Assignment: Flipbooks

Contributed by Corrie Francis Parks at UMBC

Learning Outcomes

• Cameraless animation
• Animation fundamentals
• Timing and spacing
• Morphs and straight-ahead animation
• Shooting and exporting animation

Preparation

This is an introductory assignment that requires minimal equipment. You can use packs of index cards (held together with large binder clips), scratch pads (reinforce the top with tape), or even sticky notes. If using scratch pads or sticky notes, start at the bottom of the pad so you can see your previous drawing through the next sheet and use it as a reference.

Introduce the concept of straight-ahead animation and morphs. Embrace the stream-of-consciousness nature of working straight ahead, but also show students how to use a template to keep their drawings from incrementally shrinking or growing.

Shooting the flipbook is a chance to introduce students to the camera equipment they will use in the class. The camera should be mounted on a camera stand or tripod and controlled remotely to avoid camera shake. Tape the back of the flipbook under the camera and shoot each page individually.

Principles to remember:

• Squash n stretch
• Staging
• Anticipation/follow through
• Slow in/slow out
• Arcs/line of action
• Secondary action

Assignment

Part 1:

Create a flipbook which includes one morph and at least three of the animation fundamentals outlined above. This should be one continuous piece of animation with no cuts. It can be abstract or representational. Try moving things around the page. Vary the speed of your animated movements by adjusting the spacing between your drawings.

Be ready to point out where you used the fundamentals during critique.

Part 2:

Shoot the flipbook. Be sure to TAPE DOWN the book before you shoot and double check framing and focus the camera. Once you have your frames, experiment with changing the frame rate of your project. Which parts of your flipbook looks better at 12fps? 24fps? 8fps? Think about the spacing of your drawings and how that affects the end result.

Choose a frame rate and export to a final video.

Examples