How to write animation scripts.

1. The Script Process for Animation
Josue Contreras
@josuerockdrigo

2. Proceso
Opción 1
• Springboard (not
as common)
• Premise
• Outline
• First draft
• Second draft
• Polish
Opción 2
• Lluvia de ideas
• Storyline
• Outline
• First draft
• Second draft
• Polish
• Lectura con actores

3. Springboard
• No more than a
few sentences
with just a very
basic concept for
a story idea.

4. The Premise
• A premise must contain the
beginning, middle, and end
of the story in concise
form, but with enough
detail to sell the idea.
• OUTSIDE PITCHES
• INTERNAL DEVELOPMENT
• THE “A” STORY AND THE
“B” STORY

5. The Outline (escaleta)
• An outline is usually a beat-by-beat description of the
script, broken into the necessary number of acts, with
the major sluglines (interiors and exteriors) indicated.
• Be sure you cover all the action beats, the essence of
what the characters are saying to one another, the
humor beats (if any), the emotional beats, and
whatever else is crucial to conveying what will be in the
script.

6. The Script Format
• There is no one single, absolute, unvarying script format for
either animation or live action. However, there are some
basic rules. The key things you need to know are how to lay
out the page (margins, spacing, indents) and how to use
the five basic elements from which every script is built:
• SLUGLINES / SCENE HEADINGS
• ACTION DESCRIPTION
• DIALOGUE
• PARENTHETICALS
• TRANSITIONS

7. The Differences (Live action-Animation)
Difference No. 2: Dialogue and the Lip-Synch Factor
• Call out (specify) every single shot. You’re
storyboarding as you write. You decide how
to open each scene and what is in every
shot in the scene in order to convey your
action and dialogue.
• An animation writer must be able to clearly
visualize the script as animation.
• This is where watching a lot of animation
becomes valuable. Some things that you can
do in a fully animated feature you can’t do
in a half-hour TV series episode, due to time
and budget constraints for TV.

8. The Differences (Live action-Animation)
Difference No. 1: Calling Out the Shots

9. Difference No. 2: Dialogue and the Lip-Synch
Factor
• The nature of the dialogue.
• Full animation in an animated feature
can come closer to this at a greater
cost in artist hours, but it won’t equal
what a live actor can do.
• Dialogue in animation is expected to
be minimal, pithy, concise, strong,
and punchy.
• Each piece of dialogue should be kept
down to one or two fairly short
sentences at most.

10. Difference No. 3: Script Length
• LIVE ACTION: one minute = one page
• ANIMATION: one minute = one and a half pages
Theoretically, then:
• A twenty-two-minute live-action script would be
twenty-two pages.
• A Twenty-two-minute animation script would be
thirty-three pages.

12. • Josue Contreras
• @josuerockdrigo