Do You Add Any Additional Fees To My Invoice After The Project Is Done?

No. SolidLine Media has a �Bottom Line� pricing structure. Whatever budget we agree to in the production agreement is the budget you will spend. If there are any additions due to production scope changes, we will discuss budget changes with you to ensure we have your approval.

Can We Use A Teleprompter For Testimonial Resposes?

We do not recommend using a teleprompter for anything other than direct-to-camera scripted videos. You may produce the content exactly the way you want to, but most people do not come across naturally when trying to read candid responses to questions from a teleprompter. It is better to be truly candid and real. Read more�

Can You Provide Video Files For Online Use?

Absolutely. We encode on a Digital Rapids system and can provide any file type for any occasion, including online use. We have optimized YouTube and Vimeo settings as well. Read more about encoding here.

How Long Does 'One Video Production Day' Mean?

A typical video production day is 10 hours long.

Should We Film Indoors Or Outdoors?

Depending on the subject matter, we like to have a variety of shots in our productions. If outdoor filming is possible, we need to take into consideration weather concerns as well as environment issues like loud sounds, or people that may be causing distractions in the background.

Why Should We Hire Solidline Media?

That�s easy! Because we are awesome! While that certainly is true, we do understand that finding a great fit is important in a production company. Take a look at our Why SolidLine page and learn about key SLM differentiators and why we are the right choice for you.

We Don't Have A Location To Film. Can You Find Us A Location? How Much Does That Cost?

Absolutely. Our Producer will work to source the best location(s) for filming. We work with film offices and location scouts when we need to find something very specific. Some locations like a home location can be secured for minimal budget, maybe only a few hundred dollars, but larger and challenging locations like a hospital ER may cost more.

Can We Film At Our Office Or Should We Use A Soundstage?

Depending on the project, we can absolutely film at your office. If we are featuring your company or product, then filming at your office or manufacturing facility is important. But if we need a more controlled environment for interviews or to build sets and create narrative scenes, then a soundstage is usually the best bet. We work with several local stages in Chicago and have relationships across the U.S. with stages so we can always find the best location to film your video production.

Do You Provide Scripts Writing Service Or Do We Have To Write Our Own Scripts?

SolidLine Media provides full scriptwriting and creative development services � just like the big agencies. We will learn about your business through production meetings, phone calls, and our creative brief. We do ask that our clients be prepared to provide us with as much content and information as possible so we can learn about your business and what is driving you to produce this video production.

Why Do We Need A Professional Hair And Makeup Artist?

If you are creating a narrative video with actors, or simply producing interview videos, it is always a great idea to have a professional hair and make-up artist. This will ensure that everyone in the video is looking their best. Reducing shine on bald heads, getting rid of hair flyaways, or just adding some color to brighten a face is all very important. Learn more about this important topic on our blog here.

What Should I Wear To My On-Camera Interview?

Being prepared for your interview is very important. Check out this �What to Expect� PDF we created to help ease the preparation process.

Breathing Life Into Your 3D Character

In 3D animation, we have the luxury of having everything available to us to animate and make changes on the fly. If one part of your character animation is not really working out, you can go ahead and change just that part, without having to go back and re-draw a bunch of frames like you would in 2D animation.

For each SolidLine Media production that requires a 3D character animation, I perform a number of tasks in a very specific order. I have broken down each one for you in order to provide you with a clear understanding on how to ‘breath life’ into your character.

Your Characters Voice

Voice selection is very important to the character. It will define who the character is. How the character will move. Is your character a chubby chef type of dude? Then find that voice that best suits him. At SolidLine Media, this is a very important process, and everyone from the client to the animators gets involved. We will send out an audition with a sketch of the character to voice talent sites such as www.voice123.com. We collect all of the responses, pick out our favorites, and then forward those auditions on to the clients. From there, it’s narrowed down, and the voice of your character is selected. As the animator, you must support the voice selected, because you are the one who is going to be listening to it for the next several weeks.

Main Body Movement and Rotation

Once you have planned out your characters moves and acted them out over and over again, it’s time to set that first key frame. I always begin with the characters main body form position and rotation animation. Carefully breaking down the voice characteristics, I think about how I would move if I were the one saying the lines. Then I just exaggerate them. If you can watch the scene of your character moving with just the body, no arms or hands, eyes or facial animation, and can still read the scene, you have done your job.

Head and Neck Movement and Rotation

Next in line is the head and neck animation. Depending on what emotions your character is feeling, the head will move a certain way. Think about it. If you are sad, you hang your head low.

Arms and Legs

Pretty self explanatory. I usually move onto the arms and legs animation next. Depending on the character, the scene, or how I am feeling at the time, I will pick one to do over the other. Again, act it out before you do anything. How are you moving your arms? Are you flinging them over your head in excitement? Exaggerate your movements. The arms are tricky, because they are a main form of their own, yet are smaller details on the form of the body. How do they react with the movement of the body? If your character falls down and lands flat on the floor, how will the arms react to the movement?

If your character has legs, that’s a whole new ball of wax. Having legs means that most likely your character will be walking or standing, and needs to behave with the forces of weight and gravity in a believable way. Having a flying character frees you up from dealing with these issues. Likewise, in the case of SolidLine, your character will be on screen with text or video, so if the character flies, it will be much easier to control the scene. But if you can accomplish having a character walking around your corporate video, you will hit a home run out of the park.

Fingers

The arm animation is in place, so it is time to move on to the fingers. For whatever reason, finger animation is generally neglected in popular character animation. Yet, I feel it is extremely important to getting your characters emotions across. Again, act it out, and you will begin to discover all of the amazing things you can have your character do with their fingers.

Eyes and Eyebrows

If you are able to convey the emotion of your character through body gesture and movement, then adding the eyes and eyebrow animation will add that extra level of believability to the character. A lot of folks rely on the eyes to convey the emotion, which works well with live actors, but in animation, you must rely on the characters weight, gesture and movement.

Mouth

Same story goes for the mouth animation. Having a mouth is like an added bonus to your character animation. Once everything else is done, then move onto the mouth. In 3D animation, the 3D modeler sets up a number of morph targets, or phonemes, with which the animator can call up at any point. The big advantage of this is not only ease of use, but the opportunity to combine different phoneme targets in order to get the best result for your character. Here’s an example. Let’s say your character has the line, “My glass of milk fell off the table.” If the character is feeling indifferent about it, you can just go with the standard phoneme targets with little variation. But if the character is sad about it, you must animate accordingly. A frowny face would help. Or, if they are excited and happy about the glass of milk falling off the table, how about a big teethy smile when they say the line.

The Details

This is the point when you move onto your secondary animations. The character is set. Now it’s time to go ahead and move back to the beginning of your animation, and start animating that hair. Or dress. Or tail. Or hat. Or whatever secondary detail animation that may be attached to your character. Are they holding onto a balloon on a string in the scene? Great! Save that for last.

Here are some characters that I have worked on, using these same exact steps.

You can contact Mike Petrik at [email protected]
To learn more about SolidLine Media, visit us online at www.solidlinemedia.com. Or call 312-939-8600.
Copyright 2009 SolidLine Media, a division of KV Media Group, Inc.

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