Why Animated Shorts Need an Editor

Movieola

The Film Editor is one of the most important and creative roles on any production. The animation editor is involved in every process of planning and production, from the earliest stages, including cutting and editing the storyboard animatic.

Making an animated film is a collaborative effort and is almost always completed with a team of people; the editor is one of the key creative roles on any production.

We encourage all our students at Animation Apprentice to try their hand at film editing, it's an important job and one of the most interesting seats to occupy on any production.

Adam & Eve Mk II - edited by Sebastian Kuder

Animation is Different from Live Action
Animated films are not made like live-action films. In live action, you shoot a bunch of footage, including multiple versions of scenes, and multiple takes of scenes. In animation, the storyboard artist and editor work together to cut a storyboard animatic of the film. 

Once the animatic is complete, this becomes the blueprint from which to animate the film.  As Ken Schretzmann, editor of Toy Story 3 and Cars, puts it: "On live action, you shoot first and edit later.  In animation, you edit first and then shoot it later."

Editing an animated film
In animation, the editor is one of the key creatives on the project. The editor works with the writer, director and board artists to make the animatic as good as it can be. 

The editor will help to time out the boards, add sound effects and also add a music soundtrack - where needed.  Sound is, after all, 50% of the viewer's experience.  Cutting, voice overs, sound design - these are all areas where the editor needs to gain experience.

Film Editing

Jerich0 - edited by Daniel Dutton

Good editors are usually someone with some experience of using Premiere Pro, which is the principal editing software we use at Animation Apprentice. However, you can also use Blender or any number of software platforms.

Animation Dailies

The editor acts as the fulcrum of the production. During animation dailies, the edit gets reviewed on a daily basis, and each night the editor will find him or herself busy cutting in all the latest elements - storyboards, 3D layout, Animation, final comp - whatever stage each shot is at. This involves keeping track of a great deal of material, and making sure that each shot is up to date and the latest version.  A good editor is a film-maker, but also needs good organisational skills, to ensure that the production runs smoothly.

Rules for Editors

Storyboard with mask shows shot & frame #

Some basic rules for editors: 

• Update the edit every day. At the end of each day, artists send their files to the editor to update the edit, and the editor exports a new video file every morning for review in animation dailies.  
• Add a mask over the edit, showing important information such as the shot number, frame count, which artist did the work, and what stage the shot is at, such as "3D Layout", "Animation Blocking" etc.  This way the person reviewing the work knows exactly what they are looking at. 

• 

  3D Layout with storyboard cropped in

  When adding 3D Layout scenes to the edit, crop in a small image of the original storyboard in the top left hand corner. This helps to show the viewer what the original story point was, so we don't lose track of the story. 

Film-Making Resources at Animation Apprentice
For more information on the making of animated films, read the blog posts below:

Development & Pre-Production

• How to Make an Animated Film
• Key Creative Roles on an animated film - Who Does What?
• Why Animators Need to Storyboard
• Why Animators Have too Many Cuts
• Audio first, then Animation
• How to Direct Voice Actors

Production

• Why Animators Need to Check Their Hookups
• Why Animators Should test Their Rigs in Close-Up
• Why Animators Should Avoid a Flat Horizon
• Camera always Follows, Never Leads
• Avoid jump cuts
• The 180 degree Rule - Don't "Cross The Line"
• Avoiding "Motion Sickness Camera"
• Don't "Break the 4th Wall"
• Understanding the "Magic Circle" - And How to Stay Inside It
• Why Animation Editors Need "Handles"

Post-Production

• Free music from Moby Gratis
• Why Animators Need Sound Design
• How to use Audio files in Maya
• How to Get Screen Credits Right

To find out more about Animation Apprentice, click here for a link to Frequently Asked Questions. To sign up for our next classroom at Animation Apprentice, follow this link.