Cut Out Animation
Learn digital animation techniques to rig and bring 2D characters to life!
Teacher Artwork by Mike Wiesmeier
Cut Out Animation
NOTE: A licensed copy of the animation software, Toon Boom Harmony Premium, is required for this class. If you do not own your own licence, we offer our students a 3-month license at an exclusive discounted price of $95 USD instead of $370.50 USD (subscription available before the start of the class).
In this course, former Disney animator, Mike Wiesmeier will guide you through Toon Boom Harmony Advanced’s cutout animation tools to bring 2D animated characters to life! This style of digital cutout animation has its roots in 2D stop-motion animation, but uses advanced software to make the process much smoother and simpler.
Beginning with the basics of using Harmony's rigging tools, you will learn all about peg hierarchy, deformation, cutter and node systems. By the end of the course, you will be able to create, rig, and animate your very own characters!
- Course Type Animation and Comics Classes
- Duration 10 weeks
-
Skill Level
Level 4 Level 4
This expert-level is for students who are ready to boost their portfolio and design process to a professional level.
This level is about discovering and diving deeper into new tools (such as 3D), further polishing and rendering work and exploring professional pipelines of the entertainment industry.
- Language English
You can now combine 3, 4 or 5 classes to avail a 5, 10 or 15% discount on your purchase and get a free spot in a webinar this term!
Schedule
Note: This class will be offered online only
Term: Winter 2024
Class Timings: Thursdays from 10 AM to 1 PM, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT or UTC-4h)
Date of first class: January 11th
Duration: 10 weeks
Please note that our classes times are listed as EDT (GMT-4) but that starting on Sunday, November 5th, 2023, all class times will go into EST (GMT-5)
If you are unable to attend the class during the times listed above, you will still have access to video recordings of the class lectures and will still receive personalized feedback from your instructor.
It should be noted that students should set aside a minimum of 3 hours per week to complete assignments for this class. Students may even require a bit more time (4-5 hours per week) depending on how quickly they can work through assignments.
*Please note that this class' duration is subject to change (to either 1.5 hours or 2 hours) depending on the number of enrolled students.
These shorter class formats (offered up to a maximum of 6 students for the 2-hour format) are conducted with more of a personalized mentorship style, allowing students to have more time devoted to their assignments' critiques and the ability to ask more questions in class, while still maintaining all of the theory and planned curriculum for the regular class length.
Prerequisites
Skill requirements
To enroll in this course you should have:
- Animation I and Animation II or equivalent
If you are unsure of your skill level, please contact [email protected] for additional guidance.
Language and age requirements
You should have at least intermediate level English to take this class. Please be advised that there could be artistic nudity in our classes. Students should be 14 years old to enroll.
Required Materials
Material List:
- A desktop computer or laptop*
- A graphic tablet with pressure sensitivity (from brands such as Wacom, Huion, or Xencelabs), OR a tablet-laptop hybrid (also with Photoshop installed) with pressure sensitivity (such as the Wacom Cintiq Companion or Microsoft Surface Pro).
- Toon Boom Harmony Premium (animation software)**
Important note:
Please ensure that all of your hardware and software are functioning properly before the start of the term; there will not be any time to resolve technical issues in class.
*Please consult our Tech Requirements below for more precise computer specifications.
**A licensed copy of the animation software Toon Boom Harmony Premium is mandatory to take this class. If you do not own your own licence, we offer our students a 3 months license at an exclusive discounted price of $95 USD instead of $370.50 USD Once you enroll in the class, a private link will be provided so you can pay for the license. A unique License Activation ID will then be provided to you a week before the start of the class
Tech Requirements for Attending Syn Studio Online Classes
Minimum Requirements
- A strong uninterrupted broadband wired or wireless (3G or 4G/LTE) connection with a minimum 600kbps bandwidth (up/down).
- A Laptop/Desktop computer equipped with a single core processor (at least 1 GHZ processing speed) or a smartphone/tablet with equivalent processing capabilities
- Good speakers/earphones to listen to the classes
- Browser - IE7+, Safari 5+, Firefox, Chrome
- Operating System - Windows XP, Mac OS 10.6, Linux distro based on 3.0 kernel, Android 5.0, iOS 10
- Toon Boom Harmony Animation Software License
Syn Studio Recommendations
- A strong uninterrupted broadband wired or wireless (3G or 4G/LTE) connection with a minimum 1.5Mbps bandwidth (up/down). You can also connect to the internet directly using your ethernet cable to improve your experience.
- Laptop/Desktop computer equipped with a dual core processor with at least 2 GHZ processing speed and a 4 GB RAM
- High Quality speakers/earphones to listen to the classes
- Browser & Operating System - We recommend using the latest version of the browser and operating system for an optimal online classroom experience.
Course Outline
*Please note that the following outline is subject to change slightly at the teacher's discretion.
Week 1: Cutout Animation Overview and Animate a Bouncing Ball: Overview of cutout animation and comparison of its similarities to traditional hand-drawn animation; The 12 Principles of Animation; Introduction to Harmony’s Peg and Node System; Animate a Bouncing Ball: animating a ball using the peg and node system: creating the artwork, rigging, and then animating the ball by setting keyframes and using the ease function to create slow-in and slow-out; creating the artwork, rigging, and then animating a tail attached to the ball, using the curve deformer tool.
Week 03: Create and Rig a Simple Biped Character: using Harmony’s peg and node system, and deformation tools to rig a simple biped character: creating the artwork and using the pegs to create the structure hierarchy in the node view; adding the deformers to the arms and legs; templating and saving the rigged character in Harmony’s template library.
Week 04: Animate a Simple Biped Character Walk: review of the main poses of a walk; posing the character and setting keys; using the ease tool to create slow-ins and slow-outs.
Week 05: Create and Rig an Intermediate Complexity Character I: Creating the artwork, including drawing substitutions for the hands, eyes, and mouth; setting up the cutters in the node view.
Week 06: Create and Rig an Intermediate Complexity Character II: Creating and Organizing the peg hierarchy; testing the rig for functionality, and then templating and saving the rigged character in Harmony’s template library.
Week 07: Animate a Jump: the mechanics of a jump animation; using the drawing layer to rough-in poses before setting the keys on the intermediate complexity rigged character; posing the character and setting the key poses; creating the anticipation and overshoot keys; setting the slow-ins and slow-outs with the ease tool.
Week 08: Animate a Short Dialogue I: analyzing the dialogue audio and acting out the performance; thumbnailing the poses on a drawing layer; setting the key poses on the rigged character; setting the breakdown, anticipation and overshoot poses; setting the slow-ins and slow-outs with the ease tool; setting the mouth positions to match the audio.
Week 09: Animate a Short Dialogue II: setting the breakdown, anticipation and overshoot poses; setting the slow-ins and slow-outs with the ease tool; setting the mouth positions to match the audio.
Week 10: Review of student Short Dialogue animation scenes; review of course.
Registration
You can now combine 3, 4 or 5 classes to avail a 5, 10 or 15% discount on your purchase and get a free spot in a webinar this term!
You will soon receive an email receipt for your purchase.
Please bring a photo ID for the first day of class.
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Questions and Assistance
Feel free to send us an email at [email protected] or give us a call at 514-998-7625
Please consult our FAQ; most of the commonly asked questions are answered in detail there. If you cannot find the answer to your question, please feel free to fill out the form below, or, send an email to [email protected]