Animation is a full year course offering one full credit in art.
Weekly or unit tests will be based on lectures and tutorials presented duringclass.
A written midterm will be given at the end of the first semester and a final animation project will take the place of the final exam but will count as 1/6 of the grade for the course.
Attendance is very important in this class because we will be using a variety of computer software that obviously cannot be sent home when a student is absent.Students need to make an appointment with the teacher to make up work on Tuesdays or Thursdays after school.
Each month a participation grade is given. Use or misuse of class time, participation in class discussions and critiques, and conduct will count toward this monthly grade. Low grades in this area are final and will not be adjusted. Participation in critiques ofboth students’ art and professional art will be an important part of the participation grade. Artist vocabulary learned in class is expected to be used during critiques.
Most of the grading for the various animation projects will be based on two criteria, skill and creativity.Part of the skill for the projectis learning the various computer programs we will be using.Another part of skill for most of our animations will be drawing skill.And a final skill, in some of our animations ,will be the presentation of a story.Creativity takes all these skills and presents your animations into a uniquely imaginative movie.
As part of this class we will be watching a variety of animations that use the same computer programs that we will be using to analyze their techniques, to see other film makers skill and creativity and to see cultural differences from people around the world.
September-November Using the computer program "PhotoShop" as a painting told.Preparing artworks for animation in PhotoShop.
Using the computer program "Flash" we will take the artwork from PhotoShop and turn it into animations.We will do a series of animations during this time each progressively more difficult.
Make a mini animation based on the above information learned.
November-January Continue to progress with more difficult drawing assignments, PhotoShop techniques, and some special effects in Flash.
Learn to import photographs into PhotoShop and prepare them for use in combination with drawings for Flash animation.
Using photos of people turn these in a different type of animation using both PhotoShop and Flash.
Make a mini animation based on the above information learned.
February-April In a method, similar to traditional animation, students will be shown how to draw frame by frame directly into the Flash program with tools built into Flash that acts as an animator's light table. Students will make a frame by frame animation of a character moving. They will also be shown tools in Flash that can help make this process easier than traditional frame by frame animation. During this time students will also be shown how to take regular movie clips and combine them with drawn animations and photographs.
They will also learn how to take several movie clips made in Flash and join them together in the computer program called "Premiere".
Using all the methods used so far students will make a multi character animation.
April-June Students will be taught a variety of animation techniques in the computer program called "After Effects", with increasing levels of difficulty as time allows. Students will also be shown how to take animations made in either Flash or After Effects and add a music soundtrack, dub in their own voices for the characters they made (or both) using the program Premiere.
Final exam project of an animation that has a clear story line (using multiple characters) and a soundtrack.