Syllabus - Animation (AG502)

Animation (AG502)

Unit I

Introduction to Animation

Its definition, early examples of Animation, History of Animation: Stop Motion Photo Animation, Zoetrope, Thaumatrope, Cel and Paper Animation, early Disney’s Cel Animation Processes.

Types of Animation

Cel Animation, Stop Motion Animation, Computer Animation, 2-D Animation, 3-D Animation, Skills for an Animation Artist, Computer animation production tasks, Digital editing, Digital video, Digital audio

Unit II

Spaces and Transformations

Orientation representation, Types of motion capture, Applications of motion capture, Motion data types and formats

Animating Facial features

The human face, Facial models, animating the face, Lip-sync animation, animating solid spaces, Animating fluids and gases, Animation and film perception, The animator’s workflow, The three stage workflow, Preproduction, Production, Post production, Keyframe animation

Unit III

Timing for Animation

General Principles of timing, The storyboard, The basic unit of time in animation, Timing for traditional animation, Animation and properties of matter, Movement and caricature, cause and effect, Newton’s Laws of motion, Objects thrown through the air, Rotating objects, spacing of drawings, Timing a slow and fast action, Follow through, overlapping action, Timing an oscillating movement, The effects of friction, air resistance and wind, Timing cycles, Effects in animation, Timing a walk, Types of walk, spacing of drawings in perspective animation, Timing animal’s movements, Bird flight, Dry brush and Motion blurr, Strobing, Fast run cycles, Characterization, the use of timing to suggest mood, synchronizing animation to speech, Lip-sync, Timing and music, Editing animation

Unit IV

3D Animation overview

Defining 3D animation, Exploring the 3D animation industry, Production pipeline, 3D animation preproduction, production and post production, understanding digital imaging and video, Exploring animation story and previsualization

Unit V

Understanding modeling and texturing

Rigging and animation, understanding visual effects, lighting and rendering, Hardware and software tools

Course Objective

The main objective of this subject is to impart strong knowledge about the fundamental principles of animation which will enable the students to create animation projects

Course Outcome

["Acquire skills and knowledge in animation", "Understand how animation works", "To apply Audio and Video Production Techniques to an Animation Project", "Understand the concepts of 3D animation", "Use different animation software to develop animation projects"]

Practicals

  • Understanding the 2d software interface Drawing tools, pen tools and other necessary tools to create any drawing in the frames

  • Creating frame by frame animation for a short animation

  • Ball Animation

  • Character drawing and creating symbols- Drawing simple character with pen tool or shape tool Preparing the character for animation: dividing each body parts into symbol Creating symbols, types of symbols

  • Human walk cycle- Drawing the cycle sheet for a human walk cycle. Creating the key frames for the walk cycle.

  • Animal walk cycle- Drawing cycle sheet for an animal walk cycle Drawing an animal and dividing the body parts into symbols Creating the key frames for the walk cycle Creating four different types of walk cycle (jump, run, tip toe, crawl)

  • Lip Synchronization- Knowing the alphabets and its movements Creating the mouth shapes for each letters and movements of the lips. Creating expression and emotion in character. Synchronizing character mouth shape according to the dialogue.

  • Creating a short animation film

Reference Books

  • The complete animation course by Chris Patmore Pub.-Baron’s Educational Series.(New York)

  • The Animator’s Survival Kit by Richard Williams , Arrar Straus & Giroux Pub.(U.S.A)

  • The Encyclopedia of Animation Techniques, Richard Taylor, 1996 (India)

  • Timing for Animation by Harold Whitaker and John Halas, Elsevier

  • Computer Animation Complete by Rick Parent, David S. et al. , Elsevier

  • 3D Animation Essentials by Andy Beane, Wiley publishers