This is a compilation of student work from a 10-week Animation Mechanics class in our graduate Animation program. Students in this course study and practice the foundations of animation from the core texts "The Animator's Survival Kit" by Richard Williams and "Timing for Animation" by Harold Whitaker and John Halas. Students also study all 16 disks of Richard Williams' Animation Masterclass. In the class we give special emphasis to the importance of timing, spacing, and weight. It's old school!
Dec 9, 2011
Dec 8, 2011
Looking for Animators
We're looking for Animators to join our faculty. Production/studio experience is very important to us, so those without MFA degrees will be considered for a full-time non-tenure-track position. There are currently over 175 majors enrolled in our Animation MFA, MA, BA and BS degrees, and you'd be joining a full crew of 7 full-time and 14 part-time Animation faculty members. Animation resources include a stop motion studio, two green screen stages, a sound recording and mixing studio, and a mocap studio. Past visiting artists include David O’Reilly, J.J. Sedelmaier and legendary animator Yuri Norstein (and more coming this spring!)
For more details and to apply, visit http://facultyopportunities.depaul.edu/applicants/Central?quickFind=50866
For more details and to apply, visit http://facultyopportunities.depaul.edu/applicants/Central?quickFind=50866
Visiting artist Yuri Norstein demonstrates his
multi-plane technique during a workshop.
multi-plane technique during a workshop.
Dec 2, 2011
The Gift
As a final project in the Animation Graduate Seminar, everyone was asked to pick one thing that resonated with them from the material covered and make an animation based on it. I was extremely pleased to see such a great variety of influences and approaches, so I will be posting several projects throughout the month of December. Enjoy!
Lisa
1. Christal Charlery's "The Gift" (This is all your fault, Devin.)
Lisa
1. Christal Charlery's "The Gift" (This is all your fault, Devin.)
Nov 25, 2011
Animation I: Final Projects
Animation I students finished up the quarter by producing a final project of their choosing, developing the work from storyboard through sound design. Below is a slimy sampling of the great projects produced by students!
First, let me introduce you to "Simba the Snail" -- created by Brian Almalvez.
And what follows is "A Strange Encounter" with the work of Aaron Hunt.
It was a real treat for me to work with such great students during my first term as a faculty member in the DePaul animation program.
Nov 13, 2011
Our new MFA program
Nov 4, 2011
The Onion A.V. Club interviews Eyeworks
The founders of the Eyeworks Experimental Animation Festival, Lilli Carré and DePaul Animation professor Alexander Stewart, were interviewed about experimental animation and their festival on the Onion's A.V. Club website.
A.V. Club: Animation is a ridiculously painstaking process. What kind of person does it take to be an animator?
Alexander Stewart: That’s a good assessment. Animation is extremely tedious, time consuming, and exhausting in terms of inspiration. In general, a 3-to-4-minute short film, would take an artist a year or nine months to make. So you need either to be crazy, or else mind-bogglingly patient to be an animator. You’re not depending on actors or a director of photography to make your film; you can sit down and, with the simplest tools, you control the ingredients involved to make exactly what you want to put in. It’s about expressing a singular artistic vision.
Don't forget to purchase tickets from the Eyeworks website and attend Eyeworks this Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 5 and 6, at DePaul's CDM Theater downtown! We all love Eyeworks, and we're very grateful that Lilli and Alexander have held it at DePaul for its first two years.
A.V. Club: Animation is a ridiculously painstaking process. What kind of person does it take to be an animator?
Alexander Stewart: That’s a good assessment. Animation is extremely tedious, time consuming, and exhausting in terms of inspiration. In general, a 3-to-4-minute short film, would take an artist a year or nine months to make. So you need either to be crazy, or else mind-bogglingly patient to be an animator. You’re not depending on actors or a director of photography to make your film; you can sit down and, with the simplest tools, you control the ingredients involved to make exactly what you want to put in. It’s about expressing a singular artistic vision.
Don't forget to purchase tickets from the Eyeworks website and attend Eyeworks this Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 5 and 6, at DePaul's CDM Theater downtown! We all love Eyeworks, and we're very grateful that Lilli and Alexander have held it at DePaul for its first two years.
Oct 25, 2011
Cameraless Animations
The Experimental Animation class has been working with 16mm filmstrips to create cameraless animations, a la Len Lye, Norman McLaren, or Stan Brakhage. Using drawing, scratching, painting, hole punching, spray paint, tape, glue, and other tools, we created some wild abstract animations. Then, the footage was transferred, edited and manipulated digtially. Some examples are below, and more are on our class Vimeo page.
Dan Kelly:
Anne Petrokubi:
Thomas Swanson (the amazing soundtrack to this film was created by hand-scratching lines into the sound area of the film, McLaren-style!)
Oct 19, 2011
Visiting Artist Lecture: Animator J.J. Sedelmaier
ANIMATION GURU
J.J. Sedelmaier
Founder, Producer and Animation Director of J. J. Sedelmaier Productions
The Ambiguously Gay Duo
Beavis and Butthead
Schoolhouse Rock
J. J. will be here to share his extensive knowledge of the industry, as well as his expertise in the areas of animation, comics, print art and illustration. A moderated Q and A will follow the screening.
