I’ve been researching the role of animation editor to better understand how I could relate it to my role in the group project.
I have been helping out creating an animatic but our process has been a little bit unconventional and I discovered that the wayI was doing it is a little bit different from what an editor in the animation industry would use.
An animation editor follows the great majority of the whole production process and it’s there to such an early stage as the script writing. They also seem to be involved during the storyboard process to best match the script to the right camera angle and type of shot. This is also to ensure that all the animation that will be produced later will make it into the final cut, so that animators will not loose time or footage.
An editor job on a major animation film production can last up to 2-3 years. They can make creative contributions throughout the entire production but are expected to participate in storyboard sessions. With their input, a certain sequence can go through five or more changes before it’s determined to be suitable for the final film.
In an interview about the editing process of “Fantastic Mr. Fox“(2009), editor Andrew Weisblum talks about how the whole film process started by putting an early version of dialogue and sound effects onto a timeline used to create an animatic. From that, concept artists and designer would go on to create sets and puppets. With the film being shot with the stop motion technique, he soon realised that the timing of the 2D drawn animatic wasn’t necessarily working for the puppets, so they had to go back and refigure out the timing from scratch.
Animation would be shot at about 30 scenes at the same time. As soon as the animators were done with their shot they would give their scene back to Weisblum and his team, who would insert the final shot into the animatic and tweak the timing if necessary. This process would go on for a year or so. He also explains that from the very first recording up to the final piece, about 2/3 of the film material was scrapped. That shows the amount of work an animation editor does within a feature film production and how much the original idea changes because of their imput.
In order to be able to take on such a comprehensive role, one needs to have skills in:
- Storytelling: this is essential to make a film more compelling and generally flow, so that the audience won’t have problems understanding the story.
- People skills: because the editor is present at almost every stage of the production, they need to be able to communicate their ideas clearly and work with different people.
- Animation Production knowledge: they need to have a thorough knowledge of the whole film making process, particularly referred to animation, so they know at what time they can step in and potentially make changes.
- Specific software knowledge: have experience using different editing softwares as production requires.
This generally feels as quite a senior role, as more years of experience might give you a better understanding of the storytelling project. There’s also an edit assistant position which could be a more feasible way into the industry for someone without any prior experience.
They might be asked to keep a log of all production materials, from storyboards to animated scenes or sound/ dialogue. They might also be asked to contribute to rough cuts or edit of individual clips and do more administrative tasks such as booking recording sessions or studios.
Although I feel I have a pretty good knowledge of animation production (at least for a 2D workflow), I think my storytelling skills are not quite there yet for me to apply for this kind of position when I graduate. I think my strength is the animating, and I still struggle to plan a storyboard, let alone deciding which shot would be better for certain scenes.
The edit assistant sounds more achievable and I have done this kind of work in the past in a completely different work environment, but I overall enjoyed it.