Weekly Comments

     Deadline Closing in! Whenever I approach a deadline like this I get all worried I wont finish! I was happy this week that I am finally getting to the action in my cartoon! I was frustrated on Friday that i couldn't borrow a tablet, its tough cause it helps me work faster. But I learned this week that 3-d drawing is really fun! I hope I get to learn incorporating animation principles in 3d that is gonna be really interesting!
     My link of interest this week is to videos I found on the Pixar website. All of the movies have a little look into the process of the creation of the movies. They are pretty cool, they show how they get lighting to look nice, textures, storyboards, etc. I recommend you give them a watch!

Why did Pendleton Ward walk away?

     Adventure Time is one of the biggest cult hits on animated television. Recently the creator Pendleton Ward walked away from being the shows producer. Even though being producer of an animated hit seems like it would be a cakewalk, it is more work than one may think. Being in charge of the animation process. writing, advertising, toys, art direction, ect. It all can wear you down very fast.

     Ward doesn't seem to have a primary motivation for stepping down. It may just be that he strives for a little less, which is completely understandable. Maybe its because as a kid he was not very outgoing, and being a producer requires lots of human interaction, between you, your clients, and your workers. Either way Ward is a very talented person who has worked very hard to make his show successful! So I have respect for him in his decision, producer is not a hard job but it seems it can pay off if you have the steam!

Practical Effects and CGI

     Ever since the beginning of CGI there has been the misconception whether CGI or Practical Effects are better. Common argument is that one looks better than the other, that being said is purely based on opinion. Another argument is that CGI is killing the Practical Effects business. In reality both of these points are not true. CGI and Practical have their own strong points and weaknesses as do any medium. On the point that Computer Generated Industry is killing jobs in the Practical effects industry is not true.
     CGI and Practical effects are equal in their purpose, one is not better than the other. A good filmographer would use them both to benefit and balance a film. Each have something they are good at, for example practical benefits with closeups of monsters and gory explosions, because they are real! CGI can benefit you because it can create things you cannot with practical, such as a building exploding which is seemingly impossible for practical. In the way of jobs CGI doesn't kill Practical, both are reliant on each other, Ways that works is that on set you need someone as a practical effects artist to assist in the proper recording so someone in CGI can work upon that. Additionally cost and time is a big player in what you do, Computer Generated Imagery is cheaper in some instances, but takes longer especially for rendering.  Practical effects may bee expensive in instances, but takes less time to film and build. Overall one is not better than the other, each has their benefits.

Weekly Comments

     My 2d short is coming along great! I am a little over 30 seconds and I believe I am making good progress. What made me happy this week was that I got to help with shadowing on Monday, and got some extra work time! What frustrated me was that I missed Thursday and missed a little work time, although I worked on my own time for awhile to pick up the slack. This week I learned that food service pizza is greasy and delicious, and how to change onion skinning. What I hope to learn in the future is how to incorporate texture into my animations more.
    My link of interest is a really well made animation I originally found on Newgrounds. But for some odd reason I cannot embed it. So here is the youtube version instead

     I gotta say, this is extremely well animated! The portrayal of movement is so amusing and the quality of the composition as well is amazing! I will probably be going back to this from time to time to get reference or analyze it for movement. I recommend you give it a watch, its really entertaining!

Adding Depth To Make More Dynamic Shots

     When you think about it, film is a 2d medium, depth is very important to portray when you are recording. Depth immerses the audience and makes them feel like there is actual 3d space they are experiencing. Techniques that assist depth are High Contrast Lighting, Focus, Perspective, Parallax, and Occlusion. High contrast lighting creates a scene that doesn't look flat. Focus gives an illusion of depth because naturally things are blurry when we focus on something further away.
     Perspective is extremely important to film because different angles establish dominance or give an audience interest.  Perspective is important to depth because decreasing or increasing patterns tricks your eye to see more depth. Parallax is not only common in movies but in animation as well. Parallax is when objects at different distances move at different speeds relative to the camera to show how far away an object is.  Finally occlusion is a very useful technique in which things closer to our eyes block out objects behind it.

