Story Story Stor - Animating with Blender: How to Create Short Animations from Start to Finish - page 23

The end result of adding a second character to our story of limited scope is to create an extra 80 hours of
work, a little more than a 25% increase. If you estimated that the project would take 6 months to begin with,
it will now take closer to 7 and one-half months.
Scope Example: Adding a Second Location
A second location or scene means the creation of an additional set and props. While careful planning can let
you reuse some of the elements from the fi rst set, the odds are that you are creating a separate location to pro-
vide contrast and therefore will be creating most of its assets from scratch. In that case, double both the rough
set and fi nal set and prop creation times. Also, non-character-related surfacing and lighting will also double.
A fully realized second scene or location in your project will add another 80 hours onto the project.
Scope Example: Adding Length
For one last example, assume that you will not be able to adequately tell your story within 1 minute. Your
storyboards and rough sound track work much better at the 90-second mark—a 50% increase. With all other
things staying the same, how does that affect the workload? Main animation, storyboarding, compositing, and
editing times will all increase in direct proportion to the running length. Based on the preceding estimates,
this equates to an increase of 85 hours of working time.
Of course, all of these changes reinforce one another. Using the original estimate, adding a second character,
another location, and 30 more seconds of animation would result in an additional 285 hours of work—almost
doubling the original scope of the project! Obviously, it is important to maintain control of the scope of your
story before it gets out of control. It is equally important to realize that removing unnecessary elements can
signifi cantly reduce the amount of work you will have to do.
How Long Is My Story?
It's easy to count characters, sets, and effects ahead of time, but it can be harder to guess the actual length of
the fi nal animation. The simplest way to do this is to act out the story in real time.
To get the best estimate, outfi t yourself as closely as you can to match the characters and events of the story.
If your story is about intelligent alien space probes squabbling over who gets to keep the moon, then grab a
couple of space ship toys and a ball. If you're doing a simple man-versus-nature story about someone who
gets attacked by a mountain lion while walking in the forest, get a pair of boots and a stuffed animal. If you're
doing a story about a bad baby and a dog, well, do not try on a diaper in front of a window or anywhere that
your neighbors can see. I'm just saying.
With that done, fi nd a clock with a second hand and act the thing out. Say everything that is said. Do any
sound effects with your mouth. Adding the sound will help you to keep the timing real. It's easy to make
things go too quickly or too slowly in your head, but actually doing the things and hearing them will exert a
normalizing force. Try it through three or four times and see what the clock says. As long as you are getting
fairly consistent results, you can use this time as a good guess at the length of your animation.