Animation Fundamentals, flipped!

There’s a time and a place to flip the classroom, and I think teaching the animation fundamentals is one of those times.

First off, Alan Becker has created a series of videos that explain the classic 12 principles of animation very well in a non-Disney way. I have a whole 90 minute lecture on these that I used to do, but I think students get it just as well if they watch these videos as their reading assignment for the week. I also assign them Chapter 3 (Timing and Spacing) from Richard Williams The Animator’s Survival Kit. Then I hold them accountable for identifying those principles in a written assignment, a classroom exercise, and a hands-on animation assignment. Here’s how it works:

This is the first of 12 videos. The full playlist is here. (Thanks Alan, you are amazing!!! My students love you!)

At the beginning of class, we make a list of the 12 principles on the board; I like having lists that students can look at when they run out of ideas. Then I hand out the flashcards:

Each card has one fundamental on it. Then we start watching films. Each student is responsible for finding an example of their fundamental. They point it out and then can hand in their card. We go until everyone had handed in their card, then I reshuffle and deal again.

I start with the classic Animator vs Animation by (again) Alan Becker.

The following fundamentals are the ones I find to be the most useful for recognizing in-situ and class discussion, but with the list on the board, students will often jump in with other ones they recognize as well.

• timing and spacing
• squash n stretch
• arcs
• staging
• easing (slow in/out)
• anticipation
• follow through
• overlapping action
• secondary action

Inevitably, this brings up opportunities to clarify and discuss some common hang-ups and misunderstanding with the 12 Principles, such as the difference between follow through, overlapping action, and secondary action, or the three parts of staging. We keep watching films and reshuffling the deck until we run out of time. Here are a few other favorite bits of animation I use for this project.