Animation enthusiasts have the opportunity to develop their skills in the field under the course organized by Skeptic Dog Animation.

Animations are becoming more and more present around us, from commercials to GIFs scattered on Facebook. However, it is not often brought to our attention how much effort it takes to create them, more precisely the amount of work done in studios where animators bring the image to life. Among the places in Romania where such animations are born, there are Skeptic Dog Animation and VÂNĂ, two studios specialized in storytelling, working for NGOs, companies and small firms; you have certainly seen some of their creative and humorous work by now, and some of them are available on their official websites.

For those who want to explore the art of animation and even learn to create them, the two studios provide an intermediate animation course held at Nod Makerspace. In order to participate, it is required to have some drawing knowledge (digital or traditional), but the good news is that you don’t have to know anything about animation itself since the course will cover the subject from scratch.

During the course, you will learn how to make an animation film from beginning to end, including the storyboard, the script, up to the final details of music, sound, editing, and distribution. You will learn what character animation entails, what is the difference between the animation programs and how to decide which one can help you more depending on the project and, of course, what are the animation principles.

The program consists of 8 3-hour meetings, grouped in stages: Overview & intro to frame by frame animation – where you will already experience the first parts of animation; Story, script & storyboard – details about writing an animation script and developing the common project; Character design for animation – what the frame by frame animation means; Environment design for animation – the importance of ambiance, helped by light, background and effects, in animation; Animating (part 1 & 2) – from sketches to the animation itself; Sound design – how to choose the best music, what it means and how to work with foley, how does the copyright for film music work; Recap & common project – finishing the group project.

In order to participate, you need a functional laptop / tablet that meets minimum requirements (2.5-3 GHz, 8GB RAM, dedicated graphics card, one of the following programs installed – Krita, Adobe Photoshop, Animated CC, and a graphic tablet or a mouse), as well as personal drawings ready to be animated and brought to life.

The number of participants is between 8 and 12 people, and the fee is 800 lei/person (students and members of Nod Makerspace have a 20% discount). To sign up, fill out this form – https://goo.gl/Jdm9pX, and pay the entry fee. More details here.

The frame by frame animation course organized by Skeptic Dog Animation and VÂNĂ will take place between November 28th, 2018 – January 23rd, 2019 at Nod Makerspace. For more details visit the event page or write to cursuri@nodmakerspace.ro.

Melissa Antonescu

Writer, photographer and videographer. For Films in Frame she writes news about the latest happenings in the film world and brings to the readers' attention the productions that can be seen at the cinema. When she's not writing articles, she's photographing people in a small studio or searching for new cake recipes.