2015 Step Up Class: Stop Motion and Rotoscoping

Hello Students,

Your next assignment is to create a stop motion animation. You can use a point-and-shoot digital camera to make your animation frames. Just make sure the images stay labelled as a numerical sequence. Think of something creative you can do in a short time.

Stop Motion Animation Project:

• This is an individual project, no teams. Students may assist each other during the animation process.
• Come up with a simple animation idea, stop motion with people, objects, clay, drawings etc...
• Use a digital camera to shoot the frames of your stop motion animation
• Image sequences can be compiled with Final Cut or After Effects and turned into an animated sequence. You could turn a sequential series of photographs into an animation by importing the the folder of images into Final Cut, and adjusting the timing afterwards
• Animation should run between 5-10 seconds
• Check out the samples below for some ideas

Hello Students,
Your next assignment is an exploration in rotoscoping. Rotoscoping is an animation technique that involves using video or photography as the basis for animation. Rotoscoping can be created in many programs but we will be using Adobe After Effects for our project. You will rotoscope on top of your stop motion animation for this project to enhance it.

Rotoscoping Project:

• Come up with a creative idea for your animation, you could rotoscope a self portrait to make a looping animated gif that can be used in profile pages online. You could create a rotoscoped animation to be used in a cut-scene or title for your portfolio, or just rotoscope you or your friend doing a cool trick (safety first!).
• Use a video camera to capture the action, Your camera could be on a tripod to capture a well composed scene, or hand-held for that live action feeling. If you are going to hand-hold your camera make sure to limit camera shake and vibration and take advantage by panning or moving the camera for exciting camera angles
• Once you shoot your footage, import it into AE and trim it down to the best 5-8 seconds of action
• Double-click on your footage to open it in the source window, select the brush in the toolbar and load up your brush settings, set the brush duration for single frame. Paint your line art art and fill in areas of the video with color. When your art it is done advance to the next frame and create your art, continue until your 5-8 seconds of video is rotoscoped. Feel free to experiment with your style to create something cool!

Have fun!

- Mr.W