A two-part workshop

First we’ll learn and practice the 12 Principles of Animation through claymation. Then on night two, each participant will work on their own section of a collaborative class “anijam” (like an animated anthology) incorporating their personal art practices and/or interests with the fundamentals we learned on night one.

The first night of this course will introduce the 12 Principles of Animation, terms famously coined by Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas of Disney, that act as guidelines for creating believable movement in animation.  We’ll practice these with the very friendly medium of claymation and introduce the class to the software Dragonframe – an industry standard for stop-motion and traditional hand-drawn animation.

Dragonframe has generously gifted us licenses for the workshop.  We ask that you bring a laptop, smartphone, and cable that connects your phone to your laptop. 

The second night will be all about “the anijam” and taking what we learned the week before. What’s an “anijam”? It’s like an animated anthology.  On night one we’ll brainstorm ways each person can incorporate their own practices or interests (acrylic paint, charcoal, colored pencil) into animation, so come with ideas. Feel free to get experimental with it! Each person will have full control over their personal animation which will then be part of one class anijam – as a class we can discuss how connected we want each to be or not be (it can go from each animation sharing the same theme to completely random from one to the next – it’s your project!)

JOHN QUINN is a current Byrdcliffe Artist-in-Residence, graduate of Pratt Institute’s 2D Animation program, and a presenting animator  in this past year’s Woodstock Film Festival.  His work is often experimental and analog – a mix of stop motion and various mediums on paper.  A goal outside of his personal practice is to make animation more accessible, which is the idea behind this workshop series.  Lately he’s been drawing inspiration from programs like The Electric Company and Schoolhouse Rock and animators Sally Cruikshank and Vince Collins.  “‘The magic of animation’ I think turns a lot of people away from the medium, and even though it is kind of magic, anybody can do it – even people that can’t draw”.

Workshop fee: $70 members, $75 not-yet members

Workshop limited to 10.