How can you keep animation pre-production costs low?

Scope and creep is a great term . Worst case scenario is when the top management says " I don't know how to tell you what I want but I'll know it when I see it " Preproduction shouldn't be a wide open unlimited playground....it should be a really careful and focused responsible development approach. The last thing you want to do is start cannibalizing the production budget to finance vague experimentation

Coming from a 2D TV series perspective: -Knowing what you are doing helps ;) -Don't be afraid to copy/paste wherever you can -Don't be afraid to automate file and folder-related tasks -N-o-m-e-n-c-l-a-t-u-r-e

"How can you keep animation pre-production costs low?" Easiest answer is going back to old school and getting a light box tracer/ board for hand drawn animation first. You don't even need to buy an expensive one either, just one to get the job done. How do you think our animated ancestors did it back then? Even though I love how far animation has gotten from a technical aspect, I got to admit we are spoiled with the softwares we have today. Here's a tip: for in-betweening in particular roughing out and animating them on paper is super helpful especially if you hit a creative block on how your characters should move. I've been there myself a few times. You can also use hand drawing to rough out storyboards or sketch any other ideas you have.

All of this is 100% true on the left. The only thing I would add or enhance in terms of advice/ personal experience is the more you learn on your own the better. You'll be surprised of how much you can conquer individually with anything, not just animation. Call it natural human will power or perseverance but it's true. The funny part is you really don't need an expensive studio, team, or software to be an incredible animator. This fact has already been proven for over a decade with hundreds of indie animators, let alone college students or animation enthusiasts, on social media platforms. It all comes down to how much passion you truly have for your project or this medium in general. The best research and teacher comes within you first.

This is a good point on how to keep production costs low rather than a tip on how to keep preproduction costs down. Optimizing designs might require spending a little extra time in the preproduction phase. However, putting in that extra time and effort in pre-production - making sure your designs are streamlined and working well as well as making sure files are clean and well-prepared for the entire pipeline can potentially save you a lot of time and effort later in the production.

Maybe this will be an unusual opinion, but you should not save on animation pre-production. Pre-prod is that particular realm between your beautiful idea and the blood bath production. Is a place for exploration, implementation and innovation. And at least you don't want something common, banal and seen 100 times, you should invest in this delicate phase. Also cause a great pre-production will help you having a smooth, problem free production (that s the place where you are going to spend the most and you want to save money for real ;) )

Pre-production is the one area of animation, in which you shouldn't cut corners or do on the cheap. A well planned out pre-production (which might seem expensive) can save production costs in the long run. It defines the look of the show, the pacing of the animation. The parameter's in which the world exists. In other words, deciding what areas of the production to prioritize the budget on. Having an experienced Timing Director on board a 2d show, (a job that can now be done digitally) might seem old fashioned and an unnecessary expense, but it gives the studio control of the animation and pacing, before anything is animated, and can drastically reduce the amount of retakes that could be called for later.