Editing in Animation

Unlike the live action Editor who has a variety of "takes" or footage that can be assembled to tell a story. Editing for Animation usually is planned out during the storyboard stage at the beginning of the production. Editors are still needed to assemble the scenes, help the pace of the film and to make sure the shots are all working together to tell the story visually. As an Animator, you need to understand how editing works and can help tell your story to your audience without boring them with too much information.

Director Alfred Hitchcock was a master of editing and help pioneer a lot of the editing techniques we see in films today. Here he is explaining how "Cutting" works, the process of going from one shot to the next to create a mood or to build tension for the audience.

Hitchcock looks like he wants to cut the interviewer in half with that last question.

This montage technique is also known as the Kuleshov Effect. Using a sequence of shots to create a mood or an emotional state in the mind of the viewer. The Moscow Film School (1919) was setup to train communist filmmakers to create newsreels for agitation and propaganda. The co-founder of the school, Lev Kuleshov pioneered film theory and came up with this cutting technique, shown below.

Audiences back then, felt they were watching the performance of a great actor, when in fact all the shots of the actor were the same shot. The other shots inbetween the actor's created this psychological effect. Today's audiences are not as sensitive towards this example. Below is a modern example of this technique with a faster pace to the cutting.

Here's a slower paced example with explanation.

 

Beginning animation students tend to use this formula when storyboarding an assignment where a character enters a room to find a mysterious box. They usually begin with an establishing shot, (Side view) with the character entering to see a box in the middle of the frame. We cut to the box (usually the character's POV). Next we are back to the wide establishing shot. At this point, we have pulled away from the box of interest. Instead of going to a close up of our character's reaction to see what the character thinks about what they are looking at, they cut away from the action. There is a lot of cutting from side view to front view to side to front which is also distracting visually and this doesn't help build the montage.

But what does an animation editor do?

Since most animation films are planned out in advanced, an animation editor will do a variety of tasks like cutting together the animatic,  

A Q/A with Production Designer, Aurelien Predal

Here is an interesting Q/A with Production Designer, Aurelien Predal who has worked on a lot of animated and live action films including, Inside Out 2, Project Hail Mary and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse. In this Q/A there are lots of clips, but no big spoilers and a lot about the production design process in general. 

I was happy to find out that the original artist of the Asterix comic book series was also colored blind, because I'm red/green colored blind. Aurelien mentions this and how he used some of these odd color choices in the series. Enjoy!

The Dreamers and I, a new documentary by Kenji Yamamoto

I finally have something to share with you, it's a documentary called "The Dreamers and I" which I made some animated sequences thru out. Kenji Yamamoto was a film and video editor and 10 years ago, he decided to make his own film after years of working on other people's films.

He got a grant to begin this project where he discovered am endless cast of characters living in a "Hacker House". The people from all over the world who were legal immigrants who were creating their own projects in hopes of selling their projects to big companies like Apple, Google and other big tech companies.

Don't take my word for it. Enjoy this interview instead...

Here's another interview where you can hear Kenji explaining how this film came about.

https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2026/07/31/the-dreamers-and-i

I started the project when it was called, "The Big Deal" and early on, Kenji had discovered that he was basically camera shy and wanted an animated version of himself talking to the viewer instead of himself. 

I started working on making the animated Kenji designs first and allowing Kenji to direct the character design process. This all began in 2024 and it was a slow process not on a tight deadline. I am currently editing down an interview with Kenji and his wife Nancy, who is also has a lot of films under her belt as well.

For now, enjoy this trailer from the film and you will see the animated Kenji towards the end.

"The Dreamers and I" will begin streaming on PBS beginning August 1st and I will post a schedule if you are interested in seeing the whole film for free!

Just leave me some feedback...