CC8 Syllabus

Sound and Animation

Fall, 2004

10-12, Tuesday and Thursday, Moore B03

David Ehrlich (Film Studies)

Larry Polansky (Music)

Grades:

15% animation exercises

15% sound exercises

15% collaboration works

45% Final Projects

10% Class participation, attendance,etc.

Class Schedule

(All x-hours subject to change. Office hours, special workshops in recording and the sound studio, grad. student office hours and help sessions, TBA).

Week 1

Thurs, 9/23: Introduction to the course. Beginning animation exercises: flipbooks. Flipbooks given and due back on 9/28, Tuesday. Basic downloads needed (Quicktime 6 Pro; Audacity (or other sound editor)). Student survey. Lab fee. Flash, Maya, drawing.

Week 2

Tues, 9/28: Introduction to acoustics, basics of sound, computer sound basics (editing, storing and moving data, etc.) Introductory sound assignment given (one minute piece based on one sound) due Thurs. 10/7. Flip books collected.

x-hour: Critique of flipbooks. Introduction to 2D and 3D computer animation.

Thurs, 9/30: Beginning exercise in 2-D Flash animation. 15-second Flash, Maya, or Drawing exercise due Tues. 10/5.

(Thursday-Sunday: Special workshop in Flash 2D Animation)

(Saturday-Sunday: Special workshop in Maya 3D Animation)

Week 3

Tues, 10/5: Critique of 15-second Flash, Maya, Drawing animations. Next assignment: 12-20 second sound piece will be available on the Website. Each student will make a 12-20 second animation (drawing or computer) synchronized to the sound. Due Tuesday, 10/12.

x-hour, 10/6: Screening of image/sound synchronizations by Lye, McLaren, Fischinger

Thurs, 10/7: Listening to sound assignment 1. Sound Assignment 2 given: 1 minute animation will be available to all on the website. Each student will study the piece and make a one minute synchronized piece using digital editing, mixing, simple processing, etc. Brittrax users can do their first sound piece in Brittrax if they like as part of this assignment. Due Thursday, 10/14.

• A note on sound creation by students in CC8.

Week 4

Tues, 10/12: Critique of 12-20 second animations (animation assignment 2). Sound/Animation Assignment 3: Students pair up and each pair creates two short animated films, with each of the two doing image in one piece and sound in the other. Due Tuesday, 10/19.

X-Hour: Lecture/discussion on modalities of collaboration.

Thurs, 10/14:  In class listening to one minute sounds to the animation (Sound Assignment 2).

Week 5

Tues, 10/19: In class listening of collaboration works.

Weeks 6,7,8,9 (10/26-11/18)

Thurs., Nov. 5: Special guest, independent film director, Nora Jacobson (her new film, Nothing Like Dreaming, shown November 5th, Loew     Theater).

Thurs., Nov. 11: Special guests, Steve Pierce (computer software for film scoring), Bill Haslett (animation scoring)

Tues. or Thurs., Nov. 17 or 19: Special guest, sound/computer/visual artist David Dunn, from Santa Fe.

Tues/Thurs: Each student works on a 30-second sound animation, creating all animation and sound individually. Works-in-progress will be discussed and analyzed in class and instructors will be available for help and artful discussions.

X-Hour: Screening/discussion of MTV animation clips by Svankmajer, Dumala, DeNooijer and Korejwo,etc.

Week 10 (11/23)

Preparation for and presentation of Final Sound and Animation Festival which will include works completed in this class as well as work from FS35 (Film Animation) and other Music Composition classes.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2 (Final Show in Loew)