Friday, October 30, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Ian's Hand-drawn animation
When I uploaded this to youtube, it turned red for some reason...go figure.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Cool Animation
Neatorama does it again: this is a video by Dutch animator Sjors Vervoort. It's similar to Blu, but each image is an individual piece of cardboard. I found this during class!
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Project 4. Simple Hand Drawn Action
Animation, 2009 Sarah Lawrence College Professor Robin Starbuck
Assignment #4 – Simple Action Hand Drawn
Assignment – 2 weeks Due: October 30
DOWNLOAD LINK
Time: 45 second - 24fps – 3 frames per drawing for a 45 second piece = 360 drawings
Student Group: Work alone
Assignment: Produce a simple action hand drawn animation
Parameters:
No sound
Hand drawn animation on bond paper with sharpie or 6B, 7B, 8B pencil
Design a simple action with a main character and an object. Your character will enter the film, carry or find an object, interact with this object and leave the screen. In addition you must (as all good animations do!) have a secondary action. So if your bird flies onto a birdbath, takes a bath and then flies off, you might have a cloud passing, or an insect flying, etc. Remember examples in class. Of course you can have as many simultaneous actions as you like. For your next project you will be asked to select a poem to work with. If you have something in mind already then you might use this project to create your first scene or A scene of the poem piece.
Objectives: This assignment is designed to allow you to learn the process of drawing for animation, You will learn to register your drawings on the pencil test stand, pace your animation for effective action, and use freeze frames and zoom where/if needed, You may include text in this short film but it is not required.
Process:
1 - Workshop with Scott Duce on October 16
2 - Select a style of peg bar and prepare 400 pieces of paper (or buy paper already punched)
3 - You will be working on a light board. You may work in 129/136 or check out a light board from the ER
4 - As you draw BE SURE to have your registration outline drawn on each paper. This will guarantee that all of your action will be inside this picture plane (and your peg bar won’t show on camera)
5 – Be sure to number your drawings outside the picture plane (small). Very important as your drawings WILL get mixed as you work.
6 – If you need to add in drawings you can label these 4a, 4b, 4c, and etc…
7 – You should shoot at 24 fps using 2 or 3 frames per image. Remember you can zoom in a little in final cut so if you want to hold on a single image for say 8-10 frames this will give you zoom capability in FCP. FCP blurs as you zoom in so you will have to keep this to a minimum.
8 – Be sure you have ENOUGH LIGHT – keep focus on manual focus and CHECK focus
9 – With the still cameras you will have much better resolution but you will NOT have preview (shutter must be open for preview). You can check out a video camera and use it on the Oxbury (wood) stand if you like. Or use the graph sheet I have left for you in 129.
10 – Add color if you like. Remember watercolor will wrinkle your paper. Colored pencils, pastels, acrylics are good.
11 – You will be starting Photoshop next week. You CAN hand color in Photoshop but remember you’ve got 360 drawings here, which is a monster project in Photoshop.
12 – You CAN do your animation by drawing and erasing (as per Kentridge)– which means you will use one piece of paper or several for several scenes. Again you’ve got no preview so you might want to use a video camera if you go this route.
Friday October 23rd see documentary on William Kentridge
Films:
Emily Dunn, Bird, George Griffin, Winsor McKay, etc.
The Foxhole Manifesto by Jeffrey McDaniel
From Animation Anthology
Words: Lev Yilmaz
Animation in the Home Studio
Hairy Birds
Assignment #4 – Simple Action Hand Drawn
Assignment – 2 weeks Due: October 30
DOWNLOAD LINK
Time: 45 second - 24fps – 3 frames per drawing for a 45 second piece = 360 drawings
Student Group: Work alone
Assignment: Produce a simple action hand drawn animation
Parameters:
No sound
Hand drawn animation on bond paper with sharpie or 6B, 7B, 8B pencil
Design a simple action with a main character and an object. Your character will enter the film, carry or find an object, interact with this object and leave the screen. In addition you must (as all good animations do!) have a secondary action. So if your bird flies onto a birdbath, takes a bath and then flies off, you might have a cloud passing, or an insect flying, etc. Remember examples in class. Of course you can have as many simultaneous actions as you like. For your next project you will be asked to select a poem to work with. If you have something in mind already then you might use this project to create your first scene or A scene of the poem piece.
Objectives: This assignment is designed to allow you to learn the process of drawing for animation, You will learn to register your drawings on the pencil test stand, pace your animation for effective action, and use freeze frames and zoom where/if needed, You may include text in this short film but it is not required.
