- spacedad
Day 1
Day 2
Open Source Animation Programs (if you have nothing else to animate with)
-Blender (has a 2d animation template)
-Opentoonz
-Krita
Video stuff to check out:
- Pencil2D
- Storyboarder (for storyboarding sequences)
Main books to pick up:
-Animator’s Survival Kit by Richard Williams
-Character Animation Crash Course by Eric Goldberg
-Illusion of Life by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston
-Cartoon Animation by Preston Blair
-Timing in Animation by Tom Sito
Suggested by class:
-Firealpaca Course by Eric Goldberg
-Illusion of Life by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston
-Cartoon Animation by Preston Blair
-Timing in Animation by Tom Sito
Video stuff to check out:
Pixar in a box animation course https://www.khanacademy.org/partner-content/pixar/animate
12 principles of animation - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDqjIdI4bF4
More Excersizes
Bouncing Ball & Timing & Spacing demo
Ribbon grid demo
Webgen animation
Sakuga animation
The Line Studios clip
Line Studios analysis and exercise example
Day 1 Homework
Day 2 Homework
class demo example
IT IS UP TO YOU WHICH ASSIGNMENTS YOU WANT TO DO. I would suggest that beginners stick with the bouncing ball and try different variations of it. Intermediate people or even advanced people coming back rusty will get a lot out of the intermediate exercise.
-Special note: Every day, try to do at least a little bit of animation. If you are stuck about something to do, try to do small exercises you could do in about an hour or two, or even a day of work.
Beginner Homework:
Bouncing ball. You can do the basic exercise more than once to really have it sink in. Optionally: Try making different types of bouncing balls throughout the week. Try having them do different things. Try having them be of different weight and materials. Try having them bounce against walls or things at different angles. Try putting a face on the ball.
Intermediate homework:
Ribbon test. Create a perspective floor grid and ceiling grid, animate dots on the floor grid moving towards the camera, and match those dots using lines up to the ceiling grid. After you complete the grid with lines, create a flowing ribbon that overlaps itself back and forth in a wave pattern rippling towards the camera.
Advanced homework:
Pick a piece of animation you really like, break it down & study it, even replicate it yourself so you understand it….then when you think you have the ‘idea’ of what the animators were doing, create your own scene based on the same idea but with your own original poses, staging, or even somewhat different action or characters or whatever.
Super-advanced homework:
Design a combat scene or a weapon attack. Grab some live action reference (or make some yourself) and start designing a fight scene. Do studies of the live action reference. Design the fight by putting together a blocking pass at the very least.
SPECIAL NOTE TO INTERMEDIATE TO ADVANCED PEOPLE: Animation for this class series should fundamentally should be thought of as ‘gesture drawing in perspective.’ Try to use perspective grids or the rules of perspective in some fashion for everything you animate. Use the rules of perspective on your gestural drawings. Additionally, it would be a good idea to start doing gesture drawings of figures and characters in different poses in perspective.