Goal: Create a 2-3 minute long animation with multiple characters.

First, we start with the idea.  We need to answer the following questions.

• What is the story or purpose of this animation?

• Who are the characters?  What personality types?  Can you provide examples?  What do they look like?

 

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Character Development.  Typically costs $300 per character depending on complexity.  $300 is the base cost for a character only shown in the quarter view.  We can define a number of iterations that will be factored into the cost.

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• Quick sketches of the characters until we arrive at the perfect design.

• What actions do the characters need to perform?

• Will we see the character from multiple views?  Will we need a "turn around"  like this?

 

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Character Creation and rigging. 

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At this stage a create a final high-resolution image in multiple pieces for rigging in Character Animator.  The base cost is $600 for a character with the following.

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• A single view, typically a quarter view.

• A mouth set capable of smooth lip-sync.  One emotional state.

• An eye set with happy, neutral, sad, and angry emotions and smooth blinks.

• Draggable arms.

• 4-5 hand poses.

• Other little touches as required.

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Potential additions to the character

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• Multiple mouth sets for a more robust range of emotion.

• Multiple character views.

• The ability to walk procedurally.

• Various extras like dynamics.

• Please note that Character Animator is a camera-based animation system.  The characters are not fully rigged as puppets in the respect that leg poses, body bending, and other perspective changes require additional drawing.  A procedural walk system is built-in, but additional work is needed to provide that behavior.

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Animation

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• I currently produce 1 minute of animation every 3 hours depending on complexity.  My rate is around $250 per minute of animation.

• To begin animation we will need a complete script and voice-over.  I can assist with talent.

• Iteration is expected and a limited number of iterations would be factored into my quote.

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Finalizing.

At this stage, we bring everything together.  

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• We will need backgrounds that I can provide.

• Comping a final video.  This is where I bring all the elements together for a final render.

• Will we need music?

• Will any of the shots require visual effects like lightning?

• What about props in the scene?  Do the characters interact with these props?

• Previews, rendering, and final delivery of the finished animation.

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One of the major strengths of Character Animator is the ability to connect with your audience live.  The puppets I create can be controlled in a live environment.  All the content created in the following video was produced in a live broadcast.