A Student Animated Film is an animated short film produced by a college student (or a team of college students) as their final project of the semester. It showcases the technical skills the student has learned in their class, and must meet the requirements set by their professor. This usually means it has to (among other things) be a certain number of minutes long, tell a coherent story from beginning to end, include at least one fully animated and designed character, and utilize some of the animation techniques they have learned. Depending on the class and the available technology, it can be 2D, 3D, or a mix of both.
Typical features of a student animated film:
- It is about 3-5 minutes long. Ambitious students might make theirs a bit longer, but a project that's too long and complex may not be able to be finished in time. For this reason, professors usually set both a minimum and maximum length requirement for such projects.
- The plot is usually light-hearted and/or humorous in tone (sometimes darkly so) and can be explained in one paragraph or less. (You try creating a gritty, emotional narrative or a deeply compelling drama that can be resolved in less than 5 minutes.)
- The cast is limited to a small handful of characters, excluding background characters and Faceless Masses.
- It is likely to have minimal or no spoken dialogue, but depending on how advanced the class is, a certain amount of dialogue and correctly animated lip-sync may be required.
- Character designs and background objects are built on basic forms and shapes, and lean toward being very cute. Animals will be Ridiculously Cute Critters, robots will be Cute Machines, and children will have big heads, wide eyes, and chibi-like body proportions. (On the practical side of things, big eyes are also easier to express emotions with.) Conventional wisdom for animation students dictates that character designs should be kept relatively simple and easy to animate, in order to not over-complicate the project.
- 20th century animated student films are usually black-and-white, while 21st century animated student films are usually bright and colorful, owing to advances in technology and available software.
- For 3D shorts, No Flow in CGI is often in effect, as flow is difficult to animate in 3D (especially for beginner animation students). This means elements like rain, snow, smoke, flowing water, loose fabric, and long hair are usually absent or downplayed, even when it would make sense for them to be there — for example, a character may cry without producing any visible tears.
- Hair is one of the most common examples. A female character animated in 3D will nearly always have short, chin-length hair that doesn't move at all. If she does have long hair, instead of individual locks, it will be one solid piece that doesn't move very much.
- Some of these college projects would later be expanded into animated shows, full-length films, video games, or other projects.
For in-universe examples of this trope, see Amateur Film-Making Plot.
Examples:
- Bambi Meets Godzilla
- Billy and Mandy in: Trepanation of the Skull and You (precursor to The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy)
- Bring Me the Head of Charlie Brown
- Catsing Call
- Charade (first, and so far, only, animated student film to win an Academy Award)
- The Colors of Evil
- Course of Nature
- Deathigner
- Dia De Los Muertos
- Diamond Jack
- Double Rainboom
- First Born
- Fuelled
- Hellbent For Whiskey (precursor to Guns, Gore & Cannoli)
- In a Heartbeat
- Jinxy Jenkins & Lucky Lou
- Mike and Melissa
- Mutilator: Hero of the Wasteland
- Ramshackle
- Reversal of the Heart
- Scratch and Crow
- Second Class Mail
- Snow Bo
- The Spirit of Christmas (precursor to South Park, but only the first film, Jesus vs. Frosty, is a student film)
- There's a Man in the Woods
- The Vampair episode 1: "The Night"
- Voodont
- Waffle
- Watermelon: A Cautionary Tale
- Way Home
- Whoopass Stew (precursor to The Powerpuff Girls)
