Animation Study Assignment

ASU Herberger School of Art

There are many methods of animation we will cover a few in this course.

 Stop-Action

 Simple Animation

 Cel Animation

 Web Animation

 3D CGI

 Methods are procedures and techniques for animating

 Over the years many different form of animating have been established, some have become more popular than others, but all are important in understanding how we can animate our own imaginations

 Although we will touch on each of these methods you will be responsible for reading the appropriate chapters in the course text to pass the exams and contribute to the discussions.

Stop-Action or Stop-Motion animation is a time consuming method of photographing models or puppets in a series of slight moves. Each image is then played back in sequence to give the apparent look and feel of an animated character.

The most popular use of Stop-Action is with clay figures, like the Wallace and Gromit Series.

Simple animation would include 2d animations that don’t necessarily take a great amount of drawing skill. Usual short in nature, these simple animations still tell a story but use more simplistic graphics such as cut outs or collages. Many simple animation take on personal meaning to the viewer like a f lipbook of personal experience or ideas. Some professional examples of this style include Monty Pyton’s Flying Circus, and Time Bandits.

Cel Animation brings us to what most of us are familiar with as children. Cartoons have become a very large portion of what kids like to watch and the way they learn about the world and some moral issues. These Cartoons are Cel animation – this means that these are most often drawn my hand (some done by computer these days) and that the characters are superimposed on the backgrounds, this allow the action to take place seamlessly without having to draw the background again and again on every frame. Some example include any Disney, Hanna-Barbera, or Looney Toons Cartoon.

Web animation at it’s core is really just the same as simple or cel animation however the caveat is that it exists primary on the internet. Also the software used for web animation is more proprietary that the others. This is were the technique of vector animation really shines as programs like Flash or Photoshop with animated gifs can let the artist explore their own imagination with out restriction.

Computers very much dominate the emerging horizon of digital animations and cartoons. More and more show on television and full feature movies are using them to accomplish amazing imagery and capture our senses. Even movie’s that we felt did have animation in them probably did in some form or another. With programs like Maya and 3D Studio Max new worlds can open to our view, the next step in imagination can transport us to the place that the artist envisioned. If properly executed we will forget that we watched it and feel like we actually went there. Computers and 3D Computer Generated Imagery is blurring the line between fantasy and reality.

 Read pages 30-32, 46-47, 70-71, 104-105, 116-117, in the course text. Complete the quiz and participate in the discussion board for this section of the course.

 For the discussion board I expect you to contribute to the conversation and respond to at least two other students on the comments they made.

 Complete these by 11:59pm on the Due Date.