"ANIMATION IS THE ILLUSION OF SPONTENEITY"
Help build the trailer for Reel Michigan!
By: Gary Schwartz
Gary will introduce participants to animation through the perspective of an award-winning artist. Participants will find their own voice through the discipline of animation and use this as a medium for self-expression, from a materials based perspective. Students will also help create the Reel Michigan trailer!
Technique used:
Under light Sand: (Animating the Ephemeral)
With this improvisational freeform technique, work frame-by-frame directly under the camera. The fluid quality of sand above a light-box creates a high contrast silhouette, similar to Indonesian shadow puppetry. This is an excellent opportunity to play with positive/negative space, draw in sand, and work with light & shadow. Tools for manipulating sand will include: fingers, wooden sticks, brushes, etc. There is no in-between with this technique. Each frame of animation wipes away some, or the entire previous image. The original artwork exists in an impermanent state of constant change. The ephemeral nature of this process is not unlike the sand paintings of the Navajo, created for sacred healing ceremonies.
BIO:
Gary Schwartz is an Academy Award winning filmmaker, animator, director, artist & educator. He teaches intensive hands-on animation workshops throughout the world. With his company, Single Frame Films, Gary has produced, designed and directed animation for Disney, Sesame Street, MTV, Fox Television, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting and others. He is currently a lecturer at the University of Michigan School of Art & Design.
***Reel Michigan is part of Northville's Arts and Acts Festival and all proceeds from Reel Michigan will benefit the Northville Art House and Forgotten Harvest***