     I never knew how much thought has to be put into a film to make it actually look three dimensional! Next year in video I think I will make it one of my objectives to create really good depth. Additionally whats nice is that these don't even need to be applied directly to film, it is important to apply this to animation, especially when you are storyboarding, good angles and perspective is everything. Star Wars has a lot of depth in the fight scenes, they often use railings and pillars for parallax and to create patterns for perspective.

Why Animation thrives

     There has been no best animated feature in the Academy Awards until 2002 when Shrek was recognized. Animation thrives as an art form and competes with live action movies because they can entertain in many ways., with humor, emotion, and depth.  Between november 7th and 9th, Disney's Big Hero 6 made 56 million whilst Paramount's Interstellar made 47 million.  As for the industry jobs are expected to increase 6% in the United States between 2012 and 2022.
     This is great news for animators that the industry is thriving and creating new jobs. It is good to know that animations can dominate the current selection of movies like Big Hero 6 is doing. And blockbusters like Interstellar have some form of animation in them. Hopefully animation will continue to be seen as an art form and grow in the future with advancements in technology.

Weekly Comments

     This week we learned how to use the amazing mics in digital media, and worked on our 2D short! I got really frustrated working with audio in audacity, breaking apart the audio and aligning it in good spots is quite a challenge. What made me happy this week is that I came in on Friday when I didn't have to so I could do extra work while Ryan slept in bed. What I cant wait to learn is what Daemon has in store for us tomorrow!

     My link of interest is a video I saw made by a Sheridan College student. Overall I think this displayed all the elements of animation very well, and was extremely appealing to me! The scenes were made with real life elements while the characters are animated in 2D! I think it is very well made and everyone should give it a watch!

Foley and Sound Effects for Film

     Ever since the beginning of film, sounds have been imitated and recreated.  As explained sound and music has driven actions  in live action and animation for decades. When recording a scene for  live action the main purpose is to record dialogue, which at times does not come through the mic so good and needs to be re-recorded.
     Foley is a technique used in post production in which sounds are used to replace the poorly recorded sounds on set. Foley sounds can be bought in a library or reproduced but either way are essential to the addition of new sounds.
     There is no denying in my opinion that foley sounds are essential to the production of movies. The video really shows in depth the history of foley and how much thought goes into the process.  What really interested me was the foley studios with props and different surfaces to walk on.

Importance of Animation Reference

     Reference is one of the most invaluable recourses available to animators today, all of the worlds best animators use reference. Some mediums that could be considered reference would be photography, a comic book, live action movies, animations, and videos of yourself or a friend. Anything that can be carefully analyzed for movement can be a reference!
     When using reference it is important to find the perfect piece for what you want to recreate. Gathering an understanding of the mechanics of what you are studying. Also do not copy it 100%. Adapt off of it, apply principles of animation, and the elements of art to create the your work.
     This article is really cool, it provides different useful references. This is really relative to animation because it can help out animators by showing how necessary it is for an animator to adapt.  In all the time I have been animating, I've only used reference once. I don't know if it is that I am to lazy to look up reference, maybe I didn't know where to go. I think now I am going to incorporate some reference into my animations from now on in seeing that the best animator use it, and that this article is providing some unique references i will surely use reference more often.

Weekly Comments

     Wow, my week was cut super short! No school Monday for my school, then Tuesday was Veterans day! So, in the three days I was here I finished my 2D Short storyboard, and my cutout animation! What frustrated me about the cutouts was getting the limbs to look good when you bend them. But what made me happy was how my storyboard came out! It looks really good, I decided to delve deeper into color for my characters and scenes.
     My link of interest is related to color! This video by CubeBrush explains how to use colors properly to convey emotion in your work. It explains how to use compliments properly by having one saturated color and one unsaturated, and where they are used proportionally to the color wheel. This is relevant to animation because you have to be mindful of your colors when animating. Especially with vector animations your colors are very limited  because there is no "blending" with colors involved, so you need to be mindful what colors you use and where you place them.

Science Behind Baymax

     The concept of Baymax came about when Don Hall Co-Director of Big Hero 6, at the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute. Baymax's role as a care taking robot in the story requires something more than a hard metal robot. Don saw a inflatable robotic arm at the institute this inspired Baymax's inflatable design. The purpose is that if you are going to be taken care of by a robot, it shouldn't be a huge metal monster. There are no real full scale soft robots, because some technology still hasn't been invented but that didn't stop Disney from creating the huggable robot.

