One of the roles in Animation Industry that I am curious about is Production designer. The reasons are because I only have a vague idea about the role because I love watching behind the scenes of films and I got the opportunity to be appointed as one for my LIAF project, but I haven’t got the chance to really look into it on an industry level. So that’s why in this post I want to talk about my research on the role of animation production designer.
Based on my research, the role of an animation production designer is to basically design the whole production and look of the film. They responsibilities is to make sure that the director’s vision come true, and they must be in constant service of the story and character.
Production designer usually is hired early on and will stay until the end of production. Even for some episodic series, they will change the director, but the production designer will stay the same. They almost like the walking library and visual translator of the production in my opinion, especially if the director can’t really verbalize their vision for the visuals.
Based on a book that I read, which is Dream Worlds by Hans Bacher, here are some responsibilities of Production Designer based on the stages of production:
- Early Stage:
- They are part of visual development team. The tasks is to explore all visual possibilities, do research, and come up with as many interesting ideas as possible.
- Director will narrow it down and the work will be more defined and direction clearer.
- Develop final look of the film based on director’s vision. Some presentation pieces with key moments of the story must be done. If it’s approved, it would be presented to the head of the production company.
- So, to summarise, they have to sell the project with impressive looking design.
- Approved:
- Analyse the style and create a guideline that consists of the basic rules of the style, such as: layout, background, animation, effects, clean-up, colour.
- Usually there will be a training period to practice and create test piece. Sometimes new technique has to be developed to serve the story and vision well.
- They have to create a colour script of the movie.
- Production:
- More sequences have to be approved.
- More design and redesign.
- Think about little details like style and effect.
- Basically, anything to serve the story and vision.
- Post-Production:
- They will be part of the group that will approve the rough and final animation as well colour combination.
- Publication:
- Toward the end, they will usually be involved in design for publicity, title logo, posters, and merchandise.
Based on my findings, there are some things on how to approach design for animation production:
- It’s always character first and story first. And after that is how to design a world where the character will look at home. The story and character will tell how to approach the design.
- The movie has to look expensive but not expensive to make and produce.
- Colour script is key. It has to grasp the emotional flow and tone of the film. So, when some details of the story might change, it would still hold true. It is one of the tools for everyone to see the film at a glance.
- Be totally immersed on the theme or subject and do a lot and lots of study, research, and visit the sites if possible.
- Listening is key. Listen to the director, listen to the artist, listen to the finance team, etc.
- Everything has to refer back to the director’s vison.
- Understand all of design elements that make up the scene, including: camera rules, composition, staging and formats, rhythm and style variety, value and colour.
So, the big question for myself, do I want to be a production designer? The answer is, maybe? only if the time is right. I feel like in terms of the work itself, I can see myself doing it just because I like technical problem solving, I love gaining new knowledge from my colleagues and friends, and I like to approach things from many perspective, also I don’t mind managing (I hope I wont regret saying that :)). But I would also be happy to spend the rest of my career drawing , because from many interviews that I watched, sometimes as a production designer you wouldn’t even have the time to draw especially when you have so many things to look after, which is sound a bit scary. But there is always something sound so fulfilling to be in total service of something bigger than you are, which is the film/story itself. But I feel like there are still so so so many things to learn for me. So, I think for now I will just go with the flow and keep on learning.