Weekly Comments

   This week we learned how to make explosions KABOOM!!!!! Not real ones, just special effects. What made me happy this week as that we are now finished with shadowers for awhile. What made me sad this week is that I am barely making any progress on my Typography, I definitely chose something with way too many words! In the future I hope to learn how to write interesting dialogue!

     My link of interest this week is to a silly video edit I made of Geoff, Patrick, Nathan, Connor, and Brady the other night whilst fooling around in after effects, I actually learned a lot just by fooling around!

Thumbnails and Planning

      Planning Planning Planning. Planning is one of the most important parts of animation. Without planing animating would be a nightmare, and movement would be very jarring. 

      By planning you can spend less time figuring out where to position and pose your characters, additionally planning allows you to test motion without having to go in and tediously put together each frame. Sketching out your shots also helps put together compositions that look good, being able to try different angles fast allows you to pick the best one for your shot.

     Only recently have I realized how important story-boarding, animatics, and roughs are. Time and time again would i find myself angry over how much time I had spent animating a scene only to realize it looks like bad. Eventually roughing out animation became one of the most important things in my process.

You may never be as good as you want to be.

   Every filmmaker aspires to be their best at film making, and reach a goal where they feel satisfied with their skill. Sadly, we will never live up to our expectations.
   Everyone is always in a constant battle with themselves when they work on projects. A feeling overwhelms you saying to yourself that you are doing a bad job. As you learn more as a filmmaker you start to understand more and more of what makes a film good. This makes it harder and harder for you to appreciate your own work and move towards those expectations you have set for yourself. This lack of motivation and inability to enjoy your projects makes it hard for you to work. This causes you to procrastinate and possibly close you project before it is finished.
     To overcome this is not an easy task, but the easiest way is to not focus on how the film affects you or your career. Focus on how it will affect your audience, and how it will affect your peers. Additionally don't compare yourself with others, you will never be able to accept that you are getting better while comparing your work to theirs.
     Interesting article! Finding ways to overcome disappointment in yourself is very hard. By far focusing on how your films affect your peers rather than yourself would be the most effective way to see how good your work actually is! Definitely seeing what other people think is the best way to improve yourself.

Weekly Comments

     The shadowers are here RUN! This week I learned a lot about after effects just by working on my own, mostly just a bunch of different effects whilst working on my typography project, but also some important things like audio scrubbing. What made me happy this week is that I got to demonstrate software to shadowers! I like to meet new people and socialize, so I enjoy showing them some software and whatnot. What made me angry this week is that I cannot use bridge with after effects. Why does it have to stop working during the typography project! GRRR!! What I want to learn in the future is how to make props so I can use them in scenes.
    My link of interest is to a cool animation I saw on vimeo! I thought it was so clever and silly and the animation itself is very smooth and appealing.

Creating Complex Transitions

     Transitions are one of the key ingredients in your film, a good one is easily appreciated, and a bad one is easily noticed.
     When attempting to make good transitions there are a lot of things to keep track of. First make sure that the colors of each shot match up, and their exposures and focus are similar, try to make the audience search as little as possible. When in post, make sure to move your clips around so they flow from one to another. Keep the motion on path so that they play well together, opposing movements will appear very confusing and will pull your audience out. Sound also can play a big roll in your transitions, they help match up shots even if there is no similarities inside the footage itself. Lastly make sure to grab many shots and sounds, the more you can pull from the better! A large library lets you experiment if the transition you originally chose does not work well.
     Next film project I create, I am going to keep transitions in mind. I never thought you could do so much with them. Just remember when making transitions  keep them simple and don't get to complicated, all you are doing is connecting two shots.

How Mythic Structure Can Benefit Your Writing

     When writing about a hero, make sure to remember mythic story structure! Symbols and representation are very important when framing a story and bringing everything together in the end.
     The world is full of patterns. Patterns are very easy to see, and allow us to understand relationships and history very easily. It allows us to see things that happened in the past, and what possible hardships, struggles, or challenges could face our hero in the coming future. Patterns bring significance to characters  and how they are important to their world. Make sure your story is epic, an epic story will have an epic impact on your audience. An epic story will bring new light to your audience showing them a world they have never been before.
     Be clear about your characters desires. Desire is what drives people to act in different ways, it makes it easy to understand what characters do and why they do it. Their wants make them easy to read. Additionally explore the possibility of your hero losing. Not everyone can win, there always has to be a winner and a loser, the fact that a hero is not perfect will give an audience a deeper attachment and more hope in your character. Lastly, have a lesson the audience can take away from the film. Causing the audience to learn something is the best thing you can do to create a lasting image in their mind and bring satisfaction to their mind.
    Mythic stories are always something fun to explore. Their characters are easy to understand, and are overall very enjoyable. When writing fiction, mythical structure would be something very fun to explore. It seems like a very easy framework to work off of, and would provide a way to access a larger world with less detailing and explanation.

Weekly Comments

     This week we learned more stuff about After Effects like Animation, masks, and 3d layers. What made me happy this week is that we had a field trip to Daemon and LCTV, Daemon is one of the schools I am seriously considering for college, although I don't think I will get in. What frustrated me this week is that I am slow on my tutorials. It is very hard to be focused on them, I definitely shouldn't talk so much, I really get distracted. What I want to learn in the future is how to implement 3d elements into my film projects, possibly with motion tracking?

     My link of interest this week is to an article from Cartoon Brew (they have a lot of animation news, that is how I keep up to date.) It is about the movie Klaus and how Sergio Pablous is now working with ToonBoom as a tech partner. I am very excited for this movie, it makes every shot look like a painting, and is really seen as a game changer in the world of animation as it looks just like it's concept art. I really hope that seeing now that they partners this will bring a lot of technology advance to 2d animation!

Tech of the Peanuts movie

     Peanuts is a timeless classic for everyone. The comics have enticed people of every age for years. Peanuts as everyone knows it is a 2d comic strip, and has its fair share of 2d cartoons. Blue Sky studios wanted to preserve this as much as they could. After researching 50 years of peanuts cartoons they have realized that Schultz used limited angles, and strict structure to his characters. Making characters in 3d who act like this is a very big challenge as animating them from pose to pose does not make much sense in the way they move and how their body parts move.
      Creating characters like this is a big challenge but Blue Sky did it. By creating separate views of characters rather than one rig that can be posed in all directions shows how you can still be very free form in 3d. In the Peanuts comic strips motion lines were always used to help direct. Having the animators go back and put in these lines really helped give it the Peanuts aesthetic.
     I think Blue Sky did a great job of matching the art of Peanuts, it would be a sin to do otherwise. Interestingly enough the problem solving and technology behind the works of that are not all that complex. This really shows with dedication, knowledge, and creativity you can really get anywhere you can dream.

