Pre-production Workflow and Collaboration
The pipeline
Script, then script breakdown, then concept art and character design, then thumbnail boards, then clean boards, then the animatic, then the shot list is locked, then the shoot or production begins. Boards feed the shot list, the budget and the schedule, so a late change ripples through all three.
Collaboration etiquette
You receive a brief from the director, clarify the scene's intent, board, then present. Expect notes. Log every note and mark which version addressed it. Use a revision system: SC12_bd_v01, then v02, with a clear date so nobody shoots the wrong file. Deliver in the format requested: PDF for approval, layered working files for the art department, numbered PNGs for the editor.
Ask before you draw
Aspect ratio, delivery date, whether the boards are for live action or animation, whether the client wants colour or greyscale, and who signs off.
Worked example
A director asks for 'the same scene but faster'. Reasoning: this is a pacing note, not a composition note. Do not redraw everything. Remove two panels, shorten the durations in the animatic, and record the change in the revision log, then report back exactly what you changed.
Traps that cost marks
- Emailing a file called
board.pdfwith no scene number and no version. - Redrawing everything for a small note and blowing the deadline.
- Not confirming aspect ratio until delivery day.
- Ignoring what the editor and the VFX team need from the same sequence.
- Losing the note trail, then being unable to prove what was approved.