      I admire how Big Hero 6 steps away from the norm of metal robots. Interestingly enough the Baymax's inflatable appearance is probably why he is such an appealing character. This is very relevant to character appeal for animation, so you can take Baymax as a stellar character in originality and appeal.

Science Behind Interstellar

     In Chris Nolan's new movie Interstellar,  a blight fungus is ravaging the earths food supply and the only hope of saving the human civilization is to go "Interstellar".Chris Nolan aimed to create a realistic representation of how a black hole looks and acts.  Contrary to many sci-fi movies including black holes, Interstellar's was scientifically accurate in the way the black hole functions. Kip Thorne, a physicist specialized in gravity helped create a gravitational lens to simulate the bending of light a black hole will create.

     Thorne played a big role in one of the most visually stunning points in the whole movie. He worked out mathematics to generate the accretion disk found spinning around black holes. But what really drives story of the movie is the increasing difference in time between Cooper and his Daughter.
     I think Interstellar could be a leader for sci-fi because they hired scientists to help in production. Often in film you don't see people with real expertise in science helping with a science film, but it seems to be really beneficial to bring someone with  that background into film. I saw Interstellar myself, and I have to say it was absolutely stunning and visually vibrant, and the story was fantastic as well. I think the film industry should incorporate more scientists into production, it seems to have been very beneficial towards Interstellar.

Weekly Comments

     This week we finished our 11 Second Club Animations! I am pretty satisfied with how mine came out!  I am really looking forward to learning cutouts this week especially because lots of studios use cut outs for animation, so it will give me some hands on experience! What frustrated me this week was that I didn't upload my 11 Second Club animation to the website, I ran into an issue working with it on my computer, and didn't leave myself with enough time to fix it. What made me happy was that we got to work with some lip sync, because mouths are really fun to draw, but also very tedious to get them to match correctly.
     My link of interest is related to getting a head start in 3d! It is 100+ tutorials for Auto-desk Maya
that you can do to widen your expertise in the program. There are a lot of pretty cool tutorials listed that I am most likely going to take a shot at! The tutorials seem to range from beginner to more advanced topics, so they cover stuff from navigation, to rendering!

10 Story Boarding Tips From Dreamworks

     Dream Works provides us with 10 tips to create great storyboards. Storyboards are probably one of the most important parts of the animation process, because they set the whole direction for an animation and decide how every shot looks.
      Avoid flat staging unless necessary, it is not very engaging for the viewer and creates a boring scene. Laying down grids helps create depth in your storyboard.Logically grouping characters will help making cutting back and forth easier to understand for the audience. Do not allow everything to be parallel to the frame, it creates an uninteresting shot. Be weary of how you fill your frames, overcrowding does not make good use of space. Over shoulder shots really help deliver dialogue.
When a character is squared off and does not look directly at the camera it makes the scene more inviting. Higher angles establish weakness, while lower angles establish dominance. Last but not least is to motivate your cuts by writing in sounds or actions.
     I find all this information really important to listen to because when you want to see if your story board is up to standard, you could easily run through this list. These tips will be especially useful when we are doing our storyboards this week!

Psychology of Scary Movies

     In this article we are given a proper explanation on what horror is, and eight theories to why humans enjoy watching them.
     The primary factors explaining what makes something scary are tension, relevance, and unrealism. Additionally eight unfinished theories on why people are attracted to horror are explained, like how Aristotle believed that dramatic plays were a way of purging negative emotions,or Noel Carroll's belief to experience things not common of our everyday experiences. Lastly they go over the fact that we all don't watch horror flicks for the same reason, one being that people watch it for the thrill, similar to an adrenaline junkie.

     The article is extremely relevant to the film industry because you can easily find some things they mention when you are watching. That can shows how effective the film you are watching is. If it is really immersive the film makers are obviously doing something correct.

Weekly Comments

     This week we finished our Flour sack animations, learned lip sync, and Started our 11 Second Club animations.  What frustrated me this week is the little time I had to work, because Thursday I wasn't at school, and Friday there was no class. This week my Flour sack animation made me happy, because I had a fun time making it, and I love how it turned out. When I got the movement down pretty well, it satisfied me a lot.
      My link this week is about creating characters! In this article written by Disney Artist Brian Kesinger  he talks about what goes into creating a good character. Additionally he interviews other artists on deviant art and asks them what they find important in a character. I suggest this to anyone who wants do do a little research into creating characters. Its a great read if you have some spare time!

