Curricula and materials of the training activity no.2

The Erasmus+ project "YangCC: Youth as Agents to Negate Global Climate Change via Visual Means" held its second Learning Teaching Training Activities (LTTA) event in Malmö, Sweden from May 5-9th at Föreningscenter Nobel 21 Malmö.

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The Blended Activity Animation Technique was designed to facilitate the acquisition of a comprehensive set of competencies necessary to train and instruct others (young people) in the utilisation of animation techniques. This approach empowers young people to engage in the fight against environmental problems, such as climate change.

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Over the course of the five-day meeting, Prof. Alexander Iliev, professor, actor and anthropologist, as well as Filip Donchev, a filmmaker, actor, and educator, introduced the attendees to an overview of Animation theory, history and hardware, film editing technology, climate change concepts, and practical demonstrations of animation and video creation. Additionally, they were introduced to fundamental concepts pertaining to climate change and the ways in which human actions contribute to it that helped them to create various animations and videos. The curricula of the training activity was the following:

Animation as it is

prof. Alexander Iliev, PHD

What is animation?

• a motion picture that is made from a series of drawings, computer graphics, or photographs of inanimate objects (as puppets).

• simulated movement by slight progressive changes in each frame.

• the act, process, or result of imparting life, interest, spirit, motion, or activity.

• the quality or condition of being alive, active, spiritual, or vigorous.

Early attempts at depicting motion

• human imagination and religious animism

• cave paintings 18,000 bc

• asian puppet theatre 4,000 bc

• greek vases 430 bc

Early animation devices

• magic lantern 1630

• thaumotrope 1825

• phenakisticope 1833

• zoetrope 1834

• praxinoscope 1877

• flipbooks 1868

• stop motion 1902

• chalk animation 1912

• silhouette animation 1927

First steps in animation

• Georges Méliès

• J. Stuart Blackton

• Emile Cohl

• Winsor Mccay

• Pat Sullivan And Otto Mesmer

• Lotte Reiniger – Silhouette Animation

• Max Fleischer – Rotoscope; Pose To Pose, Keyframes

• Cel Animation

Modern animation techniques

• drawing animation 1900

• puppet and muppet animation 1902

• sand and plastic figures animation 1936

• gohua 1960

• 3 d animation 1995

• japanese anime 1997

• mix techniques 1999

12 principles of animation

1. compression and tension

2. preparation or anticipation

3. stage design (constant consideration of how the viewer sees the image)

4. use of arrangements and direct phased motion

5. through movement (or finishing) and overlapping action

6. softening the beginning and end of movement (spacing)

7. arcs

8. additional action (expressive detail)

9. timing (timing)

10. exaggeration

11. "one-piece" (professional) drawing

12. attractiveness

Climate Change: The Basics

What is climate change and why is it happening?

Questions to answer…

1. What is the difference between the greenhouse effect, climate change and global warming?

2. What proof do we have that climate change is happening?

3. Why is it happening?

4. How does it work?

The Greenhouse Effect

• The Earth is surrounded by a thin layer of gases we call greenhouse gases.

• These gases are what make up our atmosphere.

The thickness of the atmosphere and the concentration of its gases influence the surface temperature on any planet.

What’s the difference?

Global warming

Is the increase of the Earth’s average surface temperature due to a build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere?

Climate change

These are the long-term changes in climate, including average temperature and precipitation.

We recognize that, although the average surface temperature may increase, the regional or local temperature may decrease or remain constant.

What does “average” mean?

• Climate is the average weather conditions over time.

• Global warming refers to an increase in the Earth’s average temperature.

  
  

What causes climate changes?

• Changes in the atmosphere

• Natural processes

• Volcanoes

• Tectonic plate movement

• Changes in the sun

• Shifts in Earth’s orbit

• Human activities – any activity that releases “greenhouse gases” into the atmosphere

This map shows the five-year average variation of global surface temperatures from 1884 to 2022. Dark blue indicates areas cooler than average. Dark red indicates areas warmer than average.

What proof do we have?

Temperature & CO2 Data

Glaciers are melting

So are ice caps on both the North and South pole. Example: Portage Glacier, Alaska

1914 vs 2014

Global Sea Level Rise

Climate Change in Europe

• Temperatures are rising, especially in winter.

• Extreme rainfall and flooding events (24-hr and 7-day) are more frequent.

