Character Animation

Welcome! Today is Sunday, March 3rd.

3:30-3:45 Icebreakers / Settling In

3:45-4:00 Discussion on Character design

4:00-4:25 Activity 1: Designing a Character

4:25-4:35 Activity 2: Animating your character

4:35-4:40 BIO BREAK

4:40-4:50 Discussion on Animation, Piskel

4:50-5:15 Final Activity: Frame by Frame Animation

5:15-5:30 Save and Share

We will be exploring basic character design including elements that make up good character design as well as different methods of animation.

Color Palette - a set of colors used in a piece of art to create consistency
Moodboard - a set of images that will serve as an inspiration for your design. The shapes, colors, or etc can be used for inspiration.
Thumbnail sketch - loose, less detailed sketches exploring your character's silhouette or general shape/outline
Rigging - creating a structure that allows your character to move (think skeleton - identify joints like elbows, shoulders, etc)
Frame by frame animation - a type of animation where each frame is drawn separately
Onion skin - Used in frame by frame animation to show the details of the previous frame, allowing you to view how the current frame is different from the one before it.

We will be designing our characters using what we just learned! Let's grab some pen, paper, and coloring materials!

Note: Please make sure your character has arms and legs and is facing forward. This is needed for the next activity.

Step 1: Grab your supplies.

Step 2: Find inspiration for your character online!

Step 3: Create a few thumbnail sketches for your character

Step 4: Decide which direction you want to go with your character.

Step 5: Clean up your sketch

You can do this by darkening the lines you want to define or by tracing your image on a different sheet of paper

Bonus Activity:

Use coolors to find or build a color palette for your character!

We will be rigging and animating your characters through AI with Animated Drawings.

Step 1: Take a picture of your character

Make sure this file is saved through your computer. You can take a picture with photobooth.
Please let us know if you are having trouble with this step.

Step 3: Upload the photo of your character

Step 4: Follow the steps to rig your character

Make sure all the joints are in the right places (attach the correct nodes to the shoulder, elboes, head, etc)

Step 5: Pick an animation and watch the magic happen!

Step 6: Click share to download your animation!

We will be rigging and animating your characters through AI with Animated Drawings.

Step 1: Take a picture of your character

Make sure this file is saved through your computer. You can take a picture with photobooth.
Please let us know if you are having trouble with this step.

Step 3: Upload the photo of your character

Step 4: Follow the steps to rig your character