Assignment 11/15/16

Here is the video lesson for today. If you have questions please ask your classmates:

Assignment for Wednesday 10/19/16

Hello Students,

I was hoping to be back today but I am still sick. Please read these instructions carefully and begin to generate some ideas.

Comic Exercise 1:

In this writing exercise you will imitate a comic strip of your choice. Search google or go to your favorite resource for comics. You can also take a look at bizarro.com or peanuts.com. The important part of searching and looking at comics is finding something that you like. The idea is to work with a comic that fits with your own sense of humor. When looking for a comic you want to finding something that has between 1 and 4 panels. Like this:

After you have chosen a comic the next step is to generate ideas about how you could modify the comic so that it becomes something new while still retaining the “spirit” of the original. Sometimes in the process of writing and re-writing the essence of the original is lost. That's okay if that happens because in the end, the purpose of the imitation is to help you generate ideas. If the process happens to lead to something entirely different from the original then it ceases to be an imitation but it still counts as a new joke. In the end what you need to do is write a lot of comics and eventually you'll have one that really stands out. That will be the comic that you will animate. 

I really like the New Yorker comic. The joke is simple and I could immediately think of many different ways to modify the comic and turn it into something new. 

When I saw this comic I knew that if I just thought of a list of different animals I could probably come up with scenarios where one of the older animals was complaining about the younger generation. So I came up with a list of animals I might want to use:

1. Birds
2. Raccoons
3. Dogs
4. Mice

I started with Raccoons. I thought to myself, what do raccoons do on a regular basis? Well at least some of them try and get into trash cans. So then I thought about older raccoons complaining about the younger generation and how they didn't “work” for their food. I took some time to draw up the comic. You can also use toondoo for this. Here is the comic that I made that imitates the New Yorker comic:

To show that the younger raccoon didn't work for his food I had him carrying some fast food in a paper bag. You can see that while the theme of older vs younger generations is still in the comic, the story is totally different. A lot of artists love to imitate because they can find things that they like and then use them as a jumping off point for their own creations.

Here is the same comic, but this time I made it in toondoo:

As you can see the result is not as nice as the original drawing. It's also a little harder to convey the idea but the toondoo still took one quarter of the time compared to the original drawing. Toondoo is great to test out ideas and see if they work before you draw the cartoon.

Your Assignment:

Find a comic that you like and imitate it in some way. Write down your ideas regardless of whether or not they are good or bad. Write EVERYTHING down. Use Stick figures in Sketchbook Pro or take advantage of Toondoo.com. Try and keep things simple. The idea is more important than the final product. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Mistakes are helpful in the creative process.  

You will turn in your idea to the dropbox. If you use toondoo you can email me the file. It needs to be an image. I do not want a text file.

Welcome Back Tech Students!

Welcome bulldogs!

This blog will have key documents for Animation 1, Animation 2, and Animation 3. Daily assignments will not be posted on this blog. If you are looking for a particular assignment please email me: peter.heckel@ousd.org

Assignment 4/27/16

Please see instructor for details regarding unit 4 in Maya.

Assignment 4/25/16

Spaceship exercise 5 and 6:

Assignment 4/22/16

Spaceship exercises 3 and 4:

Assignment 4/21/16:

Spaceship exercises 1 and 2:

Assignment 4/20/16

Append Tool and
Duplicate Special Tool:

Assignment 4/19/16

Edge Loop Tool:

Assignment 4/12/16 to 4/19/16

Dining Room:

Assignment 4/11/16

Extrude Tool:

Animation 2: Module 5

Continuing in Maya:

3/18/16:

3/22/16:

3/23/16:

3/24/16:

Animation 2: Module 4

Character Animation in Maya:

Jump - 3/7/16:

Walk Cycle in Maya - 3/8/16:

Forward Walk - 3/10/16:

Stairs - 3/14/16:

Run and Jump - 3/16/16:

Flash Final Project Information 2/23/15

The link below takes you to the google doc explaining the details of final project in Flash:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/16PaUZ5WeM6H5EEWP7H6oi1_I9FT7nI0DhtEJH9RSntk/edit?usp=sharing

Assignment 2/19/16

How to animate a speech bubble in Flash:

Assignment 2/18/16:

Creating an Animatic in Flash:

Assignment 2/16/16

BMO Dance in Flash:

Assignment 2/10/16

Frog and Fly Project:

Students have 3 days to animate a scene between and frog and a fly. Here are the requirements...

1. There must be a conflict between frog and fly.
2. Show principles of animation in the scene.
3. There has to be a twist. The frog can't just eat the fly. That would be too boring.

Click on the video to see an example.

Assignment 2/9/16

Today we had a walk cycle practice test. I asked students to animate a walk similar to the stick figure walk assigned last week. Study the poses and frames in that walk. You will be tested at the end of the flash unit.

Assignment 2/5/16

Exaggeration in Flash. Animating surprise in the face:

Assignment 2/4/16

Head turn in Adobe Flash:

Assignment 2/3/16:

2 Drawing run in Flash:

Assignment 2/2/16

Stick figure walk cycle:

Assignment 2/1/16

Animate a walk cycle with Snoopy:

Assignment 1/27/16

Animate your own version of a bouncing ball. Don't follow a video tutorial, just see if you can do it on your own.

Don't forget the principles of animation:

1. Squash and stretch
2. Timing
3. Slow in/slow out
4. Arcs

I strongly recommend that you plan out the position of the ball in each frame on one sheet of paper first. See example.

Assignment 1/25/16

Roadrunner Dash (Anticipation) in Flash:

Final Exams 1/19/16 to 1/22/16

No assignments during this week.

Assignment 1/15/16

Follow through in Adobe Flash:

Assignment 1/14/16

Throwing a ball in Flash:

Assignment 1/12/16

Overlapping Action:

Assignment 1/11/16

Pendulum loop in Flash:

Assignment 1/8/16

Bouncing ball in an arc.

Final Exam Review - Fall Semester

Here are the topics that will be in the final exam:

1. Define Animation and live action. Define frames per second.

2. Define categories in animation and give examples of films: traditional cel animation, stop motion (cutout, clay, puppet, pixilation), 2d and 3d computer animation.

3. Match technological advances in animation with the correct year - from the invention of the cel to the present.

4. Define the four major story elements of a short animated film discussed in class. Conflict, orchestration of characters, premise, and twist.

5. Draw a boxes 1 point and 2 point perspective. Label horizon line and vanishing point(s). Outline boxes in thicker pencil lines.

6. Create a postcard in Photoshop. I will give specific dimensions. The project has to have the correct print resolution. I will give you the theme and you will search for the images on google. Images need to be the correct size. If images are pixelated or blown up I will take points off. If you need to review this subject, please refer the to the tutorial that was given in class. It is also available on the youtube channel.

Assignment 1/7/16:

Bouncing ball loop in Adobe Flash:

Assignment 1/6/16:

Drawing tools in Flash part 2:

Assignment 1/5/16

Drawing tools in Adobe Flash:

Assignment 12/14/15

Students have three days to complete a project proposal revision. The first iteration of the project proposal was completed back in November. Students received feedback from peers at that time. In the revision, students will improve upon their first draft of the proposal.