MCAD PCSS 17: Animation
I applied to the Pre-College Summer Session 2017 at MCAD and applied for my intended major to be Animation. I got accepted and went to live on campus of three weeks and took a handful of classes to get a taste of what college would be like for an art student. My Animation class lasted 5 hours alone for 5 days a week. I also had Contemporary Art History and Ideation and Process on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and Visual Composition on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Friday. After class, we would have the option of studio hours once class ended, where we could go in our intended major's lab and work on projects and homework. We could also use that time to ask for help and opinions on our projects from anyone we needed it from.
Animation
In this class, I was introduced the fundamental basics to animating and Photoshop. Our instructor, Holly Thorstad, and three Teaching Assistants, dedicated their time to helping us learn the process of basic animating on Photoshop. We went over the Twelve Basic Principles of Animations and watched videos that correlated to each principled. We talked about and practiced each principle to the extent of incorporating certain elements into every project we did in class. We were assigned a project for a certain amount of time, and in class, we would partake in in-class critiques where I would receive helpful criticism from my peers to give me an outside perspective of my animation skills and help come up with better ideas to improve my skills/animation.
During the time spent in class, I experimented with Photoshop, since I had never really used Photoshop outside of school for my own purposes. I felt comfortable with my skills, however, since I had spent a decent amount of time drawing digitally on my own computer with a different program. The animating procedures were new to me and that was something I picked up at my own tempo.
I learned that typically, there would be 24 frames in one second for every animation an animator makes. I also learned the hard way that there was way more to animation than just drawing. Aside from drawing frame after frame, there was coloring and light effects and musical scoring and all of these other factors that would contribute to the development of an animation. The only field trip the animation students got to go to was the Science Museum of Minnesota to go visit the Science Behind Pixar Exhibit.
During the time spent in class, I experimented with Photoshop, since I had never really used Photoshop outside of school for my own purposes. I felt comfortable with my skills, however, since I had spent a decent amount of time drawing digitally on my own computer with a different program. The animating procedures were new to me and that was something I picked up at my own tempo.
I learned that typically, there would be 24 frames in one second for every animation an animator makes. I also learned the hard way that there was way more to animation than just drawing. Aside from drawing frame after frame, there was coloring and light effects and musical scoring and all of these other factors that would contribute to the development of an animation. The only field trip the animation students got to go to was the Science Museum of Minnesota to go visit the Science Behind Pixar Exhibit.
Bouncing Ball Project
On the first day, the first project assigned to us was the simple bouncing ball animation. Our medium was post-it notes, but the catch was that we had to create a bouncing ball animation with only 100 post-it notes. The criterion we had to meet was that we had to animate a minimum of one bounce, incorporate three principles of animation, and include one transformation. It was highly encouraged that we finish this project in one class period so that we could have time to edit it and make it look more like an animation. This form of animation was supposed to imitate the traditional way to animate.
Jumping Animation
This project was to help us get familiar with Photoshop. We slowly transitioned from paper to computer. The assignment was to animate a character jumping and following multiple principles of animation. One of the requirements was to clearly show the character forming and arch as they jumped and we could come up with the creative aspects of the animation later on. This was also a good way to introduce backgrounds and music if we wanted to include any. Most of the principles I used in my animation were: Squash and Stretch, Drag, and Anticipation.
Stop-Motion Animation
We were introduced to stop-motion animation, a lesser known way of animating and a time-consuming one as well. The principles of animation applied to animating, but the process of making was completely different. This way of animating allowed for the artist to use any medium they wanted to use, and this includes found objects, liquids, and even paper. We briefly learned to set up the works for a stop-motion animation and learned how to use the free basic app to shoot our animation.
For this project, we were assigned to a group of three and were given a piece of an audio clip. With this audio clip that lasted 15 seconds, our task was to create a stop-motion animation that corresponded with the sound in the audio clip and centered around the theme of separation. We also randomly assigned the medium we had to use for our stop-motion.
