88212 Animation Studio: Animation Practice

Warning: The information on this page is indicative. The subject outline for a particular session, location and mode of offering is the authoritative source of all information about the subject for that offering. Required texts, recommended texts and references in particular are likely to change. Students will be provided with a subject outline once they enrol in the subject.

Subject handbook information prior to 2018 is available in the Archives.

UTS: Design, Architecture and Building: Design
Credit points: 12 cp
Result type: Grade and marks

Requisite(s): 88211 Animation Studio: Narrative Experimentations AND 82420 3D Modelling and Rigging Advanced
These requisites may not apply to students in certain courses.
There are course requisites for this subject. See access conditions.

Description

In this subject students engage in complex and challenging animation design projects that enable them to incorporate in-depth research and design techniques learned from previous design studios. Fostering experimentation in thinking and practice as a means for developing an individual design approach, students explore the role that animation designers and directors play in the development of complex design projects. There is a focus on executing well-considered and crafted outcomes, and on finding open-ended solutions that incorporate a broad range of traditional and contemporary animation methods and practices. Emphasis is also placed on building teams with complementary skill sets in order to promote a high level of both creative and technical competence in problem solving.

Students are expected to incorporate aesthetics and working processes developed through their chosen 2D hybrid or 3D animation pathway. 2D hybrid students pay particular attention to materiality and visual language, analogue and digital processes, production design for character and background, and shot choices for 2D animation. 3D digital animation students pay particular attention to developing rapidly prototyped characters and environments to suit the demands and time frame of project briefs.

Subject learning objectives (SLOs)

On successful completion of this subject, students should be able to:

1.	Demonstrate integration of sound design and music composition into animation outcome
2.	Demonstrate an understanding of camera, lighting, composition and production design for creating 2D and 3D animation worlds
3.	Communicate through visual form a complex performance and internal narrative of a animation character

Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)

This subject also contributes to the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes:

Ability to develop unique aesthetic and movement languages for animation. (I.2)
Ability to recognise the creative possibilities for animation technologies and materials, to experiment, to take risks, and contribute alternative directions. (I.3)
Ability to understand and apply fundamental animation principles. (P.1)
Ability to demonstrate a high level of craft and production values across all methods of animation process. (P.2)
Ability to work with production complexity, to breakdown, organise, manage, delegate, define conventions and archive projects. (P.3)
Ability to contextualise work within current and historical animation practice and theory. (R.2)
Ability to iterate, reflect, edit and engage in self-critique and critical thinking. (R.3)

Teaching and learning strategies

These studio projects are focused on a Problem Based Learning (PBL) strategy. Lectures and studios concentrate on elaborating on the set problem, and encouraging students to take initiative in finding their own solutions through discussion, ideas generation, research and iteration. This subject is not intended as a directly instructional process.

Students will be participating in individual studios, interactive lectures, group seminars and presentations throughout the semester. The subject is delivered by full time animation staff working alongside sessional staff from the animation profession.

This subject contains one x 1 hour interactive lecture and two x 3 hour Studio classes per week. Students are expected to develop ideas and solutions between sessions in response to individual (one on one) and group feedback delivered in class. Animation is a labour intensive discipline which carries a requirement of between 10-20 hrs additional work every week in order to achieve the subject objectives.

Students are expected to bring substantially developed work to every class, which will be subject to discussion and feedback from animation staff and their peers.

Grades, marks and feedback on final animation submissions will be provided through Review.

Content (topics)

This subject addresses the ways in which we further develop for animation:

performance
design
narrative

Projects are designed to cover areas such as:

advanced conceptualization for narrative and non-narrative animation
advanced animation principles for 2D and 3d performance animation
collaboration around music composition and sound design for animation

Activities will include:

meetings with key collaborators, specialist demonstrations and lectures
development of production schedules
individual and group presentations
concept pitching sessions.

Assessment

Assessment task 1: Character

Intent:

Presentation of character development, that through the decision making tree, is shown that it can be moved into a narrative structure. The presented work will be appropriate to transfer into a cinematic form as part of subject 82621.

