Click above title for the detailed brief.

Lesson plan as follows...

Analyse requirements 1L
Primary research 2L
Flat plan 2L
Primary & secondary 1L
Production 3L
Presentation
Redraft 1L
Evaluate 1L

Flip book task

What you will need:

a packet of post-it notes or a pad of paper
a sharp pencil
good quality black art pen (optional)
coloured pens (optional)

TASK

We would like you to make a ball bounce. Take your post-it note or pad and turn to the last page. Draw the ball in the first position, you may also like to draw the horizon. Make sure your images are in the bottom third of the page.

Turn to the next page. You should be able to see the previous image through the page. Draw the next image of the ball a little further on. Keep turning the page and drawing the ball! Use the tips below to help develop your animating skills.

Tips

As the ball progresses it will lose momentum and height. Before you start have a look at the diagram below. We have drawn a composite of images from a bouncing ball sequence. To make your sequence work more effectively you might apply three of the principles of animation.

According to Disney animators, Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnston, in their book The Illusion of Life there are twelve principles of animation. Three of them are more relevant to this task.

Bouncing ball

Arcs (fig.2)

When objects move, they very often follow a curve. Animators call this an arc. Notice how the ball travels in an arc to simulate its natural path.

Ease In and Ease Out (fig.3)

Most objects need time to accelerate and slow down; so to make realistic animation we need to emulate this. Notice that as the ball reaches the top of its bounce, it slows down and the frames get close together. As it starts to fall again, it speeds up and the frames get further apart.

Squash and Stretch (fig.4)

It is important to keep the volume of any object in proportion, creating a realistic sense of its weight and flexibility. If the ball’s height squashes as it meets the floor, its width (and depth) needs to stretch in order to maintain its volume.

Thomas and Johnston’s twelve principles are illustrated well by this video from Cento Lodigiani and also in these animated GIFs.

PU

1-8 from left SoW

Mon 1

Tues 2

Fri 3

Mon 3

Tues 5 & 6

Fri 5

Mon 7 & 8

Tues 7 & 8 (if needed)

RS

Pixilation task - Skating and flying!

What you will need:

a smart phone

stop motion app (Stop Motion Studio is free)
a friend or a tripod
some patience !

Pixilation is a way of stop frame animating using real actors. As with the other animation tasks, this will involve taking one image at a time and making all movements minimal. The technique allows you to perform 'in camera' special effects. Your camera will need to be in a ‘locked’ position on a tripod or held with minimal movement between each frame ( i.e. if you are tracking the subject while they are 'skating' or flying).

What you need to do

Watch Vicky Mather's film Stanley Pickle. We would like you to watch it all but pay particular attention the skating scenes at 3.40 and 9.40. the actors are not filmed but animated, every frame is a new still image (stop frame). This gives much more control over aspects of the movement and also gives the actors a model like quality.
Work with a friend/actor to have a go at skating using the pixilation technique , You will need to take a picture for each position you want the character to be in.
Next we would like you to attempt the flying task. This will involve you actor jumping in the air each time you take an image. This is how Jan Kounen's film Gisele Kerozene i made or this DIY short Flight of the Broomstick ( which pays far less attention to mise en scene)

Once you have got the hang of the techniqu then you can get creative with your own ideas!

Further Viewing

A similar effect to pixilation can be performed using very quick jump cuts as in this video by Dougal Wilson for the band Chiniki. I jump cut involved cutting/editing a video clip without moving the camera position. It is not strictly animation.

The video to the side is a short film by Jan Svankmajer that is manly Pixilation but contains claymation too.

Basic In Animation & Visual Effects

Watch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt4VIpSUW5Y

Play with AE! Create layers and basic animation as instructed

Brief 1

Recreate this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhwsLS1XolU

Man With Golden Arm

Add music (file>import). Get the animation in time to the music.

Export (file > export>add to render queue>rename where it says Output To and click Render, check it worked). Add to YT and Wix site on homepage.

Brief 2

Make a Tool

After having a play in Illustrator (changing stroke, pen tool, selection tool, direct selection tool, align, unit), this brief is to take a tool (hammer spade spanner etc) from the internet and make it into a vector object

File>place

Lock layer with the photo in

create new layer

Trace the image

Add highlights

Move the photo layer below your version and add any details needed

Export both and add to blog

Brief 3

VFX Basic Training

Complete AE basic training, practicing the tasks yourself
https://www.videocopilot.net/basic/

Brief 4

Animated Rocket