8/24 – Week 1
Animation Through The Ages: animation history, theories of cartoon representation
Assignment 1: find a cool animated short film
8/31 – Week 2
How It Works: principles of animation, various techniques
Assignment 2: create a five second stop-motion film
9/7 – Week 3
Introducing After Effects: interface and workflow, setting properties, adding keyframes
Assignment 3: animate a simple scene
9/14 – Week 4
Beyond The Basics: simple text, parenting, pre-composing
Assignment 4: animate a bouncing ball
9/21 – Week 5
Effects, Expressions, Presets: some favorite effects, basic expressions, text presets
Assignment 5: animate a scene using expressions
9/28 – Week 6
Text And Titles: creating impactful titles and text
Assignment 6: create an animated word mark
10/5 – Week 7
Character Design And Creation: principles of effective character design, using Photoshop and Illustrator
Assignment 7: create a character using Photoshop or Illustrator
10/6 to 10/11 – Fall break
10/12 – Week 8
Character Rigging And Animation: importing character files, parenting layers, basic character animation
Assignment 8: animate the character you created last week
10/19 – Week 9
Walk Cycles: animating and looping walk animation
Assignment 9: create a looping walk or run cycle
10/26 – Week 10
Making Movies: planning, storyboarding, and editing animation
Assignment 10: create an outline for the final project
11/2 – Week 11
The Third Dimension: 3D layers, virtual cameras
Assignment 11: create a 3D scene
11/9 – Week 12
Lights And Shadows: Kinds of virtual lights, shadows
Assignment 12: create a scene with moving lights that cast shadows
11/16 – Week 13
Sound Advice: Finding royalty-free sound effects and music, audio tools in After Effects
No assignment: work on final project
11/17 to 11/27 – Thanksgiving recess
11/30 – Week 14
Wrapping Things Up: Odds and ends, in-class work time
No assignment: work on final project
12/7 – Final
Final Projects: Review and critique projects