Report to show understanding of roles within an Animation Production and how they communicate.

An animation team will consist of some or all of the following, numbers of staff will depend on the size of production and funding. On smaller productions staff may perform more than one specific role. Some roles are:-

Layout Artists Background Artists Key frame Animator In-between Animator Clean-up Artist Scanner Operator Digital Ink Paint Artist Compositor

Layout Artists: The Layout Artist will often work closely with the Director and other specialists such as a Scene Planner and Special Effects Supervisor to negotiate scene layout.

Background Artists: Create scene settings. A background is essentially a static setting upon which the animation takes place in the foreground. Background images can be very simple and drawn in a similar flat style to the characters. (for standard 2D Animations)

Key-Frame Animator: Draw the images that determine the beginning of a movement and the end of movement such as a character walking from A to B, on major productions each animator would be responsible for a single character throughout the film.

In-Between Animators: Draw the images or frames in-between the key frames to complete the movements prescribed by the Key Frame Animator. The animator has to make the transition
smooth and convincing.

Clean-Up Artist: Are responsible for re-drawing the Key Frame and In-between Animators drawings which are usually rough line drawings. The Clean-up Artist's role is crucial to the final quality of the animation. It is vital that each drawing is drawn to an exact standard. Every small subtlety of a character's design must be captured in the drawings and repeated again and again for every instance the character is drawn.

Scanner Operator: Is responsible for scanning the drawings which are prepared by the Clean-up Artist. For many beginner animators this would be their first foot on the ladder in the industry. For every second of animation there will many individual drawings to scan. The work is very repetitive and boring but requires plenty of concentration to ensure that each drawing is correctly labelled and stored for the Digital Ink and Paint Artists.

Digital Ink & Paint Artist: The colouring of animation frames is carried out using specialist ink and paint software (mainly Photoshop). Before such technology was available each frame would be painstakingly traced on to a clear plastic sheets called Cells and then painted (up to 30,000 per 30 min episode). The process was time consuming and skilled. The new process is far less time consuming but still requires a degree of skill to ensure accuracy and consistency. Compositor: The compositor's job is to assemble the different characters and backgrounds into single frames and sequences and so is often the first to begin to see the animation as intended for the final audience. Everyone on the team is vital to the success of the Animation, it would be very rare for a new Animator to start their career within the key frame animation department. Some new Animators start as a Clean-up Artist, Digital Ink and Paint Artist while a lot start as a Scanner Operator.