Process:
1 - Workshop with Scott Duce on October 16
2 - Select a style of peg bar and prepare 400 pieces of paper (or buy paper already punched)
3 - You will be working on a light board. You may work in 129/136 or check out a light board from the ER
4 - As you draw BE SURE to have your registration outline drawn on each paper. This will guarantee that all of your action will be inside this picture plane (and your peg bar won’t show on camera)
5 – Be sure to number your drawings outside the picture plane (small). Very important as your drawings WILL get mixed as you work.
6 – If you need to add in drawings you can label these 4a, 4b, 4c, and etc…
7 – You should shoot at 24 fps using 2 or 3 frames per image. Remember you can zoom in a little in final cut so if you want to hold on a single image for say 8-10 frames this will give you zoom capability in FCP. FCP blurs as you zoom in so you will have to keep this to a minimum.
8 – Be sure you have ENOUGH LIGHT – keep focus on manual focus and CHECK focus
9 – With the still cameras you will have much better resolution but you will NOT have preview (shutter must be open for preview). You can check out a video camera and use it on the Oxbury (wood) stand if you like. Or use the graph sheet I have left for you in 129.
10 – Add color if you like. Remember watercolor will wrinkle your paper. Colored pencils, pastels, acrylics are good.
11 – You will be starting Photoshop next week. You CAN hand color in Photoshop but remember you’ve got 360 drawings here, which is a monster project in Photoshop.
12 – You CAN do your animation by drawing and erasing (as per Kentridge)– which means you will use one piece of paper or several for several scenes. Again you’ve got no preview so you might want to use a video camera if you go this route.
Friday October 23rd see documentary on William Kentridge
Films:
Emily Dunn, Bird, George Griffin, Winsor McKay, etc.
The Foxhole Manifesto by Jeffrey McDaniel
From Animation Anthology
Words: Lev Yilmaz
Animation in the Home Studio
Hairy Birds
Revised Syllabus
Animation I: Experimental Shorts
Fall 2009
DOWNLOAD HERE
Sarah Lawrence College /Film/New Media Arts Professor Robin Starbuck
REVISED Schedule
Thursdays 6 – 8:30pm, Lab either 129H or 136H (screenings 135H)
Fridays 10:30 – 1pm, Class either 129H or 136H
Week 6 Thursday: October 15 Assignment III: Cut Out Animations DUE, Media file
Screening of single action drawing animations
Friday: October 16 DRAWING FOR ANIMATION VISITING ARTIST–Scott Duce
Drawing for Animation demo and Assignment IV: Hand Drawn Animation
Week 7 NO CONFERENCES
Thursday: October 22 Photoshop - Matthew Smallheer
Friday: October 23 Screening: The End of the Beginning, William Kentridge
Week 8 Thursday: October 29 Photoshop - Matthew Smallheer
Friday: October 30 Assignment IV: Hand Drawn Animation Due, Media file DVD required
Screening of Plympton and Griffin
Homework: select a poem for Assignment V
Week 9 Thursday: November 5 Assignment V: Drawing and Cell Animation
Friday: November 6 Screening: Susan Pitt and Work in class
Week 10 Thursday: November 12 VISITING FILM MAKER - Andy London
Friday: November 13 Screening and Work in Class
Week 11 Thursday: November 19 AUDIO LAB
Friday: November 20 Assignment V: Drawing and Cell Animation rough cut screening
Week 12 NO CONFERENCES
Thursday, November 26 THANKSGIVING NO CLASS
Friday: November 27 THANKSGIVING NO CLASS
Week 13 Thursday: December 3 Visiting Animator – Martha Colburn
Friday: December 4 Final Project - Assignment V: Integrating Live Footage
Week 14 Thursday: December 10 NO LAB
Friday: December 11 Work in class – live type
Week 15 NO CONFERENCES
Thursday: December 17 Final project FILM SCREENING, Media file DVD required
Notebooks Due
Friday: December 18 NO CLASS
Fall 2009
DOWNLOAD HERE
Sarah Lawrence College /Film/New Media Arts Professor Robin Starbuck
REVISED Schedule
Thursdays 6 – 8:30pm, Lab either 129H or 136H (screenings 135H)
Fridays 10:30 – 1pm, Class either 129H or 136H
Week 6 Thursday: October 15 Assignment III: Cut Out Animations DUE, Media file
Screening of single action drawing animations
Friday: October 16 DRAWING FOR ANIMATION VISITING ARTIST–Scott Duce
Drawing for Animation demo and Assignment IV: Hand Drawn Animation
Week 7 NO CONFERENCES
Thursday: October 22 Photoshop - Matthew Smallheer
Friday: October 23 Screening: The End of the Beginning, William Kentridge
Week 8 Thursday: October 29 Photoshop - Matthew Smallheer
Friday: October 30 Assignment IV: Hand Drawn Animation Due, Media file DVD required
Screening of Plympton and Griffin
Homework: select a poem for Assignment V
Week 9 Thursday: November 5 Assignment V: Drawing and Cell Animation
Friday: November 6 Screening: Susan Pitt and Work in class
Week 10 Thursday: November 12 VISITING FILM MAKER - Andy London
