CE-HSPA-1013 - Animated Storytelling
Course Description
Animation is a unique medium that grants you limitless possibilities for telling your story. In this course, you’ll dive into the art of storytelling through animation and storyboarding to bring your ideas to life. During this five day course, you’ll get hands-on experience in industry standard animation software and build a foundation for animation skills that you can continue to build on far past the week you’re on the RIT campus.
Is This Course For You?
If you’re interested in animation and film making and you’re a rising high school sophomore, junior, or senior, this course is a great way to immerse yourself in the world of animation. In this course you’ll learn how to combine art and storytelling to create animations that bring your ideas to life. Experience in art isn’t required, but you should be ready to delve into the art of animation!
What You’ll Learn
During this course, you’ll learn how to bring your ideas to life through animation using skills you’re not likely to learn at your high school. We’ll go over the basic fundamentals and techniques you need to know when it comes to creating animations as well as delve into how to talk about your ideas using the language of the film world. You’ll also learn how to work with industry standard animation software including Storyboard Pro.
Storytelling is a key part of any good animation, which is why you’ll learn the unique ways that animation can impact your storytelling and story structure. With animation, there are no limits and no rules to what worlds you can create, and you can play with linear and non-linear storytelling when creating your own animations. You’ll find out how to take advantage of animation as a medium when bringing your ideas and stories to life.
How You’ll Learn
During this five day course, you’ll spend every day from 9 am to 5 pm diving deep into the world of animation. You’ll study the art of animation by watching and discussing animated films to discover how animators incorporate storytelling elements into their animations. You’ll focus on key storytelling elements, including themes and conflict, as well as how the medium of animation is used to tell a story.
On top of studying existing animations, you’ll be working with Storyboard Pro, an industry standard animation software, to get hands-on experience bringing your ideas to life. You’ll create digital storyboards and animatics and have the opportunity to work in RIT’s MAGIC Spell Studios and updated computer labs so you can see what kind of animation technology is out there for you to work with.
Throughout the week you’ll work on a short 2D animation with Storyboard Pro using the storytelling and design concepts you’ve learned about, and at the end of the week, your class will have a screening of all your finished projects in Wegmans Theater. At that screening, you will receive feedback from your classmates and instructors as well as other professionals in MAGIC Spell Studios.
Skills You Walk Away With
By the end of this course, you’ll know:
- How to take a simple idea and develop it into a moving storyboard
- Basic animation fundamentals and techniques so students can bring their objects and ideas to life
- Storytelling skills that will help you take advantage of the medium of animation including linear and non-linear storytelling
- The basics of how to use Storyboard Pro
- How to understand and use film language to discuss your ideas using industry language