Animation

CONCEPTS

• Key concepts: Definition, Pre-cinema animation, Early animation, 12 Principles of animation, Types of animation (2D, Stop Motion, CGI), Framerate, Keyframe, Aspect Ratio, Production process, Storyboarding,  Export formats for different outputs, Current industry standard software, Animation-centric industries and careers.
• Sample slides
• Other useful resources:
  • Watch the 12 Principles of Animation Video
  • Watch Wolfwalkers — A Hand-Drawn World
  • Watch How Are Stop Motion Puppets Created for Laika’s Movies
  • Watch Zootopia2: How Disney Creates 3D Animation
  • NFB website 

TUTORIALS

• Download Adobe Animate (free license with BMCC students and faculty accounts). The use of other 2D animation software (i.e: Adobe After Effects, Procreate/Dreams, Adobe Photoshop etc.) is at the purview of individual professors.
  • Frame-by-frame animation tutorial (Animate)
  • Preston Blair’s Basic Bouncing Ball Action

ASSIGNMENT AND RUBRIC

• Guidelines: Create a 2D animation that includes three “bouncing ball”scenes: 1. Ball moving across the screen 2. Ball bounce 3. Ball with emotion (students may pick the emotion of their choice – sad, shy, angry, anxious etc. – but it should be portrayed only through motion, NOT through added design elements such as eyes, mouth etc.). Create a storyboard for the “emotion” scene before animating it (see template below).  Use the 12 principles of animation (including anticipation, ease-in and out, squash and stretch etc.). Use HD format (1920 x 1080), 24 fps. Export the scenes into a single Quicktime (.mp4) file.
• Grading rubric
• Storyboard template
• Files to submit: 1. The completed storyboard (see template above), exported to PDF or JPG | 2.The Animate file (.fla), containing 3 scenes: straight motion, bounce, emotion. Use HD format (1920 x 1080), 24 fps. | 3. The web-ready .mp4 file with all 3 scenes | 4. The completed statement, exported to PDF