19 May 2010
Today's Topic: FINAL critique
45 seconds long and make it good.
This class will be devoted to viewing your final projects. Attendance in mandatory. Submit all projects in advance to Professor Heintz.
12 May 2010
Today's Topic: 10: Final Project Work Session and Troubleshooting
Time will be spent addressing any issues regarding creation of your final project animation.
5 May 2010
Today's Topic: 9: The Exquisite Corpse Project
Today we will stitch together your various contributions to the Exquisite Corpse and screen them.
This is a do it all in one session event.
Submit your videos an hour prior to the end of class and we will string them together, add sound and watch them.
You will be given a flash movie as a starting point. Create a minimum of a 10 second animation incorporating the movie.
REQUIREMENTS:
* ensure it begins with a white frame
* ensure it ends with a white frame
* the animation should go through at least one loop then you can do whatever you want.
* includes your name. (You may make your name an animated element) and your name should be readable for 3 seconds.
* the animaton must be a minimum of 10 seconds long (the 3 seconds of your name included)
* export it as a quicktime movie and turn it in to the prof of the day by one hour before the end of class
Download the flash files from MYCOURSES
This loop may suggest different forms and movements. It could merely be the start of a chain of events. It could be just one part of an articulated figure.
Use any method of animation you desire: tweened or frame by frame; photoshop or flash. Alas, not enough time for stop motion, but rotoscope or the layering of video is a possibility.
28 April 2010
Today's Topic: 8B: Lip synching
Mickey Mousing (editing/animating to sound) is a key production skill. The following are sources:
Today's Topic: 8A: Storyboard due
Pitch your final project idea. I will meet with each student individually to discuss the proposed work.
21 April 2010
Today's Topic: Final project is assigned
45 seconds long. It can be anything you want. Storyboard is due next week.
Today's Topic: 7A: Walk Cycle Critique
Submit 3 looped movement cycles. The length of each individual cycle is dependent upon how long it takes the character to make a complete movement before returning to its starting position. The cycle need not be humanoid, nor bipedal. (Do keep in mind that the more legs involved, the more difficult the work).
The loop should be seamless. (That is, if I hit "repeat" on the video player, there will be no skips or jitters between cycles).
The three movements should be distinct. They may be distinct via kind of movement (walk, run, hop, jitter, crawl, etc.) They may be distinct because the characters have different kinds of movement. (One tends to mosey, one is nervous and jittery, another is zombified).
Bonus points for all three loops being the same length of time and all within the same movie.
Do not concern yourself with the background. The character(s) and movement will be sufficient.
14 April 2010
Today's Topic: 6B: Work your walk
Get out of class when you have two out of three movement cycles done.
Today's Topic: 6A: Cel Animation and environment
Multiple cycles (movie clips) can be used in conjunction with one another. Characters have their own cycles, as do environments.
Examples:
Old Popeye
Class Assignment: Flock of Seagulls (not the 80's band)
Here's a tutorial that covers lots of ground at Creative Cow.
Part 1
Part 2
Some important concepts are the notions of looping and staggering loops within a composition, then nesting compositions into others.
7 April 2010
Exercise: Worm Movement Cycle
Create a worm movement cycle.contrast this with a snake movement cycle.
Today's Topic: 5B: Cycles, Character animation and the requisite walk cycle
Cycles and loops are efficient and the staple of all early animation, Scooby Doo, and (oh yes) game animation.
Introduction to tweened animation using Flash.
Character Animation and Movement
Examples:
- A variety of looped movement cycle examples
- Walking Dots
- A beautiful step by step tutorial on how to do a walk cycle
- A visual overview of a walk cycle
Character Animation
- The Importance of Timing
- The Language of Motion (arcs, curves, etc.)
- Suggesting Weight
- Movement Cycles (walk, run, swing, etc.)
- Facial Animation & Expression
- Gender & Race
- Energy Level and Attitudinal Suggestion
- Limited Environments of Recreation (MMOs, Real-Time, etc.)
REFERENCE: Walking Dots: A study in motion with varying interactive attibutes (gender, weight, mood)
Video: http://www.squetch.com/tism.html
Today's Topic: 5A: Rotoscope Animation Critique
Create a minimum of a 20 second rotoscoped animation on twos. (12 or 15 fps). Your source material may come from one source. Edit your source material to 20 seconds BEFORE you begin to rotoscope.
*FOR THE PARANOID: Minimum means you should target 20. There is no penalty for going over. You will not necessarily get a higher grade for a longer movie. Mo' is not necessarily bettah.
A resolution of 720 x 480 is preferred for display purposes if you have desire for personal glory.
