Animation Workshops

Workshops in different Animation Techniques

Benefit from my experience

Since 1996 I have been offering animation workshops in different animation techniques. The participants of the workshops benefit from my experience as a director, author, producer and animator of animated short films and as a producer of animated commercials since 1982.

Practical Work and diverse learning opportunities

Participants learn how to animate or produce a complete animated film through practical work.

Creativity and technology

Depending on the topic of the workshop, the participants work, for example, with certain animation techniques and explore the expressive possibilities of animation. They develop their own stories, deal with dramaturgy and design their films with music and sounds. They learn about film-specific tools and gain experience with the camera and special editing software.

Organisation and cooperation

Alone or as part of a production team, participants learn to structure the production process. In group work, they practise coordinating the work in a team to achieve a common goal. Team spirit, motivation and reliability are trained.

During the workshops, talents are revealed or new interests develop among the participants.

Film screening with discussion

My workshops can also be combined with a film screening of my award-winning short films. In this way, the knowledge acquired in the workshop helps the participants to evaluate the films.

Zoetrope Workshop

Cut-out Animation Workshop

Stop Motion Workshop

Pixilation Workshop

Paint on Glass Animation Workshop

References

BVR - Federal Association of the German Volks- u. Raiffeisenbanken, Germany

On behalf of the BVR, I have been running annual one-week animation workshops in various animation techniques for German prize-winners of the European youth creativ competition since 2006.

The workshop results were presented as part of a final presentation either as a film or as a performance like The Spinning Animation Show.

Each workshop referred to the specific motto of the summer academy, such as ‘Imagine’, ‘Balance’, ‘Bridges’, ‘Flow’ or ‘Oikos’.

participants and group size: 6 – 12 pupils aged 12 – 19 years)
duration: 6 days, with final presentation
animation technique: cartoon, cut-out, stop motion, pixilation, paint-on-glass and experimental
workshop place: International Educational Institute Scheersberg, Germany
staff: 1 pedagogic assistant

Photos from the work process

Goethe Institute Amman, Royal Film Commission Jordan (RFC)

I held a stop motion workshop commissioned by the Goethe-Institut in Amman in cooperation with the Royal Film Commission Jordan (RFC).

Participants built figures out of wire and gained experience in stop motion animation and animation film recording techniques.

language: English
participants and group size: 12 participants, animation trainees and professionals
duration: 3 days
animation technique: stop motion with puppets made from wire and plasticine
workshop place: Royal Film Commission Jordan (RFC)
staff: 1 assistant

Photos from the work process

City of Straubing, Technical and vocational Secondary School - FOSBOS Straubing, Germany

Excerpt of 80 cycle animations.

A Zoetrope workshop with a final presentation of the results under the name ‘The Spinning Animation Show’ was commissioned by the city of Straubing on the occasion of the celebrations “800 years of the new city of Straubing”.

Together with the city archive and the State Technical and Vocational Secondary School FOSBOS Straubing, I developed a 40-minute Spinning Animation Show called The Spinning History as part of a six-month Zoetrope workshop. In the elaborately designed audio-visual show, the history of the city of Straubing was impressively presented by students.

The participants of the workshop created 80 animation loops on historical events in the city, each with 15 drawings on paper strips or discs, on records or on transparent Plexiglas. They themselves presented the results in an elaborate audiovisual show with eight optical devices, e.g. Zoetropes, Praxinoscopes or on turntables in combination with stroboscope and UV light.

participants and group size: 30 creative trainees
duration: 6 months with 4 workshops at the school and continuous remote support of the ongoing project from Kassel
animation technique: animation loops with 2D (drawing, painting, foto-collage) and 3D materials (Plasticine, folded paper, grains, cotton wool, strings, etc.)
workshop place: Technical College for Design FOSBOS Straubing, design craft department
staff: cooperation with the regular teachers for design at FOSBOS

Watch a making of film by FOSBOS Straubing (German) about the working process.

Report by Niederbayern TV

Excerpt of 80 cycle animations.

Photos from the work process

Report by Niederbayern TV

Photos from the work process

Robert Bosch Stiftung, Berlin, and German Film Institute, Frankfurt, Germany

With the drawing artist and co-director of VIRTUOS VIRTUELL, Maja Oschmann, I held a one-day workshop on the topic of music visualisation.

Under the direction of Maja, the participants drew with charcoal and black ink on paper. They visualized their emotions to the music they were listening to.

In the second half of the day, I took over the workshop. The participants drew, modelled or collaged animation cycles on strips of paper. Accompanied by a participant’s live interpretation of the animations on violin, the other attendees viewed their results on a Zoetrope.

participants and group size: 20 educationists of museums, theatres and art galleries
duration: 1 day
animation technique: painting on paper to music, animation on paper stripes
workshop place: Kinder-Künste-Zentrum, Berlin