This paper explores the use of design methods to capture the tangible cultural artifacts and the intangible cultural expressions of the dance form ‘Bharathanatyam’ [5] in an animated narrative, by documenting the production process of an animated short film produced in an educational setting using motion capture technology. The paper documents the animation production process, observations, significant insights and learning outcomes for designing culturally authentic digital artifacts in real-time production processes. The paper concludes with a discussion on the opportunities of applying design research for culturalization practices in future work using these emerging technologies in digital entertainment design. Real time animation production pipelines and advanced game development technologies are replacing traditional methods of producing computer generated content for digital entertainment. Unlike traditional production processes where the conceptualization of the content is determined in the pre-production stages, real-time processes provide the flexibility of iterating multiple versions of the content in the production phase through interactive real-time visualizations. This changing trend provides opportunities to apply design research methodologies to capture the cultural authenticity of animated narratives for improved user engagement with the content.