I was assigned the medium of found objects with group members Lillie Benkoil and C. Fears. Each of us were to have directed 5 seconds of the animation and help each other group member animate their portion of the animation once we had directed our own. We brainstormed ideas for what to animate based on the clip we were given to use in our animation. We had exactly two days to create our animation. In the end, we all came up with something that included all of the ideas we individually had.
For this project, we were assigned to a group of three and were given a piece of an audio clip. With this audio clip that lasted 15 seconds, our task was to create a stop-motion animation that corresponded with the sound in the audio clip and centered around the theme of separation. We also randomly assigned the medium we had to use for our stop-motion.
I was assigned the medium of found objects with group members Lillie Benkoil and C. Fears. Each of us were to have directed 5 seconds of the animation and help each other group member animate their portion of the animation once we had directed our own. We brainstormed ideas for what to animate based on the clip we were given to use in our animation. We had exactly two days to create our animation. In the end, we all came up with something that included all of the ideas we individually had.
Final Animation Project
Our last project assigned to us was for our final. This project counted for a huge chunk of our grade for this class and it was meant to be shown at the PCSS Student Exhibition for the community to see. This was a project to seek out our creativity and to test our abilities of animating and to showcase what we learned in class. The requirements for this project was to create any kind of animation (open to 2D digital, paper, stop-motion, and 3D) that lasted 30 seconds. It was open for anything, and we were required to brainstorm ideas for an animation pitch. We also had to storyboard our animation idea so that we could also pitch it to the class and TA's and get their opinions on the idea.
After story boarding, we got critiqued on our presentation, our ideas, and to see if our audience could tell what we were trying to illustrate. This helped a lot to challenge us to think like an animator and get the audience to feel and understand what we try to convey in the animation. We were given a week and a couple of days to finish our animation.
I struggled to come up with an idea for an animation since the project itself was so open-ended. but I had gotten some inspiration from a fellow peer who was an intended painting major. She told me about her cats and I instantly got ideas for using her cats as inspiration for my animation. I wanted to combine my love of cats with my friend's cats and also my friends. Before I felt inspired, I knew I wanted to animate animals, since I was more comfortable in drawing animals. I jotted down my ideas and designed characters for each idea. Later on, I designed the cats that were inspired by my friend's cats and it went from there. I named them after some really good friends I made at PCSS.
After story boarding, we got critiqued on our presentation, our ideas, and to see if our audience could tell what we were trying to illustrate. This helped a lot to challenge us to think like an animator and get the audience to feel and understand what we try to convey in the animation. We were given a week and a couple of days to finish our animation.
I struggled to come up with an idea for an animation since the project itself was so open-ended. but I had gotten some inspiration from a fellow peer who was an intended painting major. She told me about her cats and I instantly got ideas for using her cats as inspiration for my animation. I wanted to combine my love of cats with my friend's cats and also my friends. Before I felt inspired, I knew I wanted to animate animals, since I was more comfortable in drawing animals. I jotted down my ideas and designed characters for each idea. Later on, I designed the cats that were inspired by my friend's cats and it went from there. I named them after some really good friends I made at PCSS.
Process Pictures
Final Outcome
I was pleased with the final outcome of my project. I felt that I effectively communicated my ideas to my audience and got a better reaction than what I was hoping for. I intended for my animation to be funny and not professional at all, and the whole content of my animation was meant to be light-hearted. I purposefully chose to do so so that I did not have to overwork myself with fine detail and perfect lines and backgrounds. I wanted to animate something that could allow for my animations to break some principles of animation and for the content to be unrealistic and exaggerated. I planned it out so that I could enjoy my time on the college campus and also to work when I needed to work so I didn't have to overwork myself. I had fun animating, and I also faced many challenges as I animated.
I struggled with my timing and speed of animations. I had to go in multiple times to put my in-betweens so that my animation looked smoother and a little more natural. I had to learn how to use Adobe After-Effects so that I could speed up and slow down certain parts of my animation. In this program, I also added the music for my animation and added the fading title and credits.
