CCS Beginning Animation Workshop @ccsbeginninganimation-blog - Tumblr Blog

One Month Until We Start Animating!

My animation workshop at @cartoonstudies begins in ONE MONTH! (July 9-13) It is open to students 16+.

If you are a cartoonist looking for an introduction to animation techniques, this is the class for you! We will draw ~20 seconds of animation over the course of the week.

Check out the rest of this Tumblr to see samples of the kind of work we will be creating, info about visiting animation professionals, past student work and more!

#animation #2d animation #traditional animation #cartoonstudies #Alec Longstreth

Animation for Cartoonists!

Hello! I am a cartoonist who is teaching an animation workshop this summer at @cartoonstudies July 9-13

Because of my background, I will be paying special attention throughout the workshop to the various ways that the comics and animation mediums overlap!

I have found that there are many animation techniques that can be applied to your cartooning process to make it more efficient (and vice versa!).

We will be looking at the work of cartoonists who worked in animation, and animators who drew comics!

Folks like Jeff Smith, who started an animation studio with two of his friends after college, creating 2D and stop motion animation, before launching his beloved comic book series Bone.

Or my comics hero, Carl Barks, who worked as an inbetweener and storyboard artist at Disney from ’35-’42 before beginning a 25-year career as one of the most popular and prolific American cartoonists.

We’ll also look at the work of Hayao Miyazaki who moved back and forth between anime and manga, serializing his Nausicaä story to build enough interest for it to eventually be turned into an animated feature.

There are only five weeks left to register for the class! It is open to students 16+ and there are need-based scholarships available. CCS alumni can take the course for 50% off (email me for the code, or check the CCS message board).

It's gonna be so much fun! Come hang out with me for a week in Vermont this summer and draw and learn and draw and learn and draw and draw and draw!

#cartoonstudies #comics #animation #2d animation #storyboarding #bone #jeff smith #carl barks #hayao miyazaki #manga #anime #Alec Longstreth

Special Guests: Anand Duncan & Sam Spina!

In my animation workshop this summer at @cartoonstudies we will not only be studying the work of animation legends like Milt Kahl, Chuck Jones, Hayao Miyazaki and Richard Williams, but we will also video chat with two animation professionals who are currently working in the industry!

Special Guest #1: Anand Duncan!

Anand has worked as a designer on Teen Tintas Go! since 2013 and she also creates illustrations, gallery work and VR fashion design (!!?!) Check out her amazing work on her site: www.hulabunny.com

I’m especially excited to talk to Anand about her process for creating her Gamma Girls animated shorts.

Special Guest #2: Sam Spina!

Sam created an animated short for Nickelodeon and works as a storyboard artist on shows including Regular Show for Cartoon Network. Check out some of his rad projects on his site: www.spinacreative.com

Sam is also one of the funniest, most prolific cartoonists I know! He makes:

Diary comics!

Sketchbook doodles!

Beautifully designed minicomics!

We will be talking with Anand and Sam on the Thursday of my workshop (July 9-13!) and students will have a chance to ask these industry professionals all their questions about working in animation. It will be fun - come join us!

The workshop is open to students ages 16+ and there are need-based scholarships available! CCS alumni can take the class for 50% off! (email me to get the code, or check the CCS message board).

#animation #2d animation #cartoonstudies #anand duncan #teamgammagirls #sam spina #teentitansgo #regularshow

Animating with Paper and Pencil!

In my animation workshop this summer at @cartoonstudies we will use as little software as possible! (just Photoshop to compile the frames into animated GIFs).

It’s a five-day intensive, so instead of getting bogged down learning a computer program that might not be applicable for all the students, we draw everything with paper and pencils, using flipbooks and pegbars. Here are the 2017 students at their lightboxes!

The focus is on the principals of animation as described by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston in their book Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life, and many important lessons from The Animator’s Survival Kit by Richard Williams.

If a student understands the principles of animation and can analyze motion, they can apply those skills to ANY kind of animation! (It’s kind of like learning how to drive stick shift, which allows you to drive ANY car on the road).

At the end of the course, I point students to as many different resources as possible, so that they can each find the right software solution for the type of animation that they want to explore further.

The workshop starts in just two months! (July 9-13) and there are still spots available. It’s open to anyone 16 and up, and there are need-based scholarships available. Join us! It will be a lot of fun!!

https://www.cartoonstudies.org/summer-workshops-2/beginning-animation/

#animation #2d animation #traditional animation #cartoonstudies #Alec Longstreth

Walk Cycles!

Cartoonists! Animating a walk cycle can really benefit your cartooning. It is one of the big projects in my animation workshop at @cartoonstudies this summer (July 9-13).

Above you can see how for years I used to “fake” walking poses in my comics. Then in 2014 I was asked by L’employé du Moi to animate one of my characters walking for an exhibit at Angoulême. I chose the old man, Argus from my graphic novel Basewood:

Studying the movement of the legs and drawing all those poses helped me understand what is actually happening when a character walks. It instantly improved these poses in my comics, which you can see below.

In my workshop, each student animates a walk cycle with one of their characters. Pictured here are a few of the stellar walk cycles created last summer by Coconut Fehsenfeld, Jarad Greene, Scott Smith and Sandy Bartholomew.

Come join us this summer! There are need-based scholarships available and it is going to be A LOT of fun! :)

#animation #2d animation #walk cycle #cartoonstudies #alec longstreth #comics #cartooning #character animation

Animated GIF Illustrations!

Illustrators! Are you interested in learning how to make animated GIF versions of your illustrations? I will be covering this and A LOT more in my Animation workshop July 9-13 at @cartoonstudies this summer!

Here you can see an illustration of Molly Weasley knitting sweaters that I animated for @thehpalliance back in 2015. (The last image doesn’t animate - it’s just the punchline :)

#animation #2d animation #illustration #harry potter #molly weasley #alec longstreth

CCS Beginning Animation 2018 is now enrolling!

The CCS Beginning Animation workshop is now enrolling for Summer 2018!

https://www.cartoonstudies.org/summer-workshops-2/beginning-animation/

The workshop is taught by CCS faculty member Alec Longstreth and runs from July 9-13. It will be an action-packed week of creating traditional hand-drawn animation with paper and pencils! Check out some of the student work that was created last summer in this Tumblr.

P.S. CCS alumni can get 50% off the registration cost - check the CCS message board, or email Alec to get the code!

#animation #2d animation #traditional animation #cartoonstudies

Beginning Animation 2017!

Thanks to all the great Beginning Animation students for working so hard this summer! I feel very luck to have had such an awesome group for my first time teaching this class. I was also lucky to have Mary Shyne as my T.A.!

I’m already looking forward to next year! -Alec

#animation