2019-20 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 both 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 FlipAnim.com, Toonator.com, Brush.ninja.


  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

Lesson 1: What is experimental and mainstream animation?

Lesson 2-3: Camera-less techniques for animation

 

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

Lesson 4-6: Character Animation 

Lesson 7: Presentation of Analysis and Proposal

Lesson 8: Stop-motion Animation

Lesson 9: Presentation of 1st cut

 

Part 3: Making a complete work of animation

Lesson 10: Tutorial on individual final projects

Lesson 11: Final Project Presentation

  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. Animation World of Paul Driessen [DVD]. Films du Paradoxe
  6. The Astonishing Work of Tezuka Osamu [DVD]. Brooklyn, NY : Kino International, c2009.
  7. The exquisite short films of Kihachiro Kawamoto [DVD]. Brooklyn, NY : KimStim, Inc. : distributed exclusively by Kino, [2008]
  8. Anthology of Surreal Cinema. Vol. 1 [DVD]. Risque Cinema, 2005
  9. The Anthology of Polish Experimental Animation [DVD]. Warsaw : Polskie Wydawnictwo Audiowizualne, [2008]
  10. The Naoyuki Tsuji Animation Collection [DVD]. Chicago, IL : Facets Video, c2006.

Enrolment Details

Course Registration : 22-23 Jan 2020
Add/Drop : 19 Feb 2020-10 Mar 2020

Instructor

Ken YIU

Assessment

Mid-term project 30%
Final project (5% for Proposal & 10% for the first draft) 40%
Class participation 20%
Attendance 10%

Class Schedule

Monday | 14:30-16:20
Extended class time | Session 7-10
14:30-16:50

No Class | 13 Apr
Library
E-learning Classroom A

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