Establishing Dominance With Eyelines and Framing

     Silence of the Lambs uses eyelines and framing, to establish dominance in the jail scene. These techniques are commonly used in dramatic film to create a feeling of someone winning a debate or argument. Eyelines are the direction the actor's eyes are looking. When the actor looks directly at the camera it creates a more intimidating emotion. When they look away it create a more submissive feeling. The next technique used is framing. Framing is size and position of objects relative to the edges of the screen. Large things in the center of the screen establishes a dominant emotion. Small things near the edges creates a more fearful image.
     These techniques are highly useful when creating a dramatic scene, because it brings the audience into the film, especially because of how the actor interacts with the camera without breaking the fourth wall. Eyelines and framing were very effective in Silence of the Lambs because it helped build the struggle between Starling and Lecter, which was overall effective because it forces chills into the audience.

Science In the Field of Animation

    Ron Henderson a worker at Dream-Works studios has a different approach at teaching motion of objects. Ron invited a fellow physicist Alejandro Garcia to demonstrate the motion of bubbles. The purpose of these demonstrations is to create resources for animators to pull from and to understand the physics behind motion.
     Ron Henderson is part of a team of high level physicists and scientists who have entered the movie business. These people are in high demand in the animation business to create algorithms and code to generate realistic looking fire, water, and to push the boundaries between what is computer generated. The main purpose is for research and development in the work environment, hiring people certified in fields like cognitive science,computer science, aeronautical engineering, astrophysics, chemistry, and mathematics. Additionally in the work environment it helps people from two different academic backgrounds collaborate.
    Hiring scientists into the animation business really advances technology in the forefront, because it helps animators create realism that is familiar to the audience. This article also shows that to be in the movie business you don't have to be a cameraman or an animator, and that there is plenty of  jobs including the sciences.  Additionally this article helps us delve deeper into how much science is behind a feature length film, and how accurate people wish to be with their production.

Weekly Comments

     This week we finished our diving boards and had a field trip to Villa Maria! I cant wait to dive into actually animating a short cartoon this week, especially because everyone is doing something a little bit different for the 11 second club! What frustrated me this week is that I almost didn't meet my deadline for everything, the diving board I barely finished on time, and my new game almost didn't get finished! What made me happy this week was the short week and the field trip! I had a good time visiting Villa because they gave me a lot of information on their college!
     My link of interest this week is related to 3d animation! Since a lot of us got our hands on Maya over at Villa I felt it would be helpful to give a link to a website with an absurd amount of Maya rigs.
I chose Animation Buffet because it provides little descriptions and thumbnails so you can easily pick out what you want. Additionally what is good about it is that they not only have human rigs, they have animals and different shaped people! I strongly recommend you look at it, its fun to explore!

Great Techniques for Hiding Lav Microphones

     Izzy Hyman talks about some techniques to hide lav microphones. Primarily if you don't need to hide a microphone, don't hide it. It is much easier and beneficial to place a mic in a scene rather than inside a shirt. If you need to hide a Lav mic, it is some good locations include, behind a tie, under a collar, on the chest, under a t-shirt, and in the middle of a bra if you have an actress. Izzy tells us some things that can generate sound in a microphone which includes clothing vibration, unstable mic, loose chord, and chest hair.
     Some techniques to avoid this are taping down the chord to reduce the shaking of the chord. Another tip is to tie a loose knot in the wire, so vibrations do not travel up the chord into the mic. Reducing the mic's banging against clothing can be reduced by creating two sticky triangles out of tape, and placing the mic between them to create a cushion to stabilize it. As for reducing noise from chest hair, simply placing a piece of tape over the hair then  mounting the mic does the trick, just have fun removing it later OUCH!
    These are great ways to conceal a microphone and get clean audio. This is really helpful for anyone recording to conceal a mic. It will be exceptionally useful in distance scenes with someone talking.

