For this post, I studied an interview with the production team of All Saints Street (《万圣街》). Two directors from HMCH Studio, Xiao Rong and Dai Wei, shared insights into the behind the scenes workings of this animation production.
Xiao Rong (Weibo @城北盒) graduated from the Communication University of China in 2016. Known internally at HMCH for her incredible skill of drawing floating effects, she earned the nickname “Floating Goddess”.
All Saints Street is a co-production by Fenzi Interactive and Penguin Pictures, adapted from the comic of the same name and animated by HMCH Animation studio (the studio I mentioned in my former blogs). The original comic story is about a group of supernatural beings (monsters and fairys) from different regions living together.
This interview gave me a clear view of how an animation team works, how tasks are divided, and how different roles connect with each other in a real production.
It also changed the way I think about the industry.
About Production Roles
The interview showed that the production of All Saints Street involves many roles, including character design, background design, animation, storyboarding, layout, editing, compositing, sound, lighting and final color, post-production effects.
Each role is handled by different team members, but they all support ehch other. Even though the audience sees only the final frames, a huge amount of teamwork happens behind them.
This helped me understand that animation is never “one person’s work”, but always a collaborative achievement.
Things that I Noticed
Visual Consistency
Even when different groups work on different shots, the final project needs a consistent style.
Characters, backgrounds, lighting, and effects must all feel like they belong to the same world.
Story and Rhythm
Animation is not only about movement.
It needs to ues timing, acting, scene changes, and sound to push the story forward.
Flexibility and Tests
The directors mentioned that they sometimes allow themselves to experiment during production. For example, color choices, framing, or small acting ideas.
Tests help to keep the work fresh and expressive.
Cross Department Collaboration
I realized how closely different teams need to work together.
Animation, art, effects, sound, editing,all of them influence each other.
Animators must understand not only movement, but also sound cues, camera language, and visual tone.
How This Research Affected My Career Thinking
As someone who enjoys character design, I learned the importance of designing in a way that supports story and animation needs. And about background design, I saw how environment and narrative mood must work together to make the audience feel the emotional atmosphere. With practicing character animation, I now understand that how much communication is needed between departments to make a scene feel alive.
It is a system where many creatives contribute different skills, and understanding this network is important for my own development.
Reference
《罗小黑》背后的动画人，做了一部呆萌又温暖的“神仙日常”丨幕后专访 动画学术趴 06.05.2022
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