Animation – Mikias Berhé

Satirical Animated Shorts.

SCRIPT | ILLUSTRATION | ANIMATION | EDITING

Overview

Sinzro is a satirical animated series produced end-to-end by myself with the exception of voice acting.

Each 4-6 minute episode moves through a structured pipeline, from ideation and scripting to animation and editing, built to ensure creative consistency and meet publishing deadlines

My Role

Script Writer

Voiceover director

Background and Set design

Character design

Animator

Sound designer

Video Editor

Tools

Adobe Animate

Adobe Premiere Pro

Adobe Audition

Notion

Google Docs

Teams

Solo Project

🎯 Goals & Strategy

Consistent Visual Style

A consistent visual style builds brand recognition, boosts viewer trust, streamlines production and lets me focus more on storytelling than reinventing visual styles and assets.

Bi-Weekly Upload

Bi-weekly upload strikes the ideal balance between audience engagement and the time-intensive nature of creating high quality 4-6 minute animations, making it a sustainable pace for solo animation production.

Content Quality & Upload Deadline

To meet this expectation, I developed a streamlined workflow that allows me to maintain high production while maintaining a reasonable bi-weekly upload schedule.

Creative + Production Pipeline

A structured approach for both the brain storming and scripting part of the process and the animation and editing process.

🪜Pipeline

🧠 Story Development

I first start from a concept or an idea, then start developing the story using the Setup + Conflict + Resolution structure. As a solo animator, it is important for me to consider the production timeline when determining the scale of the story. Once each stage is clearly outlined, I move on to scripting.

*There are times when an idea is great but the scope of the story cannot fit into the two week production timeline, those ideas are put aside for the future when I’m able to delegate some of the tasks, or squeeze in some time between other projects.

Setup

The setup establishes the characters, setting, and initial situation, providing the audience with essential context before the narrative shift occurs. This stage defines the visual direction of the animation, including the scope of assets required which is a time-intensive part of production.

Conflict

The conflict serves as the core of the story, It represents the obstacle or challenge that stands in the way of the character’s resolution. Ideally something relatable that can be explored through satire or presented in a compelling and entertaining way.

Resolution

The resolution brings closure to the story by revealing the outcome of the conflict. Whether it’s a satisfying conclusion, an unexpected twist, or a comedic payoff, this stage leaves the final impression on the audience.

Developing the Story Beats

After outlining the setup, conflict, and resolution, I fill in the story with key beats and moments that connect everything together. These connections can be character interactions, comedic timings, or small twists that keep the story pace engaging. In addition to moments that connects the story beat, I also try to incorporate things like attention garbing intros and funny flashbacks that adds context or to break away from a stagnant story telling.

📄 Scripting

Once the story development is done and the core ideas of the story is figured out, I move to scripting...

Script structure & Labeling

To keep my stories organized and production ready, I use clearly labeled sections in the script.

Scenes

The main story is broken into numbered scenes based on location (e.g., Scene 1, Scene 2). This helps structure the pacing and guide animation transitions.

Flashbacks

Flashbacks are treated as separate story elements and labeled accordingly, not as numbered scenes, since they often jump in tone or story timeline and aren’t always tied directly to the main plot. These are mostly to break a stagnant story and keep the audience engaged.

Credits

This section includes a list of contributors and roles, and may also display sponsor logos or acknowledgments when relevant.

Post Credits

Sometimes I include a short post-credit scene to wrap up loose ends or deliver a final twist. This is only used when it supports the main story—it’s not meant to be random filler.

Call to Action

Each short ends with a quick, standalone “call to action” skit, like a funny “subscribe” moment or merch ad. These are mostly different for each shorts to keep things fresh and unpredictable.

Script Writing & Visual Notation

To make my scripts easy to follow during production, I use a color coded notation system to identify key elements.

This system helps me visualize scenes early and streamline the animation process by making sure everything is accounted for from the start.

🗂️ Project Tracking

Once scripting is done, I start to bring characters to life from casting voiceover artists to recording and editing.

Notion App

I created a Notion template from scratch in order to manage each YouTube animation short workflow by organizing and tracking each stage of the animation process from ideation to publishing. Using status tags and deadline tracking for each stage, I make sure to hit my bi-weekly upload goal, while keeping true to my creative direction.

🎙 Voice Over

Once scripting is done, I start to bring characters to life from casting voiceover artists to recording and editing.

