pre-production

1 Concepts & ideas

Whether you have a brilliant idea or just what to explore what can be done.

2 Animation scripts, storyboards & animatics

We treat these as one process, often jumping back and forth to refine the story.

This is the creative part to get right. message right. stop cost spiralling

3 Animation style and design

Here we decide how your animation will look. Be it 2D, 3D, stop-motion or a mix of them all, we'll recommend from our experience what we think will work best, and work within you time frame, budget or any other factors.

At The Mighty Pie, our experience and knowledge of production, means we'll deliver more that you could have expected.

production

3D modelling and texturing

Character, sets, objects, soft/ hard surface etc. for film & game engines. - Stylised or hyper real
Detailed characters with high resolution textures for film
All forms of hard surface objects, vehicle, machinery
Landscapes, scenery, nature

3D animation

Characters
Vehicles
Machinery
Equipment
Biped/quadruped
Animals

Traditional hand drawn animation
Motion graphics
Motion Graphics element design

Motion Capture

Rokoko full body, hand and facial capture
Coil Pro for higher accuracy
Mocap clean and additional key framed layering to push poses and styles
Perfect for game, instructional and character animations
Experienced mocap actors

2. scripts

3. storyboards/animatics

Anyone can write an animation script, though not everyone can write an animation script.

We can write the scripts for you, and will always advise on scripts we are sent.

We'll offer structure, ideas for the greatest impact, or take even the seed of an idea, and formulate that story for you.

Most importantly, we live by our own advice. If you want to try something completely new, then let's try something completely new!

The best way to see if the script works is to...

A storyboard is a series of still images, often hand drawn in animation, and put in a sequence to start telling the story in a more visual way than just words on a page.

Animatics take those drawings, and create a movie which is a very early draft of the final animation.

It may have a stand in narration, or voiceover. It may have one person doing all the voices, it may have a rough music track.

This is quite the revelation in some cases. What is intended to be a 30 second story, becomes a 3 minute story when considering the action within the animation, or pauses for the viewer to understand and comprehend what is being shown to them. And, of course, vice versa.

Animatics are vital. They are quick, and considerably cheaper than changing your story after production.

"I implore everyone to take this moment as THE most important part of making an animation. Especially with B2B or B2C when you have a fixed marketing budget.

Not only can your story be refined to absolute perfection, you will save yourself a huge amount of money if you get it right here.

I appreciate it's nerve wracking, especially the first few times when making high-end animation, and that you're wanting to show the stake holders something impressive as soon as possible.

But hold your nerve. If you don't want to over shoot your budget, get it right here.

I will be shouting this message until the mother ship finally returns, and picks me up for the ride home to my alien planet."