Teaching animation remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic: a case study on the experience in the Cinema and Audiovisual course at the Federal University of Sergipe in the 2020.1 academic period

Abstract

This work is an experience report on the offering of the Animation I discipline in the Cinema and Audiovisual course at the Federal University of Sergipe (UFS), during the COVID-19 pandemic. Its objective is to understand the remote offer in the period 2020.1 and the developments in carrying out the proposed activities. Despite the numerous uncertainties, this context proved to be challenging, coupled with the unavailability of laboratory space and several obstacles to complying with the course’s syllabus and workload. The offer of Animation I was claimed by the students themselves, and the classes took place remotely, demanding greater protagonism from them: half of the course load involved asynchronous activities on a virtual learning platform aimed at reading related texts, discussing animated films and exercises for application of animation principles. In this first remote experience, the available places were doubled to 50 students in each class: class 01 had 45 students, the majority from the Graphic Design course (51%), class 02 had 50 students, 62% from the course of Cinema and Audiovisual. As a final assessment, the students produced short “animated films”. Evidently, several productions manifested technical limitations, such as difficulty in stabilizing the camera, lack of supports (rigs) for objects, low image quality, insufficient number of frames for fluid movements, in addition to the students’ own inexperience and insecurity. However, several demonstrated resourcefulness in applying the principles of animation, expressing them through aesthetic choices and creative narratives, with potential for future forays.