1A: Flipbook

You will each be provided a 100 card stack of index cards and a pencil. Create flipbooks demonstrating the following.

Exercise 1
1.a. Some thing traverses from left to right
1.b. Some thing else traverses with a different kind of locomotion and passes it.

Exercise 2
2.a. Rotate a head (species of your choice)
2.b. The head does at least one expression
2.c. Rotation continues

1A: A little theory, a little history (An overview)

Beyond Mickey

• George Melies' Trip to the Moon
• J. Stuart Blackton's Lightning Sketches
• Little Nemo

Why do we see animation the way we do? How do we make it? What are the different kinds? (This will all be on the exam, by the way).

Class exercise:
Flipbook

1B: One frame at a time

Oskar Fischinger - was noted for his abstract animations paired with popular music of the day. His contribution to Disney's Fantasia was the abstract movements to J. S. Bach Toccata and Fugue in D Minor sequence for Walt Disney's Fantasia (1940). He quit without credit because all studio artists simplified and altered all his designs to be more representational.

The thing to note about his work as you embark on today's exercise that the heart of animation is the manipulation of graphics over time.

A good example of work based upon his notions can be found in

• Danse Macabre


• Removable Tongue


• Tac Tic

The building blocks of animation:

• Line


• Color


• Motion


• Shape


• Environment


• Time

Last week, you made flipbooks. This week we do the digital version of this. There are myriad ways to attack the problem. Essentially all we need is a way to string a series of individually drawn images together. We could use Flash, Fireworks, Imageready, and others. Over these 10 weeks we will attack the animation problem a variety of ways. Today we will use Photoshop.

Helpful links:
www.adobe.com/go/vid0027 for an introduction to the video layer.

Exercise: Experimental Animation. Create a 20 second frame by frame animation in twos.

Project I - Experimental Animation

Create a 20 second frame by frame animation on twos. This means a rate of 15 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).