Animation (Spring 2021)

Instructor

Lisa Crafts

Units

3-0-6, or to be arranged

Credit

u/g

Schedule

W 7-10

Location

Virtual

In contemporary moving image art, boundaries are often blurred between animation and live action, fiction and non-fiction, fine art and cinema. This course is a lively and rigorous studio class that explores strategies for creating and combining source materials to produce animation art that is experimental in both content and form.

Each class begins with a screening and discussion of short films that were created as fine art, music videos, installations or as an element in a feature film. They represent a diversity of voices and address issues ranging from cultural commentary to personal narratives. We work together on in-class tutorials to gain familiarity with a range of animation techniques. There are three short assignments and a final project due at the end of the semester. The software is primarily Adobe Creative Cloud based, with a focus on After Effects. We also experiment with rotoscoping and stop motion animation using real materials.

This is a course is for those who wish to expand their art practice to include animation, for film/video artists who want to incorporate experimental elements into their visual narratives, and for those who wish to gain a deeper understanding of the process of 2D animation and visual effects.