The Marathon vs. The Sprint: How We Adapt Our Production Pipeline from Commercials to Series

Last updated: October 2025

The primary difference is a fundamental shift. A commercial pipeline is a flexible ‘sprint’ built for rapid turnaround. A series pipeline is a structured ‘marathon’ built for long-term consistency and scale.

One Studio, Two Distinct Disciplines

A common question we hear from new long-form partners is: “You’re great at the 30-second sprint, but can you handle the 10-episode marathon?” It’s the right question to ask.

The truth is, producing a commercial and producing a series are not just different in length, they’re completely different races. A sprint demands explosive speed, nimble decision-making, and the ability to pivot instantly. A marathon demands stamina, structure, and a watertight system that can sustain quality over months, even years.

At A+C, based on over a decade of delivering both global campaigns and episodic content, we’ve built purpose-designed pipelines for both. This is our candid look at commercial vs series animation production – the short-form vs long-form animation pipeline, explained

In this article, we’ll take you behind the scenes of our dual pipelines, one optimised for commercials, the other for series, so you can see exactly how we switch gears from the sprint to the marathon. It’s clear-eyed guide to commercial vs series animation production – the short-form vs long-form animation pipeline – so you can plan with confidence.

Explore our side-by-side process comparison below.

The Core Difference: Reactive Speed vs. Proactive System

In a sprint, you react. In a marathon, you have a system.

Commercial production thrives on agility: reacting quickly to client feedback, making rapid creative decisions, and delivering high-impact work in days or weeks. By contrast, series production requires proactive planning: anticipating problems before they occur, maintaining consistency across thousands of assets (for example, ensuring a character’s specific shade of blue is identical from episode 1 to episode 26), and managing a multi-layered feedback structure over many months.

As our Senior Producer puts it:

“On a commercial, the most important skill is nimble problem-solving. On a series, the most important skill is building a system so good that you have far fewer problems to solve in the first place. That’s the shift in mindset.”

A Side-by-Side Comparison: Our Production Pipelines

Commercials vs. Series: Pipeline at a Glance

1. Scheduling & Pace

The Sprint (Commercials):
Commercial projects often line in the space of days and weeks. Pre-production is fast, focusing on script, storyboards, and quick approvals. Shoot days are concentrated and high-intensity, with the entire team pushing towards a sharp delivery date. Post-production editing and VFX follows immediately after, often within a week. The entire pipeline is designed to move fast without losing focus on craft.

The Marathon (Series/Features):
For a series, scheduling stretches into months or years. Pre-production includes building a show bible, character design, animatics, and extensive world-building. We spread shooting across multiple units running in parallel to maintain output consistency. Post-production involves a structured, multi-stage pipeline: offline edit, animatic reviews, VFX passes, and delivery across many episodes. The pacing is carefully managed to balance momentum with sustainability.

2. Asset Management

The Sprint (Commercials):
On a commercial, we may build a few dozen assets, characters, sets, props, with a heavy focus on a handful of “hero” elements that must shine at broadcast quality. These assets are used intensely for a short burst and then retired. Management is straightforward, often handled through internal servers and light content management systems.

The Marathon (Series/Features)
A series involved creating and managing thousands of assets across multiple episodes: characters with wardrobe changes, environments that evolve, props that recur. Digital asset management (DAM) and media asset management (MAM) systems become essential to track versions, organise media files, and ensure consistency across hundreds of shots. Without robust digital asset management (DAM) and media asset management (MAM) solutions, asset sprawl can derail an animation project. (See: Scalability Deep Dive) For us, asset management is a discipline in itself, ensuring every team member. across every unit, is working from the same library.

3. Team Structure

The Sprint (Commercials):
Commercials thrive on a small, agile team. Animators, model makers, and compositors often wear multiple hats. The Hierarchy is flat, communication is constant, and decisions can be made in real-time on set. It’s about speed, versatility, and adaptability.

The Marathon (Series/Features):
Series production requires scale and specialisation. Teams and departmentalised: armature builders, mould-makers, animators, riggers, camera crew, and post-production specialists. Multiple units may work simultaneously to hit delivery schedules. Clear hierarchies and defined communication channels prevent chaos when dozens or even hundreds of people and contributing. The structure ensures that a creative vision can be sustained consistently over a long run of episodes.

4. Review Cycles & Feedback

The Sprint (Commercials):
Feedback is immediate, often direct from agency or brand clients. Iteration happens rapidly: a storyboard reviewed in the morning may be re-cut by the afternoon. Approvals are compressed into a matter of days. The speed of feedback is critical to maintaining pace.

The Marathon (Series/Features):
Series feedback follows a far more formalised cycle. Networks and producers require structured review staged: show bible approval, animatic sign-off, offline and online edits, and delivery checks. Our production team collates, tracks, and implements notes methodically. This ensures consistency across episodes and keeps multiple stakeholders aligned. In long-form, “structured network notes” aren’t a hurdle, they’re the backbone of maintaining creative coherence over time. “The shift to network notes is a huge discipline change,” adds our Senior Producer. “It requires meticulous tracking and a diplomatic production team that can translate feedback from multiple executives into a single, clear set of instructions for the artists. It’s a skill you only learn by doing.

The Right Process for the Right Race

Whether it’s a 30-second sprint or a 10-episode marathon, success depends on running the right race. At A+C, our strength lies in not just our creative output, but in our strategic ability to apply the correct production pipeline to the project at hand.

Whatever your project’s distance, our transparent processes and experienced teams are built to get you to the finish line with confidence and clarity.

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