Insights from a Game of Thrones and Guardians of the Galaxy Animator

     Animator Nicole has worked as a professional animator since 1998, some of her work includes Fantasia 2000 where she got to restore the original film, and Stewart Little 2 where she animated her first character for a feature length film. Nicole also worked on Guardians of the Galaxy where she spent time fleshing out the characters.Nicole was asked what the difference between animating realism and character animation, she stated that realism requires more fine details to give it a real look, and a large amount of reference is needed to maintain realism. On the other hand, in character animation she focuses more on capturing the beat of a character, and reference includes yourself acting to capture action.
     When asked about the relationship between time and production quality, she states that the more time she is given, the better the quality of an animation she will be able to create. Regarding her Game of Thrones Time Warner Cable commercial, she stated that the dragon's rig was very well thought out and aloud them to create a stunning commercial with it. She says when animating the fictional character as reference, she used small flying animals to get an idea of how it would fly and move. A common made mistake Nicole states is animators is planning their shot with a lack of character. Additionally they miss the flow because they don't act out their motion. Lastly she says people need to be more accepting of critiques because it is always helps to get others input.
     This article is very helpful to see what an individual thinks about the animation work environment. It is helpful when Nicole points out the common mistakes people make when they animate. This is relevant to the animation business, because it gives motivation and tips of the business. It is helpful that she tells what kind of reference she looks for when she animates realism. Overall this gives a lot of information as for working in animation.

Weekly Comments

     This week I practiced adding physics to the motion of my animations. I really enjoy doing so because it helps me grasp the motion of my animations and helps me make movement more believable. In the future I would like to learn how to create good lighting, because it would immensely help make my animations look more realistic and appealing. This week what frustrated me was getting a realistic look for my falling bowling ball.  What made me happy this week was getting to critique everybody's animations, it is really fun and helps a bunch to get peoples input on your work.
     My link of Interest this week is to a documentary on Windsor Mccay which will be airing on October 6th at 8:00 pm on Turner Classic Movies! It will be showing some of his animations and telling his story. This is especially relevant to animation history because he is helped pioneer the art with his numerous stories. I recommend you watch this if you want to delve deeper into animation history.

Tips From Rockstar's Former Art Director

     Ian Bowden used to be the lead art director at Rockstar games. He has experience in the game industry for over 20 years. In this article he shares some tips for game artists. The first tip is to watch the trends, it is important to see what everyone else is doing. It is important to adapt to the changes  in the market and to see what is selling and what is not, while still being original. The Second tip is not to skip on visual quality in mobile games. Art is very important in grasping peoples attention, especially to compete with all the other apps on the market. 
     The third tip is to always have a sketchbook with you, because you never know when you with find something interesting you wish to draw and study. It is always helpful to do this because "it fills your mind with a reference library of images and details". Tip number four is to experiment with new ideas, going outside of your comfort zone is what really benefits you as an artist.  The last tip is to be humble, there is always someone better than you, so don't be afraid to listen to other people for help.
     These tips are beneficial to any animator or aspiring artist, because they are simple fundamental facts to getting noticed as an artist, and how to better improve your work. I find these tips helpful and reliable because it is coming from a great figure in the gaming industry, especially a former worker at Rockstar.

Movies Manipulate Your Brain

     Science and Film making go hand in hand when grasping your audiences attention. This is shown in the beginning of Iron Man 2 with use of CGI and real physics to create an atmosphere that the audience can follow, but wont look too fake. Using eye tracking technology they sampled 75 peoples eye movement to see what in the scene was grasping most of their attention. Majority of the time people where watching the faces and flying car parts rather than things in the scene that look fake. This really shows that Iron Man 2 is effective in keeping attentiveness on objects and characters that have the most visual detail and story importance.
    It is very interesting that mental science and film work together to keep me interested and attentive to what is important in a movie. The technology they use to follow a watchers eyes is very cool because it gives movie creators a great sense of where their movie is effective and how their scenes move the viewers eyes. Additionally it not only helps the film industry, it helps scientists as well study how the human brain perceives situations and understands what is happening.

