CAR 120: Experimental Animation

Course Overview / Reflection

This semester I am excited to be teaching my own course, CAR 120: Experimental Animation, as an instructor of record. To prepare for teaching this course, which offers an introduction to various modalities such as stop motion puppetry, 2-D animation, cutout animation, and pixilation, I read several books on the topic of experimental animation over winter break to gain a deeper theoretical understanding of the genre, design an informed curriculum, and best serve my students.

So far, my experience teaching this class has been positive and fulfilling. More than one of my students has told me it is their favorite class, and one told me recently that it is the only class in which she feels she is learning something that is meaningful.

GIF from my film, A Spot for Frog

Studying Animation in CAR 120

Part of what I hope to do is expose students as much as possible to historical and contemporary experimental animation with a belief in the value of learning from artists who are already engaged in the craft. I do this through carefully selected in-class screenings of short films—which I choose based not only on artistic merit, but also based on aesthetics that would be manageable for students to see themselves achieve, featuring techniques relevant to what we are learning. These screenings spark curiosity and serve as inspiration, like planting seeds in their minds for what is possible. It also allows them to also locate their work within a larger cultural context, joining a global community of diverse artists.

My own journey toward understanding this subject was influenced when I travelled to Croatia last summer to attend Animafest Zagreb, one of the biggest and most distinguished animation festivals in the world, for which my first-year MFA short film “Thine Own Self” was an official selection. In this week-long event, I became immersed in an international community of leading animators, including multiple Oscar winning filmmakers, who gathered to celebrate the medium together for the festival’s fiftieth anniversary. The infectious spirit of passion for animation that I absorbed from this experience is something I carry with me and bring into the classroom to share with students.

Making Animation in CAR 120

As a self-taught animator, I also believe the best way to learn animation is not only by watching it but by doing it, and practicing as much as possible without fear. Rather than completing fewer major projects throughout the semester, my students complete many short, fast-paced weekly exercises to gain comfort working with the medium in a low-stakes manner where it is safe to experiment and make mistakes. Ultimately, their weekly practice will accumulate and build toward a larger, open-ended final project where they are free to implement any of the numerous techniques we have practiced all semester as a means of personal expression.

Because experimental animation is a genre defined by an openness to unconventional methods, I intentionally avoid enforcing one singular technique or software, and strive to create opportunities in which students can develop their own personal approaches, finding creative solutions to achieve the prompts or "challenges" that I provide for them. Then, we come together to share what we created outside of class, so that students share their approaches and learn from each other in an interactive process of collective knowledge building. In the spirit of true experimentation, my biggest objective in CAR 120 is to foster a space in which learners feel comfortable trying new techniques, making mistakes, and trying again — learning from the process, making unexpected discoveries along the way, and hopefully finding new means through which to express themselves.

Course Description (Excerpt from Syllabus)

Experimental animators venture beyond convention, embracing creative freedom to break boundaries of both content and form. This hands-on studio course will offer an introduction to the expansive possibilities of animation as a means of personal, subjective artistic expression, emphasizing independent approaches to animation outside of the commercial mainstream. Throughout the semester, we will experiment with a range of techniques including pixilation, direct drawing, cutout animation, claymation, stop motion, and puppetry through weekly in-class and at-home exercises, culminating in a final project using any mode(s) of your choosing. The course will also emphasize the art of sound design as a crucial ingredient in bringing animation to life.

Alongside making and sharing our own work, we will be viewing a variety of historical and contemporary animated short films through in-class screenings to foster inspiration, stimulate discussion, and ground our practice in the context of a larger creative community. Watching and creating experimental work requires having an open mind toward what is unfamiliar, dwelling in mystery with curiosity. Doing so requires us to look more deeply, feel more fully, and listen more carefully to the strange and confusing reality in which we find ourselves.

Whether you are an experienced animator or brand new to the artform, this course is meant for YOU as an opportunity to create relentlessly, adapt to challenges, and experiment without fear in a supportive, encouraging workshop environment with the knowledge that anyone can animate!

Grading Policy / Philosophy (Excerpt from Syllabus)

My hope is to foster an environment in which your desire to invest in the creative work of this course will stem from a place of intrinsic motivation as an artist, rather than external evaluation. Grades often serve as a source of stress and anxiety for students, reducing the joy of learning as well as being an inadequate means of measuring it. The work you produce will not be assessed based on my personal, subjective perception of its “quality,” nor based on its conformity to a particular set of technical standards, given the essence of experimental animation in rejecting imposed convention.

Your grade will be determined based on whether you complete the assigned course work including in-class and at-home projects, using percentages outlined below. This means participating in assignments according to basic guidelines provided in class and on Blackboard, which I will strive to make as clear as possible. Your grade will only become a concern if you do not attend class or turn in assignments.

