Using charts and guides to help you plan your animation

When planning your animation, it's good to make use of guides to help you save time and work. Here are some to help you establish where your animation should happen on screen, how long the actions should take, and plan what work is required to create the animation. You have already seen the Composition Guides to help you compose your shots, but here are some to help ensure that what you plan to do gets seen by your audience.

Staying in TV limits with Safe Title zone, Safe Action zone, and Lower Third

The Safe Title zone and Safe Action zone originated in the black-and-white days of television. They were created to make sure that what was put on the screen got seen.

Early TV was very imprecise. It was decided that only the inner 80 percent of the image was likely enough to be seen, and that it could be trusted to display titles and sponsor logos. Only the inner 90 percent was likely enough to be seen, so critical action could be shown...