RSVP on facebook and invite your friends! https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=274719809227709
6pm Friday, October 28
CDM Theater, Loop Campus
14 E. Jackson, LL105
This event is FREE! limited seating
Oct 15, 2011
LBJ Orders Pants
This animation from Put This On is a great example of animating to found audio. And it's hilarious.
Oct 13, 2011
Eyeworks Festival of Experimental Animation 2011
Lilli Carré and I are planning the 2011 Eyeworks Festival of Experimental Animation for Nov. 5 & 6. We'll be showing about 35 short animations, focusing on abstract animation and unconventional character animation. It's going to be held at the DePaul CDM Theater in 14 E. Jackson. Full details on our website.
Oct 12, 2011
Winter 2012 Animation Electives
In addition to the normal required courses, we're offering a number of interesting electives next quarter (click on the course name for more info):
You can find the details on these and other ANI courses here.
- Anime History
- Advanced Motion Graphics - NEW
- Advanced 3D Character Animation
- Graphic Narrative (comics)
- Environment Modeling (for games)
- Advanced 3D Compositing
- Acting for Animators
- 3D Texturing and Lighting
- 3D Topics: Organic Modeling with Zbrush
- Topics: Advanced Hand-Drawn Animation
You can find the details on these and other ANI courses here.
Oct 11, 2011
Oct 9, 2011
Malcolm Sutherland at OIAF 2011
Meghann Artes and I went to the Ottawa International Animation Festival this year, which was a valuable and inspirational event for anyone in the field of animation. One of my favorite filmmakers in attendance was Malcolm Sutherland. He had two short yet substantial films featured in a very competitive category in the same year. He mentioned that he cranks out a film in about 3-4 months. He picks up an occasional freelance job, then works like mad for a concentrated period of time on his own films. Here are the two screened at Ottawa.
Labels:
animation,
animation industry,
faculty,
festival
Oct 2, 2011
Animation I: Evolving Cycle Projects
Last week in Animation I, we dove into Flash with a fun "evolving cycle" project. In this assignment, students had to make a short 3-5 second animation that repeats. With each repetition, they were to add a new animated element until they completed 5 full cycles.
Diana Moya-James created "Out at Sea," which you can watch below:
David Shastry took a non-narrative approach, instead drawing inspiration from Rudolf Arnheim's writings about symmetry and color.
Sep 29, 2011
Live! Nude Puppets!
Here's an exercise from last winter's Stop-Motion class by grad Mary Omelina. The goal was to animate an unadorned armature performing a subtle action, with the intent of the movement describing the character, rather than the surface detail. I love the little nuances in this.
Experimental Animation: Found Object Project
There's some insanity going on in ANI356, the Experimental Animation class, this quarter. Here's a couple of pieces from the Found Object project, where we all collected fifty objects and animated them using replacement animation.
Ben Austin:
Katie Kapuza:
Sep 22, 2011
Chuck Viane, President of Global Distribution, Disney Studios
RSVP on the event facebook page
A DePaul Commerce graduate and Chicago native, Chuck Viane is just completing a 25-year career at Disney in which he worked his way up to the top position in global theatrical distribution. This included worldwide distribution for all Disney motion pictures including its subsidiaries and partners such as Touchstone and Pixar. With Disney setting numerous box office records over the past decade, Viane is easily considered one of the most knowledgeable and influential people in the in global theatrical motion picture distribution in the world.
Viane will participate in an interactive onstage conversation, moderated by CIM faculty member JoAnne Zielinski, on Friday, September 23, 2011 at 2:00pm in the CDM Theatre on the lower level of The Daley Building at 14 East Jackson. Viane will present a brief excerpt reel of the many projects he has been involved with during his time at Disney and then move into an extended Q&A discussion with DePaul students and faculty moderated by Professor Zielinski. For cinema and media students and anyone interested in the past, present, and future of cinema distribution in the new media landscape, this is an rare opportunity to hear from a top executive from a top major Hollywood studio.
The CIM Visiting Artists Series presents Viane in partnership with the College of Commerce.
DePaul University's CDM Theater, lower level, Daley Building
247 S. State Street.
Chicago, IL
Friday, September 23 · 2:00pm - 4:00pm
A DePaul Commerce graduate and Chicago native, Chuck Viane is just completing a 25-year career at Disney in which he worked his way up to the top position in global theatrical distribution. This included worldwide distribution for all Disney motion pictures including its subsidiaries and partners such as Touchstone and Pixar. With Disney setting numerous box office records over the past decade, Viane is easily considered one of the most knowledgeable and influential people in the in global theatrical motion picture distribution in the world.
Viane will participate in an interactive onstage conversation, moderated by CIM faculty member JoAnne Zielinski, on Friday, September 23, 2011 at 2:00pm in the CDM Theatre on the lower level of The Daley Building at 14 East Jackson. Viane will present a brief excerpt reel of the many projects he has been involved with during his time at Disney and then move into an extended Q&A discussion with DePaul students and faculty moderated by Professor Zielinski. For cinema and media students and anyone interested in the past, present, and future of cinema distribution in the new media landscape, this is an rare opportunity to hear from a top executive from a top major Hollywood studio.
The CIM Visiting Artists Series presents Viane in partnership with the College of Commerce.
DePaul University's CDM Theater, lower level, Daley Building
247 S. State Street.
Chicago, IL
Friday, September 23 · 2:00pm - 4:00pm
Sep 20, 2011
Sep 16, 2011
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