So you watched Lord of the Rings and you are blown away with such creativity. Questions such as where was the Rocky Mountains shot or perhaps how was it done never fail to pop up in your mind. Worry not, ever heard of Visual effects or VFX?

On the road where illustration and filmmaking meet, there is Concept Art. 
Also known as conceptual artor concept design, concept art’s purpose and approach are the same whether animation, live action or gaming; to convey visually a proposed idea of “look and feel” before it is realized in the final product.

There was a time that writing for animation began as drawing. Or rather, it was “writing” (note the quotation marks); there was handwriting of notations but typing a script was not even considered. Animation, being the visual medium it is, it would make sense to start-off communicating an idea visually.