Capturing Sounds for Film

     Sound is so important for film. Without it storytelling would be very difficult. Not only can sound make a video good, it can also ruin it. Whenever you can your best bet for good audio would be to hire a good audio technician. Not everyone has a big budget though, so the next best thing is to capture it yourself! When recording your own audio it is important to remember that there are three types. Transient Sound is abrupt sounds that start and stop almost instantaneously like a gunshot or a plate shattering. Evolving sounds are sounds that are not abrupt and fade in and out. Third is speech, it tells the story, and helps anticipate action. 

    When recording it is realizing how important an action is will benefit your videos audio track. Recording distant sounds make them less important as closer up makes them more of a focal point. There are three perspectives you can remember to help with this close, medium, and distant these help you match up your audio with your shot. Mixing these sounds can also have a benefit with fading them between each other to provide a smooth transition. In the way of speech the inclusion of speech can make a scene feel more real, where you can hear everyone's interactions, while including no voice can really make a scene otherworldly and special.

     Since sound plays such a big part in our films, making them sound good is super important.Easily you can confuse your audience with bad sound design, whereas with good sound design you can point every scene in the right direction. When recording my audio I make sure to have a bunch of variations of each sound to work with and really experiment and be free form with it.

Weekly Comments

   This week we learned how to import our captured video to our premier projects. What made me happy this week is that we got to go on a field trip to Villa Maria! Its a pretty interesting school to say the least, their program seems pretty nice. What frustrated me this week is that we had little time to do filming of our PSA's I would have really liked to do more in class than outside of school. In the future I want to learn how to do fighting scenes.
     My link of interest is tips on how to get better green screening. I'm doing a bit of green screening this week so I was looking around for some tips on getting better shots with them!

Jonas Rivera Interview

     Jonas Rivera produced Inside Out, the newest release from Pixar. The story from Inside Out is set in a very dynamic and familiar environment for everybody, the brain! First choosing characters dominant emotion was chosen by their personality, that is why young Reilly's is Joy. The deeper meaning behind Inside Out Jose confirms is the different emotions you experience in life. Keeping the story balanced and making everything work with all the metaphors was a big task, as there were many in the story. One example is the islands that house Reilly's personality, without them there wouldn't be anything to represent the character.
     Inside Out is one of my favorite Pixar movies, the story is very clever and mostly nothing like anything I have seen before. It was a wonder how they kept it all together without anything not making sense with the amount of metaphors. Looking into the interview and seeing how they kept it all together seemed like it was very challenging, but I think they did a great job considering how well the movie did!

BLOOD

   Blood has always been a big part of film. Everybody is filled with it, it represents pain, injury and death. The first kind of fake blood, Grand Guignol was used in theater. Kensington Gore was used during the silent age of film with many Gothic horror films using it. Chocolate syrup is another alternative to to blood, as it is cheap and has a very good consistency, and darkness for black and white film. Lastly we have the Dick Smith method of fake blood, which is used in modern day film because of its consistency and color.
     This is a pretty cool video, I like how there is a little bit of history behind each type of blood. I will definitely be going back and looking at this when I need to make some fake blood. Possibly some fighting scenes? Not sure yet, but I know I will be making some this year.

Weekly Comments

     This week we learned how to operate the cameras. What made me happy this week is that we finally got to film! Its a pretty tedious and interesting working with others but I find it enjoyable! What frustrated me this week was getting the moving shots in our project. The floors in the commons change abruptly between the tile and carpet. What I want to learn in the future is how to dub my videos and keep them on sync.
     This weeks link of interest is about the indie film being filmed in Lewiston. I think it is pretty cool that people would choose my town to record a film in. I actually saw one of the actors the other day when I went to get coffee! I am definitely going to check out the movie when it comes out.

What Type of Animator Should I Be?

     When asking yourself what type of animator you want to be its seems like a simple question, but in reality you must tailor yourself to conform to whatever kind of job in animation you want. First off, it is important you create your demo reel keeping in mind of where you are submitting it. For game animation it is important you create cycles, and show either realistic game animation or cartoon game animation. In feature animation make sure your reel contains lots of story driven animation and acting. For vfx, realistic motion is very important so realistic creature, human, and machine movement are your best bets to put in your reel. For Boutique Studios, showing that you can handle a variety of animation styles is important, as they are contracted by a variety of bigger businesses with different requests. 

     When figuring out what kind of animation you would like to do it is important to try everything, and get mentor ship from others to figure out what their favorite things to work on are. Finally just exploring what your strengths and weaknesses are, and how much pride you have in certain works.

     This is a pretty cool article. I am still not sure what direction I want to go in with my animation career. Whether I want to go into 3d, 2d, or game animation I am not sure. After reading this article it really helps me try to figure out where I want to go.

9 Composition Techniques

      Taking good pictures, and video is very important, keeping your subject in a good position can be the most important part of a shot. First off using the rule of thirds is a no-brainer, aligning the subject between and at intersections of a 3 by 3 grid will allow your shot to be more dynamic. Second are leading lines, allows you to direct the viewers eyes with hings that line up in a shot. Third are diagonals, oppose to vertical or horizontal lines these allow you to move across the picture rather than up, down, left, and right. Fourth is framing, closing in subjects and objects in a scene allows for a more interesting picture in the way it adds depth.

     Fifth is to add contrast between your subject and the background so the your viewer's eye jumps to the subject immediately. Sixth is filling the frame, the bigger the object the more important it is, the smaller the more insignificant. Seventh is to center the dominant eye, in doing so characters look like they are following the audience. Eighth is to use patterns, people are naturally inclined to understand patterns over chaos. Ninth is to add symmetry, humans are naturally inclined to enjoy symmetrical pictures than asymmetrical ones.

      I think that this is a very useful article. I am definitely hoping to use this as a reference when gathering more shots on Monday. I found it really interesting when it made the point about putting the dominant eye in the center of the shot, that will definitely be something I'm gonna practice doing.

Weekly Comments

     This week we learned how to apply transitions, and effects! What made me happy this was that I got the privilege of being inducted into National Technical Honor Society. What frustrated me this week is how far behind I am on my Premiere Tutorials. In the future I want to learn how to incorporate 3D models and effects into my films. 

     My link of Interest this week is to a Vice article that came out recently about flash animation.  Sadly flash animation on the web is starving. The ability to view cartoons made with the software is slowly being pushed out of modern web browsers and cell phones. As an animator who started animating on flash this really depresses me when hearing of google's and Mozilla's plans to drop the plugin.

Habits of people who have great Ideas

    Ever wonder where people get their great ideas from? First is to look in for inspiration where you don't expect them this allows you to be more original. Second is to not make split decisions, sit on them for awhile, consider the benefits and negatives of each. Third is to find motivation in yourself, and create something you really want to create. Fourth is to start from scratch, don't work off of someone else's idea, make it yours and something you think is your own.
     Fifth is to take risks, only risks are something that hasn't worked, or been done by others. Sixth is to try new things, don't stick to the same routine you will never be able to innovate or create something groundbreaking by holding yourself down. Seventh is too make a connection to things that are unrelated, matching things that have no connection will make something seem a lot more original in the way that no one has thought of anything before.
    I am going to practice these techniques when writing, coming up with original Ideas seems too tough. I think the most important step here is definitely finding motivation in yourself. Being innovative is part of caring for your project and finding the time to brainstorm for the best ideas is a very time consuming process and requires a lot of your dedication.

