Filmmaking Basics/Animatic

Narrative Film Production:: Course #01: The Basics
Lesson:: Lesson: Creating the animatic

Pages of this Lesson:

Introduction to the animatic

Preparing the storyboards

Creating the film score

Editing the animatic

Creating the sound effects

Compositing the matte painting

Graduation – Completed animatics

Creating the animatic

The final lesson

Creating a movie of the storyboards: This is the final lesson of this course. This is also the most difficult. You have to combine everything you have learned in this course, the film scoring course, and the film editing course to create a movie which shows you roughly what the final movie will be like.

What is an animatic?: An animatic is the storyboards turned into a movie. You combine the music, the dialog and the storyboards to create a rough version of the final movie.

Why an animatic?: The animatic (the movie of the storyboards) has one major purpose. This animatic will show you if this movie will be successful or not. That is why this step is so important.

Why an animatic?

The animatic is a proof of concept!: Will your movie idea be a sucess? The animatic can help you with planning a successful project.

The Hollywood System: In Hollywood, if the studio likes the script, they may provide money for the production. You don't need to create an animatic to begin filming but a professional production will want to create storyboards, shot lists and breakdowns for their crew.

Filmmaking for normal folks: Before we begin shooting film or video or before we begin an animation project, it can be helpful to create an animatic to test out the idea and the timing of the final project.

Creating an animatic is not easy especially in 3D. Each of the lesson pages in this lesson should be complete lessons.

Later, as more people completed this lesson, I will expand the instructions. But for now, the instructions are minimal.

If you have questions: Therefore, I hope that the steps are not confusing. If you have any questions, please write me.

Be prepared

All the steps

In the Wikiversity Film School, there are three major courses.

Basic filmmaking (this course)
Film editing
Film scoring

To complete this course, you will find it useful to also complete the other courses.

The elements

To complete this lesson, you need:

Finished storyboards
Recorded dialog
Music for the film score

Use any of the elements: You can use anyone's storyboards, dialog, or film score. Look below for the completed pieces that you need.

Individual frames from the Lessons on 3D Storyboard for basic filmmaking

Kasturika

Here are the individual storyboards for Kasturika. Click on the picture to see a larger image and then click on the words "Full resolution" to see the full-size clip which you can download to your computer ready for editing.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

Sir Mok

Here are the individual storyboards for Sir Mok. Click on the picture to see a larger image and then click on the words "Full resolution" to see the full-size PAL Wide-screen 1.85 clip which you can download to your computer ready for editing.

1. 2. 3a. 3b. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

Completed Homework Assignments - Animatic Dialog Recording

Fat Penguin has completed this assignment: - (11 points plus 5 extra points for begin the first)

(1) Young Person: "That was a great movie..."

(2) Young Person (contined): "but I do not understand one thing."

(3) Old Person: "What's that?"

(4) Young Person: "How can anyone be seduced by the Dark Side?"

(5) Old Person: "Hummm"

(6) Old Person: "What computer do you have at home?"

(7) Young Person (eagerly): "A Macintosh!"

(8) Old Person: "But what computer does your father use at work?"

(9) Young Person "Hummm"

(10) Young Person (amazed and excited): "Seduced by the Dark Side!"

(11) Old Person: "Ahhh!"

Fat Penguinsays, "I used the basic microphone on my personal computer and a free application called Goldwave. I used noise reduction effect and changed the pitch. The software can be found on www.goldwave.com.

Click on the dialog to hear the sound.

Kasturika and her brother have completed this assignment: - (11 points) - June 25, 2007

(1) Young Person: "That was a great movie..."

(2) Young Person (contined): "but I do not understand one thing."

(3) Old Person: "What's that?"

(4) Young Person: "How can anyone be seduced by the Dark Side?"

(5) Old Person: "Hummm"

(6) Old Person: "What computer do you have at home?"

(7) Young Person (eagerly): "A Macintosh!"

(8) Old Person: "But what computer does your father use at work?"

(9) Young Person "Hummm"

(10) Young Person (amazed and excited): "Seduced by the Dark Side!"

(11) Old Person: "Ahhh!"

Kasturika completed the assignment at home in New Delhi, India.

