CSE 456 - Story for Digital Animation

Assignment #1: The Seven Steps

DUE: Wednesday, 7/1 by 8:30 AM (Turn-in time updated)

Part One

Select two of the animated shorts below and identify the 7 logical steps and an armature statement for each.

Remember to create a full sentence to describe the armature and seven steps. Create 7 steps that logically follow one another. Don’t skip or add any steps. Use the language you have been provided for the seven steps. There should only be 7 sentences per story plus a full armature statement.

Feel free to try analyzing more than two of the shorts in order to practice this new skill. You are only required to send in two however. We believe that you will enjoy the shorts we’ve selected. You will, no doubt, find that some of the shorts will be more challenging to analyze than others. The more practice you get, the better you will be at seeing the underlying story structure and being able to apply it in your own work.

Part Two

Create three stories using the 7 steps as your guide.

Each of your three story creations should have an appropriate title followed by one of the provided armatures and 7 sentences that start with the following:

ONCE UPON A TIME ...
AND EVERY DAY...
UNTIL ONE DAY ...
AND BECAUSE OF THIS ...
AND BECAUSE OF THIS ...
UNTIL FINALLY ...
AND EVER SINCE THAT DAY ...

You will write one story (using the seven steps) to support each of these armatures:

  1. What is most truly valuable is often underrated.
  2. Acquaintance softens prejudices.
  3. There is always someone worse off than you.

In writing your stories we'd like you to include a character who has a goal (who wants something) and an obstacle that is keeping him/her from that goal. Try your best to have each one of the seven steps for all stories flow logically to the next. Try designing from step 1-7 and also from 7-1 to see what might be logically out of order. Also be careful to include all seven steps. Try telling your stories to friends and family and ask them for feedback. If they get lost ask them to identify which part of the story left them confused and try to improve your seven steps. Adjust your story until you feel comfortable that it is as clear and simple as you can make it while also keeping your audience engaged and intrigued.

Beware of stories that are too long and hard to tell: convoluted stories with characters and sets that are on an epic scale - no cities and no cast of thousands. With that in mind, there are several story creation limitations you will need to follow:

  • You cannot include more than three characters in total and you must have at least one.
  • Your characters must be human.
  • Your story must take place in one indoor set.
  • Please consider that you are designing for an animated short and therefore you can exaggerate (reality). How is animation the best medium to tell this story and not live action?

Otherwise, let your imagination run away with you and enjoy the assignment. Try to design a story with heart. Consider that you want to move your audience on an emotional level and teach them or remind them of something important.

You will be e-mailing Assignment #1 to the staff mail alias (cse456-staff [at] cs.washington.edu) by 8:30 AM Wednesday July 1st. Be sure to clearly mark your two animated short analyses and three stories.

*Obtain a copy of David Mamet's "On Directing Film" and begin reading. This is a short book and will help you tremendously. Also you can download Brian McDonald's books at booktrope.com, or find an older version of Invisible Ink here: pt1, pt2, pt3.