Animateducated: October 2016

Monday, October 31, 2016

Know your Animation History!

Here is an new book about the history of animation called,"A new History of Animation" by Maureen Furniss of CalArts. The book came out of teaching an animation history class to help students understand where animation has come from and where it might be going.

More here.

Monday, October 17, 2016

Lip Sync Animation 2

It was 1927 when Warner Bros. released the first live action film, "The Jazz Singer" and introduced audiences to sound in the form of "talking pictures". And in the Summer of 1928, Walt Disney's "Steamboat Willie" was the first to introduced audiences to lip sync sound, sound effects and music in an animated cartoon.

Lip sync animation is something that takes a little time to master and their are a variety of books that mention how this is accomplished. Here is a great link to more about the history of sound in animation.

For this post, i would like to take you step by step through the process and give you some tips along the way.

Here's a Lip Sync Chart of the Mouth positions and what sounds each mouth can make.

This character's closed mouth would be an "A" mouth, which would be a closed smile with lips, no teeth. In this scene, the character never used an "A" mouth, since she was always smiling with her teeth. Below you can see her mouth positions.

Before you begin reading your sound track, you need to determine your character's mouth positions will work. This would be a model sheet showing the various mouth positions.

Before you start animating a character, you need to create a series of modelsheets showing the character in various positions, etc. Check this previous post all about modelsheets.

Using the mouth positions modelsheet will help you determine what mouth to animate once you have filled out your X sheet. The mouth positions should have both happy, sad or angry mouths. These modelsheets make sure everyone is drawing the character's mouth expression in the same way.

I have given a few demos about how to "read" or breakdown a sound track and its like watching someone knit a sweater. By the time I finish showing the process, I ask if there are any questions and no one does. I feel like this something the students need to do on their own, make mistakes and learn from them.

Here's a way to set up a lip sync scene where you are placing the mouth positions on top of the rest of the character's head.

You Learny? You Likey? Then Clicky on the adskis or write Commentskis below!

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

24 hour contest winners of 2016!

This year's 24 hour animation contest began on Friday, Oct 7 and 135 short animated films of 30 seconds were created in the period of 24 hours. The theme was about "Walls" and was announced on Friday afternoon. All the teams had 24 hours to create an animated short based on the theme,

Congratulations to the winning teams of 24 HOURS 2015:

1st place – 216 points – Wish Daddy - USC
$11635 Value:
• CSU Summer Arts Scholarships - 5 x $1200 - $6000 value
• Toon Boom – 5 x 1-year license for both Storyboard Pro and Harmony Pro $4560 value
• Focal Press – 5 x Ideas for the Animated Short, 2nd Edition $400 value
• CTNX - 5 x 3-day Exhibit Floor Plus passes - Exhibition area plus the 'new' Talent-opolis, includes recruiting (upgrades available for cost) $375 value
• Stuart NG Books -5x $75 Gift Certificates $375 value
• 5 prints subscriptions to Animation Magazine - $300 value

2nd place - 205 points – We Press S - School of Visual Arts
$6280 Value:
• CSU Summer Arts Scholarships – 5 x $750 each - $3750 value
• Flipbook – 5x pro licenses - $1750 value
• Focal Press – 5 x Ideas for the Animated Short, 2nd Edition - $400 value
• DreamWorks – 5 Prize packs - $200 value
• 5 digital subscriptions to Animation Magazine - $180 value

3rd place - 203 points – Birb Herd - CSUF
$3080 Value:
• CSU Summer Arts Scholarships - $500 each - $2000 value
• Wacom – 5 x Intuos Small Pen and Touch Tablets - $500 value
• Focal Press – 5 x Ideas for the Animated Short, 2nd Edition $400 value
• 5 digital subscriptions to Animation Magazine - $180 value

4th place - 189 points – Duck Tales WOOoo – Kansas City Art Institute
$1205 Value:
• Focal Press – 5 x Ideas for the Animated Short, 2nd Edition $400 value
• Dick Blick Art Supply - $250 value
• ASIFA-Hollywood – 5 x 1-year Associate Memberships - $225 value
• Blue Sky – 5 Books - $150 value
• 5 digital subscriptions to Animation Magazine - $180 value

5th place - 188 points– Inbetweiners – Seneca College
$880 Value:
• Focal Press – 5 x Ideas for the Animated Short, 2nd Edition $400 value
• Laika – 5 Prize packs - $150 value
• 5 digital subscriptions to Animation Magazine - $180 value
• Nickelodeon – 5 Prize packs - $150 value

Enjoy the films!!!

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

24 Hour Contest for 2016

Friday, October 7, 2016

The deadline for animation teams for this year's 24 Hour Animation contest has ended and this year's contest has 27 schools participating and 124 teams in competition. Woodbury University has 8 teams registered, twice as many as last year. That's 40 students ready to go!

24 HOURS 2016 THEME:

"There are four kinds of people in the world, Those who build walls. Those who protect walls. Those who breach walls. And those who tear down walls. Much of life is discovering who you are. When you find out, you also realize there are places you can no longer go, things you can no longer do, words you can no longer say." P.S. Baber, Cassie Draws the Universe

Collins dictionary definition of Wall:

1. a vertical construction made of stone, brick, wood, etc, with a length and height much greater than its thickness, used to enclose, divide, or support
b. (as modifier) ⇒ wall hangings - Related adjective: mural

2. (often plural) a structure or rampart built to protect and surround a position or place for defensive purposes

3. anatomy any lining, membrane, or investing part that encloses or bounds a bodily cavity or structure ⇒ abdominal wall.

4. mountaineering a vertical or almost vertical smooth rock face

5. anything that suggests a wall in function or effect ⇒ a wall of fire, ⇒ a wall of prejudice

Keeping in mind that walls can be both metaphorical and physical...

Create a 30 second animated film that includes a wall in one form or another

Discuss this topic , research, explore, find a point of view and make a 30 second animated film…you have 24 HOURS!!!

Here are this year's Woodbury animation teams and their films...