Another useful way to introduce students to film techniques is to have them study and then create their own animation videos. One advantage of making animation films is that the filmmaker has control over the material, as opposed to having to portray actual events or people. For example, a student can create an animation by simply moving an object or reshaping a piece of clay and shooting separate stop motion shots to capture the movement of the object.

A PBS Nova program about animation

The animator, Glen McQueen, was interviewed about how characters in the film Toy Story are shown to move:

That’s the fun part. Woody [from Toy Story] has over 200 articulated facial muscles in his face alone. He’s got over 700 different controls in his body that let you rotate his arm at the elbow or the wrist, bend and rotate his hat and so forth. We use those animation controls to set poses at different frames. It’s called key-frame animation. Twenty-four frames make up one second of film. So if you wanted to have Woody do a double take and look over at somebody, you could set a pose like this at say Frame 10 and set a pose like this at Frame 50. And what the computer would do with a lot of coaxing from an animator is give you all of the in-betweens. And where the animator really comes in is not only creating those poses, but also manipulating the timing.

NOVA: What part of a film do you contribute?

GM: Each animator is given a series of shots in the film. Every time the camera changes, it’s a different shot. Hopefully, they’re consecutive shots so you can keep the continuity going from one shot to the next. All the dialogue is pre-recorded before the animators ever get the shots. So we listen to the dialogue again and again. We act it out. We do thumbnail sketches. We videotape ourselves acting it out. Essentially the animator is sort of a mute actor. We have to use someone else's line, but what the body does, how the character moves during that line, how many gestures, what the facial expression is, is entirely up to the animator.

Aside from our own explorations, we also videotape the actors as they read the lines, so that when Kevin Spacey is delivering his line as Harper, the main bad guy in A Bug’s Life, we can see what choices he made. What are his eyebrows doing? What’s he doing with his hands? Is he moving his head a lot? Another cool thing is that the director usually asks the actor to read the lines five, six, seven times. And each time it’s slightly different. So you can say, I really like the eyebrows in the first take, but he’s doing something great with his hands in the third take.

Stop Motion Animation

How to make a movie with digital stills

Clay Animation Discussion Group

How to Create Clay Animation in 5 Easy Steps

animateclay.com

Flip animation. One way to introduce students to the idea of animation is to have them create their own flip animation with a small pad of paper in which they vary an object slightly on each page — as illustrated on the random motion site.

Metamorphosis. This could then lead to a discussion of the basic concept of metamorphosis in animation — the idea that objects or things can be readily transformed into human form and vise versa. Trees turn into people and people into trees. This coincides with the concept of personification in literature — that animate and inanimate things are continually being compared through figurative language in literature, a process that is given visual form in animation.

Computer animation. A major development in film techniques has been the increased use of computer-generated special effects, as employed in films such as The Lord of the Rings films and The Matrix and The Matrix Reloaded films as well as films such as Titanic.

PBS Nova: Special Effects: Titanic and Beyond

These films have created new high levels of expectations for special effects that blur the distinctions between total animation and human drama films, in which humans can now be transformed into animation-like figures or perform superhuman feats such as seamlessly moving about in space. However, it is also the case that computer-generated images (CGI) may simply be used for its own sake, and not be effectively integrated into a film’s story or character development.

Students can employ computer software programs such as Macromedia’s Flash™ to create computer animation.

Transience [excellent Flash animation site]

Hotwired [online animation and tutorial site]

Getting started in Animation

3D animation workshop tutorials

HuntFor.com [3D animation tutorials]

3D Studio Max tutorials

Aardman online

Animation World Network

Animation Library [free on-line GIF images]

Hanna Barbera cartoons

Top animation films
lots of links to classic animation films

To teach her students animation techniques, Ann Ayers, of Coral Springs High School, in Broward County, Florida, had students, working in groups, create characters who would serve as the basis for clay or cutout animations based on a storyboard idea. Some group members then selected objects, worked on the clay figures, or created cutouts to portray their characters. Others worked on the background settings using boxes, poster board, and other art materials. They then used digital cameras to take “frame-by-frame” shots of their characters as they were being moved. They then imported images into iPhoto™ for sorting, enhancing, cropping, and/or rotating images. Based on their storyboards, they then integrated the images to iMovie and added sound, voice-overs, and music. Their final products were then exported to QuickTime™ to burn CDs.

Studying Disney films and popular animation television programs. Students could also study examples of Disney animation films and television animation programs. As noted in the Media Representation Module 5, the Disney animation films employed sophisticated animation techniques to portray the world according to a defined ideological orientation that frequently sanitized or glossed over complex aspects of gender, class, and race.

Disney feature animation films:
The Big Cartoon Database
Yahoo Directory: Disney Animated Movies
Cartoon Animation Art [original cels employed in Disney films]
Disney-film links/clip art

One of the most popular of any television programs is The Simpsons, which was launched in 1990 and has been appealing to audiences since then.

Another important television genre is the cartoon program, geared primarily, but not necessarily, for children. Students could critically examine the ways in which cartoon shows represent or portray characters based on gender, race, or class, as well as the portrayal of violence.

Cartoon Network

Fox network cartoon shows

Gender Stereotypes in Children’s Television Cartoons [Kelly Eick (1998)]

“Violence Finds a Niche in Children’s Cartoons” [Jim Rutenberg, New York Times, January 28, 2001]

For further reading:

Canemaker, J. (1996). Before the animation begins: The art and lives of Disney inspirational sketch artists. New York: Hyperion Press.

Hahn, D. (2000). Animation magic: A behind-the-scenes look at how an animated film is made. Orlando: Disney Press.

Jenkins, P. (1991). Animation: How to draw your own flipbooks, and other fun ways to make cartoons move. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing

Koenig, D., Herman, R. M., & Sherman, R. B. (2001). Mouse under glass: Secrets of Disney animation and theme parks. New York: Bonaventure Press.

Laybourne, K. (1979). The animation book. New York: Crown Publishers.

Maltin, L. (1990). Of mice and magic: A history of American animated cartoons. New York: Plume.

Rickett, R. (2000). Special effects: The history and techniques. New York: Watson-Guptill Press.

Solomon, C. (1994). The history of animation: Enchanted drawings. New York: Outlet Press.

Stabile, C.A., & Harrison, M. (Eds.). (2003). Prime time animation: Television animation and American culture. New York: Routledge.

Thomas, F., & Johnston, O. (1995). The illusion of life: Disney animation. New York: Hyperion Press.

Module 3: Word document

Visual Literacy: Starting with the Image

Studying Images through Still Photography

Comics and Film Technique

Film Techniques

Lighting

Editing

Sound

Using Film Techniques to Convey Cinematic Meanings

Defining Purposes for Editing Decisions: Creating Storyboards

Analysis/Evaluation of Film Technique

Film History

Television History

Accessing On-line Films / Film Reviews / Ratings / Information

Animation and Special Effects

Film Study Methods

Writing about Films

Film Study Resources

Film Journals/Magazines

References

Teaching Activities