2012-13 Spring

Introduction to Experimental Animation

(HART 1023)



1 Credit | Can be used to fulfill Common Core Requirement (Core Elective: Arts Area)
Teaching Medium: English

Course Description

This introductory course aims at guiding students to explore the art of animation through producing drawing, cut-ups, roto-scoping, photographic and object animation with digital and traditional tools. By introducing non-mainstream techniques and mediums for creating time-based imagery, students will learn both practical skills and theories of animation as a visual art form for artistic expression and communication.

Through brief lecturing, students will acquaint themselves with the history and development of experimental animation and its influences to moving image arts in general. The hands-on activities will allow students to explore freely the principles of animation starting from manual techniques such as simple flip-books and zoetropes. Students will also learn to create animation from common computer software, such as Photoshop and Aftereffect.


  1. Describe and appreciate the history and development of experimental animation
  2. Identify and explain the stylistic and narrative elements of experimental animation
  3. Develop abstract ideas into experimental animation works

PART 1: Pre-cinema visual media

Week 1: What is experimental and mainstream animation?

Week 2-3: Camera-less techniques for animation I – camera-less, mechanical animation

Week 4: Camera-less techniques for animation II – direct animation

 

PART 2: Generating visual images and working with frames created by cinema

Week 5-6: Photomontage

Week 7-10: Stop-motion Animation

 

PART 3: Making a complete work of animation

Week 11: Finishing in Animation

Week 12: Tutorial on individual final projects

Week 13-14: Final Project Critique

  1. Maureen Furniss. The animation bible. Abrams, New York.
  2. Robert Russett, Cecile Starr. Experimental animation.

  1. Producing Animation, Winder and Dowlatabadi, Focal Press 2001
  2. Richard Williams. The animator’s survival kit. Faber & Faber, New York

DVDs

  1. Caroline Leaf: Out on a limb: handcrafted [DVD]. Montreal: National Film Board of Canada, c2010
  2. Norman McLaren, the master’s edition [DVD]. Montreal: National Film Board of Canada, c2006
  3. Oskar Fischinger, ten films [DVD]. S.l.: Kinetica Video Library, 2000
  4. The Animation of Alexeieff [DVD]. Paris: Cinédoc ; Chicago, Ill. : Distributed by Facets Video, c2009
  5. The Collected Shorts of Jan Svankmajer [DVD]. Brooklyn, N.Y. : KimStim, 2003
  6. Animation World of Paul Driessen [DVD]. Films du Paradoxe
  7. The Astonishing Work of Tezuka Osamu [DVD]. Brooklyn, NY : Kino International, c2009
  8. The exquisite short films of Kihachiro Kawamoto [DVD]. Brooklyn, NY : KimStim, Inc. : distributed exclusively by Kino, [2008]
  9. Anthology of Surreal Cinema. Vol. 1 [DVD]. Risque Cinema, 2005
  10. The Anthology of Polish Experimental Animation [DVD]. Warsaw : Polskie Wydawnictwo Audiowizualne, [2008]
  11. The Naoyuki Tsuji Animation Collection [DVD]. Chicago, IL : Facets Video, c2006

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Enrolment Details

Course Registration : 04-04 Oct 2024
Add/Drop : 04-04 Oct 2024

Instructor

Jamsen LAW

Assessment

Mid-term project 30%
Final project 40%
Final project 10%
Course participation 20%