Animation I

Week 1

Introduction to the course; introduction and overview of the 12 Animation Principles;
Introduction to the classic animation references: ‘The Illusion of Life’ and ‘The Animator’s
Survival Kit’; Introduction to the Harmony interface and drawing tools.

Week 2

Animating a Bouncing Ball I: The Importance of the Bouncing Ball Animation in
learning the Animation Principles; plan out the Ball Bounce animation; Introduction to the
‘Pose-to-Pose’ approach to animating: draw the key poses, create the timing charts and draw
the breakdown poses; analyzing a short animation scene to see the bouncing ball concept in
use.

Week 3

Animating a Bouncing Ball II: The ‘special’ inbetween and the importance of
showing the change of shape of the ball; drawing the inbetween poses; Introduction to and
using the ‘Straight-Ahead’ approach to animate a tail on the ball.

Week 4

Animating the Flour Sack I: Brainstorming Ideas with Thumbnails and Creating the
Animation Key Poses; Overview of the creative process as it relates to thumbnailing your ideas.

Week 5

Animating the Flour Sack II: Creating the Charts, Breakdowns, and Inbetweens for
the Flour Sack Animation; the critical role of the Breakdown drawing in animation; review of
Richard Williams’ ideas about the breakdown drawing.

Week 6

Animating the Flour Sack III: Flour Sack Master Animation Study: the importance of
the flour sack animation in thinking about character mass and change of shape in a simplified
way; analysis and study of a flour sack animation from Sleeping Beauty.

Week 7

Introduction to Character Personality Animation: The Character ‘Take’; Introduction
to the use of the Take in animation and its importance in showing change of character
expression and thought; Review of the components of the Take through analyzing many
animated examples and Richard Williams’ notes; The importance of getting into the
performance of the Take.

Week 8

Animating the Character ‘Take’: Brainstorming and thumbnailing the Take
animation; Drawing the Key Poses, Creating the Charts and Drawing the Breakdown Poses.

Week 9

Animating the Character ‘Take’: Drawing the Take animation Inbetween Poses;
animating the character details (using the Animation Principle of Follow-Through) using the
‘Straight-Ahead’ approach to animation.

Week 10

Review of Student Character Animation assignments and review of key points of
the course.