Assignment: Animation Fundamentals Discussion

Contributed by Corrie Francis Parks at UMBC

Learning Outcomes

• Incorporate animation vocabulary into writing and class discussion
• Identify animation principles in various types of animation

Preparation: A lecture or readings on 12 Principles of Animation or fundamental principles.

I find a flipped classroom approach works well for my students. Though we touch on the Disney “12 Principles”, we focus mostly on the following for class activities and assignments:

• Arcs/line of action
• Staging (placement, pose, and timing)
• Squash n stretch
• Anticipation
• Follow through
• Overlapping action
• Secondary action

Assignment

1. Find an example from an animated commercial, music video, or short film that exemplifies at least 3 of the above fundamentals. It may be any type of animation as long as you can clearly justify your choice by pointing out the fundamentals you see.

2. Post the clip to the discussion forum with specific commentary on the fundamentals you see. Use a sequence of screenshots to back up your argument.*

3. Comment on at least three of the other examples posted by your peers to point out something new, further support someone’s point, or disagree and show a counterexample.

* To capture a frame sequence from an online video you can scrub through frame by frame with the following keystrokes:
Vimeo: hold down the shift key and using the arrow buttons.
Youtube:use the “,” and “.” keys to go backward and forward frame by frame

How to take a screenshot on a Mac

How to take a screenshot in Windows/PC