IN-CLASS Research Exercise and HW for Wednesday:

HOMEWORK NOTE: For those that were absent today, complete the following exercise below to stay caught up with class. 

• On Wednesday, we will talk cinematography and Chapter 3 of Framed Ink. 
• Bring the index cards of your stories back to class, as well as your huge folder of images created from the steps below!  Begin developing character and environment designs for your story.  
• Note: BRING ALL 3 STORIES!  I WILL ALSO TAKE UP YOUR ANIMATICS FROM LAST WEEK'S IN-CLASS EXERCISES!!

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TODAY'S IN-CLASS EXERCISE
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Today, we create a huge list of inspirations and resources of artists and art periods to use as research for our short films! The best way for us to communicate clearly in our art is by increasing our awareness of the variety of options we have as artists!

STEP 1: List (Make 2 Lists!)

List # 1: A collection of formal visual elements in your story that you are searching for/interest you!

• Examples: Sharp Angles, Thick Lines, Pastel Colors, Various Color Schemes, Shape Relationships, Light or Heavy Shadows, etc.
• No formal element of drawing is too small! It is these little details that help us discover new approaches to art-making!

List #2: A collection of thematic devices you are looking to add to your story: 

• This includes: Genre, mood, pacing, storytelling devices, etc.
• Examples: Genre Lists (Comedy, Drama, Slice of Life), Story Pacing (Fast-Paced, Slow and Plodding, Etc.) Any ties to other periods in storytelling (Film Noir, Silent Films, Shadow Puppetry, Etc.)

STEP 2: Create: A giant folder for your ideas! 

• Create a folder called “Visual Design” and open Google.com.  Use Google.com to search for anything, and everything that fits into your lists!

STEP 3: Search for Art Outside of Animation:

3 Art Periods/Movements/Styles throughout history.

3 Artists that meet the criteria for the elements of your story

• Note: The elements you find can all be different!

Our goal: Break our story idea into a lot of small, tangible, elements that we are interested in using.  This does not mean that every element we select we use, but we want to go through the process of identifying elements of our story’s look and feel that we see in other works of art.  By looking outside of our current understanding of art and animation, we can find new avenues to search within!

STEP 4: Search Within Animated Works:

• Create a list of 3 of our personal favorite animated works.
• Use google to find the names of the creators and designers/concept artists on their show.
• Make a list of three (3) of those artists.  From there, see if you can find any information on their inspirations.  (In short, what artists inspired your favorite artists?)

STEP 5: Combine:

• From your folder of visual research, list of artists, and artistic approaches, make four(4) combinations of artistic paradigms to apply to your personal work! You will spend this week, using these paradigms to arrive at a visual look and feel for your story that best fits the narrative you are creating! Mix and match elements inside and outside of the world of animation for best results!
• A lot of the best new approaches in the world of animation come from an awareness of everything that has been created before.  

STEP 6: Create:

• Design your characters and environments based on your research!  We have created a lot of options for ourselves by having multiple story choices as well as multiple visual approaches to take. From this point, you want to spend the rest of the week narrowing down your options!

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As I mentioned in class, this method of searching for new inspirations and the inspirations of the artists you admire helps you push yourself much farther as an artist as you would otherwise! Yes, it is a difficult process. However, doing so makes us much stronger overall!  Keep working hard! =D