2. 3D Animation: Preparing to Animate
What needs to be done first?
Before any animation work can begin, the production will go through many development stages. The initial
Pre-Production stages of character design and storyboarding must be completed so the animators can
distinguish what characters they are working with in the scenes and what they will be animated doing. The
animators are not tasked with translating the character designs into 3D as this is done by specialist 3D
Modellers and Character Technical Designers, who create the basic characters and rig them ready for
movement. Once this stage is complete, they are then passed onto the Layout artists and 3D Animators who
work on the animation sequences ready for rendering and Post-Production.
1) Storyboard
Images are
scanned in to
create animatic.
2) Characters
are created and
rigged digitally
based on
storyboard
images
3) Detail and
texturing on
characters and
background is
built up
4) Final work is
done and
lighting added
to bring the
scene to life
3. Who is responsible for Animating?
Animation Process
DreamWorks employed a co-ordinated structure for the animation process in the making of Shrek films,
with 3D Animators being supported by Supervising and Directing Animators, overseen by a Production and
Technical supervisor. Despite being a highly successful and profitable film franchise created by one of the
world’s leading Animated film companies, the 3D animation role is undertaken by a crew of just 35 people
(Mitchell, 2010). For the making of Shrek Goes Forth; the final of the four Shrek films that was released in
2010, the animation team consisted of around 40 members (Gray, 2013). The animation process usually
takes one and a half years to complete.
Development of Animation Techniques
When the first of the series of four films was released in May 2001, entirely 3D Computer Animated
films was a relatively new method, and Shrek was noted for its contribution to 3D CG advancements,
however as the sequels were commissioned, progression in this field was incorporated into the later
films with the producers striving to make the film looking more realistic than the last, with more
attention to detail paid to the movements and characters.
As a result, the CPU rendering hours increased dramatically, from 5 million hours for the first film to 20
million hours for Shrek 3 (Mitchell, 2010). The last sequel film, Shrek Goes Forth; consumed a massive
46 million rendering hours, taking 9 times the rendering hours as the first film back in 2001
(hpinspiredinnovation, 2010).
4. As the majority of DreamWorks productions are created using Computerised 3D Animation processes,
the studios are equipped to meet the requirements of the animators to work efficiently. Linux is a
operating system popular with high profile studios specialising in animation and visual effects, and
DreamWorks Animation boasts one of the largest commercial Linux installations with more than 1000
Linux desktops and 3000 server CPU’s (linuxjournal, 2007).
In order to be able to provide Animators with the software required to produce world-class CG films,
DreamWorks Animation provides the tools, libraries and software infrastructure and employs staff
specially for Animation Software development. “Leonard (2007) states that DreamWorks studios
develop and support a suite of application tools for our films, including a proprietary animation
system, lighting, rendering and compositing tools, and effects tools for things like fire, water, clothing
and crowds.”
The 3D animation software used for Computer Generated films is called Premo, specifically developed
by DreamWorks for the animators (Gray, 2013). DreamWorks studios also make widespread use of
HP Z Workstations and data centres for animation work (hpinspiredinnovations, 2010)
What equipment was used in the making?
This photo illustrates the extensive
Server farm that DreamWorks Studios
utilises for their CG Animated films.
(cyberciti, 2007)
The company HP provides much of the
hardware used by DreamWorks
(wikipedia, 2009).
5. Working Bibliography
Slide 2
Images from Shrek (2007) linuxjournal.com [online image] Available at:
<http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/9653?page=0,1>
Slide 3
Mitchell, M (2010) Shrek: The Final Frontier, Animation Magazine pp. 10-11, Jun/Jul 2010
Gray, A (2013) 3D Animation. April 28th 2013 Email to Antony Gray courtesy of Max Bode
Photo of Eric Lessard (2013) linkedin.com [online image] Available at:
<http://ca.linkedin.com/pub/eric-lessard/3b/a6/687>
Mitchell, M (2010) Shrek: The Final Frontier, Animation Magazine pp. 10-11, Jun/Jul 2010
hpinspiredinnovation (2010) Tech of Shrek Forever After [Youtube Video] Available at:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9u8WmzVoCQY>
Slide 4
Linuxjournal.com (2007) Linux desktop and server CPU figures [Internet] Available at:
<http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/9653>
Rowe, R (2007) Interview with Leonard. 2007. [Internet] Available at:
<http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/9653>
Gray, A (2013) 3D Animation. April 28th 2013 Email to Antony Gray courtesy of Max Bode
hpinspiredinnovation (2010) Tech of Shrek Forever After [Youtube Video] Available at:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9u8WmzVoCQY>
Images from Shrek (2007) linuxjournal.com [online image] Available at:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:HP_Pavilion_Computer.png>
