Animation Residency: Day One

Today, we had our first of three animation workshops with PAW (Portable Animation Workshop). What we make with them will be showcased at our Spring Celebration at the end of April (stay tuned for more information on dates and times).

We first learned what an animation is and what different types of animation are (stop motion, CGI, flipbook, claymation, etc).

Next, we learned how to animate a bouncing ball and how to use the "Squish and Stretch" technique.

The "normal" ball and the "squished" and "stretch"

Here are some quotes from our work:

"You can barely see the squish. We need more pictures of it." ~ Jorja, Isana, Bianca
"It's a meatball that is bouncy. I think we did the drawings really well. Our second bounce is really high off the screen which makes it look super bouncy." ~ Isla and D
"I made it look like it was bouncing by having it come up off the ground. One looks like it's squishing as it hits the ground, then the next like it's stretching." ~ Owen
"We need a squish here, then a stretch. I have an idea! How about it bounces back and then starts rolling off the screen." ~ Jasper and K

After our bouncing ball, we got to make a story that included a squish and stretch.

Using "Replacement Animation"

"Our story is going to be about an alien who comes in on a spaceship. The alien will squish and stretch when he comes out of the ship." ~ Chloe and Sophia
"A girl went to a baking competition. She makes a messy cupcake. When the cupcake comes out of the oven, Lizzie bounces with happiness. That's where we'll show our squish and stretch." ~ Ina
"We're sticking with the meatball theme. This girl is going to be eating her spaghetti. One of her meatballs grows bigger, rolls off her plate, squishes and stretches. I'm so excited; it's going to be so cute!" ~ Isla and D

The "Onion Skin"

"We're trying to make a Princess and a Knight story. The Princess will fall down and squish and stretch." ~ Charlotte and James
"We're making a background. A bunny and cat are playing until it starts raining and they meet this evil dog." ~ Isana, Jorja, Bianca
"We're going to make our title pulse (get bigger and smaller)." ~ Jasper
"Assets are props. In our story, our assets are lava going out of the volcano and down the side, and we have smoke." ~ K
"Our story is about these two trying to get along. My triangle guy bounces around. My guy disappears into walls." ~ Jaxton and Silas

"We used replacement animation to make our alien ship look empty. We also used that for our thinking alien so we didn't have to redraw the whole thing." ~ Chloe
"Onion skin is when you can see what the last picture was that you took. We use it so we can see what's under it so you don't get lost in your animation." ~ Nikita
"I learned that every single shot has to be perfect (no little black dot or fingers)." ~ Bianca
"If you move something too far, you have to redo it." ~ Priya
"I liked how we got to make a "fun" one before doing our homeless ones." ~ Sophia
"I learned that it was really hard to get things in the place you wanted. It's really quick!" ~ Isla
"I enjoyed doing the practice animation today because you got to use your creativity." ~ Jaxton