Friday: November 13 Screening and Work in Class
Week 11 Thursday: November 19 AUDIO LAB
Friday: November 20 Assignment V: Drawing and Cell Animation rough cut screening
Week 12 NO CONFERENCES
Thursday, November 26 THANKSGIVING NO CLASS
Friday: November 27 THANKSGIVING NO CLASS
Week 13 Thursday: December 3 Visiting Animator – Martha Colburn
Friday: December 4 Final Project - Assignment V: Integrating Live Footage
Week 14 Thursday: December 10 NO LAB
Friday: December 11 Work in class – live type
Week 15 NO CONFERENCES
Thursday: December 17 Final project FILM SCREENING, Media file DVD required
Notebooks Due
Friday: December 18 NO CLASS
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Project 3 - Music Cutout Animation
Participants: Work in pairs or alone
Exercise: 45 second – 1 minute object animation
Films: Maya Erdelgi. Plume, Ourobouros 1-4, Rohtash Rao – Coffee and MTV VS CNN, Javanese Shadow Puppetry, Ivan Inavov-Vano & Yuri Norstein, The Battle at Kerzhenets
Reading: Malcolm Le Grice, “Reflections on My Practice and Media Specificity” from Experimental Film and Video, edited by Jackie Hatfield ,“The Semiotics of Music Videos” by Heidi Peeters , and “Audio Visual Poetry or Commercial Salad of Images,” by Sven Carlsson
Objectives: 1. To develop skills in working with cut paper for animation.
2. To develop a short animation using music as rhythm for movement.
3. To develop a short animation using music style for abstraction or visual storytelling.
4. To develop skills in working with paper objects for complex movement or visual storytelling based upon a musical score.
5. To develop skills in implying deep visual space and directional movement in simple paper animation.
6. To further develop formal skills in camera use, frame composition, and timing. Recalling the need to temper movement and change to allow the viewer to “catch up” to your action… in other words to SLOW DOWN.
For this project you will produce a 45 second to 1 minute film produced with cut paper. As we discussed in class, you may use a light box or one of the stop motion stands with a glass base and a light underneath. Keep the light below on the floor. You may choose to filter the light with paper, with colored Plexiglas or with painted onionskin paper or transparency paper. As we discussed you can use construction paper, magazine cutouts, cut paintings, or any other form of cut paper-ish materials (fabrics and fibers are also fine).
In this piece try to consider the space your objects inhabit. Is this space deep or shallow? Do you have a middle ground, foreground and background? Are there objects working as doors to an internal action, barricades to action (as in I am looking over a fence, beyond a shoulder, etc)? What part does gravity play in your film? Do objects float in space or do you have a ground plane? What is the visual weight of each of your objects?
Shots Again:
Close Up
Detail
Medium Shot
Long Shot
Over the Shoulder Shot
Slow Pan
Low Angle (looking up_
High Angle (looking down)
Appearance of layering
Objects start as miniature and expand, or large and contract
Action:
Fluid movement - slow graceful
Hard movement - rapid changes of action (ex jump cuts where you wipe out the entire sand drawing and begin your next shot with a different image entirely)
Subtle movement – leaf falling, hair blowing – usually while something else is happening
Spinning motion
Full screen movement - character or object moving onto screen from left then off screen right, or bottom to top, etc.
Depth movement – object or character moves up at an angle on the screen and gets smaller, less clear and lighter (indicating depth)
Bounce – if something falls does it have bounce; if it hits water does it splash?
PROCESS
THIS WEEK
1 – Choose a piece of music you might like to use.
2 – With your group (or alone) establish a format you might like to pursue – representational objects, figurative, abstract. Color or black & white silhouette
3 - Read the article “The Semiotics of Music Videos…”
FRIDAY OCTOBER 2nd
1 – Participate in class discussion. Evaluate your music. Develop a list of adjectives and verbs to describe your music.
Discuss the value of illustration vs. non-representational signing, syntagmatic vs. paradigmatic linking, and abstraction based upon rhythm.
2 - How much of your music clip will you use? Will you repeat the clip? Overlap this with multiple cuts? Montage your sound?
3 – Choose your materials. Decide whether you are lighting from the top down or from the back.
4 – Decide if you will need to green screen and prepare for this.
5 – If your film has more than one scene consider your transitions.
6 – Again: Best camera to check out is the Panasonic DVX – use on Stop Motion Stands or use the one in place in 136.
