The workshop was held on the morning of October 29th, and we were honored to have invited Kim Keukeleire, a lecturer from Belgium. She has participated in well-known animation films such as "Chicken Run'' and "Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio". She has been the animation director for "My Life as a Courgette" and "The Inventor."

During the workshop, the lecturer asked students to create a stop-motion animation using the "Stop Motion Studio" mobile app. Before the practical work began, she encouraged students to think about how characters would react to different emotions and urged them to develop the habit of observing people. The subtle movements of people in their daily lives can inspire character animations. Facial expressions are essential for conveying emotions, but in fact, the entire body will show related changes, too. Additionally, students were encouraged to think of more emotional actions to express other than the most obvious ones. For example, an angry character doesn't have to show typical anger gestures such as stomping, but could express anger by stirring a pot of soup aggressively while cooking. The expression of emotions through actions can be broadly categorized into two types: negative and positive. When characters express negative emotions, their movements tend to be more restrained, while positive emotions lead to more relaxed actions. A single action can convey multiple emotions, and by combining different actions, the audience can gain a clearer understanding of a character's state. Furthermore, timing control can also add interesting variations to character performances.

The lecturer divided the students into groups and had them use materials available on-site to create an animated portrayal of a specific emotion. She reminded students to decrease the complexity of the animation and focus on the emotion itself to avoid deviating from the purpose of this practice.

During the Q&A session, the lecturer provided detailed answers to students' questions. Since it's impossible to make in-between frames in stop-motion animation, animators often start by shooting a limited number of key frames with the correct timing to address this issue. Timing is a crucial element, as precise timing can create the right emotional atmosphere, similar to how early silent films relied on timing to create humor. At the end of the session, the lecturer also hoped students would watch more films and animations from different countries and attend film festivals to broaden their horizons and gather inspiration.

Kim Keukeleire

Kim Keukeleire is an animation director and lead animator specialed in stop-motion animation.

After finishing her Masters degree in Animation Cinematography in La Cambre in Brussels in 1992, she worked locally and abroad for several companies. Amongst others, she animated on the first Chicken Run (Peter Lord and Nick Park), Frankenweenie (Tim Burton), and Forbidden to dogs and Italians (Alain Ughetto), Fantastic Mister Fox, Isle of Dogs and the Alien for Asteroid City (Wes Anderson), Pinocchio (Guillermo Del Torro and Mark Gustafson)

She was the animation director the film My Life as a Zucchini (Claude Barras) and The Inventor (Jim Capiobianco and Pierre-Luc Granjon)

Kim has served as a Jury member many International festivals and she presented lectures, master classes and workshops around the world.