Course

Grade

Course

Grade

10.00-11.00

ANI125

Acting for Animation (3 cr.)

An animator's ability to express attitude, thought, and emotion through body language is a fundamental skill necessary for success. Therefore, this course focuses on presenting tools and techniques for translating thoughts and feelings into specific gestures and actions. The course introduces students to the history of acting in the theater, animation, and film. Students will explore the basic fundamentals and differences of acting for the stage, film, and animation through a series of acting exercises and problems. Special emphasis will be given to classical method acting.

Instructor:

Juan Raigada

Book(s):

ANI151

Advanced Animation - Theories and Techniques II (3 cr.)

In ANI 151 students will continue to explore and exercise the concepts and techniques of classical animation through a series of assignments. The exercises in this course will be considerably more demanding than those completed in ANI 101 as they will be longer and will require more refinement, subtlety, and creativity. There will also be a greater emphasis on character development - the expression of personality, mood, thought, and attitude through motion and posing.

Instructor:

Javier Martín

Book(s):

ART125

Tone, Color and Composition (3 cr.)

This course continues to build upon students' abilities to draw by exploring the nature and use of tone, color, and composition in drawing. It emphasizes methods of creating tone, ways to use luminance as an organizational element, and the importance of thinking critically. Additionally, the course will introduce students to a variety of classical tonal systems and tonal illusions, including atmospheric perspective, sculptural modeling, basic direct lighting, lighting position relative to viewpoint, light intensity, local value, and reflectivity. Students will then explore the artistic use of color. The course will cover systems and traditions of organizing hue and saturation, and it will examine methods of building from tonal preliminary studies. Students also will explore classical forms of compositional organization such as symmetry, asymmetry, golden mean, and figure-ground relationships.

Instructor:

Juan Raigada

Book(s):

ART151

Basic Life Drawing (3 cr.)

This course introduces students to the challenges of drawing the human form for animation. Students will examine life drawing for animation in addition to methods for attaining these goals. The course will emphasize capturing skeletal structure, muscle form, emotion, and gesture. Using clothed and nude models of both genders, students will learn to apply lessons in anatomy to the figure, significantly expanding their understanding of human kinetics and structure. Additionally, students will practice extrapolating basic human life drawing strategies to other animals.

Instructor:

Javier Martín

Book(s):

BIO150

Human Muscular, Skeletal and Kinetic Anatomy (3 cr.)

This course explores the skeletal and muscular structures of the human body. Students will learn to identify skeletal and muscular forms from both live models and anatomical references. Additionally, students will consider terminology, structural arrangement, and kinetic function. The course will give special emphasis to adapting this knowledge to the needs of artists and animators.

Instructor:

Javier Martín

Book(s):

FLM151

Visual Language and Film Analysis (3 cr.)

Animation is ultimately "film making," and animators should learn from the many classics on how to effectively bring various film production elements together. Students will review several films and study how the relationships between scripts, cameras, lighting, sets, production design, sound, acting, costumes, props, directing, and production lead to successful visual stories. They will also examine the fundamental theories underlying visual storytelling. Understanding the creative processes utilized by these influential filmmakers will provide insight into how students may improve their own animations.

Instructor:

Juan Raigada

Book(s):

The Hollywood Standard
By Christopher Riley
ISBN: 1932907637

Film Art: An Introduction
By David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson
ISBN: 0071220577

10.00-11.00

ANI101

Introduction to Animation - Theories and Techniques I (3 cr.)

This course introduces students to the principles of animation through classical animation techniques. Students will explore the art of creating convincing movement through effective timing, spacing, and drawing. Works of master animators will be screened and analyzed frame-by-frame to illustrate the principles covered in class, and students will put their knowledge to work through a series of exercises. The ultimate goal of both this course and its sequel is to introduce methods by which animators "act" and bring characters to life through sequential images.

Instructor:

Javier Martín

Book(s):

The Animator's Survival Kit
By Richard Williams
ISBN: 0571202284

Cartoon Animation
By Preston Blair
ISBN: 1560100842

The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation
By Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston
ISBN: 0786860707

Elemental Magic
By Joseph Gilland
ISBN: 0240811631

ART101

The Language of Drawing (3 cr.)

This course explores the nature of drawing as a language skill and the use of drawing by production artists and animators. Applied drawing goals and critical thinking skills will be given special consideration. Students will be introduced to basic professional habits in drawing practice, drill, and play. Design principles, basic research, and the design process will be introduced and applied to a series of practical problems. This course also explores basic drawing materials, drawing strategy, drawing sequence, linear drawing methodology, practice, and theory.

Instructor:

Vicente Calleja

Book(s):

Drawing from Observation
By Brian Curtis
ISBN: 0077356276

ART115

Art and Technology (4 cr.)

This course provides an overview of art history from Paleolithic times until the modern day. It traces the technological advances of society and art and considers the interplay between art and technology. Classical art materials and methods will be examined, and students will explore how art has historically impacted society. This course has a worldwide scope and is not limited to just European and Western traditions.

Instructor:

Vicente Calleja

Book(s):

Living With Art, 9th Edition
By Mark Getlein
ASIN: B003V599OO

The Story of Art
By E.H. Gombrich
ISBN: 0714832472

BIO100

Visual Perception (3 cr.)

This course explores the nature of human visual perception. Beginning with the physics of light and the anatomy of the human eye, the course examines how human beings process light information and use this data to survive. Additionally, students will examine neurophysiology, perceptual psychology, and artistic traditions. The course will give special consideration to the modern technological and professional uses of this knowledge.

Instructor:

Vicente Calleja

Book(s):

Visual Thinking for Design
By Colin Ware
ISBN: 0123708966

ENG116

Storytelling (4 cr.)

Storytelling is one of the oldest art forms, yet narrative— the description of an event—is also one of the most complex human endeavors. The art of narrative is endless, and we have created an almost boundless number of forms for telling stories: gesture, speech, writing, painting, photography, cinema, television, comics, newspapers, music, theater, and video games. Contemporary narrative strategies and structures share much in common with the most archaic of storytelling traditions. This course begins by investigating the psychosocial drive to tell stories, and proceeds to examine how the principal elements of narrative assert themselves in a variety of narrative genres and across different media.

Students will explore the rhetoric of narrative in its many guises, and gain an appreciation for both classical and contemporary formulations of story structure. In particular, this course focuses on how narrative may be adapted across media and genres. A series of written assignments focuses on the demands of storytelling made by different genres. Such a study discloses the particular attributes of each genre, and exposes the inextricable bond between narrative form and narrative content. Additionally, we will consider several ways to interpret narrative, negotiate the temporal restrictions of commercial storytelling applications, and begin to think about the ethics of storytelling.

Instructor:

Juan Raigada

Book(s):

Hero With a Thousand Faces
By Josesph Campbell
ISBN: 0586085718

The Poetics by Aristotle
Translated by S.H. Butcher
ISBN: 1456544527

The Odissey by Homer
Translated by Robert Fagles
ISBN: 0140268863

FLM115

History of Film and Animation (3 cr.)

This course examines the more than 100-year history of film and animation. Beginning with the scientific and technical advances that made possible, students will explore every major movement and genre as well as their impact on society. The course will give special consideration to examining all of the various professional outlets for this technology.

Instructor:

Juan Raigada

Book(s):

The Story of Film
By Mark Cousins
ISBN: 1862055742