Click on the dialog to hear the sound.

Tunderboy9 and his father have completed this assignment: - (11 points) - July 17, 2007

(1) Young Person: "That was a great movie..."

(2) Young Person (contined): "but I do not understand one thing."

(3) Old Person: "What's that?"

(4) Young Person: "How can anyone be seduced by the Dark Side?"

(5) Old Person: "Hummm"

(6) Old Person: "What computer do you have at home?"

(7) Young Person (eagerly): "A Macintosh!"

(8) Old Person: "But what computer does your father use at work?"

(9) Young Person "Hummm"

(10) Young Person (amazed and excited): "Seduced by the Dark Side!"

(11) Old Person: "Ahhh!"

Tunderboy9 completed the assignment at home island of Aruba, Netherlands.

Click on the dialog to hear the sound.

Sir Mok has completed this assignment: - (11 points) - August 3, 2007

(1) Young Person: "That was a great movie..."

(2) Young Person (contined): "but I do not understand one thing."

(3) Old Person: "What's that?"

(4) Young Person: "How can anyone be seduced by the Dark Side?"

(5) Old Person: "Hummm"

(6) Old Person: "What computer do you have at home?"

(7) Young Person (eagerly): "A Macintosh!"

(8) Old Person: "But what computer does your father use at work?"

(9) Young Person "Hummm"

(10) Young Person (amazed and excited): "Seduced by the Dark Side!"

(11) Old Person: "Ahhh!"

Sir Mok completed the assignment at home in Cairo, Egypt.

Click on the dialog to hear the sound.

Moraistelmo has completed this assignment: - (11 points) - September 8, 2007

(1) Young Person: "That was a great movie..."

(2) Young Person (contined): "but I do not understand one thing."

(3) Old Person: "What's that?"

(4) Young Person: "How can anyone be seduced by the Dark Side?"

(5) Old Person: "Hummm"

(6) Old Person: "What computer do you have at home?"

(7) Young Person (eagerly): "A Macintosh!"

(8) Old Person: "But what computer does your father use at work?"

(9) Young Person "Hummm"

(10) Young Person (amazed and excited): "Seduced by the Dark Side!"

(11) Old Person: "Ahhh!"

Moraistelmo recorded them at home, in Newark, New Jersey, USA.

Click on the dialog to hear the sound.

Sushant has completed this assignment: - (11 points) - September 18, 2007

(1) Young Person: "That was a great movie..."

(2) Young Person (contined): "but I do not understand one thing."

(3) Old Person: "What's that?"

(4) Young Person: "How can anyone be seduced by the Dark Side?"

(5) Old Person: "Hummm"

(6) Old Person: "What computer do you have at home?"

(7) Young Person (eagerly): "A Macintosh!"

(8) Old Person: "But what computer does your father use at work?"

(9) Young Person "Hummm"

(10) Young Person (amazed and excited): "Seduced by the Dark Side!"

(11) Old Person: "Ahhh!"

Sushant recorded them at home, in Hyderbad, India.

Click on the dialog to hear the sound.

Pruthvirajg has completed this assignment: - (11 points) - December 20, 2007

(1) Young Person: "That was a great movie..."

(2) Young Person (contined): "but I do not understand one thing."

(3) Old Person: "What's that?"

(4) Young Person: "How can anyone be seduced by the Dark Side?"

(5) Old Person: "Hummm"

(6) Old Person: "What computer do you have at home?"

(7) Young Person (eagerly): "A Macintosh!"

(8) Old Person: "But what computer does your father use at work?"

(9) Young Person "Hummm"

(10) Young Person (amazed and excited): "Seduced by the Dark Side!"

(11) Old Person: "Ahhh!"

Pruthvirajg recorded them at home, in Scuderbad, India.

Click on the dialog to hear the sound.

For help playing OGG files, go to Commons:Media help or to Wikipedia:Media help (Ogg)

The next page

Before we can edit the movie together, we need to gather up all the elements. Above, select the best dialog and the best storyboards. Then we go to the film scoring page for the animatic.

Lesson on creating the film score for the animatic

Contact your instructor

Your instructor for this filmmaking class is Robert Elliott. You can email me by clicking here.

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