ANIMATION FILMMAKING

COURSE ANNOTATION

Do you want to know how animated films are made? Our course will introduce you to three animation techniques presented by our experienced lecturers.

In the beginning of each session, we will show a series of animated films with a commentary to inspire the children and to illustrate the principles of a particular animation technique. Subsequently, the pupils will be able to put theory into practice and try to apply the method in animation work. The workshop will conclude with a screening of the participant’s works which they will be able to show at home.

Structure

Series of three lectures (180 minutes each) will introduce pupils to three different animation techniques: pixilation, object animation and claymation.
In the beginning of each session, children will watch a series of animated films with a commentary to illustrate the principles of a particular animation technique. The next part of the workshop is dedicated to the actual animation work under the guidance of our lecturers – in groups, children themselves will produce short animation sequences, which they will subsequently watch in the workshop and show at home. We recommend taking a flash disk or preparing an e-mail address to which the works can be sent.

LESSON 1 –  PIXILATION

If a film has a main protagonist, it does not necessarily imply that we are talking about a fiction film – but our actors perform only for one click of the camera shutter. And yet, they will not be shot by a camera, their motion will be divided into segments that will be recorded separately. And that’s the trick – pixilation is about animating people. You will not only try the work of an animator, but also the difficult role of an actor in animated film.

LESSON 2 –  OBJECT ANIMATION

Object animation is an animation technique that does not involve actors or puppets, but common, everyday things – objects. For example a simple jar, or things that you keep in your pencil case. We recommend that you bring your favourite thing or an object that you find interesting to the workshop. And we will show you how to bring it to life.

LESSON 3 –  CLAYMATION

The main protagonist of this type of animation is clay – modelling clay. Or any type of malleable material that actually gave this animation technique its name and specific advantages. This lesson will be dedicated to clay animation. We will learn the basics – clay is deformable, we can stretch it, flatten it and play with it as much as we can to make it move.