7 – Set your lighting. TURN OFF FLORESCENT LIGHTS
8 – Remember you might need to make several attempts at the film. So give yourself enough time.
THURSDAY NIGHT OCTOBER 8
Final Cut Pro Labs will help you edit your sound and visuals.
THURSDAY NIGHT OCTOBER 15
Project is due. Please have uploaded to YouTube AND have as a QuickTime movie on a DVD. (From IStopMotion you MUST go to Export> as a QuickTime Movie). The burn your DVD on DVD Pro or on iDVD.
Exercise: 45 second – 1 minute object animation
Films: Maya Erdelgi. Plume, Ourobouros 1-4, Rohtash Rao – Coffee and MTV VS CNN, Javanese Shadow Puppetry, Ivan Inavov-Vano & Yuri Norstein, The Battle at Kerzhenets
Reading: Malcolm Le Grice, “Reflections on My Practice and Media Specificity” from Experimental Film and Video, edited by Jackie Hatfield ,“The Semiotics of Music Videos” by Heidi Peeters , and “Audio Visual Poetry or Commercial Salad of Images,” by Sven Carlsson
Objectives: 1. To develop skills in working with cut paper for animation.
2. To develop a short animation using music as rhythm for movement.
3. To develop a short animation using music style for abstraction or visual storytelling.
4. To develop skills in working with paper objects for complex movement or visual storytelling based upon a musical score.
5. To develop skills in implying deep visual space and directional movement in simple paper animation.
6. To further develop formal skills in camera use, frame composition, and timing. Recalling the need to temper movement and change to allow the viewer to “catch up” to your action… in other words to SLOW DOWN.
For this project you will produce a 45 second to 1 minute film produced with cut paper. As we discussed in class, you may use a light box or one of the stop motion stands with a glass base and a light underneath. Keep the light below on the floor. You may choose to filter the light with paper, with colored Plexiglas or with painted onionskin paper or transparency paper. As we discussed you can use construction paper, magazine cutouts, cut paintings, or any other form of cut paper-ish materials (fabrics and fibers are also fine).
In this piece try to consider the space your objects inhabit. Is this space deep or shallow? Do you have a middle ground, foreground and background? Are there objects working as doors to an internal action, barricades to action (as in I am looking over a fence, beyond a shoulder, etc)? What part does gravity play in your film? Do objects float in space or do you have a ground plane? What is the visual weight of each of your objects?
Shots Again:
Close Up
Detail
Medium Shot
Long Shot
Over the Shoulder Shot
Slow Pan
Low Angle (looking up_
High Angle (looking down)
Appearance of layering
Objects start as miniature and expand, or large and contract
Action:
Fluid movement - slow graceful
Hard movement - rapid changes of action (ex jump cuts where you wipe out the entire sand drawing and begin your next shot with a different image entirely)
Subtle movement – leaf falling, hair blowing – usually while something else is happening
Spinning motion
Full screen movement - character or object moving onto screen from left then off screen right, or bottom to top, etc.
Depth movement – object or character moves up at an angle on the screen and gets smaller, less clear and lighter (indicating depth)
Bounce – if something falls does it have bounce; if it hits water does it splash?
PROCESS
THIS WEEK
1 – Choose a piece of music you might like to use.
2 – With your group (or alone) establish a format you might like to pursue – representational objects, figurative, abstract. Color or black & white silhouette
3 - Read the article “The Semiotics of Music Videos…”
FRIDAY OCTOBER 2nd
1 – Participate in class discussion. Evaluate your music. Develop a list of adjectives and verbs to describe your music.
Discuss the value of illustration vs. non-representational signing, syntagmatic vs. paradigmatic linking, and abstraction based upon rhythm.
2 - How much of your music clip will you use? Will you repeat the clip? Overlap this with multiple cuts? Montage your sound?
3 – Choose your materials. Decide whether you are lighting from the top down or from the back.
4 – Decide if you will need to green screen and prepare for this.
5 – If your film has more than one scene consider your transitions.
6 – Again: Best camera to check out is the Panasonic DVX – use on Stop Motion Stands or use the one in place in 136.
7 – Set your lighting. TURN OFF FLORESCENT LIGHTS
8 – Remember you might need to make several attempts at the film. So give yourself enough time.
THURSDAY NIGHT OCTOBER 8
Final Cut Pro Labs will help you edit your sound and visuals.
THURSDAY NIGHT OCTOBER 15
Project is due. Please have uploaded to YouTube AND have as a QuickTime movie on a DVD. (From IStopMotion you MUST go to Export> as a QuickTime Movie). The burn your DVD on DVD Pro or on iDVD.
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