CSC 111 – Storytelling through Computer

AnimationScott Heggen

Agenda

• Pulse check• The Ecosystem of Story

How You Doing?

• Assignment 1: Storymatic Story• Assignment 2: Intro to Scratch & Programming• Assignment 3: The Muddiest Point• Assignment 4: Theme and Role• Assignment 5: The 12 Principles of Animation• Group Assignment 1: Group Roles and Expectations

Let’s Reflect

• Get out a pen and paper• Spend 10 minutes reflecting on the first three weeks of the course• Try to focus on:

• In what ways have you gotten better at storytelling and programming?• In what ways do you think you could improve?

• 1 Rule: You must continue writing for the full 10 minutes, even if that means writing “I don’t know what to write next…”• This reflection will be kept private: NO ONE but you will read them. So be

100% honest with yourself.• We will briefly discuss some conclusions you’ve drawn from your reflection

The Ecosystem of Story

• The book identifies 7 key elements of narrative:• Characterization• Point of View• Setting• Events/situations• Dialogue• Description• Style

Characterization

• How you develop and portray your character throughout the story• Is Bob the hero? Villain? Irrelevant to the story?• Covered in detail in Chapter 5

• “Look here,” he said. “I’m not about to take guff from anyone. I’ve been around the block a few times, and I’m no one’s doormat. I don’t care who you are, where you’re from, I don’t want to hear what you have to say.”

• “He chortled heartily before deeply puffing on his high end Cuban cigar, briefly glancing at his Rolex. He announced his driver would arrive at any moment, then tossed back the rest of his high end scotch.”

Characterization in Animation

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_GVgbykf8A

Your Next Assignment

• Read up on the elements of story from Chapter 2; be sure you understand all of them• Following the Twitter 140-character rule, create a flash story with only

132 characters + the hashtag #csc111.• If you have a Twitter, and you are comfortable with posting it to the

world, post it there.• If Twitter is not for you, or you are not comfortable with the world

seeing your amazing story, put it on a notecard and slide it under my door before next class

Rules

• Creativity is encouraged and rewarded.• Contain as many of the elements of story as possible• Some of these will likely be conveyed through suggestion.

• Spaces and punctuation count as characters• Removing spaces is cheating.• Removing punctuation is cheating.• Poor spelling, grammar, structure will count against you.• 132 characters + #csc111