At the beginning of the semester, you will create 3 standalone exercises/studies that will introduce you to the basic principles of animation. You will receive a grade for each one and the average will count towards 20% of your overall grade.
1. FLIPBOOK (due week 2)
Create a 30 page (minimum) flipbook from index cards and a binder clip (distributed in class). Try drawing lightly with a pencil first to test the movement of your drawings, when it is right you might want to trace over with a marker. You can use color or black and white.
You might create a transformation of some kind (a ball turns into bird, which turns into the sun, which turns into an airplane, etc, etc), or depict a cataclysmic event, like a tornado or a volcano. Try and focus on the movement, don’t worry about each drawing being perfect. Animation is the relationship between the drawings.
Planning is important, think about the story you want to tell with your drawings, the scale of objects, timing of changes.
Bring your completed flipbook with you to class next week.
The grading rubric for this assignment can be found here.
2. TWEEN (due week 3)
Create a simple scene in Adobe Animate and animate at least 2 properties (i.e: position, color, size, alpha etc.). Use Classic Tweens and at least 1 Guide Layer. The scene must be different than the one created during the in-class tutorial.
Your settings for the project should be:
- Width: 1920px | Height: 1080px
- 24 fps (frames per second)
Submit your .fla and .mov file on Blackboard before next week’s class.
The grading rubric for this assignment can be found here.
3. BOUNCING BALL [REDUX] (due week 4)
In Animate, create a motion study of a bouncing ball that incorporates squash and stretch and at least two of the other principles we’ve covered today (anticipation, spacing, timing and exaggeration).
This is not the same as the in-class bouncing ball assignment: You must create an environment for the ball (i.e: a room/landscape), and have the ball bounce against various objects (or creatures).
Your settings for the project should be:
- Width: 1920px | Height: 1080px
- 24 fps (frames per second)
Submit your .fla and .mov file on Blackboard before next week’s class.
The grading rubric for this assignment can be found here.
You can watch an example below and study its .fla file here.
