Drawing Attention

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Posted on November 25, 2024

Lance Crawford

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In a mostly dark room in the Visual Arts Complex on the University of South Alabama campus, students lean into their computers, stylus in hand, drawing directly onto their screens. Overhead lights cause a distracting glare, so they’re kept off.

The course is Two-Dimensional Animation I, part of the animation concentration within the Art and Art History program in the College of Arts and Sciences. The students are intently working on their final project, the “flour sack test.” 

The test originated in the 1930's and 40's when the fledgling Hollywood animation industry began to develop lessons, curriculum and evaluations to turn novice artists into trained animators.

“The idea is simple,” said John T. Hill, assistant professor of animation. “If you can animate a flour sack, moving, acting, performing in a way that convinces the audience that it is a real character, then you have the skillset to breathe life into a more conventional character.” 

Students are given four weeks to develop an idea and animate it into 15-30 seconds of footage of a flour sack walking and interacting with another character or object. 

“It challenges their knowledge of walk cycles, timing, spacing and understanding how to make objects and characters move with a believable sense of weight and form,” Hill said.

South initiated an animation concentration in 2016 to incorporate more technological components in the Department of Art and Art History. 

“I’ve wanted to become an animator since I was a little kid,” said Emma Milling, a junior from Birmingham and president of the University of South Alabama Animation Association. “Cartoons made me feel better when things in my life weren’t going well.”

South offers a variety of courses in both two-dimensional and computer-generated imagery, or CGI, techniques.

2D animation is generally associated with television cartoons and was traditionally done on paper or celluloid using pencils, pens and paint, but now is almost entirely produced by creating artwork in animation software.  

CGI animation is created using computer software to design objects that appear three-dimensional. Artists can then "rig" these computer-generated sculptures like a puppet to animate them, think animated feature films and most contemporary video games. 

In recent years, South’s animation students have participated in 48-hour film competitions and have performed well against other academic and professional submissions. As the name of the competition implies, teams are given 48 hours to complete a short film without any prior preparation.

“They’re the ultimate testament of what we love,” Milling said. “Coming together for 48 hours and choosing to lose sleep over an idea that we all put our blood sweat and tears into.”

In 2023, a South entry received an honorable mention and full acceptance into the Annual Sidewalk Film Festival in Birmingham. This year, students won Best Animation and Best Use of Genre in the YellowHammer 48-hour Film Race. Last month, another team won Best Film, Best Use of Required Prop and Second Place in the Audience Award and full acceptance into the 2025 Sidewalk Film Festival.

“The key to completing a short film like that in such a time crunch is community and communication, relying on each other to work as hard and fast as possible to make something great,” said Milling.

Graduating seniors generally complete an independent short film for their thesis, and the films judged worthy by the faculty are then submitted to various film festivals all over the world. Their  work has  been accepted into regional, national and international festivals. 

“Animation is not a genre; it is a medium. There are opportunities to apply the knowledge gained from a concentration in animation in a myriad of different professions,” Hill said. “Ultimately, animation and the visual arts are about creativity and problem-solving skills. These are valuable attributes for all young people to acquire.”

Examples of animated films created by South students can be seen on the USA Animation vimeo link.   

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