The Clock is Animaticking!

Hello!

This is my first blog post here, so I’ll  start things off with a (brief) introduction. My name is Patrick, and I’m a designer for Puzzle Clubhouse. I work closely with Dave and Laura to do the Episode writing, documentation, and game designs for the episodes.

But this blog entry is going to be all about animatics, and how we get from a hastily written script to Chez’ final animation!

Part 1: Planning the Community Submissions

Even though we release an episode a month, we actually start planning for an episode 6 weeks before its release date. By T-4 weeks we need to be writing the script, so any community submissions that determine the “what happens” part of the episode need to be done by then.

Part 2: Writing the Script

By the time 4 weeks from release rolls around, we need to have the script pretty much thought out. Dave and I have 2-3 days to write the first draft. It’s pretty intense, because we’re also still finishing up the previous episode! The lines are numbered to make it easier to identify dialog and lay it into the animatic quickly.

Part 3: Storyboarding:

As soon as we get a workable version of the script, it’s passed off to me to storyboard. Each episode has between 80 - 120 panels, churned out over the course of a day and a half. Storyboards let us rough out the camera angles, cuts, and rough posing for the characters in a quick and disposable way. The script is usually revised and changed even as the storyboards are being made- so it’s important that no one panel take long to draw. (My personal goal is that no storyboard panel should take more than a few minutes to draw).

At this point, Brittany takes the storyboards and begins making the real art assets for the episode, and Chez develops any new characters.

Part 4: Animatics- Revisions, Revisions, Revisions!

While the storyboards are being made, Dani is reading through the script and sifting around for the appropriate sound effects, and Dave gets “scratch” (temporary) recordings of all the lines of dialog in the episode. (Fun fact: Usually before Jasper and Cornelius’ voice actors are even shown the script, the whole animatic is made using Dave’s voice for every part.)

It takes about a day to throw together all the storyboards, sound effects, and dialog into the first animatic! Then it’s shown to everyone, critique is given- and it’s back to the drawing board again- often literally. There are typically between 4 and 6 revisions of an episode animatic made, and all within about a week. During that time somewhere between a tenth to a fifth of all the storyboards are tweaked or redrawn to reflect the new changes (Which is why it’s so important that they be quick to make!).

Part 5: Blocking and Beyond!

Because Puzzle Clubhouse is made so quickly- the animatic is often changed slightly after it goes to blocking. The latest revision to date is given to Chez (our Animator) to block, and another copy to Bonnie (our awesome sound person!) to make everything sound like it wasn’t thrown together in Premiere over the course of four hours.

Then the episode is fully into production, and I shift focus to helping Dave out with the game development! Tweaks to the animatic, blocking, and sound continue to be made throughout the whole process, and the week after we’re already working on the next episode!

And that’s pretty much how we cobble everything together. Feel free to ask any questions!