The Assignment

Creative Media
Year 9 Semester Two, 2009


Task: Manipulating Digital Images - Animation

Student Name: Form Class: 9 Teacher: Mr Powell Mr Andrews

Due Date: FOLIO: Week 7 JOURNAL REVIEW: Weeks 3 and 6 JOURNAL DUE: Fri Week 7

SKILLS
• Follow a Design Process
• Participate in OHS processes
• Apply critical thinking techniques
• Develop and apply creative arts industry knowledge
• Use multimedia with an emphasis on Animationish or iStopMotion
TASK
This term you will be exploring ideas in relation to storytelling via animation, creating characters and storylines for a client using Animationish or iStopMotion. Your client wants an idea of what you wish to produce before you proceed. Hence you will need to provide them with your character research, your characters personality profiles, a storyboard and finally the finished animation. You research, personality profiles and storyboard will be presented in your journal, your animation will be digitally submitted via Blackboard. Complete parts A, B and C below.

DESIGN BRIEF
You have been commissioned by the Pixur Group to produce a trailer for a new TV series of children’s animations. This new series is important for Pixur, and is aimed specifically at the 12 – 17 year old demographic.

As they are still in the writing development stage, your brief is quite large and unrestricted. They are looking for ideas of all types. They want characters that will appeal to the target audience. They also want characters with personality.

Your brief is to produce a 60 second animated trailer of your idea for the TV series. If time permits you may choose to also provide a longer version of your idea that may run for up to 3 minutes. The characters themselves do not have to be complicated drawings, simple line art can be very appealing, if the character is strong and the storyline is interesting.

PART A: In your journals complete the research component
• Research and collect examples of animated characters. Make sure you properly cite your collection using the correct bibliography format.
• Annotate your animated characters in your journal with your thoughts on design choices and evaluate what appeals to you and why, and what worked and what did not.
• Write a personality profile for your animated characters. What are they like? How is their personality conveyed?
• Using the inquiry design process, in sketches, jottings, musings, thoughts, ideas, brainstorming, and anything else you can think of, begin to form your animated story.
• Storyboard your trailer, showing key scenes and shot angles. See the notes and websites on Blackboard as a guide to help you get started.



PART B: Show Development of Animation Skills

You will be doing a series of exercises in class using Animationish and iStopMotion.
This will help you develop the skills needed to produce your animated trailer.

You need to demonstrate use of the following features in your journal using class exercises and / or your final animation.

Animationish
(Check these off as you go – you don’t have to use every feature, record those you do):
□ layers (foreground and background)
□ paint and drawing tools (including brush, fill, erase, select and move)
□ grabber tool
□ trace (onion skinning)
□ send behind
□ duplicate frames
□ add exposures
□ add keyframes
□ create animation cycles
□ use transform tool to “tween” between keyframes
□ export to movie format
□ add a soundtrack in Garageband (optional)

You will be provided with an Animationish tool sheet to help you record your skill development

iStopMotion
(Check these off as you go – you don’t have to use every feature, record those you do):
□ compositing layers (foreground and/or background)
□ recording frames
□ duplicate frames
□ edit frames
□ onion skinning
□ export / import images
□ add music soundtrack– optional)
□ rotoscope / lip-sync
□ use transform tool to “tween” between keyframes
□ add a soundtrack in Garageband (optional)
□ export to movie format

You will be provided with an iStopMotion tool sheet to help you record your skill development



PART C: Creation of your Animation

In order to satisfy the design brief, you must;

• Use a combination of images drawn and created by you, copyright free downloaded images, or 2-D or 3-D characters created by you or objects that already exist.

• Include credits

• Sound is optional in this task, but a good original soundtrack would enhance your animated trailer.




Research / Journal Hints:

• Organise your research under headings
• If in doubt about whether or not to include it, include it in your journal
• Use the tool sheets to help you stay organised
• Include rough sketches, collages and notes to brainstorm your ideas
• Make sure you reference all your sources according to the Student Diary
• Keep copies of all your animations
o Save them each lesson with a different number so you can show progress. eg: “Animation1”, then next lesson, “Animation2” etc
o Share these as QuickTime Movies, then load them to your blog so that your creative development can be seen.

• Don’t forget to talk about your choices and reasons for choices ie problem solve
• Don’t be isolated in class, look at what others are doing – this doesn’t mean you copy them, rather you seek inspiration from those around you
• Don’t ever forget – creating is sometimes hard work, but it is always enjoyable!