Animation

Now comes the period in which to animate the characters, backgrounds etc... that have been developed over the previous stages. It is obviously vital to stick to the script and storyboard in order to maintain the intende plot, however it is important that the work is amended and checked over and over, for something that may have seemed like a good idea at the beginning may simply not work when actually put on screen. It is a very subtle art form to ensure that the characters movements, interactions with one another and the physics of the entire film are believable, if not a viewer who is completely naive to how animation takes place will be capable of spotting when things are wrong. This process can take vast amounts of time, not simply because the animation process is so incredibly long, but because it can also encompass huge amounts of research to ensure that characters move in a certain way, that the wind acts in a natural manner, that the water ripples are believable  there is more to the animating process than simply grabbing part of the rig, dragging it somewhere else and allowing the computer (in the case of 3D animation) do the rest of the work. Truly gifted animators shouldn't need dazzling models or beautiful scenes to make their work realistic or of a high standard, it is their eye for detail, the way in which they understand movement, their use of the 12 principles of animation that make them brilliant. Below is a video that received much popularity and, if rumours are to be believed, landed the man responsible for it a job at Pixar. However by no means is it the best model and definitely not the best scene that I have ever seen, but the movement is so believable, so well observed and full of character, this is the true sign of a gifted animator and this can often be the reason that animation is such a long process. Not only is it a long process when animating a video, but it takes years of practice, of observation and persistance to reach even a decent standard of animation, let alone to master the art.