What kind of ‘story’ is it that you are communicating? How will you tell the ‘story’ with multiple images and what order will they appear? How will you get from image to image? How will one image turn into the next? How long will it take for one image to become the next image?
Once you have multiple images and you know what order they will be in, each image can now be called a shot, and you can put those images together onto a timeline, viewing the timeline you can decide on length and timings of each shot, how will each shot move, what will happen within each shot, what is the beginning, middle and end of each shot, how will you get from one shot to the next, will it blend seamlessly or will it be a straight cut?
Once you know these things, your story is beginning to unfold as an animated piece….
You then need to make those images move, to fill in the gaps in between, to turn those images into animation.
You will either need to learn to animate or, if your project is commissioned, you will need to select your team of animators who will do the movement for you. You’ll choose those animators based on their skillsets and what kind of animation they do well.
How to develop as an animation director
So, now you know what you want to do, you now need to communicate your intentions with your team, how do you want it to move, what do you want it to do, how long should it take? You need to keep checking progress along the way and if the animation isn’t what you wanted, you need to say why and how it should change to become what you envisage.
And that’s all there is to it!
Of course, it takes time, the key is to be confident in your ideas, to form your own directorial style, to get down and do it, either by personal projects or commissioned work but to be considered for animation projects you will need a body of work to show, a portfolio. It will become a showreel but you will need to do some work on your own to develop a style that makes you stand out from the others.