Animation Workshop | Mah Productions

SUMMARY

The Animation Workshop is a continuation of exploring the craft and history of Traditional Animation. Traditional Animation is over a century old, starting from Windsor McKay’s “Gertie the Dinosaur” to Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Wind Rises.” With the advent of computers taking most of the techniques of traditional animation, such as scanning, painting and animating. The most key features of animation is still done the traditional way of mind and pencil, such as story development, storyboards, and character designs.

The name Animation Workshop was a class I took as a 2nd year student in Traditional Animation from the School of Visual Arts in NYC. It is my hope that this workshop will spark the creativity in the next generation of animation students. I hope these students will carry on the legacy that captivated them as children to pursue this artistic medium and influence another generation of animation fan.

CLASS STRUCTURE

INTRODUCTION
The introduction will take about 30 minutes. The workshop will vary depending on the amount of time I will be given. Ideally, I would like the workshop to be about an hour and half. The first part of the workshop will be a simple PowerPoint demonstration showing the structure of the class. After the demonstration, I will answer any questions the participants might have. I will show exemplars (art samples) during the demonstration, such as art books, old animation cells, and my previous work. I will then demonstrate how to use the traditional animation equipment. Some exemplars might be suited for children over the age of 13 years old.

WORKSHOP
The workshop will be the bulk of the session and will last for about an hour. When the participants are broken down into groups, I will begin the workshop. The participants will be given worksheets to see what we will be doing in the class. There will be material available, such as graphite pencils, markers, and copy paper.

There will also be Animation Pencils (Red, Light Blue, and Dark Blue), Animation bond paper, Cells (if available), Animation Registration Bars (Peg Bars) and paint (depending on the schedule). The bond paper, cells, and peg bars can be purchased ahead of time. The price is $10 for adults and $5 for students (middle to high school). This workshop is age appropriate for Middle School students to Adult. All of the animation material will be purchased by animation supply company, such as Cartoon Colour in CA.

During the workshop, I will ask participants to student the examples I have given to them. Some participants can copy the characters I have provided and trace over the character. While other participants can design original characters. Time will be an important factor in case there is another panel in this same room as the workshop.

CLEAN UP
There will be enough time will be given for participants to clean up his or her material. If they painted an animation cell, it is encouraged for the participant to put the cell back in his or her hotel room for the paint to dry.

CLASS EXEMPLARS

2014 ANIMATION WORKSHOP

These are class examples from a summer school workshop for students grades 1-5. The students started with a storyboard, animation paper, and animation cell.