Project Brief
Personal Project
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Unit: Exploratory Practice: Animation Arts (PU002397)
Lead tutors: Su-Lynn Tan, Stuart Hilton
Key dates
Tuesday 15th February: Exploratory Practice Unit and Personal Project Briefing
Wednesday 2nd March: Statement of Intent formative submission by 3pm via Moodle
Wednesday 9th March: Interim 1 presentation – Proof of Concept
Wednesday 27th April: Interim 2 presentation – Animatic and Proof of Concept
Tuesday 31st May: Final Presentation
Thursday 9th June: Summative submission by 3pm BST (15:00) via Moodle
Aims / Context
This unit enables you to pursue a personal project and investigate an area of interest in time-based media, resulting in an individually authored work (or series of works). There is no constraint on form other than being required to justify its relationship to the discipline of animation and you will be encouraged to take risks, experimenting with techniques and exploring formats beyond the traditional. This is your opportunity to promote yourself as an auteur, defining your own personal style and outlining directions in your work.
Your choice of subject and specialisation will be self-negotiated and guided by your unit tutor. You can work solo whilst gaining support from students/ collaborators in minor roles or work in small groups.
Brief
Create a 1–2-minute animated film that promotes you as an auteur, defining your individual style whilst experimenting with techniques and formats that help you develop directions in your work. You should explore themes that have personal value to you. You will consider the relationship between sound and moving image.
You can choose to focus on one specific aspect of your research or combine different aspects together but be careful not to overcomplicate things – simple stories with a clear message will work best.
Approach
You will develop a project that demonstrates your ability to engage with the creative production process to complete an animation project showing significant conceptual and technical skill that has considered context and its relationship to its audience. After an intensive experimental testing, research and development phase, you must propose a sophisticated conceptual and visual language for your production. Your idea must be pitched as a treatment that outlines your concept, intended audience and viewing context. Key aesthetic elements such as visual language, pace, character, genre, environment and tone or ambience should be highlighted. An indication of how you intend to produce the project should be considered with technical needs and new learning being addressed. An indication of production planning should be outlined, informed by the project schedule.
Developing your personal project with reference to contemporary and historical issues, themes, design, artwork and theories is an important part of the research that will give your project context and authenticity.
You should continuously evidence in your blog, a reflective and critical engagement in the development of visuals for storyboarding, environments, turnarounds, tests etc. The brief is open and there are no constraints on form, content or platform. However, there are basic production constraints:
• Duration needs to be carefully considered and the works should aim to be around 1 to 2 minutes in length.
• Duration needs to be carefully considered for pieces that are of an alternative format e.g. interactive / animated graphic novel; installation;performance piece.
• Sound should be considered as part of the project development, pre-production, production and post- production process.
Delivery
It’s important that you stick to the 1–2-minute length. A couple of seconds more or less are ok, but you should create 1–2-minute glorious minutes with high production values rather than a longer duration with inconsistency. You will deliver an h264 file at 40mbps, HD (1920×1080) at 25fps with sound.
Reading list
Beiman, N. (2016). Animated Performance: bringing imaginary animal, human and fantasy characters to life. Deja, A. (2015). The Nine Old Men: lessons, techniques, and inspiration from Disney’s great animators. Gilland, J. (2012). Elemental magic. Volume 2, The technique of special effects animation. Waltham, MA, Focal Press. Hooks, E. (2011). Acting for Animators. New York, Routledge. Polson, T. (2013). The Noble Approach, Chronicle.
Thomas, F. and O. Johnston (1984). Disney Animation: the illusion of life. New York, Abbeville Press. Williams, R. (2009). The Animator’s Survival Kit: A Manual of Methods, Principles and Formulas for Classical, Computer,
Games, Stop Motion and Internet Animators, Faber & Faber Further Reading
Bacher, H. P. (2008). Dream Worlds: production design in animation. Burlington, MA: Oxford, Focal Press. Beloeil, G. R., Andrei. Castro, Robert. Art Fundamentals: Color, Light, Composition, Anatomy, Perspective and Depth, 3D Total
Publishing. Levitan, E. L. (1960). Animation Art in the Commercial Film. New York, Reinhold Publishing Corporation. MacLean, F. (2011). Setting the Scene: the art & evolution of animation layout. San Francisco, Chronicle Books.
Details of the University’s online referencing system for practical and written work: http://www.citethemrightonline.com/Home
Learning Outcomes
| On completion of this unit you will be able to: | How the learning outcomes are to be evidenced in this assignment |
| Evidence of an advanced and explorative critical understanding of the practices and knowledge base of your subject & discipline (Knowledge, Enquiry) | Show that you have an advanced and explorative critical understanding of the practices and knowledge base of your subject & discipline. You can evidence this in the research and development material, as well as through the final work shown in the pdf and also discussed in your critical appraisal. |
| Evidence of skills needed to work effectively as part of a cross-disciplinary team to achieve goals (Process) | You should document the processes of collaboration and demonstrate in your pdf submission through the images you choose to present and in the annotations and commentary, in your selection of blog and/ or journal pages and your critical appraisal how collaboration could work in a common project, demonstrating an interdisciplinary perspective. |
| Evidence of an understanding of the importance of studentship through engagement and participation with the course and your student colleagues (Communication) | Show in your pdf submission and in your statement of intent and critical appraisal that you have an understanding of the importance of studentship through engagement and participation with the course and your student colleagues. You should reflect on how you used good organisational skills in relation to managing your workload, being punctual and having good attendance, and completing your work at key stages in a timely manner. |
| Evidence and understanding of the professional technical and artistic benchmarks within a subject specialism (Realisation) | Demonstrate in your submission through the critical appraisal and in the practical work, that you have an understanding of the professional technical and artistic benchmarks within your subject specialism |