Submit a pdf presentation documenting your character research as a response to the creative brief given in class. You will present this to the class in week 2 and talk about your findings and plans. The talk will be no longer than 5 minutes with a brief Q&A from the group.

You will then iterate over the ideas and hand in a final package at week 3 as an assessment. This will demonstrate your iterations and process over the 2 weeks on your journey to the final designs.

Objective(s):

This task addresses the following subject learning objectives:

1, 2 and 3

This task also addresses the following course intended learning outcomes that are linked with a code to indicate one of the five CAPRI graduate attribute categories (e.g. C.1, A.3, P.4, etc.):

I.2, P.2 and R.2

Type:

Project

Groupwork:

Individual

Weight:

20%

Criteria:

1. Draws upon research to come up with an original design

2. Designs are realised in cinematic form

3. The visual design reflects the complexity of the internal nature of the characters

Criteria linkages:

Criteria	Weight (%)	SLOs	CILOs
Draws upon their research to come up with an original design	40	1	R.2
Designs are realised in cinematic form	20	2	P.2
The visual design reflects the complexity of the internal nature of the characters	40	3	I.2

SLOs: subject learning objectives
CILOs: course intended learning outcomes

Assessment task 2: Sighting

Intent:

Students will be individually assessed.

You will be expected to display:

Ability to negotiate and develop fruitful partnerships with co-creators
Understanding of authenticity and imitation in documentary film language
Understanding of camera, lighting and composition
Creative compositing for live action and animation
Advanced performance for character animation
Integration of sound design and music composition into animation outcome
Timing and editing action in relation to sound

Objective(s):

This task addresses the following subject learning objectives:

1, 2 and 3

This task also addresses the following course intended learning outcomes that are linked with a code to indicate one of the five CAPRI graduate attribute categories (e.g. C.1, A.3, P.4, etc.):

I.3, P.3 and R.3

Type:

Project

Groupwork:

Group, individually assessed

Weight:

60%

Length:

Working in groups of two to deliver a 30-60 second film that intergrates live action and animation.

Criteria:

Show evidence of meaningful and surprising connections between sound and moving image

Understanding of authenticity and imitation in documentary film language that reflects integration of learning experiences
Creative compositing for live action and animation including integration of sound design and music composition into animation outcome
Advanced performance for character animation that reflects an exploration of ideas through multiple iterations

Criteria linkages:

Criteria	Weight (%)	SLOs	CILOs
Understanding of authenticity and imitation in documentary film language that reflects integration of learning experiences	30	2	R.3
Creative compositing for live action and animation including integration of sound design and music composition into animation outcome	35	1	P.3
Advanced performance for character animation that reflects an exploration of ideas through multiple iterations	35	3	I.3

SLOs: subject learning objectives
CILOs: course intended learning outcomes

Assessment task 3: Audition Preparation

Intent:

Presentation of character audition in response to a creative scenario given in class. You will be taking on the identity of your character as designed in task 1 and acting in a choreographed audition performance in response to the creative brief for the role given in class. This task asks you to become a performer and explore your character in a performative way.

You will be working to specific creative boundaries which will be explained in class. You will choose from a set of selected props and scenarios that are consistent with the role that your character is hypothetically auditioning for. The presented work will be appropriate to transfer into a cinematic form as the foundation for an animated audition as part of subject 82621, Care should be given to sound and lighting and staging when filming.

Submit a 60-second live-action audition film to camera with sound.

Objective(s):

This task addresses the following subject learning objectives:

1 and 3

This task also addresses the following course intended learning outcomes that are linked with a code to indicate one of the five CAPRI graduate attribute categories (e.g. C.1, A.3, P.4, etc.):

P.1 and R.3

Type:

Project

Groupwork:

Individual

Weight:

20%

Criteria:

Show evidence of meaningful and surprising connections between sound and moving image

Understanding of performative language in a restricted theatrical space.
Creative performance that effectively communicates emotional and narrative moments into animation outcome.
Advanced performance for character animation that reflects an exploration of ideas through multiple iterations

Criteria linkages: