Enrichment: Intro to Animation

Task One - Feb 2009

2009-02-09T04:44:00.000-08:00

Today I set the group a task of introducing one character to another character in an interesting way.

This is William's short animated response to the task.

Happy Christmas!

2008-12-15T04:34:00.000-08:00

Thank you to all the students who have come to the animation sessions this term. It has been great fun.
Animation will start again in the second week of term with a fresh intake of students so if you are interested then let me or Charlie Fordham know.
It runs on a Monday 10.50-12.20 in G23.

Have a great christmas and see you next year!

Thanks
Andrea

William's Animation - Take Two

2008-12-15T04:29:00.000-08:00

William finished his first animation and added some sound and titles in Final Cut.

Crabs out walking

2008-12-08T04:09:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately Jamie wasn't in today's final filming session so I decided to add some sound onto his animation to make it look more complete.
Jamie if you see this I hope you don't mind the sound and titles I added to it. You should be really proud of this as it looks great.

Kirsty and Becky speak...

2008-12-01T04:41:00.000-08:00

Two A2 media studies students came into the Animation session today to share their experiences of animation. Kirsty and Becky are part of a group of three students that decided to do a fully animated piece as part of their A2 coursework project, to make a music video.

As you can see the final result is a beautifully craft, very intricate and successful video. Kirsty and Becky talked to the animation group about their planning, the hours it took to create all of their props, and the challenges they faced with their video.

Kirsty and Becky also spent some time talking to the animation students, looking at their projects, offering advice and helping out.

This is an example of Kirsty and Becky's early animation work. It demonstrates early examples of their individual style. It also demonstrates how their filming techniques has developed from this early example to their coursework project.

William's Animation

2008-12-01T04:21:00.000-08:00

William joined the grouup today and this is his first attempt at animation.

Latest footage of crabs walking

2008-12-01T04:17:00.000-08:00

A few computing issues mean that I lost the last 15 seconds of this version (thats 150 frames), so il have to do it ALL OVER AGAIN

Crabs, Practice

2008-11-24T04:18:00.000-08:00

Sadly this piece has no sound (because I haven't recorded any for it) but the finished thing will.

Animation Unlimited - Yuri Norstein

2008-11-24T04:06:00.000-08:00

I heard about this animator from a colleague in the English department who is a big fan, so I was pleased to see Norstein's work in the Animation Unlimited book.
His film is on YouTube in parts because it is 27 minutes long. He uses the technique of traditional drawn animation and he is considered to be an innovative animation director. He was born in Moscow in 1943 and worked on some 50 films as an animation artist.
Tale of Tales was made in 1978 and is widely regarded as his masterpiece. It is based on photographs of houses and old cars in the Moscow neighbourhood where Norstein grew up and is exquisitely detailed.

Animation Unlimited - Tim Hope

2008-11-24T03:58:00.000-08:00

Tim Hope was born in Greater Manchester in 1969. He didn't go straight into animation but experimented with music and stand-up comedy. He incorporated short animations into his performances. It was a re-working of one of these short pieces that led to this animated feature 'The Wolfman'. This tells the story of an astronomer who transforms himself into a werewolf in the search for an exciting, although destructive, adventurous life.

Animation Students Update 24/11

2008-11-24T03:51:00.000-08:00

Today was session two of some intensive animation productions.
Gerald and Shane are attempting to produce an animation using some free software called Blender. So far they have successfully created a car using this extremely complex software. I think it is very exciting that they are attempting something so complicated.

James is going for Take Two of 'crabs go walking'. This take looks a lot smoother and he is definitely improving his technique to make the walking look more realistic.

Adam is working solo today on 'A Day in the Park'. The improved lighting position has given both his and James' productions a better look. I have high hopes for this animation and I really like the eyeball people.

James and Ryan are storyboarding for their lego animation and have been checking out some similar style animations on YouTube.

David and Joseph have had to have a re-think on their idea. They had planned to use FLash but their other group member, who knows all about Flash, is unable to attend anymore. So they have decided to do a very detailed and complexly choreographed lego fight. They have been storyboarding their idea and looking at clips from Star Wars for inspiration.

