Homework for Monday, September 19th!

A. Complete the following assignment!

• Read pages 102 - 166 of the Animator's Survival Kit! 
• This section covers walk cycles! We will take everything that you have learned from the last few weeks and apply all of your skills to create believable walk cycles!
• Awesome notes: One of my other students, Julie Lasseter, found a good reference for the 12 principles of animation for all of you, using Disney sequences. Please refer to these references at this link!
• Prepare two potential character designs for your walk cycle!
• IMPORTANT NOTES FOR CONSIDERATION
• Your character will be a biped/humanoid/anthropomorphic character! (2 legs two arms!
• Pay attention to the design of the character’s
• body
• head
• skeleton
• arms
• legs
• feet
• hands
• clothing!
• You will create 2 model sheets! One for each character, with the following poses:
• Front, 3/4 Front, Side, 3/4 Back, Back.
• You will create the following from observation:
• 10 figure drawings: lineart only, at least 8 are full body.
• 5 caricatures

B. For those of you who have yet to pay, pay for your supplies!

• PAY FOR YOUR PAPER and peg bar ($55.00 paid in full at the business office)
• Bring your Light Box and Animator's Survival Kit to class!
• I will check for your animation paper, your light box, and your copy of the Animator's Survival Kit!

Thank you all for your patience with this Monday. We will now resume our regularly scheduled classes. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me at mshaw@mca.edu. Good luck with the rest of the week! 

Assignment # 3: Research assignment!

Congratulations! At this point you have begun developing the necessary drawing and observation skills to produce quality animated content! Up next is a short assignment we will engage in before taking our skills to the wonderful world of traditional animation!  From here on out, we will animate full-body characters. To work up the necessary practice, you will create the following!

1. Produce a 6-7 second animation where you recreate the action in an animated sequence of choice!
2. Select an animated sequence you like that displays clear, decisive character performance.  Animate this scene making note of EXTREME DRAWINGS (EXT), KEY DRAWINGS (KEY), BREAKDOWN DRAWINGS (BK), and INBETWEEN DRAWINGS (IBT)!

• Make an X Sheet for me that shows your initial estimations of your character's timing.
• Animate ONE CHARACTER only! I'd rather see quality over quantity.
• When animating the character, do not REDRAW the character itself. Produce an armature, or your own character design over this character!
• Pay attention to these concepts:
• Arcs
• Line of action
• Weight and Balance
• Keeping characters ON MODEL.

When complete, make a blog at http://blogger.com, and an youtube channel at http://youtube.com. We will use these as places to produce final work as well as initial concepts! Bring your finished work, along with your created websites to class!

HOMEWORK FOR WEDNESDAY!

CREATE a 6 - 10 second animation that illustrates the following story.

(character name), a (character shape),  feels (insert emotion here.)

Example:  Jenny, a cube, feels SO EXCITED! =D

You need to demonstrate the following principles of animation:

• Staging
• Solid Drawing
• Arcs
• Easing (slowing down and speeding up)
• As well as the RULE OF THIRDS!

A couple notes for success:

• Remember to do your thumbnail sketches and a sample X-Sheet. (examples are on pages 70 - 77 of the Animator's Survival Kit!
• Do not do heavy detail first!  Sketch your animation first, check it, revise, and then add your details!
• If you are having trouble nailing down a specific emotion: remember BODY LANGUAGE!
• Don't rely on facial expressions or props! I will ask you to redo your assignment if it has an abundance of either!

Read pages: 64 - 101 of the Animator's Survival Kit!

Bring in some ideas for your next project: A research assignment where you recreate a scene from an animation of your choice! (6 seconds)

• Reference should be a video. Gifs are great secondary resources
• Your choices should have great examples of character animation without any camera cuts!