ABSTRACT
The primary goal of animation in preproduction is to answer as many of the major questions about the project that can arise via previz and prototypes. Toward the end of preproduction comes the project “greenlight” pitch to prospective publisher, upper studio management, or even a crowdfunding site to be granted the necessary budget to start the project in earnest. The animation director will be expected to set out the vision for the animation style and why he or she arrived at their artistic choices. Previsualization is the single best tool animators have at their disposal in the early stages of a project when there are minimal assets to work with and the possibilities of what the game might be are wide open. Prototyping game systems are the next stage of game development following previz. While gameplay prototyping can begin with simply pen and paper, the game animator will come into play when it's time to get things into the engine.
