Guided by industry veteran Tom Gasek, expand the limits of film and photography by creating many animated practical effects utilizing simple animation techniques, a DSLR or smartphone camera, and capture software.

Dates:
Jun 10, 2024 - Jun 14, 2024

Levels: Beginner, Intermediate,
Workshop Fee: $795
Workshop Duration: 10 hours over a week + Afternoon exercises with instructor support (Monday-Friday, 10am-12pm ET)
Workshop Location: Online
Class Size: 10

Note: This class will be held in an Online Format using the Zoom platform.
Class meets Monday to Friday, Jun 10-14 from 10am-12pm ET + Afternoon Exercises with instructor support.

Tom Gasek has over 30 years of award-winning professional stop motion animation experience as an animator and director. He has worked on Nick Park’s Wallace and Gromit short, “The Wrong Trousers” and the Peter Lord/Nick Park Feature, “Chicken Run.”.

Guided by industry veteran Tom Gasek, expand the limits of film and photography by creating many animated practical effects utilizing simple animation techniques, a DSLR or smartphone camera, and capture software. View Tom’s animation catalog.

Moving beyond traditional filmmaking by incorporating simple animation and mixed media techniques will make your films stand out in a more expressive manner. Many filmmakers and photographers want to know what else they can get from their DSLR and smartphone cameras. These single-frame approaches incorporate familiar equipment in a new and exciting approach. By being exposed to several simple animation principles of movement, filmmakers will learn to animate people and objects. Pixilation, which is the animation of people and objects, will be combined with some use of time-lapse in creative exercises applying animation principles and dynamics.

Learn about the capture software used in these techniques. Traditional camera and basic indoor and outdoor lighting approaches will be discussed in relation to single frame filmmaking. Attention will be focused on the DSLR camera and the optional smartphone camera and the manual controls required for the capture software applications. Students will be exposed to the history and artists that practice these techniques for inspiration. 

There will be daily morning two-hour online (Zoom) sessions with the instructor starting at 10:00 a.m. (Eastern time) demonstrating these lessons and exercises. Each day will include a brief write-up of the daily lesson with online links to examples of work demonstrating the exercise. The instructor will be available during the afternoon for support. 

The instructor’s book, Frame by Frame Stop Motion will be a reference but not required.

What will be covered:

Required Equipment

DSLR or smartphone, a tripod. The instructor is happy to answer any equipment questions you might have. If you are looking to buy new equipment to use in the class, the instructor can recommend the Canon EOS Rebel SL3 on the low-end and the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV on the high-end. Regardless of whether you are using a DSLR or a smartphone, you will need a tripod.

Required Software

If you are working with a DSLR, you will need Dragonframe software (approximately $295, you can also download a free trial). Dragonframe has the specs on all the DSLR cameras that work with Dragonframe. If you are working with a smartphone, you will need Stop Motion Studio ($5.99), which is available at The App & Google Play Store.

Past Student Work

 

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Instructor: Tom Gasek

Tom Gasek has over 30 years of award winning professional stop motion animation experience as an animator and director. He worked with directors Will Vinton, Art Clokey and Henry Selick. At Aardman Animations in Bristol England, he contributed animation to Nick Park’s Wallace and Gromit short, “The Wrong Trousers” and the Peter Lord / Nick Park Feature, “Chicken Run.” Gasek co-directed and animated the “Inside-Out Boy” for Nickelodeon, which is a part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He has maintained two small stop motion studios, one in San Francisco called “Sculptoons” in the early 90’s and OOH, Inc. in Massachusetts., and contributed animation to Aardman’s “Creature Comforts America”, Sony Bravia’s “Play-Doh”, Laika Studio’s “Coraline”, a series of Amazon Prime spots for Hornet Inc. in 2016 and he continues to direct and animate commercials and independent films. In the past several years, Tom produced, directed and animated two award winning short independent stop motion films, “Off-Line” and “Ain’t No Fish”. He is currently working on a short “pixilated” film called “4 @ 60.”

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