• Extreme droughts and massive wildfires are more common

• In rural communities, forests and farmland are impacted, making crops and food more scarce and expensive for all.

Climate change is impacting many plants and animals

Why is climate change happening?

Who? - Pollution from coal, natural gas, and oil

What?

• Warming and sea level rise will continue and will probably occur more quickly than what we've already seen

• Even if greenhouse gases are stabilised, this will probably continue to occur for centuries

• Some effects may be permanent

How?

Effects on Ecosystems:

• Coral systems and other unique ecosystems cannot handle higher temperatures well

• Wildfires will increase

• Up to 30% of species will be at increased risk for extinction due to the rapid changes in their ecosystems

Where?

Effects in Europe:

• Warming in mountains: snow and ice melting

• Increased rain, storms and floods

• Heat waves will increase in number, length, and intensity

• Lack of drinking water

Here?

• climate related events over the last 40 years have caused more than € 487 billion in financial losses in the EU

• between 1980 and 2020, over 138 000 people in the EU lost their lives due to extreme weather and climate related events 

• the economic cost of river flooding in Europe exceeds € 5 billion a year on average

• forest fires cause about € 2 billion of economic damage every year

We are killing our Mother Nature ie . we are slowly and surely killing ourselves

Making a film

Script (scenario) - Storyboard

Positionson in the film crew: Creative and Support (Technical) Filming period

Post production

The scenario as a story of a battle:

1. Narration of an extraordinary event with 3 conditions fulfilled:

   • unity of place (in a precisely defined space)

   • unity of time (within life events for only 10 minutes)

   • unity of action (overcoming a single problem)

2. Five-sentence plot canvas

   • collision (beginning of the conflict, collision, struggle between A and B)

   • twist 1 (first turn in the fight, A knocks B down)

   • twist 2 (second twist in the fight, B knocks A down)

   • vicissitudes 3 (third twist in the fight, A knocks B down again)

   • catastrophe (end, collapse, fiasco of one of the two characters or both)

3. Age and brief description of the main actors of objects - up to 3 people/objects

The scenario as it happens:

Written answers with 1 simple sentence each to the questions:

• who? (the main character)

• when? (specific time of occurrence)

• where? (specific place of action)

• what? (the action by which the problem is overcome or not)

• why? (the cause of the problem)

• for what? (the global cause of the problem)

• how? (how the problem was solved or not)

Discussion in the following stages:

• Topic (what it's about, the main issue)

• Plot in 5 sentences (collision, 3 vicissitudes, catastrophe) Idea (what we want to say, like a slogan)

• Conflict (who are fighting what)

• Separating the characters around the conflict (+, –, ~) Composition (open or closed, 1 main or many) Genre (point of view, comedy, tragedy or drama)

• Address (for what audience is it intended, children, young, mature or old)

• Script in 2 pages (only verbs and lines ie action)

Types of plans - basic

General plan; Middle plan; Close-up

Types of plans - auxiliary

American Plan; Close-up; Gross

Types of angles - objects

Usual; Side; Upper; Bottom; At an angle

Types of angles - subjects

Profiled; Central; Upper; Bottom; At an angle

Types of camera movements 

Panoramic (left or right) Schwenk (up or down)

Fart (camera on the trolley or rails)

Parallel Round

Crane (Raise or lower camera with crane)

Subjective Camera (from the character's point of view)

By hand (without character involvement) Attached (to character)

Steadicam

Devil Advocate

DUTIES

Creative: *

(copyright holders)

Screenwriter

Producer

Director

Operator

Editor

Composer or sound engineer Painter

Animator

(no copyright)

Actors

Musicians

Stunts

Doubles

DUTIES

Technical (support) team:*

General Editor

Field Editor

Assistant director

Camera technician

Scripter

Illuminator

Sound operator

Organizer

Makeup artist

Wardrobe

Props officer

Host-supplier

Field worker

Security

Filming

Filming period:

Preparation of sets

Preparation of the actors

Rehearsals with a camera

Shooting takes

Description of the material

Post-production: 

Review the material

Selection of good takes

Montage of footage

Special effects

Sound mastering

Mastering the film

The Plan

Who is who? Who is when? Who is where? 

Production

Distribution of positions 

Defining the topic 

Script development

Creating the storyboard 

Shooting the raw material 

Post-production 

Checking the material

Installation and Nachsynchron 

Premiere

Screening of the films 

Discussing the movies 

Oscars