Weekly Comments

     This week I learned a how to do frame by frame in Toon-Boom. It is pretty fun to do frame by frame in Toon-Boom because of the sketching brushes, it makes it feel closer to drawing on paper! Something I want to learn in the future is how to add proper anatomy to a character, because it seems anatomy is very important to understand how your character should move. This week I got pretty frustrated when Toon- Boom crashed on me, but the good thing about that is that it always reminds me to save often. This week I was pretty happy because we finally got into some actual animation, I just love seeing everything everyone makes!

     My link of interest this week is a tutorial on smears/exaggerated inbetweens by my friend Emrox! I really recommend that you watch this if you are ever going to do smears. Although this is taught in flash, the concept is still the same, he makes very valid points on what looks good. If you want to see more of Emrox's stuff he has lots of movies on his Newgrounds!

Animation Principles in Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

     Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs contains prime examples of animation principles throughout the whole movie.
     Squash and stretch is possibly the most used technique throughout the whole movie, many times squash and stretch is overlooked by the audience, but it makes such a huge difference in the flow of the character. One of the more subtle moments of squash and stretch is when Flint goes to turn on the fuse box in the dark, thus startled that his father is right next to him, his head squishes into the fuse-box.
      Anticipation directs the audience to things that happen in the film, whether it is them reacting to something or pointing the viewers at something in the background. Anticipation is used in the Baby Brent Sardine commercial when the wagon falls over he looks and shows the audience what happened.

      Easing takes a big roll in the film because it creates a smooth flow of movement in characters, objects, and effects. When food falls from the sky you notice that it is slowly easing in towards the ground, it makes you feel that the food is accelerating and going really fast!
      Timing is key when animating the size of something, if something moves fast you could get the impression that it is small. But if it moves slow it can give you the idea that it is a massive object. This is relevant when the giant piece of corn falls on the great wall of china and it rolls slowly to make it look huge.

     Staging is important to give mood and atmosphere to a scene, to show what is going on and where the character is. There is a sense of danger inside the peanut brittle cave because of the camera angle and sharpness of the peanut brittle being staged.

     Exaggeration on the characters in the movie are used heavily. Expressions are exaggerated many times throughout, the dad's eyebrows are exaggerated to make him seem very stern, and when he raises them it gives the audience a comedic feeling when they see it.

     

Stop-motion with BoxTrolls

     Travis Knight is the lead animator and CEO at Laika a studio. Laika is known for their movies Coraline, ParaNorman, and its upcoming movie BoxTrolls. Their new movie takes place in a Victorian age town where the humans live above, and the misunderstood box trolls live down below. Travis says that with this movie will require "an artful balance of darkness and light, intensity and warmth." because of its story and atmosphere.
     What is very interesting about BoxTrolls and the other Laika films is that they combine stop-motion with some CGI to get effects they normally couldn't produce. What is also very interesting is that they use 3d printing to create the heads of the characters and mouth shapes rather than sculpting every one. Through the years animators have learned new things with every film, and then incorporated them with each one after, with what they learned from Coraline they incorporated into ParaNorman and from both they are incorporating into BoxTrolls!
     Travis described many of the deep insightful details of Laika's work process and the general work he goes through to make their movies a success. I find it very intriguing how different techniques like 3d printing are used to create characters. This shows that Stop Motion animation is still being practiced in this century and that new innovations are being created through  digital and physical practices!

Weekly Comments

     This week I learned color theory, principles of design, principles of animation, and the painstaking work of creating a flip book! I really enjoyed when we picked out principles of animation inside Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs! What I hope to learn in the future is how to incorporate feeling and emotion into the character of your animation. What frustrated me this week was how long it took me to make my flip book, it is very tough to get it to look the way you want it to especially when working on paper. What made me happy this week was when my character was put in the hallway because it was good!

     My link of interest this week is an animation test for an upcoming Popeye CG feature! I find this very exciting because it is very refreshing to see that Sony Pictures is bringing back an old animated character! What is really cool about this is that it is only a animation test of what they want it to look like, its not a sneak peak, clip, or trailer of the movie at all! Its nice how it pays homage to the old 2-d style of Popeye with lots of squash and stretch! Lastly the overall quality of it shows that this will be really good!

Michael Moore's Manifesto

      At the Toronto International Film Festival’s 2014 Doc Conference Michael Moore tells us 13 points that make a good documentary. He makes it especially clear how in a documentary how to bring a personal side to your film and engage your audience, with tips like not using facts people already know. Additionally he expresses how certain elements of film really helps to bring forward the meaning of a documentary. Especially that sound is key, because no matter what you are doing sound can always immerse the audience and bring fourth the story.

