The Production Cycle

The production cycle is a complex task which involves various types and areas of development and design.  The Cycle begins with the ‘idea’ and this is then brought to life in a story board and show reel.  Next the characters are developed in their initial form in character studies and associated model sheets are produced.  Further life is given to the project with the associated sound being recorded and its appropriate length analysed in number frames.  Of course at this stage it is also necessary to conduct a sound analysis on dope sheets. 

The next stage of the production cycle is the creation of the scene layouts, these accompanied by the dope sheets allow the director to plan movement and timing.  After this has been sorted out, colour is added to the background paper and the movement drawings are commenced.  These completed drawings are again entered into dope sheets. 

The drawings are then tested on the line tester to ensure that the correct drawings are appearing at the right times and the movements are then traced onto cells. These cells are then painted or coloured and brought together with backgrounds.  At this stage the cells and backgrounds are combined on film and the exposed negative sent to the lab for processing. 

Here the sounds and pictures are edited and the sound tracks sent to the dubbing studio for mixing.  The negatives are then cut at the lab and with the cut print and final sound the final print is then made.  At last the print can be projected to the audience and the film then transferred to a DVD etc.

This completes the cycle.