Behind Marvel's Trailers

     Marvel's action movies always have over the top vfx, not only in the film itself but their trailers too! As complex as they are, they are more than just shots from the film. Fede Ponce is a vfx artist for marvel's trailers. The trailers are a lot deeper than just a bunch of shots and Cgi from the film. In the case of trailers they must be made a long time before a film is released, or even announced for that matter. This can be up to 2 or 3 years before release.  The type face itself must be visualized very early on due to its nature.
    Interestingly enough it seems that making a trailer is much different from making a film because of how early you must make it. The fact that they make the title, so early on with very little visual assistance says a lot about the creative talent and imagination needed to come up with something associated with a movie so far away from release.

Weekly Comments

     This week we learned our first little piece of Adobe Premiere, timing shots in the timeline. What made me happy this week is that I finished my audio story. What frustrated me this week is that I barely had enough time to finish my audio story, it took a lot longer than expected. What I want to learn in the future is applying effects to shots in premiere.
     My link of interest this week is to a behind the scenes of "Kung Fury" i just watched the movie a few days ago and have become obsessed with movie, and the CGI in it. Here is a video of a behind the scenes of the special effects.

2d Drawings To 3d

     Disney Research has developed a new technology that converts colored pictures to 3D model textures! The app converts the flat drawing to a flat texture then wraps it around a 3D model in real time. What is amazing about this software is that the speed in which it converts all this data fast, accounts for things like paper bending, and is accurate. The implications of this software is that it helps bridge the virtual world with the real world, and could have many future implications with virtual reality.
     I think this is a pretty cool piece of technology Disney has developed! This could definitely encourage kids to be more artistic as well as bridge traditional art techniques with digital ones. Software like this could have many future improvements as well as serve as a framework for something bigger!

Making Your Film More Dynamic With Music

     Music, it is such an important part of film. Since black and white picture music accompaniment has always been a contributor to movies. First off, music allows you to set yourself a time and place for your scene, generally classical music will give a sense of medieval times, and county gives an idea of western locations. Anticipation can also be given through music, different sounds alert the audience to an upcoming event, especially danger.Continuity between scenes can be provided with music. In horror movies you always hear the iconic theme of the killer before they claim their victim. Finalizing the last scene of your movie is very important, and of course using music will help with that. Gently laying down the music on the last scene will help ease the audience out of the movie world, rather than cutting off the last scene and leaving your audience confused. Lastly, music fills up silence it keeps shots from being awkward.
     I love films with good immersive music. It always brings everything together. Choosing between a custom score at points and a already released song would be a tough decision at points. Additionally a custom score may be expensive. Although getting the rights to use a published song may be costly as well. Royalty free music would be great for practicing filmmakers. I like all the different ways you can apply music in a movie, it is something I look forward to this year.

Weekly Comments

     This week I learned about blending pictures through practicing in Photoshop on my Worth 1000 and Montage. What frustrated me this week was finalizing my pieces for the Worth 1000 project, I kept running into different little problems. What made me happy this week was that I got alot of positive feedback on my piece, and I got to see everyone else's, and the animation students' characters! Also, I saw the billboard Ryan and I were on. What I want to learn in the future is how to connecting shots in film, so they are cohesive.

This week's link of interest is a counter argument against people who think CGI ruins movies. I think the most persuasive statement he makes in this video is that you only notice bad CGI and good CGI isn't noticed. He shows off a lot of the cool things CGI does that we didn't even know it does. Go give it a watch!

Virtual Reality Movies

     Virtual Reality, its only been fiction until these past few years when we have some that are actually practical. Along with games, film has become a common feat to overcome with VR. This technology has been rather forgiving in game development, but film is a whole new deal. When recording 360 degrees of film there is no film crew, and no camera operator. If you truly want to record something without the interference of a crew there can be no crew. Current issues with virtual reality is just what you would expect from early technology like this frame rate, and resolution. Interestingly enough audio will follow you around as you move your head, which must really add to the immersion.
     To me, I feel virtual reality film is just a gimmick and an experiment at this point. I couldn't picture a big budget film being created with 360 degrees of video with acting and telling a story. The biggest issue would be directing your audience to different areas of the screen. Keeping all actions synchronized without a crew would be a nightmare. Actually being in the film would probably feel awkward with you presence actually there but not being acknowledged. Not only lighting will be solely based upon the environment but all instruments, sets microphones would need to be expertly hidden. I don't believe Virtual Reality will allow for good storytelling if your audience actually has to put effort into following the character and avoid distraction from other things. In my opinion the only places I believe it could have any practical use would be in Games, and Animation where you can control 100% of what is happening without an extensive budget, the best actors, and best location.

The Do's And Dont's of Action Scenes

     Action is a big part of film, and as common as it is we tend to be unimpressed, uninterested, and not entertained. But what makes a actions seen entertaining? The perfect balance of storytelling and cohesiveness. Poor action scenes will do little to explain character or plot, we need to know why this action is happening and the effects of it upon the story's plot.  Characters must also be a part of this, understanding how they feel and why they are doing what they do.
    Spectacle, like the destruction of a building needs to have some value to it. Blowing up a city alone will not make the audience care unless there is some significance to that location such as a character who has some value. Cohesiveness is very important because viewers need to know what is happening. Poor camera angles, closeups, and disconnected scenes are often used to save on budget and coordination but at the expense of the film. To truly make your action understandable put the action and reaction in the same shot, it becomes much easier to follow.
     I have always wondered why some movie's action scenes are much more interesting than others. It all makes sense to me now. Action scene's greatness isn't how many special effects you have but rather the significance of the situation, the cohesiveness, and the importance to the plot. Hopefully I wish to incorporate this when I am making videos to produce a more polished out action scene.

Weekly Comments

     This week we learned a lot about color, building sound booths, and masks! In the future I want to learn about using a camera, I am not very good with taking pictures or video, so I really want to improve. What frustrated me this week was definitely masks, I eventually understood them I was moreover just confused at the process of applying them and selecting them to edit them. What made me happy this week was getting to start on my Worth1000 project, I feel like I have a lot of freedom to make something really cool!
     This weeks link of interest is from Vice! I really like Vice, they make very good documentary and interviews. If you have free time I recommend indulging in a few of their videos! This video is an interview with George Miller the director of 'Mad Max: Fury Road' he speaks about the background of the movie, setting up, characters ect. Check it out, it is full of good information and inspiration!

