Here are the excerpts discussed in class.  I’d print these for you but don’t want to kill trees.  Grab these quickly, and please do not share outside of the class. I’m going to take the link down by next class.

Here’s a very basic example of a walk-cycle, a fundamental animation exercise. We’ll practice with the flour sack and also look at more examples soon. Read through Chapter 3 or so in your character animation text.

Character rig for testing and use throughout the semester.

Here is a simple rig to practice some character animation. We’ll work with this a bit as we move into more advanced character animation and rigging. Take a few moments to try the rig and play a bit.

Begin reading chapter 3 in your Character Animation text. We’ll begin simple character animations soon. Also, if you have not, yet, make sure to have read the first two chapters in both that text and the How to Cheat in Maya text.

As discussed this past week, there will be a test this Thursday (Feb. 21) covering the introductory material from the past few weeks.  This will include techniques and principles for animation, narrative structure, visual storytelling, basic film grammar, etc.   A full review guide is posted here to help you remember all that we have covered in class. Also, do not forget the notes (particularly on narrative and visual storytelling) on the resources page of this site.   If you do not remember certain people (or concepts) from class or the documentaries, most of these will have ample information on Wikipedia and other websites to help you review.  You may also find these Wikipedia overview entries on animation particularly interesting and useful:  The Golden Age of American Animation and History of Animation (also, particularly History of United States Animation). [Although you have already studied some more recent history for 220, for this test, you do not need to study any of the history that we have not discussed in class or the documentaries for now -- such as foreign animation or animation more recent than the "Golden Age."]   There will be a written part of the test and also an animation practicum where you will complete a short animation in Maya to submit.  The test will count for two “quiz” grades.