In the end, I feel like I could have put a little more time into my project, since I had a bad habit of putting it off a little longer than my original plan was. Some of the lines were a little sloppy but for my first actual attempt at animating, I felt proud. I'mg glad I got to experience animating, but there was much more work to animating than I had anticipated. I'm not sure if animation is my true calling for college because I'm still curious about Illustration, but I'm still grateful for my experience and hopeful that I do get really into animation.
Visual Composition
The purpose of this class was to understand the Elements of Art by assigning a project to every element. Unfortunately I was unable to record most of my projects since I had lost them on the way back to Milwaukee. I learned the hard way that I should always photograph my artwork when it is finished so that I have a record of it.
Our art instructor for this class encouraged us to think outside the box for the projects and add new spins to certain ideas. This class was dedicated to Graphic Design students and Animation students to help them develop their creative skills when designing things for their intended majors. It helped me specifically with growing more familiar with the Elements of Art and allowed for me to use different mediums for my artwork. It also taught me how to follow instruction, since I had a hard time following instructions for a while.
The projects shown here were for Form and a mixture of everything. I had to design a 3D figure that formed a letter or symbol using only paper and glue. The other ones were postcards that had to have a consistent theme, but there had to be 5 in total. Each individual card had to have a different Element of Art: Texture on Texture, Color, Form, Line, and Overlapping Thoughts. I was heavily inspired by my hometown, Milwaukee and the baseball team, the Milwaukee Brewers.
Our art instructor for this class encouraged us to think outside the box for the projects and add new spins to certain ideas. This class was dedicated to Graphic Design students and Animation students to help them develop their creative skills when designing things for their intended majors. It helped me specifically with growing more familiar with the Elements of Art and allowed for me to use different mediums for my artwork. It also taught me how to follow instruction, since I had a hard time following instructions for a while.
The projects shown here were for Form and a mixture of everything. I had to design a 3D figure that formed a letter or symbol using only paper and glue. The other ones were postcards that had to have a consistent theme, but there had to be 5 in total. Each individual card had to have a different Element of Art: Texture on Texture, Color, Form, Line, and Overlapping Thoughts. I was heavily inspired by my hometown, Milwaukee and the baseball team, the Milwaukee Brewers.
Contemporary Art History
This class mimicked lecture classes where every student gathered to learn about art history. We learned about the relevance of contemporary artists and how the term contemporary changed over time. We went over manifestos about art and challenged ways that art could be perceived. We wrote our own manifestos to better understand what art means to us.
Ideation and Process
This class was to help us think more about what kind of art we wanted to create. We were forced to be aware of our surroundings and the world we live in to see how our art could contribute to society. We looked at contemporary artists from different cultures to understand how they came up with their artworks and how their intentions affected their communities.
We were assigned to go off campus and take pictures of things that corresponded with a theme of words and justify why we chose what we chose for different words. This was to capture the idea that different people interpret different things and certain choices in art could be interpreted in many ways.
We were assigned to go off campus and take pictures of things that corresponded with a theme of words and justify why we chose what we chose for different words. This was to capture the idea that different people interpret different things and certain choices in art could be interpreted in many ways.
Non-Dominant Hand Drawing Workshop
This was a one day, one session workshop that was meant to be fun. I chose this workshop out of multiple ones because I wanted to try a new way to challenge myself and still have fun. I practiced drawing with me left-hand and we used ink with a brush to paint still-lives of a peer in the class.
I felt satisfied with both of my hand drawings of my peer. I felt comfortable drawing with my non-dominant hand even though I had to force myself to concentrate on the movement of my arm and controls over my lines and strokes. Pressure mattered too, since it was harder to control my hand movements. Overall, I had fun using my left-hand and it was something different that changed my views on drawing.
I felt satisfied with both of my hand drawings of my peer. I felt comfortable drawing with my non-dominant hand even though I had to force myself to concentrate on the movement of my arm and controls over my lines and strokes. Pressure mattered too, since it was harder to control my hand movements. Overall, I had fun using my left-hand and it was something different that changed my views on drawing.