Explore animation from concept to finished product — from storyboarding, character design, and drawing techniques to movement, timing, filming and sound. Larger-than-life graphics of popular Cartoon Network characters provide a colorful backdrop to the exhibition, which also explores the history of animation and features a screening room and a cartoon museum.

Animation includes:

History – Learn about early animation and apparent motion. Using a praxinoscope, manipulate and spin three-dimensional objects to see them morph into a single animation. At the Penny Arcade, “crank” out animations with an old-fashioned mutoscope.

Animation Studio – Explore the process of animation, story creation, animator techniques and tools. Develop a storyboard from a series of picture cards, draw characters, enlarge drawings with a pantograph, and create scenes using layered cels and moving backgrounds.

Art in Motion – With help from Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, discover why art and math are important allies when creating characters, motion and change.

Science Laboratory – In Dexter’s Laboratory, delve into the science and technology that make animation possible. Create the illusion of a bouncing ball with the technique of “squash and stretch” and find out how the action slows down or speeds up with time-lapse videos. You can also see yourself “hover” while exploring visual effects in a full-body interactive experience.

Sound and Stage – Discover the principles of sound and phonetics with characters from Chowder, Ben 10: Alien Force, and Kids Next Door. Explore the complexity of matching phrases to different mouth shapes, add your own voice to a silent animation and set the mood of a film by selecting background music from a variety of soundtracks.

Cartoon Museum – Take a seat in this intimate theater setting and view clips of popular animations while learning the secrets behind their production. Examine artifacts such as cels, models and storyboard drawings from classic and favorite animations such as Scooby-Doo, The Powerpuff Girls and The Flintstones.