Hello again. Last week school was all about acting for us animators. We had a week long project about learning animation methods and using them in a short animation. To learn some of the basic principles and methods of animation we took a look at Ed Hooks, Acting for Animators. It’s a great book with lots of helpful information not only on animation, but planning and creating stories for your characters. Anyhow, the first assignment of the week was to find two acting methods from Ed Hook’s book, and present and explain them to the rest of the class. My group, consisting of me, Eivind and Mats, chose the following the acting/animation methods/theories: Your character needs to have an objective and Effects of alcohol and drugs on movement. I found that the first method I mentioned is very important when animating and creating a story, as it’s brilliantly explained in this sentence:

The second assignment was to use three of the methods presented by either us or another group in the first assignment, to produce a 20 sec animation. Using the following methods/ theories this is what we cooked together:

After presenting the second assignment to the class we got some feedback from the students and the teacher. It was mostly a negative feedback from the teacher, telling us (well basically me) to focus more on the story and animation rather than creating fluid effects. Some students commented on the timing , use of the camera and suggested slight changes to the story. All in all partly happy with the end results, and I understand why my teacher and classmates critics when I review the movie. More focus on the story next time around.