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[mipeltaja]

So that's the first week of animation now. This week was pure theory.

We watched some documentaries on the history of moving pictures. Turns out animation was actually around before live action moving pictures. I was aware of the existence of magic lanterns, but I'd never thought of them as a form of animation, which they are.

We reviewed filmmaking basics, such as the 180 degree rule (there's an invisible line between two interacting characters. You may only shoot the scene from one side of that line. The camera may only occupy the other side if it is moved there during a tracking shot), shot composition, lighting, and transitions.

Then we watched some animated shorts. Steamboat Willie and some Wallace and Gromit, plus a few short cartoons geared towards really small kids.

As we left the class today, we were tasked with writing storyboards for our own animations. We will all be making two: One in stop motion and the other in 2D drawing.

Comments

[darlingfox.livejournal.com]

That sounds quite a lot like some of my Film Studies lectures. :D I liked them very much, and sometimes I actually notice things like the 180 degree rule in action.

That homework sounds interesting. Do you have ideas already?

[mipeltaja.livejournal.com]

Yeah, sometimes it's pretty cool to notice that sort of stuff. Other times it's ruining the movie experience when you get hung up on things you never would've noticed if you had't been educated. XD

I'm adapting a single-page comic idea I had sometime last year but never drew for one animation, and something I just thought up on the spot for the other. I basically have the entire finished thing visualized in my head for both of them already.

[darlingfox.livejournal.com]

Tell me about it... When you know how and why something is made, it loses some of its magic. Goes for both movies and books.

Well, you're almost done then! XD Once everything is ready in your mind, it's just a matter of getting it out.