Good Morning Daisy

2008-11-21T15:14:00.000-08:00

This is an animation created by a friend of mine who created this as part of their MA in Children's Book Illustration.
It is an example of traditional animation and took about 3 months to create and incorporates over 300 images. It was made on a really old machine called a DAR2000.

Animation Resources

2008-11-18T03:30:00.000-08:00

There are a couple of books that I have for students to use whilst researching, planning and constructing their animations.

Cracking Animation by Peter Lord and Brian Sibley is an excellent book. The Aardman Studio is one of the biggest successes in the new wave of British animation. This book sets Aardman's achievements and the history of the studio within the context of the tradition of 3-D animation, and provides the reader with a guide to making a 3-D animated film.

The definitive book on animation, from the Academy Award-winning animator behind Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is the Animator's Survival Kit. Animation is one of the hottest areas of filmmaking today--and the master animator who bridges the old generation and the new is Richard Williams. During his more than forty years in the business, Williams has been one of the true innovators, winning three Academy Awards and serving as the link between Disney's golden age of animation by hand and the new computer animation exemplified by Toy Story. Perhaps even more important, though, has been his dedication in passing along his knowledge to a new generation of animators so that they in turn could push the medium in new directions. In this book, based on his sold-out master classes in the United States and across Europe, Williams provides the underlying principles of animation that every animator--from beginner to expert, classic animator to computer animation whiz --needs. Urging his readers to "invent but be believable," he illustrates his points with hundreds of drawings, distilling the secrets of the masters into a working system in order to create a book that will become the standard work on all forms of animation for professionals, students, and fans.

Source: Google Books

Master Animator Focus - Miyazaki

2008-11-18T03:12:00.000-08:00

Miyazaki And Studio Ghibli

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: ghibli studio)

Introduction to Animation Techniques

2008-11-18T03:10:00.000-08:00

One of the first sessions of this course involves exploring all of the different animation techniques. This presentation gives some information on a range of techniques and also contains links to examples.

Animation Techniques

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: techniques animation)

Students make animations

2008-11-17T05:29:00.000-08:00

This week saw some of the animation students make a start on their animations.
Here are some images of them hard at work...

Animation Enrichment Timetable

2008-11-17T05:26:00.000-08:00

The animation course runs for around 12 weeks and runs twice a year, once in U block and then in Q block after Christmas.
The course includes an introduction to various animation techniques, an examinatioin of the history of anuimation and the different techniques, the screening and discussion of examples of animation, sharing different examples of unusual animation. The planning and execution of your own animation project.
All animations must be planned out to include storyboarding, scripting and research prior to filming. A consideration of sound effects and characterisation is advised.
Everyone will leave the course having made their very own animation, these will be uploaded to the blog.

Studio Ghibli

2008-11-17T05:12:00.000-08:00

The work of Studio Ghibli and in particular Hayao Miyazaki is a way of accessing animation.
The unique visual style separates them from Disney animation and is heavily influenced by Manga images.
There is a presentation on the history and work of Hayao Miyakaki, if you would like to find out more about him and Studio Ghibli here are some links.

http://www.onlineghibli.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_Ghibli
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayao_Miyazaki

Blender

2008-11-17T04:48:00.000-08:00

There are all manner of software programmes that can be used for animation, we use iStopMotion but Flash, After Effects, Final Cut and even Powerpoint can be used to create animations from the very simple to the extremely sophisticated.
Blender is a piece of free software that can be downloaded and used to create animations. It is quite complex, but as with everything there are numerous tutorials on YouTube.
One of the most successful animations using Blender is Big Buck Bunny.

For more information regarding this software and to download it follow:
http://www.blender.com

iStop Motion Tutorial

2008-11-17T04:46:00.000-08:00

The software programme that we use to make animations in this course is iStopMotion. It is really simple to use and if you are a media studies student you will have some experience of the programme.
Below is a tutorial of how the programme works. There are loads of these tutorials on YouTube and they are really useful.

Welcome

2008-11-17T02:51:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Long Road Animation blog.
This is the place to find all of the research, rough cuts and final productions of LongRoad students doing animation for their enrichment course.