Props Props PROPS

     Props serve many purposes in films. They make scenes really interesting in the way actors interact with them. Their shapes and weights not only convey emotion but you can do a lot more. Props can express a characters personality very fast instead of spending time trying to show it through a characters actions. Metaphors can also be conveyed, like background objects to show the character's motives. Props can also be used to show a complex, like the top in Inception showing whether they are in  a dream or not. Transitions from scene to scene can also be introduced with props. The movement of time can also be shown with how objects decay or change over time. Lastly, simply giving an actor a prop makes them more interesting, they will seem much more casual or interesting.
     Wow! I never knew you could do so much with props. There are so many possibilities when you really think about it. I think the most useful would definitely be to express a characters personality. Without objects you would have to dedicate a lot of time to explaining their personality, when you can simply show their interests with an object!

Chuck Jones

     I have seen Chuck Jones's name many of times when watching old LoonyToons cartoons! Many of the jokes in cartoons he has directed follow a similar formula, lead the audience to make an assumption, then follow it up with something unexpected. Each character has its own clear desires, for example Pepe Le Pew's desire for love. This allows us to easily attach to characters, understand them, and be entertained. Human behavior and logic are the key factors Jones states that drive humor, and the best way to understand human behavior and logic is to study things in real life.
     This is a very interesting video, LoonyToon's jokes are always very clever and I never really understood how it worked. After watching this video about him it makes a lot more sense to how the design each joke and character. I hope to apply some of the key components they explain to my animations in the future to create more dynamic and interesting animations.

Weekly Comments

     This week I learned about principles of composition, juxtapositions, retouching and moods. In the future I want to learn about creating dynamic camera angles. What frustrated me this week was  missing Fridays class! Missing one class really hurts a lot, we move so quickly its hard to catch up! What made me happy this week was actually practicing all the Photoshop techniques we are getting to learn. 

     My link of interest this week is to a cool website called CgSociety. If you want to look for some creative inspiration whether it be for characters, environments, special effects this is a great website to browse around and get flex your creative muscle!

6 Steps to Beat Procrastination

     Procrastination, by far one of the biggest problems plaguing filmmakers, students, and artists alike. Animation mentor provides 6 steps to beat procrastination. First is to step back, analyze what you have to do with a good idea of what you have to do. Second is to make a list, so you dont end up forgetting what you are working on.  Third is to avoid the internet, it is very easy to get distracted, and before you know it hours have passed. Fourth do the most difficult things first! Don't let yourself take too much time on the easy stuff. Fifth, don't forget to plan, planning allows you to give yourself direction, so you don't forget what you are tackling as well as make a job much easier. Sixth is to break it down! One big task can be very intimidating, but breaking it down into small pieces will make it much easier and less of a huge hurdle to jump.

     I think that these steps would really benefit me and a lot of other people who can never seem to "find time" to work. I constantly find myself procrastinating, and you can definitely see where it takes a toll in my work and in the work of others. I will definitely be applying this throughout this year, to better my work productivity.

5 Psychological Mistakes that Beginning Filmmakers Make

     Every filmmaker makes mistakes, whether it is big or small, beneficial or detrimental. It is important for us to realize when we are making these mistakes and correct ourselves, otherwise we will make them again and again. One, we spend too much time working on our computers, being more hands on and free form will allow creativity to flow. Two, we care too much about what is currently popular. In other words we try to see what will get us the most exposure or money but in reality our best product will come from what we want to make and our love for it. Three, not making enough narrative content, people watch a film for the story, if you do not have enough explaining or content relevant to the story the audience will get lost. Four, failure is always a lurking in everyone's mind, as a film maker you shouldn't be spending brain power, and time dwelling on failure, when you can be focusing on doing your absolute best. Fifth, is to be humble, do not feel as though you are the most important  person working on a film, it benefits everyone for you to have a modest view of your own importance.
     Keeping your mind on track to avoid mistakes is very important when film making or doing anything for that matter. I think that avoiding these mistakes will allow me to work better creatively as well as in a team. Additionally, you would most likely look  better in the eyes of others as someone who is confident in their work, as well as generating original content.

THIS IS A PRACTICE POST

Final Project Analysis and Reflection

     My Idea was that two jocks come across a book, and the more they interact with it the more nerdy they become through their appearance and personality. I chose to interpret the script that way because of how vague the script is to allow creative freedom, but additionally it reads and sounds like a dumb Jock by how vague it is.

     I used lots of easing for my characters to give them to give them realistic but very cartoonish feeling like how their heads move, and how the arms sway. Follow through also assisted in giving a nice flow to it this is especially prevalent in their arm movements. Arc is used a lot through out my animation, a good example is how the torso moves. Staging was used to set the scene in the gym and classroom.
     The motion blur worked particularly well to show the sway of arms and speed of their actions. I think I grew in my technical skills a lot more in this course because I needed to do a lot of troubleshooting to get the specific experimental style I wanted to capture.
     Clean up  need better improvement in my opinion because, I should leave myself with more time to fix errors I find after finishing. In the future I will ask for peoples opinion to spot these issues faster, and I will leave myself with more time to fix them.
     I am very proud of what I made and going back to fix it up before releasing is a primary goal. The strategy I used helped me pretty well, scheduling myself was a big part so I knew when to render everything. I learned a lot in this project, like texture blending, cloths, various rigging methods. If I could do this project differently I would have spent more time making sure the rigs worked as expected so I wouldn't have to fix errors.

Final Project References

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/642505

I first needed to start off with some character designs for my animation. They were inspired by Brewster's characters because of their semi-sarcastic semi-serious nature. I really love his characters and the way they act.

The way I wanted it to be animated like south park but with more movement and depth, so everything I built was planar.

This is a tutorial I watched to figure out NCloth for my animation. The clothing on the blonde character is made with NCloth, the cloth is constrained to his body parts so it moves with him.
I used this tutorial to allow for the swapping out of the football player's jacket  for the color change. I think it is super useful using the Utility nodes now that I know they are there.

Creating the hair transformation, and clothing transformations, I used blend shapes! This tutorial helped me a lot, especially because it uses only one plane.

Class Evaluation 2014-2015

1. Why did you take this class?

I took the class to become more serious in animation and better my skills in 2D and 3D animation!

2. In general, what did you like most about this class?

I really enjoyed presentations and critiques! They were great opportunities for us to all learn, share, and teach something, presenting was one of the most fun parts.

3. In general, what did you like least about this class?

Blogs I felt were a little overwhelming, because I normally don't get to them until Saturday or Sunday. Additionally some I could not pull any information from which made it difficult, an example would be the "Avengers Science" article/video.

4. What was your most favorite project and why?

My most favorite project had to be the 3D short! I felt a lot of creative freedom allowed by it and the time constraint was not killer either

5. What was your least favorite project and why?

My least favorite project was probably Independent study. I felt choosing an advanced Maya technique with little direction resulted with a bad product. Lots of people had issues with the Maya techniques especially because the time is short for it.

