The first project for Mr. Biondolillo's class is an exercise in animation that goes back to the very beginning of the medium. An animated loop was originally a series of twelve images that repeated endlessly and played on devices like the zoetrope. This year, Mr. Biondolillo's class made animated loops in a variety of ways, including digitally and on paper.
Chalkboard Animations
The first animation project of the year is based on the very first animated film - "The Humorous Phases of Funny Face". Like that short film, these are created completely on chalk (or dry-erase) boards, where the animator draws, photographs and erases frame by frame for fluid animation. These films might be short in length, but they show immediate promise from the students, and are sometimes among the best work of the year.
Video Postcards
A video postcard is a very short documentary, usually focusing on a single person telling a single story. Part of the challenge of this sort of filmmaking is to isolate the story and keep the duration of the film short. It's very easy to allow the film to deviate onto tangents, as one does during conversation, but the students worked hard to make sure their films came in under five minutes and with a single focus.
Title Sequences
Once upon a time, folks would sit down to watch network programming, and the shows would all begin with a short sequence that introduced the audience to the story and the characters, set to catchy music. As this practice has become less common in modern television, the students set out to create title sequences for the shows that they watch. This was their first editing assignment.
Transformations
The basis of filmmaking is the phi phenomenon, or the brain's ability to maintain an impression of an image briefly while viewing another image. When these images are played rapidly in succession, it gives the illusion of motion. In the case of animation, this principle connects heavily to the idea of a gradual transformation - starting from one image and ending on another. This classic project has the students begin on a realistic version of their faces, morph into an animal, and then into a cartoonish version of their faces.
Rotoscopes
Rotoscoping is a traditional form of animation which relies on recording actors performing and then tracing or copying that sequence frame by frame. This practice has been used in various, famous projects including Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and the music video for "Take On Me" by Aha. The students experimented in this format in short animations where they recorded themselves performing.
Maquettes
A maquette is a small statuette. In animation, they are used by the artists for reference when characters are being drawn, as they enable the artist to see the character from every conceivable angle. Traditionally, maquettes are about the size of a Barbie Doll or action figure, and are unpainted. In this class, the students were taught by Ms. McNamee to design their own animated characters, and then to make maquettes of them using a wire frame skeleton, aluminum foil filling and Super Sculpey clay for the top layer and details. Some of the students chose to paint their maquettes, the result of which are seen here.
Walk Cycles
The final stage of the character design process is the walk cycle. This is an animated loop that shows what the character looks like in motion, specifically walking. How a character walks can tell us a great deal about their personality and their mood. A walk cycle has a minimum of four poses and a maximum of twelve, depending on the pace of the walk. The students here animated one of the characters that they'd previously designed.
Final Films
The students spent the entire first half of the year gearing up to make their narrative short films. The class studied filmmaking for months before beginning. The students each created a short proposal for their film, wrote three drafts of a screenplay, created a shot list, storyboard, and more. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, many students had to pivot from their intended stories and make a completely different film with all new parameters. But, as they say, "that's show biz"! What the students were able to create in a short time, be it live action, animated or some combination of the two, is nothing short of incredible! Some stories are love stories, others are horror. There are documentaries, dramas, comedies and more! Welcome to our show!