Week 1

Topic: Research

Notes: Class Introductions, Grading Policies, Ground rules on assignments

Lecture/Demo: 1.Researching your subject. 2. How to pick a good piece of audio that tells a story and has subtext 3.Planning: What is the character saying, what is he really saying? ‘What should I have the character do?’ ‘How Can I best show it?’ Working out the cutting, staging and continuity.

Activity:Watch BBC master class on acting.




Assignment: Find an audio file and reference for a two character shot.

Create 2 pages of thumbnail sketches to show your idea.




No Animation this week.




Students may work on an individual shot, or using the anim jam method work with other students in the class to create a series of shots that can be cut together to make one long continuous piece.




Please check out the

'how to modify Norman' tutorial on aauanimationclub.blogspot.com




Dialogues for download - Radiostar Improv

Introduction

Introduction to ANIM 499 SPECIAL TOPICS

'LIP SYNC ANIMATION'

This course introduces students to performance in animation as well as working with dialogue. Your instructor will take you in detail through an entire shot from beginning to end. Students will follow along week by week completing their own dialogue piece. This in-depth study will explain techniques for making characters feel alive using the animation principles already learned as well as tips on polishing an animation.

The course is designed to help the student create a workflow for animating a shot. Please follow the naming conventions and use the workflow given in this course. We will be using a hierarchical approach where the performance is layered onto the basic movements of each character starting with the root, rather than a pose to pose approach where the key poses are created for all the nodes of the character then inbetweened.

Animators will be asked to use reference, but not to copy it. This class will emphasize acting and includes one improv class. The goal of the class is to create believable characters with an original performance.

As a result of successfully completing this course, students

Will be able to at an intermediate level...

1. Create performance animation with speaking characters
2. Create a feeling of empathy with the characters on the screen
3. Work with the graph editor and other interfaces of the software
4. Analyze performances and interpret in CG
5. Create a workflow for animating a shot