Project Due: May 21

Over the course of this class, we have explored the art of animation through studying the principles of animation. From squash and stretch and timing, to character poses and keyframes; we learned a lot. Well, now its time to roll everything you have learned about animation in one final, culminating project.

In the Final Project for this class, you will design, storyboard and animate a short story. Through this story, you strive to communicate an idea or an emotion. Now, don't freak out. I'm not asking you to make a 4 hour space opera or a epic, cross generational love story, but we are going to make a short, 30-second story. Remember, every story has a beginning, a middle and an end. In addition, your short story needs to include, at least, 3 different shots. To successfully complete this assignment, you are going to need to generate a series of small storyboards. You won't be able to craft both the movement of your animation and motivate the story elements without creating storyboards. Use the lecture information on storyboards to aide you in this process.

This wouldn't be much on an animation class if we didn't focus a lot on creating dynamic, energetic movements in the final project. The movements of your characters need to embody the principles of animations that we have studied in the course. Your characters should include squash and stretch, anticipation, exaggeration, timing and spacing; to name a few. Good animation establishes weight, so look to include this illusion in everything that you do.

You can use whatever animation pipeline you want for this project. We have worked, extensively, in Photoshop over the past couple of months, but you can also employ Adobe After Effects in your final project as well. It will be easier to edit your shots together in After Effects than it will in Photoshop.

Production Schedule

Generating the amount of artwork that we are going to need, for an animation of this magnitude, is going to take a significant amount of the time. In order to successfully complete this project by the deadline (May 21th), you are going to need to work diligently to a predefined production schedule. To keep you on track and on target with the production schedule, I have outlined a series of production goals and milestones that you are going to have to meet. IMPORTANT: You are expected to turn in a storyboard and a rough pass of your animation to the dropbox on D2L. Please reference the following production schedule for this project:

Submittal Procedures

Please ensure you turn in the following required elements once you have completed the final pass of your animation:

Once you have completed your final project you can turn in your project to Professor Pat Crandley during his regularly scheduled office hours. In addition, you can also submit your project to the "Final Project" dropbox on D2L. Good Luck!