"Animagrad" studio, which is part of FILM.UA Group, started shooting the fourth season of an animated comedy 3D-series "Eskimo girl" for 4+ audience. Within Skill Bill Pro directors and supervisor of the project hold a workshop on the peculiarities of production of a commercially successful animated series in Ukraine .
The first season of the show was filmed with the support of Ukrainian Film State Agency: public funding was 7.6 million hruvnias. The first season was produced by HanzhonkovFilm, which won the pitching.
The first season of "Eskimo girl" was acquired by a Ukrainian TV channel "1+1" and broadcast in November 2012. 3D-animated series came out on weekdays at 7:25 am within the program "Breakfast with 1+1" and increased TV viewing figures of the channel.
In September 2013, the owner of FILM.UA Group said Sergei Sozanovsky stated that the second season will be produced by FILM.UA together with HanzhonkovFilm.
Soon after this statement "Animagrad" said it planned to shoot five new seasons of the animated series. This production was provided by the terms of the contract with the HanzhonkovFilm. New team consisting of director Yevgeny Ermak, storyboard writer Aleksandra Ruban, producers Elena Slyshko, Yegor Olesov, line producer Ekaterina Kornienko, supervisor Oleg Trush and others worked on the second season.
"Animagrad" already shot second and third seasons of the animated series and started working on the fourth. The project develops and stories become more complicated with each season.
Alexander Ruban said, referring to the British and American studies, 90% of children and adult audiences are more receptive to fairy tales in the form of animation, not a feature film. According to her, at the initial stage of the development of the animation project for children it's important to focus on branding. In the process of branding a concept of an animated product is created, its target audience is determined as well as the areas it will cover.
The next step is developing a marketing strategy for the project, that is, how the production company will present the product and sell it in the market. According to the director, you need to start promoting the product at the stage of idea development.
Production of an animated project consists of the following stages: development, art-design, pre-production, shooting and post-production.
New characters, Polar explorer and puppy Afi, appeared in the third season of Eskimo girl. According to the director, they didn't start preproduction until the best image for these characters was approved.
Pre-production results in a completed script, costumes and character models, approved virtual locations, storyboard, animatics. At this stage, also 3D-model are created, as well as UV layout and shading. One of the most critical periods.
The production stage consists of shooting, animating and creating foley. At the stage of post-production of an animated 3D-project team works on compositing, lighting and rendering.
Director believes that the best cartoon for children is the one with simple story, without unnecessary actions, assessments and minor subjects, unless their presence does not help to reveal the plot. Characters of Eskimo girl speak a fictional cartoon language which simplifies the sales to other countries.
After the script is written, storyboard is created and animators draw keyframes. The result is a sequence of images with text commentary, like a comic book. Storyboard gives a clearer idea of how it will look in 3D. At this stage you can still make changes without losses to the script, if some of its elements do not live up to expectations.
Director Evgeniy Ermak said that in order to produce second and third seasons of "Eskimo girl" was used Mo-CAP, which significantly accelerates the production process.
"Eskimo girl" has 19 characters, 13 of them are shot with Mo-CAP technology. All of them are played by three actors. Pantomime actors were chosen for the shooting of the series as physical conditioning and plastic body are main advantages of a Mo-CAP actor. Actors also have to take into account the structure of the character when acting.
The next stage of production is shooting of a 3D-film with special 3D-cameras that are shot in a virtual scene, creating character models.
The entire production process takes place under the supervision of animation director and supervisor of the project.
На следующем этапе производства происходит озвучивание и ошумление: для создания шумов и музыки привлекаются режиссер, звукорежиссер, композитор и актеры озвучивания. Но что значит озвучивание в сериале, где персонажи не говорят? Речь идет о звуках, которые заменяют человеческую речь, в воспроизведении которых актеры озвучивания могут позволить себе импровизировать.