6. Discuss the overall effectiveness of the instructor (for example: preparation, availability, interest, content knowledge, expectations, etc.)

Ms.Licata was a great instructor! She always is prepared and has something for us to do. I am excited to have her as a teacher for another year!

7. What are the most valuable things you learned in the class?

I think the most valuable thing I learned in class was the software!

8. Do you feel that this class will help you achieve your future academic or career goals? How or why (or why not)?

Yes, since I want to go into the field of animation this class couldn't hurt me. Now I have a resume, portfolio and multiple videos

9. How could this class be improved?

I think some more creative freedom in the way of the final project maybe multiple scripts to choose from.

10. Additional comments:

I had a great time this year, and I am super excited for next year!

Weekly Comments

     Boo! I am not dead. My sickness from school is caused by a viral infection in my lungs. What I learned this week is not to go to school with a 102 temperature, and that ncloth is more trouble than it is worth. What made me happy this week was that I figured out what domain I am gonna buy for my website. What made me angry this week was being sick the majority of it. What I want to learn in the future is how to create animate fight scenes.
     My link of interest this week is to a funky little animation I found on newgrounds it put me in a good mood so If you want to see some bouncing creatures and good squash and stretch click the link!

Art and Anxiety in Filmmaking

     Directors are responsible for visualizing whole films, and many don't know what to do until they are on the set, and have everything in place. The art is connecting with the audience and the anxiety, is waking up every day not knowing whether you are making the connection or not. You have to make everything work even though you don't know whether it is or isn't. And keeping your film interesting is important, and avoiding cliches.
     I think that Directors have the hardest job, because they are managing the whole set and visualizing, and on top of that they have the cloud of unknowing hovering over their head to whether what they are working on will be a success or not.

Dos and Don'ts for Demo Reels from Don Kim

     For demo reels it is important to be making the best impression on your employer, so you should get as much information and opinion on your demo reel as possible.
     Only including your best work is super important, because even if you have some personal connection with a certain piece in your reel, it is super important to ask yourself and others if it is actually that good. Keep your reel short, 5 to 10 minutes is way too long for a demo reel, those reviewing and viewing your reels have limited time to be watching your reels so keep it down from 1 to 2 minutes.
     Make sure to begin and end your reel with a bang! It will leave a lasting impression and will really show your strongest work. Do not muddy your reel with too much, you must be clear and highlight what is important. Next make sure to bundle your shots together to make sure that the pace feels rhythmic and more engaging. Lastly send your portfolio with your demo reel to show your creative talents outside of animation.
    More tips for demo reels is always good! Any way to improve is super important and necessary, as it is super competitive trying to be the one standing out amount thousands of reels.

Weekly Comments

     I cant believe Ms.Licata is gonna leave us to die at boces this week! This week I learned how to do blend shapes in Maya! Not that we had a tutorial already, but this is the first time I have done it.
What made me happy this week is that I got my first scene animated! What frustrated me this week was getting clothing right in Maya it repeatedly clips through objects... What I want to learn in the future is rag doll physics.
     My link of interest this week is to the first scene of my animation, enjoy! I might go back and fix the clothes, not sure yet.

Avenger's Science

     A lot of thought goes into creating the imaginary characters in the avengers. From Iron man's suit to captain america's shield, the science is still there. These concepts may not be 100% accurate but still hold a lot of truth. The fast regeneration of Captain America and Black Widow are thought to be speed up by fast macro-phages, which are the healing cells in a human!
     This video is pretty cool, but there is more to it than entertainment. It shows that your characters should be have some science truth, which isn't a bad thing. As shown, fans and fanatics will pick apart things in your films and see if they are based on fact. Often you will see people criticize a film based upon things that can and cannot happen. Often people say, "that cant happen" or that "makes no sense" which definitely will damage the immersive feeling of a movie.

Game of Thrones Dragons

     The dragons in Game of Thrones are pretty cool! The artists at Pixomondo are behind them and are ever improving the dragons rigs. They state that as the dragons develop, their rigs get more complex. Every stage of the growth of them adds more detail, and to add more realism they add more controls. They say there is no need to stick to one reference, since dragons are fictional you should pull from as many different creatures as possible.
    The dragons in Game of Thrones look super awesome! The amount of realism in their movement, emotion, and detail really show! The clips seemed so real and lifelike, and it is definitely how someone imagines a dragon! The fact that it has 400 some controllers proves there is a lot of thought and ingenuity in the dragons. What is very interesting is that they use the same rig for all 3 dragons, the difference is is the proportions and details! I really wanna see what they do with the dragons next season!

Weekly Comments

     My 3d short characters are almost done! This week I learned Cloth simulation from Ryan! What a good buddy to help me it is really gonna benefit me! What made me happy this week was that I figured out how I am animating and stylizing my final project and I have a voice actor doing my voices for me!

Current Character Design

What frustrated me this week was that getting the cloth to work with flat limbs is much harder than you would think I may resort to only using it on one character. What I want to learn in the future is how to render better in maya hardware 2.0

      My link of interest this week is to an animation by my friends! It is part of their series I happen to enjoy very much!

3d Printers Help Laika

    3D printers are amazing! I think this could be one of the greatest improvements to stop-motion since clay! Laika is known for their films like Coraline, Paranorman and Boxtrolls, but what many people don't know is that since the new technology of 3D printing has came about Laika has found it to be one of the most important tools at their disposal! This allows much faster creation of  stop motion as the face is one of the toughest things to animate in stop motion.
     As being someone obsessed with 3d printers I found this article super interesting! I think 3d printing will definitely benefit stop motion in the aspect it will make it much faster and easier, but on the contrary it definitely discredits stop motion in my opinion, after all doesn't 3d printing make it almost to exactly the same as 3d animation? I really want to see what 3d printing in the future holds for Laika.

Disposible Animation

     We all know Walt Disney and all of the classic movies he has created. All of the old Disney films are timeless, almost immortal. They continue to be relevant, entertaining, and interesting. The same can be said about Pixar's first films, Tim Burton's first films, and Dreamwork's first films. The problem that seems more prevalent than ever in animation now is that films are disposable. It becomes apparent that films are only created to be made for a quick buck, or there are so many to choose from online who is leading, why aren't online animations more popular? It seems that the world needs a modern day Innovator creating something that can be remembered rather than a cash grab.
     It is interesting how hard it is to remember the premise or the conflict of many modern day animations. When I look back at very popular films hailed for their creativity I can name lines and scenes like I had just watched it. But you can not say that modern movies are not good, with big studios like DreamWorks, Disney, or Pixar it is almost impossible for them to create something really bad! In reality though, what movies of theirs are going to hold up to me the only names that come up are Shrek ,How To Train Your Dragon, Bolt, Big Hero 6,and almost every Pixar Animation including the shorts. In my opinion I feel Pixar is the only ones creating memorable films.  In the case of online animation it is not the animator's who are not innovating it is how much competition and there is no where to be exposed. I really hope something will change.

