VART 160 - Introduction to Animation

What do Walt Disney and certain Paleolithic cave dwellers have in common?  They believed that the best way to depict their world was to show it in motion.  Animation is one of the most accessible art forms today, and it’s not as hard as you might think.  This course breaks down the elements of a complex process and invites students to try each one. As we work from flip books to GIFS to stop-action and into the Adobe Creative Suite, we’ll see how the addition of motion to art is a natural outgrowth of the drive to create.

As we progress through the semester, each student will be working on an individual final project-the creation of an original, short animated film including sound and titles. Basic skills of animation such as the walk cycle, squeeze and stretch, and variations of scale will be woven through each lesson.