Animation

Animation is an exceptionally permissive medium. Within it, one can realize scenarios beyond material and physical limitations—utopias, dystopias, thought experiments, or dollhouses for amphibians.

This course will cover the entire animation production process, from idea development, concept design, and character design to writing, storyboarding, foley, voice, music, editing, and final publication. Students will receive a general survey of production methods, including hand-drawn, cut-out, cel, and stop-motion animation, as well as an introduction to software such as Photoshop, After Effects, and Blender. Although the class can be technically involved, software mastery is not the end goal. These are tools, and the point is to apply them as a means of creative expression. Designed for both the digitally inclined and those who hate computers, the course lets students try each method and then choose the one most suited to their interests and goals.

The course will also survey animation history, from early experimental animation, Disney, and the Soviet studios to the contemporary art practices of Pierre Huyghe, Ian Cheng, Wong Ping, and others. The aim, however, is to go beyond the Western art canon. We will also study examples from popular culture (music videos) and Japanese anime (Hideaki Anno, Satoshi Kon, Masaaki Yuasa, etc.). Students will have the essential responsibility of continuing to expand our collective references by presenting work that genuinely inspires and interests them.

Animation accommodates all your prior skills and interests. Whether it is drawing, painting, music, poetry, fiction, or the yo-yo, there is a way for it to exist in animation. Students will keep a sketchbook for the duration of the semester; it will serve as a landing pad for ideas and an anchor point for managing the project. Much of class time will be dedicated to working, punctuated by presentations, technical workshops, and critiques. By December, each student will have had the experience of conceiving, developing, producing, and publishing a multistep creative project.