Animation Fun in The Art Room

Happy October! Fall is such a beautiful and inspiring season. It's also a very contemplative time of year for us. We were recently thinking about the art of animation and how fun it is to explore.  Animation is a great art unit that connects with other subjects across the school curriculum. Here are some tips, activities and resources you can use to begin  building an animation unit for your art program.
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1. Character Development

Well developed characters are the heart of great animations. Share a list of some of your favorite  animated characters (as shown below) from comic books/tv shows/movies with your students and have them to make a list of theirs. Lead them in a discussion about the lists. Ask questions such as "What qualities do you like about the characters?" or "Which character has the coolest design?" Meanwhile, you can connect some of the examples that students share to the Elements and Principles of Art.

Hair Love by Matthew Cherry, Sony Pictures

Disney's, The Proud Family

Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse, Sony Pictures

​After the discussion, they can create an original character. They can draw or paint the character  or use an iPad/computer to create it. Encourage young artists to keep their character designs simple. For artists in grade 3+, they can also design a movie poster highlighting their original creations. 
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2. Create a Simple Storyboard & Animation

Todd Finnagan, Storyboards || Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse

Illustrating a story board is a great way to help young artists develop critical thinking skills.  After you share some examples of storyboard art with them, they can plan out a simple 4 frame storyboard with their original character. A storyboard is a visual organizer depicting action scenes in a story. You can also display examples of comic book/strip illustrations to further explore how storyboards work. 

Young artists can further use their characters to create a simple hand-drawn animation like a thaumatrope, flip book or stop-motion animation.  Here's a simple 2 Frame animation that we created with a simple character.

​3. Learn About Important Black Animators

While there are prolific Black animators who blazed a trail like Floyd Norman, Frank Braxton, Leo Sullivan and Ron Husband, there's a whole new generation of Black animators creating eye-catching stories with dynamic characters.

Graphic depicting Bruce Smith, Taylor Shaw and Peter Ramsey for an article by Annalease Yip on www.cbr.com

​Creatives like Bruce W. Smith, Taylor K. Shaw and Peter Ramsey are adding their talents to a variety of exciting animated projects. You can learn more about these phenomenal artists by visiting www.CBR.com to read a fantastic article detailing the multimedia projects they are affiliated with.

There are many more art lessons that you can add to your animation unit including 2D/3D computer animations, animation in multimedia presentations, video game animation, animation careers. etc.  Make sure to explore our website to find more resources connected to this topic. and share below in the comments about how you explore the art of animation in your creative space.