Weekly Comments

     It has been a pretty lousy week I hope the next one will be better. This week I learned how to duplicate a bunch of  objects together and move them all at once with duplicate special. What made me happy this week was that I got all my papers in for Skills Usa. What frustrated me this week is that I got a copyright strike on YouTube... Look at all the features on YouTube I have lost due to my idiocy.

What I want to learn in the future is how to avoid copyright ordeals, and how to approach them when confronted. What is interesting though, Is that the video taken down was created before this class, so I had little to no Idea of how copyright works. I would suggest you look through all your old videos as well so you don't loose your features too.

      My link of interest this week is how to avoid getting thwacked in the face by a copyright notice at 6 in the morning on a Sunday by a copyright strike.

Tips to becoming A better Director

     Being a director is an all around job. It is very a very active job, and requires you to be many different people at once.
     Firstly and most importantly you must give clear direction, if you are a "director" you must send your workers to do exactly what you want to keep them from coming back with questions.  Second, don't always stick to the script because sometimes things look better in real life than they do on paper. Third, take your time but be efficient, not everything has to be rushed, and not everything should take forever, finding the perfect time to work on something is efficiency. Fourth, avoid fights because nothing looks more unprofessional than arguing take whoever is causing the issue off to the side. Fifth, respect and take care of your team. After all you are ordering them around all day, so they might as well be happy while doing your bidding.
     Director seems like a cool job, but is no cake walk most definitely. I never really knew how much a director's job varies. It is also important to understand all the steps in creating films so you can interact at every stage till completion. Definitely I feel that Director is the most important job and toughest because you are the main decision maker.

Adobe Character Animator

     Adobe's new software Character Animator for After Effects allows people to animate characters with their face. Apparently, this allows easy creation of characters in illustrator then transition to after effects for animation using the face. The software analyzes facial movement in real time, then converts it into the movement of the character. Adobe is planning to release this software with the next update for the creative cloud version of after effects, so that is when you can get your hands on it.
     I don't really know how I feel about this software. At the current stage of it, it doesn't seem to have any practical use other than entertaining yourself. I am however interested in what the future holds for this software, because of all the possibilities this could open up in the way of animation. I am specifically interested in the way it lip syncs. If it was more accurate i would definitely use it to speed up the time it takes me to lip-sync.

Weekly Comments

     Finally I dont have to be worried about presenting my presentation. This week I learned how to make a button in maya! It runs a little code so I can key frames in real time! What made me happy this week was that I got to do some modeling in my independent study! What frusterated me and is still frusterating me is making a fluresent light for my scene.  In the future I want to learn more about lights, because that seems to be my weakness when it comes to 3d.
     My link of interest this week is to an article about Dreamworks! I feel it is relevant to me because I visited there two weeks ago. And recently they have not been doing too well buisness wise. Hopefully thier new movie "Home" will bring some more revenue in.Visiting dreamworks has really sparked my interest in this topic because that is one of the places I wish to work at in the future.

Movies or Mind Control?

     Film is amazing in the fact that it can evoke certain emotion in its audience. Alfred Hitchcock is a master at this, lab tests on people in an mri machine watching films showed high brain engagement in his films. This really proves that film is very manipulative and is expecially beneficial to the science of film, in the way it provides information on what methods of filmaking are the most effective.
    The fact that film can affect an audience's mood It is not a new concept we have seen it and experienced it alot, expecially in children you see it when they cry in parts of a film an adult generally wouldn't. I hope information like this is used in the future to make more engaging film!

Why You Don't Want A "Job" In Animation

     Animation is one of the most competitive industries there are. Will Fin a seasoned veteran in animation sees a job as something you depend on a employer for, where as a career is something you're responsible for and you only rely on yourself to keep your contacts, reputation, and skill.  Will said in his blog that he had a dream of working from cradle to grave at Disney with one job like one of the 9 old men. But much differently he bounced around at many jobs. Every job has an end to it, and no job is guaranteed.
     Animation is definitely a hard job not only in skill, but in geting and keeping a job. Your artistic and technical skills are really what allow you to get a job somewhere. I do understand the fact that your overall career will follow you, so the main point is to make your career a good one instead of cutting yourself short aiming for one job that you most likely wont get.

Weekly Comments

       2 days left for my 3d short!! This week I learned how to make smoke in Maya, I used this a few times throughout my animation. What frustrated me this week was framing alot of my shots, it is tough to find a specific angle you want. What made me happy this week was that I got some community service for helping with the open house! In the future I want to learn bifrost! I hope Ryan can help me out with that!
     My link of Interest this week is to a cool little website called IceCreamHater! This site has a bunch of cool little 2d animations that are fun to watch in your spare time! A lot of them are really clever and look really good!

Drones

     Drones have become a huge jump in film technology in the past few years, they allow amazing shots at a low budget. Getting high aerial shots is now available to an independent film maker with just a bit of cash and some practice! Now in movies unattainable shots are now attainable, scenes in the hobbit and others are made with drones.
     Additionally Drones allow you to get to spots that are too dangerous for a human to go, like a volcano. The only issue with drones is getting permission to use them in certain locations, and some dangers of using them as well. With this new advancement has also created contests and festivals like the Drone Film Festival where they are specifically focused on the use of drones for film.
   Arial Drones are pretty cool, they open up a lot of possibility for filmmaker. I have always enjoyed videos shot in the sky, they allow a lot of good staging for scenes and give you a good idea for location. When shots like these are combined with Cgi, they create some pretty fantastic scenes, whether it be explosions or a crowd simulation. Drones are pretty cool, I would like to get my hands on one myself!

Go With Your Strength?

     What do people mean when they say "Go with your strength."? Is it your skill with a technique, style or genre? Or are they talking about your ability to work through a project? That being said, why limit yourself to a specific strength of yours? After all animation is an ever expanding and evolving industry. If you are only working off of your strength you do not go into new territory and limit other areas where you need practice most.
     This all boils down to self-efficacy you should think about what you are capable of doing, rather than what you are able to do! Also, self-efficacy will help throw out your ego, because you will focus more time on your work instead of showing off how good you are with one of your strengths.
     This article really gets to me, I always stick to my strengths and as of that I think my work suffers a bit. I believe my strength is finding loopholes to make my work easier, due to that a lot of my shots look lazy! Experimenting is what really keeps you away from your strengths, trying to do something you have never done before really breaks you from sticking to what you are able to do.

Weekly Comments

     My 3d short is getting closer to completion! This week I learned how to automate actions in Photoshop! It is really beneficial to do one big batch edit of files rather than going and changing each one. What frustrated me this week was actually getting my rig to work how I wanted it to, often my ik's freaked out when rotating my controllers. What made me happy this week was to actually got started animating and I have a few of my scenes rendered too!!

