WU HS Summer Academy 2015

Recently, I taught a group of 14 High School students  a 7 week course from Woodbury University called "Intro to Animation". For seven Thursdays, I gave them a taste of 3 different types of animation production.

Stop Motion

In the first and second class, we explored Stop Motion production, where everyone got to animate themselves in front of the camera and learn how to move frame by frame. It was an exercise called Pixelation, which got everybody outside and thinking of what they wanted to do. It was also a fun way to shoot stop motion and a great way to get to know one another.

StopMotionFilms2015 from Toondini on Vimeo.

After lunch, the class returned and four groups were formed. Two groups went to animate on two table top sets while the other two groups got to shoot on a large whiteboard. We only had one whiteboard and one camera, so while one group was making their artwork, the other group setup and started shooting.

Drawing Animation

The third and fourth class, we went into the drawing animation studio where the students learned how to animate a bouncing ball and shoot a pencil test. I also had them bring in a horizontal color image of whatever they wanted for the Metamorphosis project.

They taped down their images onto animation paper and then we had to figure out what image we would begin the film. It was a fun and very noisy process, but eventually a list was drawn up and everyone then knew what image they would begin and end with. The hardest part is figuring out how to go from one image to the next, because there are millions of ways you can go. Here's what this class came up with...

Metamorphosis from Toondini on Vimeo.

Computer Animation

The last two days, (actually 3), were dedicated to learning how to animated a simple box rig called "Johnny the Box" in Maya software. The students also learned how to make simple polygon models which the box could interact with in the scene or use in their set. 

Students learned that sometimes Maya or the computer does not always work as perfectly as they imagined. When they saw the tab called Paint Effects, they were like crazy little kids in a paint store and I spent a lot of time removing paint effect choices from their outliners. Adding features like these will slow down the animation process and take more to render. Here are the final Maya animation projects.

Johnny the Box from Toondini on Vimeo.
First Maya projects using the Johnny the Box rig

We had the final screening for the students and their families showing all of the above animation work. Everyone got a chance to see their work on the big screen in Woodbury's screening room and it was a great way to end the class.

If any students would like a copy of the above projects, please send me an email and if you enjoy this blog, let me know. Hope you enjoyed the class! 

Animation Subjects

I've been adding little bits of animation tips, tricks and tidbits, but now I am inviting people to send me an animation subject you would like information about. I would like to go over the inbetweening process of animaton, but I want to make sure that there is enough interest or not. 

I'm asking for your help in exploring some part of the animation process that you are interested in. This will also help me to see if I can explain it to you. Please send your animation question to me at the email below. Hopefully we will both learn something new.

heyjimr@gmail.com

Here's something that I've been trying to work out. While in college centuries ago, I remember seeing a zoetrope from a glass bottle. A string was tied to a hole in the bottle's lid which was screwed onto the top of the bottle. The bottle could hung up and when spun, you could see the animated frames moving through the slits around the bottle.

I built a prototype of this, but it didn't work out because the slits had to be in the correct alignment to make the spinning work. Its a very clever way of creating a zoetrope using cel vinyl paint to make the artwork on the glass, but as soon as I get the slit alignment riight, I will be happy to show you how to make one.

If anyone has made one of these before, please let me know and send me an email. I think this would be a cool tutorial for making simple animation art. Also I invite you to send me anything you've come across as well.

Thanks in advance,

Jim

Happy 2015!

Wow, its a New Year already and I can't believe there have been 4323 visitors to this site over the past 2 years from all over the US and the world. Hopefully, you found something of interest here and will feel free to send a comment now and then.

Last year, I attempted to document a small freelance job which I thought I was going to be working on. Unfortunately, this project fell through, which happens a lot in animation, but It looks like I have another project I can document in the new year.

Rockademix is a really cool educational program for teachers to help kids learn different subjects using music and dance. I will be animating a 2 minute promo to explain this concept to interested educators. So, join me in 2015, as I take a storyboard and a narration track and go from pre-production to final animation in making this explainer video. It should be a fun little project which we both will learn from.

Happy New Year 2015! 

Happy Halloween!

Animation Principles class at Woodbury University 2014, Guest Lecturer: Tim Burton.
Plus, Can you pick out the student who also works as Mickey Mouse at Disneyland?

24 Hours has Begun...

Moments ago, from California State University_Long Beach, Aubry Mintz announced the theme of the 2014 24 Hour Animation Contest will be:
From Animal Farm...
"All Animals are Created Equal, but some animals are more equal than others."

The list of participating schools this year has grown and are CSUF (Fullerton, CA), CSULB (Long Beach, CA), CSUN (Northridge, CA), Kendall College of A/d (Michigan), MTSU (Tennessee), Seneca College (Canada), Sheridan College (Canada), SJSU (San Jose, CA), Queensland (Australia), Westwood (Anaheim, CA) and Woodbury University (Burbank, CA).

Within minutes, the students assembled into smaller groups to attempt to figure how to come up with a short, simple and effective idea. As the teams began to brainstorm to form a solid storyboard, the Faculty must sit on their hands and not help out in any way. They are only there to make sure the equipment is running correctly and that the students are working away.


Last year, I basically worked on my own stuff and occasionally overheard the students discussions and watched their progress. After the 24 Hours were over, 2 projects came out of Woodbury and one of them won first place. It was a real boost to the Seniors who had worked together and were able to make an animated short which tested all the learning from the past four years.

Last year's theme: What if you had 24 hours to live?  Ryan Tengel and her Woodbury University animation team answered the question with this winning short.

From Woodbury University located in Burbank, CA. 4 teams working away on a Friday night.

The next day, the teams are tried, but continue to work until the final deadline at 5pm.

The Freshmen team are hanging in there too...

 

 If you have any comments for the animators, please let us know...  And now, here are their films.

 The Pink Ladies, our Freshmen entry... Curious Rendezvous

Team Evil entry...  Angus and Arthur

Team Magma entry... Just Another Day

 

The Coffee Owls with: Painful Equality

Now that the results are in, take a moment and vote on your favorite. Any comments are welcomed and will be posted for the students to learn and improve from.