the life of Carl and Ellie. (this is the sort of animation I was going for, but in a different sort of way) As you watch both the animatic draft and the final version from the actual film, you’ll notice there’s a slight difference between the pacing of the two. For instance, in some scenes, there are more scenes than within the final shot, and where some scenes a little slower in either the final shot or the draft, the opposite version is quicker, like where they’re going up hill in the first scene and the final scene. Furthermore, you notice a difference between the characters’ designs. In the drafts, it would appear that the characters were to look taller and a little skinny, but in the final version, they’re smaller and plump.