FLIP//BOOK
FLIP//BOOK is a free online animation short course for creatives, no animation experience is necessary. If you are interested in developing a toolkit to include animation techniques and methodologies (both 2D and 3D) in your creative practice, this is for you!
The course is now a go-at-your-own-pace free and open online course. Initially, when launched in 2020, it ran over four weeks with live online support throughout the series, it now continues to run but without the zoom support component. The classes are run by a range of Sydney-based artists working in animation and filmmaking. At the end of the course, you’ll complete your own video work applying the practices explored each week. Although the live support classes are no longer running, please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions while completing the course.
The workshops will require access to the Adobe Suite (specifically; Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere Pro).
The Artists and Instructors
Jen Atherton and André Shannon
Jen Atherton and André Shannon from Garden Reflexxx are filmmakers and curators based in Sydney, Australia.
Their passion is creating dreamy and extremist work inspired by artists who push the boundaries of what is possible with a body, a material, a timeline. The pair also have a weekly movie segment on FBi 94.5 in Sydney called Movies Movies Movies.
Their work has been included in Vivid Sydney, Pornfilmfestival Berlin, Slamdance Film Festival, Montreal World Film Festival, Seattle Short Film Festival, and the Sherman Centre for Culture and Ideas.
They are running the first workshop on editing.
Serwah Attafuah
Serwah Attafuah is a multidisciplinary artist and musician based on Dharug land/West Sydney, Australia. She creates surreal cyber dreamscapes and heavenly wastelands, populated by afro-futuristic abstractions of self with strong ancestral and contemporary themes.
Serwah has collaborated and been commissioned by clients including Mercedes Benz, Nike, GQ, Adobe, Paris Hilton and Charli XCX. Recent notable achievements include her participation in Sotheby's 'Natively Digital': A Curated NFT auction and 'Apotheosis': a live motion capture experience with Soft Centre at The Sydney Opera House.
Serwah is running the second workshop on 3D design and animation.
Georgette Stefoulis and Ella Sanderson
Georgette and Ella are a design duo who create, write, direct and animate vulgar little films and are the leading proponents of nasalingus in the southern hemisphere.
They are joint editors in chief of Hag Mag (a self published biannual humorous art anthology) comic makers, illustrators, and most recently have expanded into the cutthroat world of fibre arts.
They are running the third workshop on 2D animation.
Keanu Hoi and Lucca Barone-Peters
Keanu Hoi and Lucca Barone-Peters are the organisers of FLIP//BOOK and will be running the fourth class on combining animation techniques. You will hear from them throughout the course, either from the live support channels or from the software introduction videos.
The two have made several mixed media animation projects together, notably the Julien Mier music video Giants of the Earth which premiered on Adult Swim US, the short Ruby's Cottage which premiered at Cinanima (Portugal), and the Willow Beats music video Special.
Their work has been included in Sydney Film Festival, CineQuest California, MIFF, Vivid Sydney, Soft Centre and Slamdance Festival.
FAQs
Q. How skilled do I need to be to participate?
A. This short course has been designed to be flexible and less about upskilling, and rather about enriching your creative practice through animation techniques and methodologies. So with this in mind we have technical content to support participants who have never used these applications, this way everyone can follow and understand the artist practices without being too caught up in the technical. In other words, some of the core content that the artists are contributing involves basic understanding of each application (Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere Pro and Cinema 4D) and that's why each class will have a video or two dedicated to making sure everyone is on the same playing field and no one is excluded from these classes based on experience.
Q. What do I need to have to receive an educational licence for Cinema 4D?
A. As long as you have a student ID that has an expiry date that hasn't yet passed you'll be able to get an educational license here.
We have organised a limited amount of Cinema 4D licenses for participants who aren't students or teachers, since it's limited we need to be considerate in how we allocate them, so we don't run out, that's why we want to make sure participants who are students/teachers get the existing free educational license that runs for 3 months longer than the ones we can offer to participants. Additionally, with AfterEffects, Cinema 4D lite is provided for free, so as long as you have a Creative Cloud subscription you have access to Cinema 4D.
Q. What is the rough time commitment per week for the course?
A. The video content/component of the course will be approximately 2 hours each week, for the weeks involving applications you have never used before there is additional content to get a base understanding of the application and for those weeks you should allocate an extra 30 minutes for Adobe applications and roughly 90 minutes for Cinema 4D. Between classes, you should allocate roughly 3 hours to further your video project and get live-support if necessary. So to surmise, a minimum of 3 hours should be allocated each week, but to get the most from the course I would recommend 4-5 hours, however, these hours are largely flexible to fit in throughout the week.
Q. Are there any specific articles or websites that you recommend before beginning this course?
A. Yes, we will be issuing further readings, exercises and experiences in advance of the course and between classes. These will be available on the website once it launches, the same page as where each class will take place. We will notify participants once they are available.