The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) in Portland, Oregon, just opened a new exhibit about animation. I took my kids on opening night and we had a great time. The exhibit was developed with Cartoon Network, so there are a lot of familiar characters in the displays: maquettes of the Powerpuff Girls, examples of cels and sketches from Yogi Bear and the Jetsons, how to draw characters from Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends.
The exhibit is full of hands-on stuff: storyboarding, recording dialogue to match animation or creating animation to match recorded dialogue, foley effects, bullet time, pixilation, cel layering, stop-motion animation, and more. It’s a great look at the traditional tools of the trade as well as more modern techniques, and if you and your kids like animation, this is a great way to learn a bit more about how the magic happens.
Here’s a little video showing some of the cool things I saw at the exhibit, followed by some photos of some of the stations. For more information about the exhibit, which lasts until January 11, 2015, visit the OMSI website.
The Storyboard station lets you put the various “scenes” in order, and then watch a video of those scenes. Photo: Jonathan H. LiuYou get to “build” one frame of a scene by layering cels—background, character cels, and effects. Photo: Jonathan H. LiuAt this station, you get to animate a horse model, with some guidelines to show you how to position the horse. Photo: Jonathan H. LiuTry your hand at Foley effects by using various objects to match the scene in the cartoon. Photo: Jonathan H. LiuThe Pantograph is a tool for enlarging or reducing images to scale. OMSI’s uses a Magnadoodle and large stencils to show how it works. Photo: Jonathan H. LiuThe Mutoscope is a crank-driven flipbook. Here you get to see W.C. Fields in “The Golfer.” Photo: Jonathan H. LiuThis station demonstrates how a moving background with stationary characters makes it look like the characters are flying. Photo: Jonathan H. LiuFun with green screens! An OMSI staff member takes snapshots to form a short animated scene. Photo: Jonathan H. LiuUse the chart and the mirror to animate this character speaking a line of dialogue. Photo: Jonathan H. LiuThe Praxinoscope uses mirrors to make it look like the beads are moving up and down the poles when you spin it. Photo: Jonathan H. LiuMake a simple stop-motion animated scene at this station, which is usually in OMSI’s Turbine Room area. Photo: Jonathan H. LiuWhat would an animation exhibit be without a screening room? Photo: Jonathan H. Liu
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Awesome! I’m definitely going to renew my OMSI membership and hit up this one. Looks great.