Animators by day Animation teachers by night.

Monday, May 22, 2006

Spring 06 Work - Level 3


Hello, Scott here to share what my class did last semester as well. I teach the Animation 3 (Pixar 3) class at the Academy of Art University. Usually I co-teach with Angus MacLane but he's taken time off from teaching. This time around I had the very talented and experienced Adam Burke along to help me out.

Because each semester is only 15 weeks long it has been very hard to get a filmmaking class going. Students simply need more time (like a full year) to truly develop a film/thesis project. Because of this time limitation, I decided to try something different and put together a "scene workshop". The idea was to give students a chance to work on a scene from a movie; to simulate the actual work environment of a feature animaiton studio. The hope was to force students to collaborate on the scene in finding the proper acting across the arc of the scene. I intentionally picked a scene that had clear characters, some fun dialogue, and a buildup to a climax and resolution so that it would be fun to watch out of context of the movie. The students were not told what movie the dialogue was from and were discouraged from seeking it out. Each student was given 2-3 shots and was responsible for all characters in the shot. Adam Burke and I acted as the "directors"; inspired by the students' best ideas, we steered them in a coherent directrion.

This scene represents 10 weeks of work. It was not nessesarily important to us that all the animation get finished/polished, but that the ideas and acting ideas make sense and be fun as the scene played through. It is my opinion that all too often, animation students worry too much about the details, movement, and polish in their animation without really thinking about the content. With this assignment I wanted students to think like actors and filmmakers. I was very pleased with the outcome and will continue to experiment with this idea for future classes.

For this first experimental class a scene from the movie "The Imposters" with Stanley Tucci and Oliver Platt was chosen:

Download File Here

22 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow, really impressive. Who animated the baker? I really like the baker's reactions.

5:41 PM

 
Blogger Dr. Sclark said...

The baker was animated by many of the students. I would guess that probably at least half the class worked on shots with him.

Some of the fun in animation is animating the characters who aren't speaking.

6:08 PM

 
Blogger Rini Sugianto said...

awesome..awesome..awesome..

6:14 PM

 
Blogger Tony Papesh said...

The scene that I love the most is when the blonde haired character BLEW UP! Who ever animated that scene did a PERFECT job hitting all of the accents, using BIG arcs of motion and great silhouettes.

But, of course, everyone else did a great job too - I mean if EVERY scene was over the top, then there would be no contrast between scenes. Great work - I wish I could take a class like that.

8:58 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Delicious creampuffs to see!
So readable....
"...mmmmmmmm!!....cough cough...I hate them!" That last expression on his face with the mouth full, forced to feel disgust after corrected by the other guy,but still true to what he tasted, delicious!!

10:56 PM

 
Blogger blabla said...

OMG this is exellent! I had to laugh so hard! Awesome! I'm speechless...

1:25 AM

 
Blogger Ricardo Silva said...

This is indeed some impressive work!
Congrats to the class.
I can only wish I had access to this kind of education.

cheers

||yen3d||

3:40 AM

 
Blogger CGMarshall said...

Aaaaaamazing!
See the bit when he SAYS "OH I KNOW HIM I KNOW THEM ALL... PUPPETEERS" That animation is FANTASTIC, who ever did that animation truly had fun with it, and is a great actor.
good job

chris

*Downloads Cream-puff_Con_int.mov and puts it in animation influences folder.*

5:11 AM

 
Blogger Vitor Vilela said...

YeahH!
Great! Great work!
Congratulations for all students and directors :)

Excelent acting choices and a great audio aswell!

C-Ya
Vitor Vilela

3:29 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Amazing stuff. Working as a team on a scene like that would be an incredible experience.

6:24 PM

 
Blogger Jean-Denis Haas said...

Thanks for posting it! Congrats to everybody, really sweet animation!

Very inspiring!

Cheers
JD

9:48 PM

 
Blogger erica said...

What a great idea for a class! Simulating a real work environment will get them ready for an industry job. Wish I'd had those kinds of opportunities in college!

It was quite entertaining, it flowed well, it was interesting trying to guess which shots might have been done by the same animator. :)

I loved the "Ah! An insult!" shot, the timing was great and had broad movement without looking overly stage-y.

9:55 PM

 
Blogger Jeremy said...

Wow, there's some great animation. Love the 'sweaty bumpkin' business and the reactions on the baker in that shot. Keep up the nice work!

11:20 AM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow !! very impressive work ! and inspiring ! :D
Congrats to all the students.... and the teachers !

2:55 PM

 
Blogger Sean MacNeil said...

Ooo, nicely done!! i like the idea of having all the animators working together on the same scene and being assigned different shots.

Terrific job animation students!

: )

11:07 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Excellent work, great idea indeed to have everyone work as a team onshots. A real treat to watch. You guys have done a wonderful job on this. Excellent work!!!

5:20 AM

 
Blogger AnimatedTarun said...

Great!! Just right amount of contained exaggeration, Something I am always trying to get! Inspired!

11:18 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I thought it would have been nice if you showed a final shot of the guy with hat, after the baker says "no, you dont like them" just his expression, for one maybe two seconds, before ending the scene.

overall, very nice work.

11:25 AM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is some pretty imrpessive stuff. You Academy students rock! So what kind of rigs are you guys using, I like their simplicity and facial controls of the rigs.

-Marcelino

5:01 AM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

May I know who animated the shot in which the character says "OH I KNOW HIM I KNOW THEM ALL... PUPPETEERS" . Thatz some superb acting. Also did the animators take any video reference for their shots ?
Keep up the great work, AAU students...

7:01 AM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

http://www.guilhermejacinto.com/

Guilherme Jacinto animated that scene. Check out his site.

11:36 AM

 
Blogger R.Dress said...

It's amazing how much thought and feeling you can get just by having a character glance off to one side and back. It's a great way to say so much with just a little.
Tactfully done here. It's worth repeating. Not to mention it keeps the characters alive.

Lots of texture in the acting. So much fun to watch. Subtle to broad, fast and slow. Very entertaining. I really felt the script took the lead here. A very rich nugget of cinema I might add.

Thanks for sharing.

4:39 PM

 

Post a Comment

<< Home