Lynne Pritchard

This course is aimed at 16 - 18 year olds with little or no animation experience, and will provide an introduction to the basics of hand drawn character animation. As animation moves further into the digital age, often in combination with the already established media of drawings and puppets, the need for a solid foundation in the fundamental principles of character animation is as important as ever, and it is never too early to start. Drawing is a sure-fire way of learning these skills. This course will provide an overview of animation principles, which are largely unchanged since they were established in the 1930's. You will begin by adapting your own character drawings into animation-friendly designs, applying three-dimensional drawing methods to design model sheets, as well as looking at creating strong poses and facial expressions. The course will then move on to cover the basic techniques of squash-and-stretch, drag and overlapping action, secondary action, arcs, weight, and anticipation. Added to this will be the dynamics of walking and running, and an introduction to the principles of timing. Through a series of short exercises you will have the opportunity to draw and animate these principles, while simultaneously getting to grips with working on a light box, rolling and flipping animation paper, and shooting your animation on a line tester. There will also be an overview of the animated film-making process, and all the above subjects will be backed up with hand-out sheets and the viewing and analysing of animated films. Learning and developing these basic principles will help to preserve the quality of good character animation through the technological revolution, and at the very least will provide an introduction which students can explore in further education. A good level of English is necessary to attend the course.

Lynne Pritchard studied on the PG Cert in Animation at Central Saint Martins and works as an animator and web designer.