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

SCHEDULE

The course is divided into five subject modules, with two weeks in each section.
Please see Resources page for information about material shown in lectures such as names of films, etc.

Module One :: Cell, Sequence, and Story

week1 []

Readings due : Scott McCloud, "Chapter 3: Blood in the Gutter" from UNDERSTANDING COMICS; p. 259
Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnson, "Chapter 1: An Art Form is Born" from THE ILLUSION OF LIFE: DISNEY ANIMATION; p. 503
William Blake, THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL, plates 1-11; p. 9
Richard Willams, excerpts from THE ANIMATORS SURVIVAL KIT; p. 579

week2 [4/2]

Readings due : Laurent Mannoni, "The Pirouette of the Dancer" from THE GREAT ART OF LIGHT AND SHADOW; p. 193
Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnson, "Chapter 9: Our Procedures" THE ILLUSION OF LIFE: DISNEY ANIMATION; p. 521
Alan Moore, _Promethea_ Issue 1; p. 289
Vilem Flusser, "Line and Surface" from WRITINGS; p. 43
Kit Laybourne, "Line and Cell Animation" from THE ANIMATION BOOK

Module Two :: Disection and Expansion/Motion and Time

week3 [4/9]

Assignment 1 due : Keys to the Sequence

Readings due : Scott McCloud, "Chapter 4: Time Frames" from UNDERSTANDING COMICS; p. 277
Laurent Mannoni, "Chapter 12: "The Passage of Venus and the Galloping Horse" and "Chapter 13: Marey Releases the Dove" from THE GREAT ART OF LIGHT AND SHADOW; p. 206
Harold Whitaker and John Halas, excerpts from TIMING FOR ANIMATION; p. 591
John Krasner, Properties of Kinetic Images and Type from MOTION GRAPHICS DESIGN AND FINE ART ANIMATION, pg. 100

week4 [4/16]

Assignent 2 due : Motion Study

Readings due : Scott Bukatman, "Comics and the Critique of Chronophotography, or 'He Never Knew When it was Coming!'" in _Animation_, Vol. 1, No. 1; p. 21 (source info p. 457)
Aristotle, PHYSICS, Book Four, Sections 10-14; p. 1
Kit Laybourne, "Production and Planning" from THE ANIMATION BOOK, pg. 166
Kit Laybourne, "Clay, Puppet, and Stop Motion Animation" from THE ANIMATION BOOK, pg. 134
Neil Pettigrew, "Introduction" and "Glossary" from THE STOP MOTION FILMOGRAPHY, pg. 371

Module Three :: Hybrids and Variants

week5 [4/23]

Midterm due : Project proposal and storyboards

Readings due : Friedrich Nietzsche, THE WILL TO POWER, "Book Three: Principles of a New Evaluation, Section 2: The Will To Power as Life"; available through eReserve
Esther Leslie, "Pre-clusion: Experi-Mental" from HOLLYWOOD FLATLANDS: ANIMATION, CRITICAL THEORY, AND AVANT-GARDE; p. 175
Kit Laybourne, "Sand and Paint on Glass" from THE ANIMATION BOOK
Jayne Pilling (Ed.), excerpts from WOMEN AND ANIMATION, A COMPENDIUM, pg 387 to 400

week6 [4/30]

Readings due : Frederik Schodt, "A Thousand Years of Manga" from MANGA! MANGA!: THE WORLD OF JAPANESE COMICS; p. 401
Susan J. Napier, "Why Anime" and "Anime and Local/Global Identity" from ANIME: FROM AKIRA TO HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE; p. 349

Module Four :: Digital Domains

week7 [5/7]

Readings due : Angela Ndalianis, "Special Effects, Morphing Magic, and the 1990's Cinema of Attractions" from META MORPHING; p. 479
Janet Murray, "Transformation" from HAMLET ON THE HOLODECK; p. 321
*** on eReserve*** - Maureen Furniss, "Animation and New Technologies" from Art in Motion: Animation Aesthetics

week8 [5/14]

Readings due : Gilles Deleuze and Claire Parnet, "The Actual and the Virtual" from DIALOGUES II; p. 35
Kit Laybourne, "Rotoscoping" from THE ANIMATION BOOK, pg. 140
Ed Hooks, "Introduction" from ACTING FOR ANIMATORS; p. 51
*** on eReserve *** - 3D Pioneers
*** on eReserve *** - Industry, Independents, and Authorship

Module Five :: Illusion, Integration, and Reinvention

week9 [5/21]

Readings due : Lev Manovitch, "Image Future"; p. 239
Victoria Duckett, "Beyond the Body" from META MORPHING; p. 472
Andi Serkis, "Motion Capture" and "The Changing Face of Gollum" from GOLLUM, HOW WE MADE MOVIE MAGIC; 423
Robert Mitchell, Helen Burgess, and Phillip Thurtle, BIOFUTURES:TRADING INFORMATION AND BODYPARTS, Art, case study: Alba the glowing Bunny, DVD supplied in class

week10 [5/28]

***Final due : Animation, Artist Statement in lab section

Readings due : Michel Serres, "The Ballet of Alba" from GENESIS; p. 458
Mario Perniola, "God, Animal, Thing" and "Plastic Landscapes" from THE SEX APPEAL OF THE INORGANIC; p. 341
Walter Truett Anderson, "The Emergent Fiction" from REALITY ISN'T WHAT IT USED TO BE; p. 491

Final :: Wrap Party!

Tuesday, JUNE 5, 2007, 430-620P
Location: tba

***Final due : Reflection Paper