On November 18, 2024 at the Department of Creative Arts and Art Education FE CPU in Nitra was held a lecture entitled The process of animation: how to turn your scripts into animation, followed by a workshop entitled How to turn a script into a storyboard.

Both the lecture and the workshop were part of the planned lectures by domestic and foreign experts within the project KEGA no. 020UKF-4/2024 “Innovation of university training of art teachers in connection with the needs of 21st century society" (responsible researcher: doc. PhDr. Adriana Récka, PhD.), the main goal of which is to innovate the content of the university training of future art teachers, in line with the current challenges and needs of educational practice, in the context of the needs of 21st century society, which result from several objective economic, technological, as well as cultural and social determinants. The current curriculum of art education for elementary schools also works with animation, where pupils get to know the principles of animation and make their first attempts to make pictures move. In today's modern times, digital tools and tutorials for creating a short animated film are already available online for those interested, and an art teacher can use some of them.

The lecturer was B.Sc. Nadia Bigos, who graduated with a bachelor's degree in digital design from the University of the National Education Commission in Krakow (Poland) in 2024. She is currently a 1st-year student of the master's degree in art and digital design (Art & Design Studies MA) at the same university. She is a participant in national and international group exhibitions and art workshops, author of two scientific articles about virtual reality and defense mechanisms displayed in computer games. She is interested in worldbuilding and animation, and she participated in the creation of two films that were shown at Portuguese, Czech and Thai festivals. The presentation also included samples of one's own work called Synergy, intro, and a presentation of a printed book (artbook about the world and characters from the game intro) and a film created during an internship at COLA Animation Studio in Portugal. She currently displays her artistic visions through animation, using a new skill to bring her ideas to life.

The lecture and workshop focused on the animation process from first ideas, sketches, storyboards, to animation. The animation process was illustrated in the film "Peach Story", which was the result of the teamwork of students of one year, and was shown at Animafest in Gdańsk, Animánie festival in Pilsen, Żubroffka festival in Białystok and Fuse.Kids Festival in Bangkok.

In the beginning, it was explained why animation takes so long, how the film is created based on the arrangement of drawings from the storyboard, and how the individual images are stored in chronological order in the animation software. "Rough animation" has been called the quick and unrefined sketches of scenes that determine the timing, movement and flow of the animation. It's a motion visualization where the animators don't work on any details, and the motion has to be simple so that the later animation can easily adapt to any changes in the scene or feedback. The following is the process of creating the final drawings that we see in the finished film. Artists use key drawings and animation charts to keep everything consistent, followed by finishing touches such as texture, color and shading. The workshop entitled "How to make a good storyboard?" was aimed at developing the creativity of the participants by animating their own story. Workshop participants learned how to make a storyboard, which is the first visualization of an idea and a graphic representation of what will happen in the film.

The lecture was intended for students with a focus on art education or related fields, and these students also took part in the workshop, and we believe, that they will use the gained knowledge in their future school practice. The lecture was part of the Student Days of Nitra Universities 2024, held annually in the city of Nitra, in which the University of Constantine the Philosopher in Nitra and the Slovak University of Agriculture participate.

 

Text: PaedDr. Janka Satková, PhD., PF – Department of Creative Arts and Art Education
Photo: doc. PhDr. Adriana Récka, PhD., PaedDr. Janka Satková, PhD., PF – Department of Creative Arts and Art Education

 

Published: December 3, 2024