I hope in this class, your primary goal can be to enjoy participating in a process of creative experimentation, self-expression, and personal growth—the success of which is something only you can measure.

CAR 120: Student Work / Class Instagram Account

An essential part of being an artist is sharing your work with others, which takes practice to grow comfortable with. With this in mind, and in the spirit of positive community building, I created the ongoing public Instagram account below to showcase the work of my students in CAR 120 throughout the semester. Student participation in this account is completely optional and not associated with their grade. However, everyone in the class has embraced the opportunity for their class homework to be shared in this public archive and exhibition of short animation exercises.

Taking time to download, organize, and post these student assignments online every week takes a considerable amount of extra effort on my part to accomplish. However, it is all worth it when I see students proudly re-posting the work they made on their own Instagram stories, sending what they made to their friends, and receiving supportive comments from friends and family members about their work in the class.

Animation is an intensely time-consuming and labor-intensive form of filmmaking. This semester, I have been deeply proud and impressed every week to see the effort my students continue to invest in their homework, with an incredible degree of imagination and creativity.

Click on the square images below to see some of the outstanding student exercises completed so far in CAR 120. Each of the posts below contains multiple slides of student-made animations, which you can click through using the circular white arrow buttons.

CAR 120 Materials: Weekly Slides

Every week, I create thoughtfully designed visual aids organized in such a way that class flows smoothly, with a clear sense of focus regarding learning targets for that four-hour session. By alternating between various modes of learning and taking breaks when needed, I consciously integrate as many different learning styles as possible to sustain active engagement. These educational formats include group discussions, journaling sessions, film screenings, work-shares, and hands-on animation exercises.

Samples of Weekly Slides

(First 5 Weeks of Spring Semester 2023)

In-Classroom Observation Notes - Experimental Animation - Feb. 10, 2023

by Lida Suchy, Photographer and Teacher for 15 years at OCC (Onondaga Community College)

Evan begins the studio-length (nearly 4-hour-long) class by looking at student work from the assignment students just completed. The mood in the classroom is anticipatory. All the chairs arranged around the table are full. All 16 or so students seem attentive. Students are engaged as their work is projected. Each student speaks about their work after it’s shown with a focus on what they were trying to get across, and how the piece was made. Evan listens attentively and makes constructive comments. It is clear from interactions with students that Evan consciously works at developing confidence in students by giving positive feedback and shows genuine interest in hearing what students say about their work. Evan consciously strives to create a “safe space” within the classroom, where student can feel O.K. taking a risk, whether it be in technique or content. This student-centered interactive approach keeps students engaged and paying attention.

Evan proceeds by showing historic short experimental animations that utilize color, abstraction, and sound. Many of these include the work of women filmmakers. This sets up a context for the next segment, which is based on the use of color and sound in experimental animation to create emotion. Some students seem a bit less enthusiastic in viewing these historical works.

This is followed by an in-class activity where students are given instructions, tools, and some time to make moving drawings or gifs (an image file that simulates motion.) The gifs are viewed in the classroom and discussed, bringing students to the center once more. These moving drawings provide a “bridge” from the historic films presented earlier in class to the upcoming assignment, where students are tasked with “translating feelings into sight and sound.”

Evan ends with a presentation of one of his own films where he used sound and color to help reinforce the symbolic meaning and narrative of the film. Students are very responsive to the work shown and ask many questions. Evan connects the dots between the previous historic films shown, which used shape, color and sound in an abstract way, to his film which uses shape, color and sound to create a narrative film animation. Students respond enthusiastically to the idea of a narrative film incorporating these elements.

Organized recaps and email reminders Evan provides after each class are very helpful in zeroing in on what was covered in the class that needs to be top of mind, and that relates to the upcoming assignment.

Clear course objectives.

Grounded in history of medium.

Excellent organization of materials and resources.

Effective use of audio visual tools for presentation of main points.

Effective use of time management to divide long class into do-able, bite size, segments.

Use of minimal PowerPoint slides keeps the class moving, reinforces the main points, and makes effective use of resource and background materials for viewing again and for thoughtful contemplation of the course content, should students want to venture that far after class, by going onto blackboard and accessing the information from the previous session. Organization of key points and materials works wonderfully here.

Even the background of the slides in the PowerPoint is carefully thought through with a handmade touch – the background is an abstract watercolor painting of a light blue sky made on toothy watercolor paper. This reinforces the idea of seeing the maker’s hand in the work and of purposely including imperfections to add a human element to the electronic presentation that presents an outline of the main ideas covered in the class this day.

Thank you Evan!