Due on Monday

By the beginning of class Monday, have a rough storyboard of your two characters acting and reacting to each other. If you don't have a story in mind, perhaps you can use some of your poses as a starting point. You will eventually be making a short animation where your two characters are acting together, and the storyboard will give you a blueprint for this. The drawings can be very sketchy.

An online article on storyboarding, which has some examples I showed in class, is here, if you want to revisit some of the examples:

http://pingmag.jp/2006/10/27/storyboard-design/

Sketchbook assignment for Wednesday

For wednesday's class, in your sketchbook, I want to see sketches of your two characters in various "acting" poses. You're not changing the designs of your characters, just the poses. So, pick three emotions or "transient states" (angry, drunk, sad, flirtatious -- whatever you want to choose), and make each of your characters act them out.

If, for example, you choose angry, sad, and nervous, I want to see both of your characters looking angry, sad and nervous. So it will be a total of six drawings. Bonus points if your characters have different poses for the same emotion. For example, a big, macho character might express anger differently than a meek character would. The big character might look threatening, and the meek character might look ridiculous.

Due on Wednesday: Two Character Designs in Your Sketchbook

Your next project will involve creating (and then animating) a character in silhouette. First we'll concentrate on creating the silhouettes, and then we'll worry about posing them so that their emotions "read" to the viewer, and then finally we'll bring them to life by moving them through a series of poses.

But first -- just worry about the silhouettes themselves. I want you to create two silhouettes, each with a distinct "essential character" or personality. These are the types of qualities that define their identity. This is the realm of stereotype, and of course you can ultimately play against what the "essential character" of your silhouette appears to be. Regardless, an audience will make assumptions about characters based on that first visual cue of what they look like. So -- for example -- you could make a character that seems mean, and a character that seems nice. Or a character that seems pious, and a character that seems devilish. Vain and charitable. Wimpy and belligerent. And so on -- but you only have to pick two.

Eventually, you will have to separate out the various pieces of your character, so that they can exist on independent layers in flash. Think of them as pieces of a jointed paper doll. The pieces should include: head, neck, torso, pelvis, upper arms, lower arms, hands, upper legs, lower legs, feet. Don't worry about separating out the fingers and toes. As you are designing your character, keep in mind that at some point the pieces of your character will have to exist as separate symbols.

In Wednesday's class, you'll execute these characters in Flash. But before the start of class, I want to see a sketch of your two characters in your sketchbook.

Due on Tuesday: Finished Music/Abstract animation

Make sure your animation is completed by the start of Tuesday's class. We'll export the animations at the beginning of class.

Sketchbook assignment for next week

You have a sketchbook assignment for next wednesday -- or rather, two short sketchbook assignments. They are both exercises in thinking in images. They are:

1. I want you to draw a sketch of a memorable image. This could be an image from a film, a poster, a painting, a TV show, a book (in which case you'll have seen the image in your mind's eye, not in "reality") -- some vision that sticks in your brain. And then, also in the sketchbook, write a short paragraph about the image -- where you saw it, what it means -- and why you think that image is memorable.

2. Make a sketch of something memorable that actually happened to you -- in particular, something you saw or experienced that was intensely scary. It could be from a movie that you saw as a kid; it could be something that actually happened to you and really spooked you -- just make sure it's something that left an impression on you. As with the other sketchbook exercise, write a short paragraph about the scary event, and explain what made it so scary.

For a screening in class -- here's an example of using 3D CG imagery to make a semi-abstract animation, illustrating a piece of music:



Directed by Alex Rutterford.

Abstract animation project

By next class (monday), you should be ready to begin your first flash animation assignment -- an abstract animation, of a duration somewhere between 30 seconds and a minute, set to music.

At the beginning of next class, you should have:

1. A sound file of the music you'll be using -- the music can be any genre, but must be completely instrumental (at least the portion you'll be using for your cartoon). Sound formats that can be imported into flash are: WAV, AIFF, and mp3. Bring your audio file on your zip drive or a CD.

2. At least two pages of sketches in your sketchbook, of visual ideas you'll be using in your piece. These could be colors, shapes -- perhaps they are images or forms that appear to you when you listen to the music. You won't have to follow these sketches exactly; it's more to give you a jumping-off point. But try to identify some forms/images/colors that feel like they have the same emotional quality of the music itself. You can briefly use representational images (like the houses that flicker in and out of McLaren's "Begone Dull Care") but the vast majority of your animation must be non-representational. Think of how rhythm, color, contrast, composition, form, contrast, motion and texture can be used to evoke a reaction in the viewer.

Does a zig-zagging line have a different effect or "meaning" than a straight or curved line? Does a large shape have a different effect than a small shape? How about a quickly moving shape versus a slowly moving one? Does the color blue have a different effect when it's placed against purple, as opposed to yellow?

Each of these choices will produce different emotional results. These are the basics of visual information -- composition, color, motion, timing -- that provide the structure of all animation. In representational animation, these components usually have a subliminal effect on the viewer; in this project, the components will be laid bare. If you never make an abstract animation again, the principles you will explore here will continue to be applicable to narrative animation.

Welcome, and first assignment

Welcome to the blog for the animation class at SNC. Your first assignment -- due next Wednesday -- has two parts.

1. Make a flipbook. A pad of sticky notes might be a good thing to use. Show something that involves some action (or series of actions); or show an object from several points of view; or show something transforming into several other things. The subject matter is really wide open -- just have fun drawing.

2. Start your dream journal. Write down what you remember of your dreams (useful images might percolate out of this). You will be asked to share one of these dreams next class.

Also, by next class you need to have your portable drive and your sketchbook (you can keep your dream journal in your sketchbook).


The image above is from a cartoon directed by Tex Avery