Norman McLaren's Animation

Norman McLaren was a Scottish-born animator and has done most of his work for the National Film Board of Canada. His films notably won awards at BAFTA, the Oscars, and the Berlin International Film Festivals. He mainly used techniques such as Direct animation (drawn-on-film), drawn sound, and pixilation, which means he created most of his films by directly working on the film stock, by scratching it, painting it and drawing on it, creating both the images and the sounds analogically.

I find his work so interesting because he was one of the pioneers in combining music with animation,  and his technique is really great. The technology has advanced a lot since his time but it's still interesting to compare his work with the work of today's artists and notice how it is less about the tools you use and mainly about what idea you have and the way you communicate it.

Here are some of his most famous Drawn-on-film animations, and below there's a video explaining his drawn-sound technique.

The Basics of Motion Design

Motion design is the most intricate and dynamic field of design. This video from the Hochschute für Künste (University of the Arts) Bremen introduces viewers to the many different aspects of motion design.

Ranging from color to sound, timing to physics, the video gives a vocabulary for discussing the art of motion. Taken by itself, the video covers so much in 23 minutes that it is worth taking notes on.