Animation-Semester Reflection

Walk Cycle:

  Another project from this year is the walk cycle. It consists of a robot walking across the screen. Yep, that's it. We drew something, scanned it into the computer, put the pieces together, then made it move. We used Adobe After Effects for this project, and for every 2D animation. Making it move was easy, but I can't draw to save my life. it looked like it was drawn by a five-year-old. I would have include the project, except the video isn't uploading to Blogger.

Multi-Plane:
  Using different layers from Photoshop, I was able to create a multi-plane animation. Rolling hills, trees and bushes going by, like driving by on the highway. The farthest layers moved more slowly, just like it looks in real life. The hardest part of this project was again, drawing. It took more time to draw it all out than it did to export out of Photoshop, import into After Effects, reorganize them, put them into a timeline, reorganize them in the timeline, make them move, and export the final project. Just like the last project, the video won't work, so you're stuck with my description.

Castle:
  This was the first project made in MAYA, a 3D animation program. It was a quick way to learn how to use the program, and get some experience using it at the same time. The castle had to consist of four towers, four walls, an entrance, a flat plane, and color. Mine included all of the requirements, but some of my classmates went a little over the top.


Hammer:
  Hammers are common in homes. They are useful tools, capable of putting things together or tearing them apart. But in animation land, they're nothing but a collection of polygons thrown together. The hammer was supposed to be an easy project, but nothing was working right. When I tried to round the handle, random extra planes stuck out the side. And when I tried to delete these extra planes, the whole handle disappeared. The head worked well, at least to an extent. The claws were fine and easy to adjust. They stayed in place and they're really the only part of the project that turned out perfectly. The rest of the hammer wouldn't cooperate and screwed up horribly when I tried to fix it. Plus, the lighting's not great, and I had no idea how to fix it when I was making this.


Ice Cream:
  The Ice Cream animation went well. All of the polygons did exactly what they were supposed to, the textures worked well, the lighting was decent, and the rendering was smooth. This project was probably one of the top two among my best projects this year. All of the images rendered beautifully, and the animation process went well. This project was made in MAYA, then a series of images were taken. These images were transferred to Adobe After Effects, where they were put into a timeline as a full animation. Overall, I was very pleased with this project, but I probably could've tried to make the chocolate ice cream look a little less like poop.

Video Production-Semester Reflection

  This year in e-Comm I learned plenty. Many of the skills I learned last year in e9 carried over into this year. The six-shot system, three-point lighting, editing, and audio skills all carried over into my experience this year. So far, we have studied convergence journalism. We have made several videos, including two feature stories. Not the most creative titles, but they were called "Feature Story 1" and "Feature Story 2".
Feature Story 1:
  The first feature story I made was about my classmate Austin Wilson and his involvement with the school play. He was the only sophomore in the pit orchestra for our school's musical. The video consisted of him playing some of the music and talking about everything that he did. It was pretty easy to film, but some of the footage disappeared from the SD card. And the fact that I missed three days of class prevented me from getting it in on time. So while it wasn't the easiest project, it certainly gave me some experience to carry into the second feature story.
Feature Story 2:
  The second feature story I made was about my best friend TJ Dahl. The video was about his volunteer work at our church. Every Sunday morning, he goes early and does any odd job that needs to be done around the building. I was originally going to film him talking about it at our church, but I forgot my SD card, forcing me to wait and do it later at his grandparents' house. However, I was able to get footage of us working thanks to an extended due date and my personal "GoPro rip-off". It was a little rough at times, but it was by far my favorite story to shoot, considering I got to spend time with a friend in the process.
Class time:
  Most of my class time was used to edit or film videos, but I had some free time. I've been a perfectionist since the day I was born, and I spent most of my time in class trying to make my videos look as good as they possibly could. While this was often frustrating due to poor lighting or camera issues, I made some quality videos and cranked them out in record time. There were a few videos that we filmed in class, so that time was completely devoted to trying to make the cameras work. Outside of class I watched news stories and movies. Not as entertainment, but to try and figure out how everything was done. When I watch movies, I watch them for entertainment and I try to find errors. Whether that be continuity, grammar, statistics, or special effects, I always try to find something that could be fixed. For example, there is a scene in Jurassic Park when two velociraptors follow children into a kitchen. As the velociraptors enter, they stop. One starts to lean forward, then it stands up straight again. This looks completely normal, but if you look closely, the model dinosaur used in shooting was actually about to fall on its nose. A crew member's hand comes up into the shot and lowers the raptor's tail down, bringing its head back up. Against the dark shadows of the doorway, this is not something you would spot unless you were looking for it.
Video Skills:
  This year, I've gained many new skills. Rather than editing in Final Cut Pro, this year we used Adobe Premiere Pro. Many of the concepts and controls are the same, but it is a different layout, so we had to practice a little bit. An area I may need to improve in is filming. While it seems really easy, I often forget to check the lighting, natural noise, and anything else that's going on in the background.
Summary:
  What did I love most about this semester? I don't know. I love video production, whether for journalism or entertainment. I already know that I'm going to choose video over animation next year. I don't think I would change anything from my experiences at e-Comm. This is a fantastic program, and I hope that I'll be able to finish my high school career with it. I don't have any goals except to continue my amazing experience in this program.

