APD- week 5

Theme: Play and Force

Content:

Ray Pointer’s book in 2017, ‘The Art and Inventions of Max Fleischer: American Animation Pioneer’, which helps me to understand the development of animation and film, as well as the first hand-held projector. It explains in detail how humans use external forces to animate animation and its principles. Through this article, I not only made an animation machine, but let me experience the initial appearance of the animation and understand how the original animation
moved coherently with the help of external force.

The making process was learned by The Q’s video, ‘how to make flipbook animation machine at home’, this video talks about the theory and step how to make this animation machine.

Response:

After considering the decision to make a hand-operated animation machine, I found that the shoe box was the most suitable material. The cardboard of the shoe box can make the animation machine stronger.

According to the tutorial of the hand-cranked animation machine, I started according to the steps. The first step is to cut the base part to a suitable size and paste it to make it strong enough to support the subsequent weight. The second part is to make the supporting parts on both sides of the animation machine. This is a triangle with an arc, and its width needs to match the base. After this, two circular and equidistant drill holes are required, and the number of these holes determines the number and fluency of subsequent animations. Due to limited time, I only made eight animations. I connected two straws and used it to support each animation, which is also a key part of connecting the paper and the machine. The straw needs to be glued to the center

of the paper and in turn inserted into the holes of the disc.

In the animation drawing, I drew a cat to observe a flying seal and a swinging flower. I think the whole picture looks cute.

However, after completing these basic steps, I found that the animation machine was difficult to rotate continuously due to the looseness of the joint and the weight of the paper. Through many experiments, I used toothpicks as a fix, fortunately, the animation machine can be turned smoothly.

Reflection:

When I saw the theme of force, I wanted to combine external force with animation. From here, I thought of a hand-cranked

animation projector. By rapidly changing images and visual delays, people discovered animation. I think the development of animation is also inspired by external forces. So I decided to build an animation machine from the beginning
of the animation. The reason for choosing a handheld animation machine is because I can think that different hand speeds will have a certain impact on the rendering of the animation, so I can observe the impact of external forces on the animation. This research on traditional animation helped me understand the actions in the animation and how to make the animation

coherent. In the animation production of studio 2, the coherent movement is a challenge for me. Through this exercise, it will help me draw the connection between the various movements.

I spent a long time on this exercise, although the effect is ideal. But I still think that more animations have been added to
make the overall movement smoother. Next time I will try to use other kinds of external forces, such as wind or sound, to innovate animation.