     This week since we had a blog on Music and Animation, here is a music video I storyboarded for my friend! I really think the beat and bobbing of heads syncing to the beat helps drive the song!

6 Reasons You Must Shoot Video Every Day

     Practice makes perfect. That is why it is important to shoot video every day. Reason 1 is that it will help you become familiar with your equipment, it helps you learn the ins and outs of your camera, and helps you develop habits to shoot better. 2nd Reason is that everyday you are practicing. If you are shooting every day all that practice adds up!
     3rd Reason to shoot video everyday is to force yourself to experiment! If you are only experimenting when you are forced to shoot, you do not have a lot of leeway and time to try new things, so recording everyday gives you a lot of time to fool around. 4th reason is that you will find your video strength and video weaknesses and you will have time to improve it! Reason 5 is that shooting video will become a habit.  The ability you have of capturing movement, will become something you do without a lot of thinking. Lastly it will inspire you! Every day you will learn see new things, which will help you in the long run!
     I think recording everyday is a good idea! Rarely I will find myself recording something in day to day life. A lot of the reasons mentioned in the article made a lot of sense as to why to record every day. Unknowingly I record video almost every day using snap-chat, the portability of phones is really what allows people to record their life which is really cool! I think the most important thing you get out of recording everyday is the ability to experiment, because when you are on the job you don't have time to be fooling around.

Animation as Visual Music

     Music has been used alongside animation for as long as we can remember. Music and Animation are very similar in the way they convey tempo, repetition, feeling, timing and character. Music can be used  alongside animation to create an unparalleled amount of entertainment with the way the sound syncs. Music can also pace a scene to keep it from lasting too long.  Repetition also assists in surprising audience by getting them used to the beat of the animation and changing it.
     A universally entertaining musical technique is to make animated objects instruments! Things like drums for running feet, or a marimba for eyes darting around really give the viewer a sense of the weight and movement of an object. Music as Character Inspiration creates a very fun character, syncing their movement and actions with sound helps add a comedic undertone.
     Music synced with animation is always entertaining! Loony tunes always had music accompany every action of the characters. Music really helps flow the animation and emphasize the movement, especially when music is custom fit to every action.I believe that this is one of the main reasons why it is so entertaining to watch animations with a good score!

Weekly Comments

     Weight painting and Rigging is the bane of my existence. This week we learned about blend shapes, and deform clusters.  What really bothered me this week was rigging and weight painting my character! The biggest problem was probably the Ik's parenting controllers to them is tough, also I had a problem getting the legs to act like the chicken rig we used, to make it so the leg moves toward the controller make sure the Ik has "sticky" checked in its options. What made me happy this week is that I finally got to animating! My character preforms slightly well, except his leg has spasms at times.

     My link this week is on how I rigged the antenna on my controller! This is really easy to follow if you want to do anything like this. Dynamic rigging comes in use a lot for flowing objects! Give it a try it is really fun!

Bouncing Light

    If you need a small adjustment to light bounce it! The idea of bouncing light is very simple, but extremely effective! The idea is to shine your light not directly at the object of interest, but bounce it off and object towards it. It softens the lighting and gives it a more natural look.
    What you bounce your light off can also affect your scene. Bouncing light off a wall can give the look that light is entering the room from a window. To get better control over your light you can use a reflector to get the angle you desire. For documentaries you want to keep your scene looking as natural as possible, so bouncing the light off of the ceiling really gives a real natural look to your scene, but be careful as lights are hot and can easily set off sprinklers or burn a ceiling.
    This article is super cool! I didn't know you had to use lights directly! It is really cool that you can use walls to dilute the light in your scene. Next year in video I am definitely going to do this when recording scenes, I have never really liked cast shadows because they throw too much information at me for some scenes, but the act of bouncing and diluting really opens up a lot of possibility as to the mood you can create.

Secrets Behind the Spongebob CGI Scenes

   The new Spongbob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water mixes 2d animation, 3d animation, and film together. 2/3's of the movie was 2d animation, but a large portion was done  with 3d animation and film together. The challenge of the movie was combining CGI and Film, which isn't new to Ilora who have worked on movies like The Great Gatsby, I Frankenstein, Ted, and Ghostrider!

     When creating the characters for the live action scenes they had to stay true to the  style of the 2d animated characters. They did this by making sure to give the characters texture, like Sponge-bob's pores, or Patrick's bumps on his skin. Additionally adding subsurface scattering on the character's skin adds depth to their form. To keep live action consistent with the 3d animation, often they would 3d print parts of character to assist with acting. Another way of keeping consistency with the 2d portion of the film is the way the characters are animated, an example of this is that Spongebob doesn't turn around often, so keeping him from turning around really keeps the 2d style!
   I found this article super interesting! I had always wondered about the technical side of putting together 3d and live action. It is super cool to see what fine little details the artists have to be aware of to keep the film looking real! Especially the ice cream cone, it is way out of my knowledge on how you could do any of that!

Weekly Comments

Do I even go to school anymore? Monday snowday, thursday and friday water main break, sad to say it, I actually want to go back to school. What made me frustrated this week was that I wasn't in school to ask questions on blend shapes and rigging and modeling and all the pains of 3D.  But what made me happy this week was that I finished my character and rigging him, and I finished my remote with dynamic antenna!  What I want to learn soon is Blend shapes!

My Rig Right Now

My link of interest this week is to something called MiArmy, which is a crowd simulation tool. I hav e been trying to learn it because it is actually Free! This tool has been used in World War Z and other movies, I recommend you give it a look! It is very cool! Thihttp://www.basefount.com/miarmy.htmls is revolutionizing CGI because of crowd simulation it really opens a lot of possibility with the 3D industry!

What is Oscar Worthy Film Editing?

   Editing is a very powerful tool of film, just like acting it can either make or break a film.  It is a way to direct the audience through a given situation, and keep them from getting confused. You know editing is good when you do not become aware of it, cutting between scenes should not make you question what happened. Bad editing will make you ask what just happened, and lose your attention. One common problem with, editing is cutting, short cuts are more memorable, but harder to understand for the audience, longer cuts are not very memorable, but do not confuse the audience as much.
I think the information given in this article is super useful, I never knew how important editing is, especially because it keeps you inside the world that is created, and not let you get distracted. Next year in film i will definitely use editing to wisely to keep my audience un-distracted.  I really like that they express the importance of short cuts and long cuts, because I believe a lot of new movies have too many short cuts and I get lost and lose interest.

