đ¸ THE FINAL CUT đ¸
INDUSTRY NEWS FOR VISUAL STORYTELLERS
Weâre trying something new!
Welcome to our first edition of âThe Final Cut.â A weekly roundup of industry news we hope youâll find both interesting and useful. Scouring the web in search of the latest stories related to visual storytelling is no fun, so weâve collected them for you here. Please let us know your what you think!
The Week in Visual Storytelling
Storyboarding ¡ Animation ¡ Comics ¡ Pre-Production ¡ Tools & Pipeline
April 3, 2026
Pre-Production & Training
Gobelins Opens Registration for âFrom Storyboard to Animaticâ Online Course Starting April 6
Gobelins â the Paris animation school behind some of the most celebrated European animated films â is running a three-week intensive online course starting this Sunday, April 6, running through April 24. The course walks students through drawing a storyboard, then editing and adding sound to build a finished 1â2 minute animatic, guided by working animation professionals via lectures, masterclasses, and individual tutoring sessions. Itâs taught entirely in English, open to international students, and aimed at animators, directors, graphic designers, and screenwriters who want to get serious about storyboarding as a craft. Cost is âŹ2,300 for the three weeks; registration is through the Gobelins website.
Source: Gobelins
Animation â Industry
One Piece Returns This Week with a Fundamentally Different Production Model
After a three-month production hiatus, One Piece relaunched this week with the start of the Elbaph Arc â and with it, Toei Animation put a new production model into effect. Going forward, the series will produce a maximum of 26 episodes per year, split into two cours of up to 13 episodes each, ending a 27-year tradition of near-continuous weekly broadcast that began in 1999. Toei framed the change as a deliberate move to close the gap between the anime and Eiichiro Odaâs manga, allowing the animation team more time per episode. For working animators and storyboard artists, the shift mirrors a broader industry trend toward quality-over-volume seasonal production.
Source: Anime News Network / AWN
Comics & Illustration
MoCCA Fest 2026 Wraps in New York â 400+ Artists, 15 Awards of Excellence
The Museum of Comics and Cartoon Art Arts Festival returned to New York on March 28â29, drawing over 7,000 attendees and more than 400 exhibiting artists and small-press publishers. The SI MoCCA Arts Award of Excellence, given annually to 15 works discovered on the festival floor, went to creators including Rebecca Mock (Widowâs Wing), Olivia Fields (LTHRWRK), and Nick Bunch (The Resurrection of Low Down Coyote), with winners also receiving a Xencelabs pen tablet. Comics Beatâs coverage notes MoCCA continues to prove itself as a vital circuit stop for indie cartoonists, illustrators, and animators working outside the mainstream.
Source: Comics Beat
Animation â Adaptation
Witch Hat Atelier Anime Premieres This Weekend on Crunchyroll
The anime adaptation of Kamome Shirahamaâs celebrated manga Witch Hat Atelier â known for its intricate, illustration-forward visual language and its story about a girl learning to draw magic â premieres April 6 exclusively on Crunchyroll with a same-day English dub, releasing the first two episodes back-to-back. Shirahamaâs source material has long been referenced in illustration and comics communities for its meticulous approach to linework and world-building through visual detail, making this one of the more creatively anticipated adaptations of the year. The series is produced by BUG FILMS and directed by Ayumu Watanabe.
Source: Anime News Network
Tools & Pipeline
How AI Is Actually Rewriting VFX Pipelines â Not Replacing Artists, Restructuring Workflows
A new analysis from AWN examines how AI is shifting the day-to-day reality of VFX work â not by eliminating artists, but by absorbing the tedious middle of the pipeline: rotoscoping, motion tracking, background generation, and shot cleanup. Tools like Adobe After Effectsâ updated AI-assisted masking, Luma AIâs camera-angle editing from text prompts, and open-source ComfyUI node workflows are giving individual artists and small studios the ability to hit turnaround times previously reserved for larger teams. The key framing: AI is compressing prep work and iteration cycles, which means storyboard artists and previz creators are being asked to move faster and more precisely earlier in production.
Source: Animation World Network
Industry â Film & TV
The Post-Strike Hollywood Rebound That Wasnât â L.A. Production Still Down 20%
No Film School is reporting that Los Angeles production has still not recovered to pre-strike levels, running nearly 20% below its five-year average as of early 2026. The post-strike hiring surge that was widely predicted for 2025 largely failed to materialize, leaving crew-level work â including storyboard artists, previz teams, and production designers â in a continued holding pattern. Industry observers point to a combination of runaway production (other states and countries offering deeper incentives), studio consolidation, and streamers recalibrating their content spend as compounding factors.
Source: No Film School
From the Community
Fellow Substackers worth your time this week. If their work resonates, give them a restack.
Animation Obsessive
âTruth and the Budget Have the Last Wordâ
A deep-dive into a 1970s animated sequence from Everybody Rides the Carousel that recently went viral, featuring the work of animators Barrie Nelson and Tissa David. Animation Obsessive traces why the clip landed the way it did â and what it reveals about the economics and artistry of the era. Also includes news on the Annecy 2026 shorts lineup. Published March 29 ¡ 102 likes.
How to Draw ____. ¡ Robert James Russell
The Work of Drawing
Russell writes about where creativity meets commission â the tension between making work you love and making work that pays â and walks through a museum sign he designed from first sketch to finished piece. A grounded, honest look at the realities of a working illustratorâs practice. Published March 25.
The Line Between ¡ Coleen Baik
114. Float
Baikâs bi-weekly visual newsletter follows her process as a designer and animator. This edition explores getting stuck and unstuck creatively, with a new animated sequence with sound. One of the more quietly beautiful process newsletters in the animation space â recommended by Animation Obsessive. Published March 23.
And thatâs a wrap for this week. Weâll be back next Friday with more industry news.
Beyond The Process is a newsletter for working creatives in visual storytelling â storyboarding, animation, comics, illustration, and film pre-production.
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