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.