Optimization of the Animation Production Process utilizing Game Engine

Abstract

With the increasing demands of audiences, animated films are required to achieve higher quality. The traditional production process frame has an extreme slow development since the advent of the first 3D animated film in 1995, which leads to a continuously increasing requirement of both human labor and hardware. Nowadays, with the optimization and iteration of game engines, their application in animation has become more and more extensive. Utilizing game engines to optimize the traditional pipeline is a feasible approach, not only for industry, but for education field and independent artists. This paper elaborated the three processes: Pre-production, Production and Post-production, through comparative analysis of the pipeline of traditional 3D animation films and the engine 3D animation films with representative practical works. The study shows that game engines provided a revolutionary way in all these stages of animation production, more than 50% of detailed processes are remarkably simplified. This work described optimizations in different phases, generalized this pipeline systematically, then discussed challenges and opportunities of this innovation. The results of this study could be adopted by creators, especially independent artists to product animated films with relatively lower costs and higher flexibility.