HUM 203: The World in Motion, Animation in Theory and Practice

Midterm Project Proposal and Storyboard

15% of final grade – due week 5 in section (Monday, April 23)

Description of assignment

This assignment is meant to help you conceptualize and plan for your final project. Specific guidelines on what to include in your project proposal and storyboard can be found in the next section of this document. However, before jumping to the guidelines, please read the following explanation about the aims and scope of the final project carefully. This will give you a better understanding of what you need to start thinking about as you complete your midterm assignment.

Your final project will be:
a) an active and original reflection, in animation form, about course material
b) a piece carefully designed to develop and express a ‘concept’ over the duration of your animation

In other words, your final project should not be simply an animation piece (however beautiful or technically flawless this might be) that however has no apparent and thoughtful relationship to the themes and ideas of the class. In addition, your final project should demonstrate your ability to use the animation techniques learned in class to portray your theme visually.

Your final project will be also evaluated based on your commitment to the development of the concepts and ideas included in this midterm assignment. While aspects of your project can significantly change as you work on it and keep adding ideas from class and the readings, you should however maintain a clear link to your project proposal. We encourage you to expand on your initial ideas as the class progresses and takes new directions, and expect that your piece will evolve; however part of the animation process involves being able to conceive of a project you will be able to focus on. For example, if you start out by planning to have your animation be about a raven, by the end of the quarter your animation should not have become a piece about the color blue.

For the reasons described above, it is very important that you think carefully about the themes and ideas that you are going to include and engage with in this midterm assignment.

Guidelines

A) Your project proposal (5 pages, double-spaced) must include:

A synopsis including a brief description of the animation’s development or ‘action’ as well as the themes/ideas conveyed in your piece (1 paragraph, approx. 10 lines)
A description detailing your project’s ‘concept’ (i.e. the trajectory, mood and overall idea you intend to convey) and its development over time through the changes and visual cues that you plan to work into your animation piece (½ to 1 page)
An explanation of how the project engages themes from the class, with specific references to and citations from the readings (approx. 1 ½ pages)
A statement about the reasons why you believe that this project is important and how your argument/thesis is supported by materials presented during lecture, section and, above all, in the readings (approx. 1 page)
A plan to document the different phases of your creative process/effort through self-generated checkpoints (approx. ½ page)
A timeline detailing completion deadlines for each phase of your project (approx. ½ page)

B) Your storyboard must show a chronological overview of the shots and sequences that you plan to animate. You may use whatever tools you would like to make your storyboard (drawing, photography, text notes, paper cutouts, etc.), as long as you can hand it in on paper. You may want to use your new skills in Photoshop to create a series of images on a page and print them out. The goal of the storyboard is to show us how your animation will actually flow. Try to be both expressive and clear in laying out your boards. How are sequences arranged? What viewpoints will we have on the action? What are the elements that you will animate? What are the key points of the story? In this case the term “story” does not need to be thought of as only a typical narrative development. You may explore different types of animation that are more abstract or experimental, as long as you are truly investigating and expressing ideas related to the class. Some references for storyboards in your reading packet: pp. 533-535.

Evaluation criteria

In grading your project proposal and storyboard, these criteria will be all equally considered:

Clarity of ideas and their relationship to class themes Feasibility of creative concept and plan for documentation and completion Quality of explanation/understanding of class themes Originality of connections made across course materials and, specifically, the readings