Finals Checklist:

I.  On the Server, in the "FINALS" folder, turn in final videos for the following:

1. The ball bounce project.

2. The shape emotion project.

3. The research assignment.

4. Walk cycle 1. (The standard walk)

5. Walk cycle 2. (The walk cycle with personality!)
6. Your 6-10 second character animation
7. A PDF of your storyboard
8. A movie file of your animatic.
9. A document detailing your experience in the class! (what you enjoyed, what could be improved, what you would like to see in future classes, what you learned!)

(#9 can be emailed to me personally if you prefer confidentiality)

I will grade based on the following:

A. Craftsmanship: Line-art quality.  Are your lines clean? Is your character the focal point of your animation, or are the rough lines the focal point?

B. Modeling: How consistent is your character between every frame of your animation?  Do limbs get too thin and then too thick?

C. Performance: Are we captivated by the actions on screen?  Is your animation about the character? Are the performances believable and relatable if we look at your animation as an actor and as the audience?

D. Clarity of storytelling:  What is the story of each animation?  Is the story coming across?

E. Technique:  Are you demonstrating the principles we've learned in class?

Arcs - The way we add weight to how your character moves.

Easing - speeding up and slowing down of actions over time.

Positioning - (spacing)

Pacing - (Timing)

Staging
Storyboard development.
Cinematography
Character acting and performance.


NOTE: THE DEADLINE FOR TURNING IN ALL WORK IS 12:00AM MONDAY, DEC 7th.  All work is timestamped automatically, so I will know if your work is turned in late, and will dock points accordingly!

Storyboards Case Study: Batman The Animated Series Intro: Bruce Timm

As you work on your storyboards, it's easy to pour too much work into the wrong section of your story. The most important thing your storyboards should do is COMMUNICATE the actions on screen TO US.

Again, COMMUNICATE..... TO US.

So fancy drawings mean nothing if they are not clear!  As an example, take a look at the intro to the award-winning Batman: The Animated Series Below:


Batman The Animated Series: From Storyboard to Animation
Storyboard Images

You see the storyboards have been put together to create an animatic for us to view. While there are some slight changes, the storyboards are drawn in such a way that we can very well understand the action at hand without needing much else.

They achieve this with

1. Clear, simple drawings.
2. Efficient camera movements, where the camera serves the characters and setting, not the other way around.
3. Drawing the BEATS, or changes in action between panels!


Storytelling is always important in animation, but even more important than storytelling is character performance.  Showcasing how your character moves between shots uses your acting skills and makes the characters much more interesting to us!


On the server, I've included links to the boards from the above video, as well as storyboards from an episode of adventure time, and the first 4 episodes of the Bee and Puppycat Kickstarter project.  Review these to help improve your skills in storyboarding!


I'll add some additional links below for you to check out at your leisure!

SHAZAM: Superman Animatic
Scribd.com: Adventure Time Stoyboards (need to sign up with an email address to download)

Homework for Wednesday:

Now that you have learned the basics of storyboard pro,  take the rough sketches of your thumbnail drawings and create a draft of your storyboard in Storyboard Pro!

1. Roughly sketch out the drawings for your story.
2. Add proper timing to the drawings, and export out a .MOV file that we can check out Wednesday!

At this point, do not spend a lot of time making perfect drawings. I will ask you to revise your stories to make them better!

Email me if you have any questions!