A look into 2D animation workflow

As I’m very interested in learning 2D animation in the future but have no previous experience, I decided now would be the perfect time to find out more about it and eventually try it out myself. So I decided to start by making a little investigation of the stages of creating a 2D animation and the crucial steps in the process. Not long ago I saw this gem called Hazbin Hotel by Vivienne Medrano aka Vivziepop. On Youtube I noticed a lot of the people who worked on the show posted videos of their progress and this is what got me interested in what actually happens behind the scenes when making an animated film. So I’m going to talk a bit about that and use Hazbin Hotel as an example to illustrate the steps.

The animation pipeline is always divided in three segments, no matter the method:

• Pre-production
• Production
• Post-production

Note: In this post I am talking specifically about paperless 2D animation and for simplicity's sake I'm not going into very much detail. My goal is to get a basic understanding of the workflow.

PRE-PRODUCTION

Script
Putting the story in a written form that is the source for all the upcoming steps. Contains all the information the artists will need to illustrate and animate and is also used as a dialogue for the audio recording.

Storyboard
Created from the script by the storyboard artist. It’s a visual representation of all the scenes and actions, containing the dialogue, backgrounds, characters and so on. The storyboard might go through some changes during the production.

Concept art
Character, prop and location design need to be addressed before any animation is done. This includes for example the production style, the location’s complexity and the characters’ look. A model pack is then produced, containing all the models for all these aspects.

Audio recording
The audio for the animation is often recorded at the same time the storyboard is created. This way it's easier for the animators to draw the correct facial and physical expressions of the characters to coincide with the dialogue.

Animatic
Also called a leica reel, it's basically the storyboard turned into a movie with the audio in place. Helps spot any possible errors and get a sense of the pacing and the rhythm of the film to begin with.

PRODUCTION

Layout and posing
This process links the storyboard and the animation and consists of creating an organised folder for the animator. It should contain information about the proper camera movement, the right size of the scene, backgrounds and the characters’ main poses from the storyboard. The backgrounds are done directly from the storyboard and location design.

Background painting
Once their layouts are complete the backgrounds are painted based on them. 

Rough animation
The first stage of the actual animation process. After receiving the layout folder the animator starts drawing each frame of the animation. This can be done by first drawing the key poses of the scene and then the frames in-between (also referred to as tweens). In a bigger studio the lead animator would do the key poses and the assistant animators the in-betweens.

Clean-up
The process consists of transforming the rough animation into cleaned, inked drawings. When the clean-up is done, the scene may be passed along to the colourist for the ink and paint step, which would be applying colour to the cleaned drawings. Based on the videos I’ve seen Hazbin's clean-up animators post, in the case of Hazbin Hotel the inking and painting step was a part of the clean-up. You can see some more clean-up shots here (by Colten Seamans).

Compositing
Adding the final touches to the animation and making everything look coherent. This includes creating camera movement and other necessary motions as well as adding any digital effects required by the scene (tones, highlights, shadows etc.)

The following clip is actually not from the Hazbin Hotel pilot itself but a music video that further explains the backstory of two of the show's characters. I chose to go with this one as an example because the lead compositor clearly shows us how and why the scene changes after compositing.

Rendering
Finally, the scene is rendered as a movie or an image sequence.

POST-PRODUCTION

Final editing
Comes after the rendering of the production scene. It’s the assembling and adjusting of different scenes and possibly adding transitions and other extra effects.

Audio editing
Adjusting and placing the dialogue, sound effects and soundtracks according to the project’s final editing. Adding volumes and effects.

Dubbing
Actors recording voices over the movie (it’s called post-synchro). Can be used for example to add multiple languages to the soundtrack.

Master distribution
Transferring all of the data to the master copy and distributing the project to the clients, television, cinema, festivals...

Sources / further reading:

https://www.bloopanimation.com/animation-for-beginners/
https://learn.toonboom.com/
https://www.hazbinhotel.com/
https://youtu.be/FBBiHgV8C2o