This class will be devoted to viewing your final projects. Attendance in mandatory. Submit all projects in advance to Professor Heintz.
]]>Submit your videos an hour prior to the end of class and we will string them together, add sound and watch them.
You will be given a flash movie as a starting point. Create a minimum of a 10 second animation incorporating the movie.
REQUIREMENTS:
* ensure it begins with a white frame
* ensure it ends with a white frame
* the animation should go through at least one loop then you can do whatever you want.
* includes your name. (You may make your name an animated element) and your name should be readable for 3 seconds.
* the animaton must be a minimum of 10 seconds long (the 3 seconds of your name included)
* export it as a quicktime movie and turn it in to the prof of the day by one hour before the end of class
Download the flash files from MYCOURSES
This loop may suggest different forms and movements. It could merely be the start of a chain of events. It could be just one part of an articulated figure.
Use any method of animation you desire: tweened or frame by frame; photoshop or flash. Alas, not enough time for stop motion, but rotoscope or the layering of video is a possibility.
]]>The loop should be seamless. (That is, if I hit "repeat" on the video player, there will be no skips or jitters between cycles).
The three movements should be distinct. They may be distinct via kind of movement (walk, run, hop, jitter, crawl, etc.) They may be distinct because the characters have different kinds of movement. (One tends to mosey, one is nervous and jittery, another is zombified).
Bonus points for all three loops being the same length of time and all within the same movie.
Do not concern yourself with the background. The character(s) and movement will be sufficient.
]]>Examples:
Old Popeye
Class Assignment: Flock of Seagulls (not the 80's band)
Here's a tutorial that covers lots of ground at Creative Cow.
Part 1
Part 2
Some important concepts are the notions of looping and staggering loops within a composition, then nesting compositions into others.
]]>Introduction to tweened animation using Flash.
Character Animation and Movement
Examples:
Character Animation
REFERENCE: Walking Dots: A study in motion with varying interactive attibutes (gender, weight, mood)
Video: http://www.squetch.com/tism.html
*FOR THE PARANOID: Minimum means you should target 20. There is no penalty for going over. You will not necessarily get a higher grade for a longer movie. Mo' is not necessarily bettah.
A resolution of 720 x 480 is preferred for display purposes if you have desire for personal glory.
Source material that is less than this size can be transformed (expanded) prior to rotoscoping.
Grading criteria:
There should follow a narrative arc: meaning a perceivable increasing complexity over time and then resolution.
It is not sufficient to throw a bunch of filters at this and call it done. The original footage should be reinterpreted and clearly have your own take on it.
Your rotoscope should be beyond an animated version of the source material. Change the meaning, recontextualize it, take advantage of the fact that it is an animation and laws of physics, gravity and reality no longer have any bearing on the work.
Examples of things which may follow this arc:
Secondary Motion - After you have made your different items bounce, what things can you add to sell their materiality?
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