Technical Tutorial-Using MAYA

  MAYA is a great program for people who want to try 3D animation, but it can be confusing. There are so many things this program can do, it gets overwhelming, confusing, annoying, and straight up stupid. But this tutorial will tell you some of the easiest things you can do in MAYA. 

  This is the top bar. It is the main hub for operations and controls when using MAYA. Right now, it's in the "Polygons" tab. Selecting different tabs will allow you to create different things. After creating objects, you can change them and fit them together to form larger projects. You can also add color to your creations by selecting them, then holding down the right-click and dragging down to "Add favorite material". A box will appear to the right. Keep holding down on the mouse and drag over to select one of the options. The option "lambert" is just a normal color. "Blinn" is a little bit shinier and reflective. "Phong" is for really shiny things. 

  This is what the whole screen looks like. You can adjust it to make your workspace bigger or smaller. The project on the screen now is my semester final. We had to choose a pen from our backpacks, then make it in MAYA. It's still a work in progress, but overall, it's pretty close to being finished. This is incredibly small and insignificant compared to some of the things you can make in MAYA, so go ahead and try it out. You won't be disappointed. 

Professional Project Review-The Incredibles

  There are plenty of great animated movies out there, and animation companies have learned to capitalize on this popular industry. Such is the case with the hit movie from 2004, The Incredibles. The Incredibles pits a family of superheroes against a genius supervillain that has created an ever-learning robot. Using their family teamwork and their superpowers, they save the city. The animation itself was well done, an example of Pixar's great work over the years. One thing that was done well was the fight scenes. They were clear and it was easy to see what was going on. There isn't much about this movie that could be improved.

Professional Article Review - Animation

  In the article "Yes, as a Matter of Fact. You Do Need to Learn 3D.", on lynda.com by Starshine Roshell, the article gives several reasons why you should learn 3D animation. The author tells the reader what our culture wants to see, what 3D animation is used in, and how to train yourself to see in a 3D perspective. The article tries to convince readers that 3D animation is useful, and that they need to take the lynda.com tutorials. While the article is more of an advertisement, it is in article format and does present some points as to why 3D animation is important.

Feature Story 2

  In my video production class, we had to make two feature stories. This one was about my friend TJ Dahl. The story was about his volunteer work at our church. He talked about the numerous tasks that he does around the church, and there are scenes of him working. 

  The narrative lead is an important part of any feature story, and I actually recorded mine after I made the video. This helped me to know how I wanted to begin the story, and what I needed to say to make that happen. 

  First, I interviewed TJ himself to talk to him about everything that he did on Sunday mornings. He gave details about what he did, who he worked with, when he started, and when he went. After that, I interviewed TJ's mother Danna. She talked about how she also volunteered at the church, but rather than doing odd jobs, she works with the high school students. 

  Shooting the video was pretty simple. Occasionally, the lighting wouldn't work well, or the focus on the camera was off, but other than that it was easy. Setting up the camera, adjusting the zoom, and clicking a button. It's pretty easy. Editing was just putting the clips into a sequence that I liked.

  The feedback from my classmates was mostly suggestions, and I listened carefully. I ended up changing the entire sequence of my video based on one little suggestion. It just goes to show you, every little detail counts.