Chapter 9
The Outline
What Is an Animation Outline?
It’s a plan. The premise is expanded so that the structure will be complete. It’s tempting to skip this stage, but don’t! The outline is important to ensure a good story. Sometimes to save money in television, a very short cartoon goes directly from premise into script or storyboard because less structure is needed when it’s short. Approvals for an outline must often come from producers, programming executives, censors, and sometimes from licensing or toy executives, as well as the story editor. Each cartoon is different, so what follows is general information.
An outline is a narrative description of the action—a blueprint. You’ll indicate scenes and pace your story. You reveal through action, ...
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