About

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Course Description

 

The term “Tradigital” refers to the melding or combination of the traditional and the digital, or computer-based, methods of creating motion and/or animation. This course is an in-depth exploration of tradigital character animation techniques and principles designed to allow motion media students, digital animators and filmmakers to fully develop skills, drawing from a combination of techniques. This is an intermediate level course in “tradigital” animation(2D/2.5D) and storytelling. We'll be covering traditional animation principles and techniques, plus the animation production process by applying them to digital tools - including Photoshop, Animate CC, After Effects & Premiere. By investigating the visual language and principles of animation, we will be considering universal concepts of motion, time and movement using digital 2D and 2.5D techniques.

 

We will draw upon a canon of animations, commercials & films to observe successful techniques that can be applied in our own work, and also to develop our sensitivity to the artistry of moving images, cinema and storytelling.

 

 

 

Course Rationale

 

Character Animation is designed to take introductory and intermediate digital media students (animators, filmmakers and motion designers) to the next level technically, artistically and conceptually through teaching advanced workflow practices, methods and communication. The course aims to better equip students with skills in both 2D digital and tradigital character animation workflows. Students will gain a foundation in expressive movement for characters, advanced character processes/setups and anthropomorphic abstraction which emerges from careful deliberation.

 

 

Course Objectives

 

This course is designed to provide motion media students with instruction and guidance in principles, techniques and a critical understanding of both drawing for animation and building characters for expressive animation. The technical instruction will be focused around the use of The Adobe Creative Cloud (Photoshop, Illustrator, Animate CC, Premiere and Adobe After Effects) in the handling of animated and motion imagery and gaining comfort drawing with the Wacom Cintiq.

 

Students will conceptualize and develop skills, methods and characters to be used in digital frame-based animation in programs that allow for 2D & 2.5D images, drawings or puppets.

 

Students will:

• Create and develop digital content from sketches, cartoon animation sequences using professional-level digital animation software with computer drawing tools and frame based timeliness.

• Learn industry-standard animation techniques for creating motion graphics, animation, and characters that walk, talk, and show expressions.

• Gain comfort drawing with Wacom tablets/Cintiq.

• Use problem-solving techniques to create accurate in-between sketches in program.

• Define and sketch basic digital structure and proportion and create a digital cartoon character through a series of sketches.

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Required Materials:

Animator’s Survival Kit (ASK) by Richard Williams (see resources)

Sketchbook (May be analog book, or digital blog)

 

Required Materials:

Computer, please see https://dmd.uconn.edu/computer-requirements

Adobe Creative Cloud Subscription, please see https://software.uconn.edu/adobe-products-students/

 

Optional Texts:

The Illusion of Life, Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnston

Cartoon Animation, Preston Blair

Drawing for Planning Animation, Gilbert Wayne

The Animator’s Workbook, Tony White

 

Optional Materials (not required, but useful):

An external hard drive and SD card are HIGHLY recommended

Wacom or other similar digital drawing tablet

Computer Mouse (3-button)

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