2D Production Memo - June 2026

Written by: Phoebe Jiang, 2D Line Producer

Art by Ashley Lam and Laura Swalley

Things are glowing up in the world of FOREST and we're thrilled to share some exciting updates.

Pre-Design: Continued and Counting
Our pre-design team (Ivory Bi, Andrew Fratasci, Joanna Jiang, Vanessa Nakasone, Laura Swalley, Michelle Wirono) has been hard at work building out the lush, little world of our 2D animated short. The pre-design phase has been an incredible opportunity for our visual development artists to explore, experiment, and establish the visual language that will carry our acorn protagonist’s story from beginning to end. Every asset, from the tiniest face masks to mushroom-sized gadgets, was thoughtfully crafted. We can’t wait for you to see the nooks and crannies that bring this world to life.

Art by Joanna Jiang

Beat Boards: Bringing the Story into View
One of the most exciting milestones in the early stages of animation production is the development of beat boards. As a script gets close to being locked, beat boards help the team think visually about what the story actually looks like. 

We’re fortunate to have a trained storyboard artist as our Director, Ashley Lam, who was able to visually convey the big picture and help the team understand the overall pacing and narrative direction. Beat boards serve an important role in mapping out major turning points and establish the emotional “tentpoles” in the story. Compared to standard storyboards that detail every single short, beat boards apply single, detailed images to convey entire scenes. The resulting images are reminiscent of storybook illustration, packing complexity and emphasizing the emotional core of the story. Questions guiding each panel are simple but powerful: Who’s important in this scene? How do we compose the image so that it not only communicates what’s happening, but also how the characters feel about it?

It’s a thoughtful challenge as every choice in framing, focus, and staging is a storytelling decision. And watching those decisions come together into a first visual pass of our film has made the story feel just a little more real.

Art by Ashley Lam

Storyboarding: First Panels, First Steps
Our storyboard team is also officially up and running! Led by Grace Park, our Head of Story, our story artists Alyssa Huang, Aloha Lee, Vivian Le, and Connie Wen, have hit the ground running in these earliest stages of the boarding process. This month, the team made their way through thumbs and rough pitches, which are the scrappy, exploratory first passes where the real magic of visual storytelling comes into view. 

Thumbs and roughs aren’t about perfection; they’re about momentum and discovery. And our story artists’ enthusiasm for the project has propelled us into the next phase of the pipeline. At this stage, the priority is to clearly convey ideas, find the flow of sequences, and begin to answer the big questions: Does this scene land emotionally? Is the staging clear? Pitches gave our director and story team a chance to unpack and explore these questions together, and the conversations that emerged are sharpening the way we see our story. 

It’s early days, but the exuberant creativity of this team has been exciting to watch!

Art by Andrew Frastaci

What’s Next
The FOREST crew is growing! This month, we welcomed our composers, editor, compositing and animation leads to the team. These new additions bring with them a wealth of expertise that will provide the guidance and structure our team needs as we head into the next phase. In the weeks to come, we’ll be bringing on the remaining artists and creatives, and we can’t wait to introduce them to you.