Lecture | Strategies for Animation Distribution & Production

11.06.2006 // Uncategorized //

David Franks opened up his lecture with a series of traditional animations for clients and discussed the pros and cons. It boils down to high quality and high cost and lots of time. But showed the light at the end of the tunnel by giving layered examples of the new production techniques and use of the Adobe Flash.

Key Strategies for Channel Distribution:

1. Feature Release
2. Pay per view
3. Cable
4. Free Broadcast TV
5. Rental Market
6. Direct to Video Sales
7. Licensing (can also begin after entering any market and distribution channel)

An interesting thing to note, is if you decide to enter the channel distribution for your animation production at the lower tiers (4-7) you can’t move up the chain – why buy the cow when you get the milk for free. Although this example hasn’t neccessarily been the case for a few exceptions, most notable: Veggie Tales… which happened to start out as direct to video and then completely took the market by storm. It moved up and down the channel distribution without any problemsat all and still manages to maintain a good presents on the internet.

Some great examples were shown of the production process. Fairly daunting but impressive work churned out considering they’re moving between headquarters here in Raleigh in conjunction with production firms in South America and Korea. Basic rough outlines with keyframes for the artists/animators to build the in-betweens, moving to traditional shot-by-shot storyboard previz work and followed up with animatics.

What is truly amazing is the quality of work vs time to market for some of these animations. We’re talking what used to take traditional keyframe animation using Adobe After Effects or traditional animation techniques getting squeezed by 1/3 and created with only Adobe Flash – without any loss in quality. As well as the ability to render final output to High Definition broadcast quality work or internet web streaming samples depending on the clients platform/need. Best examples shown were animations done for Coconut Fred and Nick Jr. animation promos – All done completely in Flash, with richly, detailed work that rivaled 3D software and high end animation renderers.

–

David Franks – www.usanimationsales.com
David Franks is the president and cofounder of U.S. Animation Sales located in Raleigh, NC. The company is two years old, and offers animation production services, distribution and funding for animated properties; with offices in Korea, Malaysia, Spain, India and the US. We have worked on projects for Nick Jr., Disney, PBS and more. Past employment includes Art Director at Midway Games, Art Director at Magnet Intereactive Studis, Art Director at Random Games, Lead Artist at Jaleco and VR1, and Animation Director for a Marvel property, “Daredevil”. David has worked on many high profile licensed properties such as, “Gladiator”, “Highlander” and “Daredevil”. David was a cofounder of an animation studio in Raleigh NC in the 1980’s called CyberKids. He also created the pirate mascot for East Carolina University.