Abstract: With the rapid development of stereoscopic display technology in recent years, the requirements in stereoscopic 3D（S3D） animation for many fields are increasing gradually. However, in the procedure of S3D animation production the stereo effect is difficult to control so that the perceived depth is not obvious or visual fatigue happens. We proposed a stereo effect adjustment method for prophase of S3D animation production. First, we generated the disparity gradient maps according to the relationships among scene depth, stereo image disparity and stereo effect. Then, through analyzing the relationship between disparity and view distance, we derived the disparity range for the best visual effect and further marked the regions for visual fatigue on the disparity gradient map. Moreover, we obtained the curves between the stereo parameters and the disparity and analyzed the influence of the stereo parameters on the disparity, which can assist the animation producer to accurately adjust the stereo effect. We also built a Maya plug-in and used the typical scene cuts of a commercial animation film "Legend of A Rabbit: The Martial of Fire" to verify our method. Experimental results show that our method with high accuracy and automation level could significantly improve the efficiency of the S3D animation production.