Source material that is less than this size can be transformed (expanded) prior to rotoscoping.
Grading criteria:
There should follow a narrative arc: meaning a perceivable increasing complexity over time and then resolution.
It is not sufficient to throw a bunch of filters at this and call it done. The original footage should be reinterpreted and clearly have your own take on it.
Your rotoscope should be beyond an animated version of the source material. Change the meaning, recontextualize it, take advantage of the fact that it is an animation and laws of physics, gravity and reality no longer have any bearing on the work.
Examples of things which may follow this arc:
- protagonist - antagonist conflict storyline
- themed movement
- rhythm
- pace
- flocking
- color
- line shape
- spatial relationship
31 March 2010
Exercise: The Ball and Secondary Motion
A bouncing ping pong ball, deflated rubber ball, a spinning top, splatting jello.This will be an intro to using After Effects
Secondary Motion - After you have made your different items bounce, what things can you add to sell their materiality?
Today's Topic: 4: Cartoon Physics
Basic kinesthetics
- Gravity
- Inertia
- Axis of rotation
- Acceleration and deceleration
- Anatomy of movement
Stylized Worlds (aka Cartoon Physics)
- Ease-in and Ease-out
- Squash and stretch
- Hyper-realities (Roadrunner, Southpark, Beast Wars, Simpsons)
- Alternate-realities
24 March 2010
3: Rotoscoping
EXAMPLES:
- Fleischer Brothers: Minnie the Moocher, Superman
- Ralph Bakshi: Fritz Lang: Lord of the Rings, American Pop
- Richard Linklater: Waking Life, A Scanner Darkly
- It's Jerry Time
- Aha (the Literal Version)
Demo: After Effects to Photoshop and back again.
Resources:
- http://effectscorner.blogspot.com/2006/01/rotoscoping-part-1.html
- Dancing Clip - http://www.archive.org/details/9lines-JamesBrownDancingLessons151
Experimental Animation Critique
Create a 20 second frame by frame animation at a rate of 12 frames per second. The resolution should be 720 x 480. (Those using stop motion software, do select a resolution closest to this).
Grading criteria:
At least one of the following attributes should follow a narrative arc. A satisfactory resolution of multiple attribute arcs will result in a higher grade.
* rhythm
* pace
* flocking
* color
* line shape
* spatial relationship
This is certainly ambiguous and very open ended. Class examples and discussion will provide context. (Another way of saying, do not miss these first few classes).
Ending in death, while acceptable, is discouraged. (It's just too easy).
If using Flash - NO MOTION TWEEN OR CLASSIC TWEEN!!
17 March 2010
Today's Topic: Stop Motion Software
iStopmotion is grand for the mac.
For PC users, check out
http://stopmotionworks.com/stopmosoftwr.htm
And of course, sourceforge,net
AnimatorDV looks promising. We'll wait for our itinerant reviewers to weigh in.
Today's Topic: 2B: Adding sound to your animation
Sound adds very much to the atmosphere and general tone of the animation.
Examples:
DEMO Adobe Premiere and its sound editing ability
NOTES:
Before you load the images into photoshop, make a blank video layer and then change the document settings to the appropriate length and frames per second...THEN import your images as a video layer from a file.
What happens if you change it after the fact, it drops the frames in-between.
Links to help with Premiere:
Today's Topic: 2A: Stop Motion Animation
- Harryhausen: The Lost World, King Kong and Jason and the Argonauts
- Lucky Strike
- Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer
- Aardman Animation: The Wrong Trousers
- Svankmajer
- Brothers Quay
DEMO of iStopMotion
Note: Here's a tutorial on using Photoshop to import images for stop motion
10 March 2010
Today's Topic: 1A: A little theory, a little history (An overview)
Beyond Mickey
- George Melies' Trip to the Moon
- J. Stuart Blackton's Lightning Sketches
- Winsor McKay
Georges Melies - A trip to the moon (1902) - 6 from sinematek on Vimeo.
Georges Melies - A trip to the moon (1902) -3 from sinematek on Vimeo.
Georges Melies - A trip to the moon (1902) -2 from sinematek on Vimeo.
Georges Melies - A trip to the moon (1902) -1 from sinematek on Vimeo.
Why do we see animation the way we do? How do we make it? What are the different kinds?
Welcome!
And so we begin...
This class blog is designed to serve as your interactive syllabus, class outline, and project timekeeper. This will be where I post readings, assignments, and information about the class.
A quick intro to its use:
Use the tabs at the top to navigate to specific sections (like the syllabus and the course outline), and the calendar on the left to find materials related to a specific class meeting.