Cartoon Design & Animation

Marie in her Freshly Painted “Green Room”

One of the new courses in this Fall’s Community ARTS program is Cartoon Design & Animation by Teaching Artist Dr. Marie Zhivago, where youth, ages 8 to 11, learn the fundamentals of design and animation by designing a character of their own and calculating the “plan of movement” for their animation to create a short film.

Learning basic design principles help youth advance their creations from short animation sequences to more detailed and longer films. While developing their own story-line and acting out these scenes adds an element of performance, it also gives these young students a greater sense of ownership and pride for the work they make.

Marie’s class takes place in two different spaces at the ARTS Center: the Green Room and the Media Lab. The Green Room is a brand new space created by Marie before the start of Fall Programs. The walls are literally painted green to be used for adding special effects and animation during post-processing. When not recording, this room is also used as a classroom where all the drawing (and erasing) happens for Marie’s class.

The students are introduced to more advanced tech materials in the Media Lab, where they type and print out scripts for voice-over reads and summaries of their animated films. Students are currently scanning their hand drawings and backgrounds to prepare for animation sequences which will be completed digitally. The class is half-way to making a collaborative animation presentation!

Behind the Scenes of Cartoon Design & Animation

“I get to see a very early view of the student's work and that is an amazing sight in early development of scenes and animation for any movie. The behind the scenes of a creative mind is wonderful!.” Marie explains about being able to guide her students through her course. “I have noticed they have a new appreciation of presenting their creative process. After one student presents their work, others usually follow suit. I also bring in my own personal tools and software for voice-overs, ipads and scanning machines to assist the students.”

Collaboration and building community is at the core of Marie’s classes, ”Most importantly, youth love to support others when classmates need help in drawing or scanning in their work. I have assigned some students for background drawings and voice-overs for animations that need voices. Collaborations assist with timing and planning a goal for the entire class.”