Top 3 Reasons To Have Creature Animation On Your Demoreel

  As an animator you want to get the job of your dreams, But no animation job is easy to get, so focusing your reel on feature animation or only your dream job really slims down your choice of work because a large portion of studios really want animators to make realistic creature work. Expanding your reel beyond Characters expands to a whole range of jobs.  Additionally, adding creature animation does not give up your dream of working at Disney, it simply helps hone your skills as an animator.  Sticking to one style of animation really limits your potential as an artist, because you are not expanding beyond your comfort zone.
This article really opened my eyes as to where I should be spending some of my time, I should be practicing things that are out of my comfort zone because I should want to be  a versatile animator rather than a specialized one. What I really liked about this article is the birthday cake analogy, because it really made it easy to understand the concept of becoming your dream, and becoming a well rounded animator.

Weekly Comments

     Render Wrangling seems like it wouldn't be my kind of job. This week we finished our class competition I felt like i was going to run out of time due to my rendering mishap. What made me happy was that I FINALLY figured out how to uv map, I am really excited to fool around with it. What aggravated me this week was that my rendering had paused overnight, so i ended up spending half of the deadline day rendering. I am excited to learn about rigging, so I can bring my Characters to life!
     My link of interest this week is to writing scripts for animated shows. I think he describes how the process of writing goes generally whereas to the protagonist stands in the story.

Mercedes Super Bowl Ad

     Robert Stromburg, was hired to create a sixty second commercial for Mercedes for the Superbowl.It included a twist on the story of the Tortoise and the Hair. The challenge was not only mixing the animated characters with real life environments, but condensing the whole story into 60 seconds while still keeping the human characteristics of the animals. 
     I really liked the article, because it shows how technical a 60 second ad can become. It really hits me as to what a challenge it must have been to condense but still have the audience understand what is happening. It became especially apparent when Robert stated "Rather than playing with multiple expressions and meanings in one shot, I have to realize what that frame is trying to say." I really think the commercial was very effective as to what it was trying to do, because it stepped out of the normal luxury car commercial and made it more fun! What I enjoyed the most out of the commercial was the amount of life that was given to the animals, similarly to the flour sack exercise we did in class.

Extra People, Without the People.

     A common mistake among film makers is the lack of extras in a scene, because its hard to get a large amount of people in a scene without a big budget or a lot of friends. But don't be in doubt you can always fake out the viewer! The first way is to group your extras together instead of spreading them apart, it will look more natural as people group together when they interact. Second, shoot with a long lens, it adds more depth and gives an illusion of more people being in the shot that there actually are. Third is to create a parallax effect by having people walk through the scene, crowded places are not still, so adding people moving on different planes of the shot makes it seem more lively.Fourth taking multiple shots and masking them onto one shot is a way of doing it with VFX. Lastly get close shots of your extras, it shows there are more people there than the main characters.
     I didn't know there were so many different ways to add more characters to a scene without actually gathering no more that a few people. I think this will be super useful next year when I am working on my project, I would definitely want some populated scenes. It seems that lots of TV shows use this technique for crowded bars,where they put pockets of people behind the character. I hope these techniques drives indie films to have more crowded scenes, because often indie films seem awfully vacant.

Weekly Comments

     3D is so much fun! Between animation, texturing, modeling there is so much to learn, and so little time! I cant believe we are already starting our chicken animation. I am almost finished creating the environment, and about to start animating the chicken. What made me happy this week that I finished all the tutorials, but what made me unhappy is I have been cut short on time because of my field trip on Monday, and me being sick on Thursday, I hope I can catch up on all the time I missed.
     My link of interest this week is to a tutorial series on modeling a bodybuilder, I myself am going to do this series next weekend, to hone some of my modeling skills. It helps to work from realism, so this would help me getting some proportions in 3D correct. This guy also has a bunch of really good tutorials like UV wrapping, I STRONGLY recommend you check him out!

Creation of the Battle of Five Armies

     The new Hobbit movie has seen quite a few amazing advancements in the Cgi Industry. The large amount of fighting soldiers required software that could simulate such a huge battle. Additionally the scene where the dragon attacks the town they made sure that everything affected everything. So wind from the dragons wings affected the fire, and the fire in turn affects the buildings, etc.

     I have never seen any of the Hobbit, or Lord of the Rings movies, but from the scenes in the video the Cgi looks absolutely fantastic! And from the software that was used to generate the battle is pretty amazing. The software behind the the battle "Massive" is also responsible for the zombie hordes in World War Z. This is very big news because of all the possibility that software like this is opening up. I cant wait to see what new action sequences this could bring about!

Michael Bay Explains His Action scenes

     Not everyone is a fan of Michael Bay, but you cant deny he can make some killer action sequences!One of his main objectives when he directs is to give the audience a unique view from where he places the camera. To give the audience a feeling of being in an environment he will take a large shot then go to small details like facial expressions. When Bay said "I just like moving big things close to the camera. To keep it real." I found it very interesting, because when you watch close up action it makes you feel like part of it.
     Personally I think Michel Bay is an alright director but I feel there is a little too much going on all the time that I cant focus on what is happening in his shots. I do think his movies are fun to watch just a lot of adrenaline fun! Its great that he uses practical effects over Cgi by doing this he creates an unparalleled feel of realism but it really doesn't feel cost effective.

Disney's Advances in Creating Realistic Human Eyes

  For the longest time creating realistic eyes was a challenge. Often key features are ignored due to their complexity and detail.  But now Disney research has made a breakthrough in the way eyes are designed. By capturing real eyes with multiple cameras computes can generate a realistic eye with the included dilation of the pupil! This is great news because there are so many different ways this can be applied in different fields like simulation, film, medicine etc.
     I feel that this is extremely important to the overall quality of future animation, because of how important a character's eyes are. Peoples eyes are all different, dynamic and expressive, this is often forgotten about when it comes down to money and time. Hopefully this will enhance the bond between the audience and the animated character through the eyes!

Weekly Comments

     Break is over, so now getting back in the daily routine is tough. Finally we got to get our feet wet in Maya so I am very excited to keep moving forward, the exercises haven't been crazy hard, but they show the labor required to model 3d. I learned how to proxy smooth this week, which is really cool! What made me happy this week was that we got Friday off due to the weather! What frustrates me about that though is that we have less time to learn Maya until our class competition. I cant wait to learn about nurbs, it is a whole area of Maya I have yet to explore!
     My link of interest is to a youtube channel called Animation Methods, this guy has a ton of videos for autodesk Maya, These are really good if you wanna learn on your free time, I've watched them in the past, I recommend them to anyone fooling around on 3d!

Importance of Size in Film

     The manipulation of character size is an indisposable tool available to film makers. We commonly associate this with establishing dominance.  But there is much more to it than showing power. Depth is portrayed with character size to direct the audience towards what is important for the story.story. Orson Wells once had a small set constructed for Character size, but not everyone has the budget for this so wide angle lenses are a common solution because they bring the  focus of the shot forward and send the rest backward.
     I find it interesting how the size of a character can really drive story-line. When you think back lots of horror films use this to show something moving in the background while you can see that the protagonist is oblivious to what is happening behind them. Next year in video it will be fun to experiment with this technique.