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COURSES

SIGGRAPH 2003, Henry's Garden, Kevin Geiger

Only The Lonely: Course on Independent Animation Production
by Tai-San Choo
31 July 2003

If there was an award for most interestingly titled course, it’s safe to say There Can Be Only One: Independent Animation Production for the Lonely would probably win. Organizers Steve Rittler and Kristen Palana of William Paterson University put together the course in order to give pointers to the growing community of independent animators hoping to enter various festivals and competitions including SIGGRAPH. Judging from the turn out there seems to be hundreds of “lonely” animators attending this year’s conference.

Rittler and Palana presented an overview for designing, creating, and exhibiting animated works. Rittler used his “conflict-o-meter” to show various examples of story structure and story arcs from classic films and stories in order to give a more conceptual idea for designing an animated story. They both offered tips on budgeting time, money and resources in order to ensure a finished work.

Design tips included drawing out character expressions, behaviors, and personality traits for later visual reference, before fleshing out a full storyboard for the entire animation. They also gave an overview of using music and sounds for independent work especially issues of licensing copyrighted work (so you don’t get sued) or creating your own audio. Animatics were stressed to achieve proper timing with a scratch sound track.

SIGGRAPH 2003, Gone With the Wind in Sixty Seconds, Scott Chantler

Other miscellaneous concerns covered included overcoming the dreaded bout of laziness and procrastination contracted by many while creating a project and ways to save time and improve your morale while animating alone.

While most other courses dealing with animation dealt primarily with the technical aspects of creating the actual work, this course was vastly helpful in a broader overall sense and gave important information for bringing out the full potential of independent animation work.