PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT FOR ANIMATION

Meet your instructor and classmates while breaking down the course structure, expectations, and upcoming assignments. Set the stage for an interactive environment fueled by shared experiences and lively debate.

• Instructor intro
• Course structure
• Expectations & experiences
• Assignments & final project overview

Unpack the core philosophies driving animation management and articulate your own professional motivations and proudest achievements. Identify the specific areas where you want to build unshakeable confidence throughout this course.

• DISCUSSION: Career in animation
• PM philosophy
• WORKSHOP: Experience chat

Assignment #1: Intro
Introduce yourself to the instructor. Why animation? Why production management? Where do you want to feel a new level of confidence?

Demystify the foundational pipeline and professional landscape, learning how to balance creative vision against logistical realities and client demands. Collaborate with peers to map out pipeline steps from initial story to final lighting.

• Key responsibilities: Pipeline overview
• Creative vision, technical execution, logistical realities
• Filmmaker’s vision & client needs
• Career paths & opportunities
• WORKSHOP: Pipeline steps

Discover how to establish your unique leadership signature while navigating recruitment, onboarding, and conflict resolution across diverse studio models. You'll leave ready to define explicit expectations that foster a positive, motivating team culture.

• Team structures, roles, responsibilities: Who’s who
• Team dynamics, communication styles, positive team culture
• Leadership, motivation, conflict resolution, feedback
• Management, recruitment, onboarding
• Professional development

Assignment #2: Team Expectations
Reflect on what is important to you in your production team. Create a list of expectations for team members.

Build deep trust and rapport with artistic leads without losing sight of your hard resource limitations. You'll explore strategies to champion the creative process and meaningfully celebrate milestones to keep morale high.

• Understanding the creative process
• Supporting creative needs & navigating resources
• Building trust with artists & creative leads
• DISCUSSION: How to build trust & rapport
• Recognizing creative achievements

(OPTIONAL) Assignment #3: Celebrating Achievements
Think of ways to celebrate creative achievements.

Get into the mechanics of building dependencies and tracking crucial checkpoints like storyboard locks and screening cycles. Learn how to implement robust approval processes and communicate progress or roadblocks to studio stakeholders.

• Crucial milestones, screening cycles, pipelines
• CASE STUDY: Pipelines for Zootopia 2 & Once Upon a Studio
• Clear & measurable milestone tracking
• Communicating progress & roadblocks
• Review & approval processes for deliverables
• WORKSHOP: Pipeline dependencies

FINAL PROJECT PART I: Pipeline
Select a deleted scene. Depending on choice, create a pipeline and suggest check point meetings. Create a rough draft.

Dissect creative briefs open-mindedly to translate artistic goals and varying mediums into actionable production tasks. Practice identifying sneaky production challenges and anticipating needs before bidding begins.

• Approaching the creative brief
• Artistic goals, technical requirements, target audiences
• Mediums: 2D, CG, stop motion
• Actionable production tasks & schedules
• Identifying production challenges
• WORKSHOP: Observations in anticipation of bidding

Deconstruct the bidding process and learn how to reduce project complexity into macro schedules and critical paths. Practice mapping out Gantt charts, allocating resource units, and strategizing fixes for scheduling delays.

• Developing macro schedules
• Critical paths & potential risks
• Progress, delays, corrective actions
• Adapting strategies for different formats
• DEMO: Scheduling software & tools
• WORKSHOP: Creating a Gantt chart

FINAL PROJECT PART II: Waterfall Schedule
Take the first part of your final project, bid it, and create a waterfall schedule.

Acquire the financial basics needed to build accurate budgets across pre-production, production, and post-production phases. Track expenses, manage overages, leverage tax incentives, and control costs without sacrificing creative quality.

• Pre-production, production, & post-production costs
• Budgets, tracking expenses, potential overages
• Film & TV tax relief & incentives
• Effective resource allocation
• Cost control measures vs. creative quality
• Accounting basics & financial reporting

Optimize your production floor by utilizing collaboration platforms, communication pathways, and inter-departmental review protocols. Learn the nuances of remote teambuilding and practice intervening in common studio conflicts.

• Key communication pathways & strategies
• Collaboration tools & platforms
• Protocols for inter-departmental reviews & approvals
• Mediating conflicts
• Teambuilding in a hybrid/remote setting
• WORKSHOP: Conflict resolution

Transform standard production meetings into efficient, goal-oriented sessions by designing tight agendas and using active listening. Capture ironclad action items and execute follow-up processes that keep the entire team accountable.

• Agenda & objectives: Facilitating productive discussions
• CASE STUDY: Frozen 2 story notes
• Key decisions, action items, responsibilities
• Management tools, techniques
• Notetaking principles & active listening
• Wrapping up meetings & follow-up

Develop your leadership brand by learning to stay resilient, assess the budget and schedule impacts of sudden changes, and implement control processes. See how to pitch tough news to your crew while keeping morale steady.

• Changes in animation production
• CASE STUDIES: Moana, Zootopia, impact notes post-screening
• Implementing change control processes
• DISCUSSION: Responding to adversity
• Assessing the impact of changes & maintaining morale
• WORKSHOP: Mitigating the disruption

Protect your projects by navigating intellectual property, copyright, contracts, and the emerging legal landscape of AI. You'll also sharpen your negotiation skills and familiarize yourself with key animation unions and guilds.

• Legal considerations in animation
• Animation contracts & agreements
• Negotiation skills for talent, vendors, & details
• Animation unions & guilds: IATSE, OPEIU, Editors Union
• Ethical considerations
• AI, intellectual property & copyright

Boost your relationship management skills by learning to deliver concise updates and decipher the true questions behind stakeholder notes. Learn the delicate balance of protecting vulnerable filmmakers while professionally addressing client concerns.

• Strategies for stakeholders, progress updates & reports
• CASE STUDY: Zootopia 1
• Client expectations & feedback
• Navigating conversations & addressing concerns
• Understanding stakeholder needs
• Missed vendor deadlines

Demystify the final leg of the pipeline by organizing post-production workflows and managing technical delivery specifications. Learn how to enforce rigorous quality control and package assets for clients or distributors.

• Post-production process overview
• Scheduling & managing workflows
• Quality control & technical specifications
• Communication & feedback
• Preparing & delivering assets
• Delivery formats & requirements

Polish your professional presentation, resume, and negotiation tactics to pitch yourself for a raise or promotion. Unpack intimidating questions and learn what recruiters are actually listening for.

• Reputation, resume, presentation
• Interview questions
• DISCUSSION: Bad experiences
• Keeping your receipts
• WORKSHOP: Mock interviews

Assignment #4: Interview Questions
Identify some favorite and dreaded interview questions and answer them for yourself.

In the final lesson, you’ll recap key course takeaways and peek into the future of animation production. We’ll touch on opportunities, fears, how to stay competitive, and whether AI can take away from our value as employees.

• Rendering technology advancements
• Innovative software solutions
• Ethical & practical considerations of AI & new tech
• Impact of AI-assisted animation tools
• DISCUSSION: What’s next?
• Course recap