     Overall Michael Moore's list really does show what makes a documentary good, honestly for me Michael is not one of my favorite people to listen too, but he makes valid points in what people want to see. I really agree with him when he says that you should “Make your films personal” because when you enjoy what you are making other people will too, and it show you have dedication towards your project. This is all relevant in the digital media industry because it helps creators know what the audience thirsts for.

Hullabaloo

     Hullabaloo is a 2-d animated film with a female protagonist and steam-punk undertones. CGI is now one of the most preferred methods of animation in the film industry today. On the other hand Hullabaloo hopes to show people that 2-d animation is still strong. James Lopez is a former Disney animator and founder of the indiegogo. The team is comprised of nine artists, one composer, three voice actors, one producer, and one composite.
     All together they have crowd funded over 314,000 dollars over thier 80,000 dollar asking goal. One of the really interesting points is one of the perks that James offers. For 500 dollars you can get a animation class with him, which is really great considering you get to fund a great film and learn as well!
     Hullabaloo could be great way to show the world that 2-d animation isn't dead, because it has already shown success with how much its been funded! It could possibly bring back 2-d animated films to the big screen.  This could be very good for digital media jobs because this might encourage more studios to make 2-d films thus reopening a job range for 2-d animators.

Weekly Comments

     Wow week one is over it went by faster than expected and I am really enjoying class! This week we got to dive in to animation history, techniques, jobs, and process. Additionally we learned on the Macintosh how to navigate, and some of the features of Toon Boom Animate Pro 3! I am really hoping to start and get into some basic animation fundamentals and understanding of color! What is kind of bugging me this week is getting used to Toon Boom, since I would consider myself rather good at using Adobe flash, some of the interface, tools, etc are confusing me. What made me happy this week was realizing i like Toon Boom better than flash, I mostly feel this way because it has so much more to offer now than flash does!


     Here is an Animation that won NATA an animation tournament hosted on New Grounds. It was created by Stejkrobot, and the objective in that part of the tournament was to animate in the style of your opponent! Stejkrobot's opponent was ButzboPrud! I thought it was extremely well created and had a variety of effects, its absolutely stunning! I feel Stejkrobot is very well deserving of his win, I have had the pleasure of talking to him, and he is a very well spoken person! I recomend you check out his other animations!

Six tips for making a solid demo reel

     According to animation recruiters there are six things you can do to show them you have a solid demo reel. First and foremost do not waste your time for an impression with a fancy title card, just have the information needed and that is it.  Secondly make sure to have strong preforming shots of your animations rather than a mash-up of everything you have made, because you will surely lose their interest all together. Third, the acting of your character is one of the main things they look for, especially popular studios like Pixar because of how acting takes a huge role with how they produce their movies.
     Fourth and foremost is to direct your demo reel at places where you want to be hired, so gory films would not be the best thing to show Disney. Fifth make sure your reel is easily accessible, with video streaming. Finally be aware of dialogue and scenes other reels have used, so you show you can animate in different beats.
     All of these tips provided in this article by animationmentor.com looks like alot to do for a demo reel, but overall it creates a solid showcase of your skills toward the studios you wish to be hired at. The tips generally oppose what I thought demo-reels should look like, and now I have an idea of what I should be aiming at with a showcase!

The Use of Cinematography in "The Order"

      Ready at Dawn has a new trick up their sleeves when it comes to making video-games more immersive. The Order was shown at E3, and the developers are very proud of the incorporation of "camera-lenses" in the game. Ready at Dawn feels that adding the details of a camera lens like dirt, smudges, and the curvature of a lens will make a game seem more life like because of our association with common movie . “And what we’ve done with this game is what we coin as filmic … We’ve used [techniques] that are very movie-like … to build the game.” says  Ru Weerasuriya the creative director at Ready at Dawn.
     I think that this could be a great enhancement for video-games today, because many games are lacking a physical visual sense. The whole idea of using movie shots and movie lens could set a standard as for mixing movies and games together as well as possibly create a new job range as for video game graphics.

source: http://time.com/2896528/cinematography-the-order-1886/