PLEASE BRING YOUR SKETCHBOOKS TO CLASS WEDNESDAY, SO I CAN REVIEW YOUR SKETCHBOOK ASSIGNMENTS FOR THE MIDTERM
For Wednesday (3/7), I want more thorough storyboards from you all, for our current project – the two characters reacting to each other. If you're still stuck around this, I would suggest you pick a series of dramatic poses for your characters, and use that as your starting point. Also, by the start of Wednesday's class, I'd like you to create a flash file with with separate scenes in each, each scene lasting only one frame. Have your two characters placed in each of the scenes. Then, in each scene, pose your characters so that they are acting out emotions. In each scene, the two characters should be acting out the same emotion – both could be surprised, or angry, or what have you. It will be most interesting if each character acts out the emotion in a different way. Ultimately, both of your characters will be acting out three emotions. We'll show these to each other on wednesday, and see if the emotions we're intending to convey are actually expressed by the characters.
By the time we get back, on Monday (3/19), you have two assignments due:
Sketchbook assignment one: Storyboarding a scene from a movie that's already shot
Find a scene in a movie you like (bring it to class on DVD or email me the URL of a youtube clip), and make a storyboard of the scene. Rewatch and pause the scene to get the shots. This is an exercise in "reverse engineering" the scene, and really understanding how the director created the sequence with a series of choices about where to put the camera, whether to move the camera or not, and so on. These don't have to be beautiful drawings of the shots -- just enough to describe what's going on in each shot. Be sure to bring the DVD or youtube link with you next class, so we can compare your drawn version and the filmed one. Don't pick something that's so complicated, that it's made up of thirty or forty shots -- something that's between ten and twenty storyboard panels would be good. Again, there's no strict formula for this -- certainly each new shot should have a separate panel in the storyboard, but if there is a complicated series of actions that takes place within one shot, one shot may take a few storyboard panels to get the idea of the action of the shot across. You will present the scene, and your analysis of it, to the class on Monday.
Sketchbook assignment two: a paragraph describing your idea for your final animation
You also need to write up, in your sketchbook, a one-paragraph description of your idea for your final animation project. This will be an animation of roughly 1 minute in length. Please also indicate your ideas for the style/technique you will use. You can use any technique (or combination of techniques) you'd like -- rotoscope, jointed armature, etc.
The latitude for what your final animation is about is also very open. I just don't want to see things that are mainly spoofs or ripoffs of something else. It should have a personal dimension to it. That doesn't mean it has to be realistic in any way -- it just has to be your own ideas, images, characters, etc.
If you're stuck for an idea, here are some jumping-off places (some of the past sketchbook assignments could be starting-points):
What's an interesting trip you took?
What's a memorable dream you had?
What's the most embarrassing thing that's happened to you (you have to be brave to pick this one, but your cartoon might get some good laughs)?
What's something (an event, a place, a person) that you were really excited about, but when the event happened (or when you visited the place, or met the person), it wasn't at all what you expected?
Talk about your favorite daydreams.
Talk about your worst fears.
What's a story (funny or serious) that you've told time and time again, because you know it's a good story?
What was the first time you defied one or both of your parents -- or some other authority figure? And what was the consequence?
What's been the greatest achievement of your life so far (it can be rough to go this direction without looking like you're bragging about yourself, but it can be done)?
What's the most difficult decision you've ever had to make?
What was your first pet?
What's something weird you did as a young child, that seemed to make sense to you as a kid, but in retrospect seems pretty bizarre?
What's the thing you hate most about the world?
You can be funny or you can be serious. It could be as serious as dealing with the death of someone close to you, or as goofy as the most successful practical joke you've played on a friend. Just make sure the story is meaningful to you in some way -- meaningful enough that you won't mind spending about a month working on it.
Another option: pick a folk or fairy tale to adapt. That way, you'll have a whole plot laid out for you -- your trick is to invest it with your own sense of style.
