On Thursday February 27th, all students in grade 7 were doing a half day within the school’s Creative School project.
The film screening of Liyana
The teacher Luis introduced the half day of Creative School with focus on animation. He told us about his experiences of watching the film Liyana two years ago during the Gothenburg Film festival. He had been spellbound by its mix of realistic characters and fantastic environment depictions, storytelling and real lifes stories, animation and documentary and more.
The film screening also had connections to the school’s exchange with a school in Uganda and most of the students being involved in a project called World Children’s prize.
The film discussion of Liyana
In advisory class you could choose what to focus on in class, when discussing Liyana based on a material produced by California Film Institute Education. For example you could contextualize Swaziland, discuss storytelling, discuss empathy and resilience or media literacy. Most classes focused on empathy and resilience, for example: ”How do stories and films help us build empathy?”, ”How does the act of storytelling help the children in the film build resilience?”
The interactive animation workshop
In the beginning of the workshop, the Nigerian animator, art director and character designer Shofela Coker introduced himself. He had previously been working with video games, but then he decided he wanted to create something unique. He also wanted to show a part of Africa from a positive angle. Also because he experienced a lack of African people being reflected in media.
He told us about his work with the animated part of Liyana. The orphans in the film participated in the project to overome difficult situations. At the same time they created a beautiful story. When Shofela worked with the kids, he got inspiration from knowing and enjoying to work with them. He thought of himself as very lucky having the opportunity to do so.
After that Shofel did a process demonstration showing us the practical work behind the animation of Liyana. He used a sunset scene in Liyana as an example to show sketches, designing of characters. How light works in a painting or background. What happens when you add colour and do the finishing touch, to add more depth and texture, for example through using fuzzy or hard brushes.
You could save your painting as a videofile with moveable parts.
The students got to practice how to create computer animated film via storytelling. They did an excercise led by Shofela, where they created their own 2D character: Who are they? What are their location and background? What are they wearing? What do their personalities look like? Shofela tipped the students about doing research while making up this. He showed them examples of from inuits, Ukraine and more. For example you could study structures in background, fabric and more to make it more believable. But the goal is later on to simplify and make appealing, because you will need to redo similar drawing several times.
If the students did not want to do it digital, they could also do it via pencil and paper. Because in the end it is your drawing skills that matter the most.
The students got to draw simpler, strong shapes, because that sparks creativity. Before they decide what type of character to create, it is time to do research to gather references. After that the students could line their sketches. Shofela tips about reenforcing something characteristi for the character, like the iconic hair for Liyana. He also thinks it is a good idea to include apeal and story elements for the character. After that color and final shape could be added, before developing a sketch and pose. Using your reference and test shapes to animate a short looping.
A tip for students on a resource were they can work with art writing, desgin and animation is: artstation.com
Shofela also created a couple handouts for the students. Here they are:
ISGR Götaberg Library 