Week 1: Finding Your Story
Explore creative prompts, themes and visual references to uncover a story you want to tell. Build a mood board using imagery, music and art, then use introductory writing exercises to begin shaping your animated short.
Week 2: Writing The Script
Learn screenplay fundamentals and narrative structure using tools such as Freytag’s Pyramid and the Story Circle. Develop your film concept, refine the central idea and write a one-page script and story breakdown.
Week 3: Storyboarding Your Film
Translate your script into visual storytelling through thumbnail boards, composition, staging and cinematic camera angles. Begin mapping how each scene will communicate the story visually.
Week 4: Making Your Boards Cinematic
Refine your storyboards through pacing, shot variety, camera movement and visual flow. Present your boards to the group, gather constructive feedback and strengthen the plan before moving into production design.
Week 5: Designing Your Characters
Explore character design fundamentals including silhouettes, proportions, expressive poses and turnarounds. Develop production-ready characters and create turnaround and expression sheets to guide your animation.
Week 6: Building Your World
Develop the environments your characters inhabit through perspective, background design and visual storytelling. Create locations and production assets that support both your narrative and your chosen artistic style.
Week 7: Planning Like A Studio
Organize your production using shot lists, asset tracking, schedules and workflow planning. Compare 2D, 3D, stop-motion and hybrid approaches and establish a practical production plan for completing your film.
Week 8: Bringing Drawings To Life
Apply foundational animation principles including squash and stretch, anticipation, timing, spacing and follow-through. Begin focused production work and use these principles to create more convincing movement.
Week 9: Character Acting
Explore how body language, facial expression, staging and performance communicate emotion. Apply character-acting techniques directly to your own shots and refine how your characters behave on screen.
Week 10: Strong Poses & Clear Action
Strengthen your animated sequences through clear silhouettes, key poses and breakdowns. Focus on communicating weight, emotion and action while continuing production on your short.
Week 11: Timing, Polish & Final Animation
Refine timing, spacing and holds while completing the remaining animation. Use this production-focused session to polish movement, strengthen storytelling and bring your film closer to its final form.
Week 12: Editing & Compositing
Assemble your completed shots and explore the fundamentals of editing, compositing, sound design, music and audio. Bring the different elements of your project together into a finished animated short.
Week 13: Student Film Festival
Present your completed animated short during the student film festival. Share your creative process, see the finished projects on screen and leave with a completed film ready for your portfolio, demo reel or future festival submissions.