Defining Character Vocal Identity

Go through the finished script and break down each character’s sound profile.

Casting Voiceover Actors

To find the right voice, I normally put out ads on social medias or use Fiverr for small roles, but I mostly reach out to people I’ve worked with before first. I then provide them sample lines with some scene context to see if they fit the character.

Audition Review & Selection

I review submitted samples and select top fits (2+ actors per character for flexibility). Log potential actors for future projects.

Scheduling

Make final decision roles and confirm talent availability for scheduling. Schedule recording sessions and send the talent finalized script and the release agreement 24 hours before recording for them to read through.

Recording & Editing

Recording Session

Sessions are structured but flexible, balancing technical precision with creative freedom. I like to have few takes of each lines, first few recordings I would direct the actors, then allow natural delivery. Finally I cross check script vs recorded files before wrap-up.

Audio Post-Processing

After identifying best recording for each lines, each audio file is processed using a 4-step system.

Amplify
EQ to reduce harsh frequencies
Compress to manage peaks
De-ess to eliminate sibilance

🎨 Design

Layout + Set Design

I start by breaking down the script to identify background needs by location and shot angle. I gather references to build layered photo collages. These assets are then traced, colored with consistent lighting, and saved as reusable assets. Final backgrounds are organized in multiple layers by depth, foreground, midground, background to support lighting and visual depth in the animation.

Background Samples

Character Design

I start by analyzing each character’s actions in the script to define their personality and visual traits. Using real-world references, I determine their clothing, accessories, and unique identifiers, sourcing assets or creating new ones as needed. Characters are designed with expressive head shapes and simplified features, then built out in six angles using a mirrored layout. Final designs are saved in both a reusable library and the project folder, clearly labeled for easy reuse.

Base Sculpting

Focus on character face and head structure to reflect their personality.

Features

Add essential features like eyes, hair, eyebrows, and any defining marks like scars etc.

Accessories

Layer on non-human elements like glasses, hats and scarfs etc that help expresses the character’s role, style, or background.

Character Samples

🎬️ Animation

Scene Planning & Script Breakdown

I first read through the script and identify each scene and the specific cuts. I sequentially work from the intro down, following the script’s order, avoiding over animation, keeping things efficient and focused. The animation breakdown is then saved under each scenes folder by the cuts/transitions of every scene

Reference & Mock-up Animation

For character related animation, I use simple characters with no details for faster and smoother animation then later add the details and accessories necessary. For any other animation characters dont interact with, I try to automate it using tweening unless frame-by-frame animation is necessary. Some animation require reference videos to get the timing perfect.

Detailed animation

Once mock-up animation flows well, I add necessary details and lighting to all animated characters and assets. For characters, I would start to refine lip sync and fine tune timing with the voiceover for a more believable character.

🎹 Editing & Audio Mix

The Assembly edit is done in Adobe premiere pro where the finished animation cuts are imported into the video track chronologically, and the only thing to do is to work on the audio mix.

Recording & Editing

Other than the Voiceover, which is all recorded in house, all other audios are from audio libraries like Epidemic sound or the Adobe sound effect library, so to achieve the bi-weekly upload schedule, I mostly use audios that are already decent sounding to avoid unnecessary editing.

Step 1 : Voiceover

Voiceovers are normally applied during the animation stage but Adobe animate handling of audio is not as good as Adobe premiere pro or Adobe audition so, I would import the voiceovers into premiere pro, sync it with the voiceover from the video clips then remove the voiceovers that was imported with the video clips.

Step 2 : Character Foley and Sound effect

Using Epidemic sound, I start adding foley to charcters then follow with sfx to create realism and texture to any action on or off the screen. To create depth and richness, I would combine multiple sounds and adjust their levels to achieve the desired impact.

Step 3 : Ambience

The ambient sounds are what reinforces the setting/location and mood of the animation. Each location should have it’s own ambiance. the idea is to create a realistic representation of the location while also considering the satirical context.

Step 4 : Music

The whole point of music scoring is to evoke a feeling in the audience, although this is creatively a rewarding process, I want to make sure deadlines are also met. This means simplifying the process to finding a music that evoke those feeling and drop them into the timeline and adjust the length and fades, nothing too demanding of a job.

Step 5 : Final Mixing

The final stage is to ensure all audio elements (voiceover, Foley, SFX, ambience, and music) are well balanced and enhances the satirical message without overpowering each other.