Course Syllabus

Fall 2024 | ART-1420-VO01 - Digital Animation

Online Class

Online courses take place 100% online via Canvas, without required in-person or Zoom meetings.

Faculty

Darren Spafford
View Faculty Credentials

Hiring Coordinator for this course: Dana Lee

General Education Requirements

VSCS Arts & Aesthetics

Note

Many degree programs have specific general education recommendations. In order to avoid taking unnecessary classes, please consult with additional resources like your program evaluation, your academic program catalog year page, and your academic advisor.

Courses may only be used to meet one General Education Requirement.

Course Description

This course is a hands-on introduction to creating simple animations. Students gain proficiency with illustration and animation concepts and import images and sounds. Students also learn the correct usage of frame actions.

Essential Objectives

1. Demonstrate proficiency in the animation development environment including managing the workspace, usage of stage properties, timelines, and property panels.
2. Demonstrate importing graphic, audio, and video content.
3. Design an object using drawing tools and layers to prepare for animation.
4. Define effective use of storyboards and animatics to deliver a compelling story, and explain the movements of animated objects and characters.
5. Demonstrate proficiency in animating graphics using tweens and frame by frame animation, and apply blurring, selective animation, speed lines, onion skinning, and squash/stretch effects to add convincing or exaggerated motion to characters and objects.
6. Demonstrate synchronization by animating dialog, sound effects, and/or music soundtrack.
7. Discuss the artistic and design considerations of creating effective presentations.
8. Examine, discuss, and critique animated works including some reference to historical, social, and cultural contexts.
9. Display finished works as a digital deliverable.

Required Technology

More information on general computer and internet recommendations is available on the CCV IT Support page. https://support.ccv.edu/general/computer-recommendations/

Please see CCV's Digital Equity Statement (pg. 45) to learn more about CCV's commitment to supporting all students access the technology they need to successfully finish their courses.

Required Textbooks and Resources

This course uses one or more textbooks/books/simulations.

Fall 2024 textbook details will be available on 2024-05-20. On that date a link will be available below that will take you to eCampus, CCV's bookstore. The information provided there will be specific to this class. Please see this page for more information regarding the purchase of textbooks/books.

ART-1420-VO01 Link to Textbooks for this course in eCampus.

The last day to use a Financial Aid Advance to purchase textbooks/books is the 3rd Tuesday of the semester. See your financial aid counselor at your academic center if you have any questions.

Methods

Overview/Annoucement
Each week will have an overview and annoucement explaining what we will be working on with more detail for how the week will work. Please start with the overview each week.

Course Resources
Use the resources provided with this course. Videos were specifically designed for this course as demosntrations, tutorials, and follow-alongs to be used a practice each week.

Discussions
Discusisons are like our "in-class conversation" to talk, chat, brainstorm, and get ready for each week as a group. It is expected that we will make a post and reply to two (2) colleagues each week.

Assignments
Are our way of demonstrating the resources made sense. Read the assignment description/rubric early, during, and after assignments to understand what is expected.

Reviews
Each week we will have a quiz to chat about how the week went and answer a few skills-based questions.

Evaluation Criteria

• 60% Assignments
• 10% Midterm/Final
• 15% Discussions
• 15% Weekly Reviews

Grading Criteria

CCV Letter Grades as outlined in the Evaluation System Policy are assigned according to the following chart:

	High	Low
A+	100	98
A	Less than 98	93
A-	Less than 93	90
B+	Less than 90	88
B	Less than 88	83
B-	Less than 83	80
C+	Less than 80	78
C	Less than 78	73
C-	Less than 73	70
D+	Less than 70	68
D	Less than 68	63
D-	Less than 63	60
F	Less than 60
P	100	60
NP	Less than 60	0

Weekly Schedule

Attendance Policy

Regular attendance and participation in classes are essential for success in and are completion requirements for courses at CCV. A student's failure to meet attendance requirements as specified in course descriptions will normally result in a non-satisfactory grade.

• In general, missing more than 20% of a course due to absences, lateness or early departures may jeopardize a student's ability to earn a satisfactory final grade.
• Attending an on-ground or synchronous course means a student appeared in the live classroom for at least a meaningful portion of a given class meeting. Attending an online course means a student posted a discussion forum response, completed a quiz or attempted some other academically required activity. Simply viewing a course item or module does not count as attendance.
• Meeting the minimum attendance requirement for a course does not mean a student has satisfied the academic requirements for participation, which require students to go above and beyond simply attending a portion of the class. Faculty members will individually determine what constitutes participation in each course they teach and explain in their course descriptions how participation factors into a student's final grade.

Participation Expectations

Weekly Attendance & Participation:

• skim resources early in the week to get an idea of what we are going to learn
• discuss what you are learning in our weekly discussions
• understand concepts by watching resources and taking notes
• try to follow along with resources as often as possible to gain confidence
• practice concepts on your own until confident with the skill
• apply what you learned on the weekly assignment with rough and final drafts
• review & reflect on skills learned and each week's experience

Plan on Spending 8-10 Hours/Week On this Course - That includes reviewing all material, participation in discussions, filling our reviews, everything. That should leave 6-8 hours of actual practicing skills and completing tasks. Be sure to give yourself enough time.

Compleye All Tasks On Time
This includes discussions, assignment, reviews, and other tasks with due dates. Late assignments will be automatically given a "0".

Get Help When You Need It
Keep yourself on task each week by communicating when you need help. Use discussions and email the instructor of you have questions and/or need help via an online video format.

Participate With Deliberate Intention
Any course ends up being what you put into it. So have fun, practice things, and really gain confidence to experience what doing this for a living really might be like. Try resources/assignments more than once and truly try to understand what we are doing and why to get the most out of the course, also ensuring the highest possilbe grade for yourself :)

Missing & Late Work Policy

In this course, each week builds on the last so it is very important we keep up with assignments each week. Otherwise the next week won’t make sense. In order to help out, the following policies will be in place:

• Weekly participation and being on time is required
• Only work submitted on time will be considered for full credit
• Every participant has two (2) late passes that extend an assignment due date by 3 days
• Not completing the weekly assignment on time equals one (1) absence
• Missing three (3) classes is a loss of credit

Accessibility Services for Students with Disabilities:

1. Provide disability documentation to the Accessibility Coordinator at your academic center. https://ccv.edu/discover-resources/students-with-disabilities/
2. Request an appointment to meet with accessibility coordinator to discuss your request and create an accommodation plan.
3. Once created, students will share the accommodation plan with faculty. Please note, faculty cannot make disability accommodations outside of this process.

Academic Integrity