APC10135 - Overview and general definitions: example of television production activities for animation

S1216AH Corporation Tax Act 2009

This page gives an example of a production pipeline for a 3D digital animation. It shows the stages of development after the programme has been ‘greenlighted’. The stages described here are as they may be used in the animation industry and do not necessarily correspond with the terms as used for Television Tax Relief (TTR).

Pre-production activities might include intellectual property development, script preparation, voice recording, storyboarding, animatic, design, background, character and props modelling, and layout. Animation production actitivites might include work on layout, compositing and special effects. Post-production activities might include sound, sound effects, music, mastering and delivery. This information can be seen on a diagram here.

Generally, the pre-production and post-production stages in TTR correspond to the same stages of animation production activities. The activities that fall within “animation production” will constitute principal photography.

Although voice recording occurs at an early stage, during pre-production, this will probably be considered to be part of principal photography as it is essentially recording the performance of artists.

It is possible that some of the early stages constitute development but only to the extent that they were necessary before the programme was given approval to proceed.