Weekly Comments

     This week we learned about Lights! They seem like something really easy to set up! I cant wait to experiment with them. In the future, I want to learn how to set up a scene better, and convey a story with it. What made me happy this week is that Connor's and my documentary came out better than expected! What made me angry this week is that I didn't get to record parts for my contest, hopefully I will get to that this week.
My link of interest this week is too something called the Annie Awards. It is an animation Award Ceremony! Go check out this year's nominees! I hope I can win one, someday!

     I like these tips from DSLR Guide, they are really delicious!

     SO when shooting shots that you want to keep looking cinematic you must keep in mind your location, colors, emotions, and senses. Use locations to describe your character, what do your locations say about them? For colors, use contrast to exemplify key objects, and make unimportant objects blend into the back.  Emotion helps attach your audience, use setting to your advantage to bring fourth their emotions, drab setting for sad, and bright for happy. Lastly draw fourth with the senses. Use familiar sounds, or bring fourth shots that would familiarize a common taste or smell.
     I hope we keep getting articles like this, they are really helpful and easy to apply to class. I think the most interesting tip was making color corrections. I never thought of changing colors in an environment to make compliments, I will definitely be doing some of that in my next projects.

3D Printing and Stopmotion

     3d printing, I never stop hearing about it. Could it be the biggest invention since sliced bread? It is not a new thing that 3d printing has been used in animation, Paranorman by Laika is one of the earliest stop motion films to incorporate it. 3d animation has been one of the biggest innovations in animation, it seems that majority of feature films are made in 3d. That being said, 3d printing is a bridge between 3d Animation, and stop motion. Printing different heads, and body parts for characters seems like something that would make the process a lot easier and quicker.. In reality it takes about the same time still having to design the parts, sand them down, and paint them.
     3d printing and animation, we had an article on this before.. Laika seems to be the company using it the most. 3d printing has really made creating props for films way more accessible in movies like Starwars and more. Hopefully as it becomes cheaper and more accessible we will see more use of it!

Weekly Comments

    This week we got to work on our documentary's and do some critiques! This week I learned how to gather some interesting shots on location with the help of Connor!  What made me happy this week is that Connor and I got to record some scenes to assist in our documentary. Its really the first time I have done any filming with friends outside of school, it was really an experience to say the least haha. What upset me this week is that the year is going by really fast, I can't believe that we are going to be starting our class competition soon.
     My link of interest this week is to a 3d modeling tutorial, on how to make a trashcan! If you are interested into getting into any 3d modeling start here! This guys tutorials are awesome!

Chuck Jones and 'One Froggy Evening'

     On December 31, 1995 Chuck Jones released one of his most infamous short animations. One Froggy Evening is known for its clever story, wonderful animation, setting, and clever character design. Jones is known as one of the animation greats because of how much dedication and care he put into his animations. He was not one to rely on set character expressions, but made every shot seem like it's very own. Timing is also another one of Jones's strengths, in 'One Froggy Evening' the shots are timed so well that they induce humor, and if they were off a beat you wouldn't have found it funny..
     Chuck Jones was definitely a revolutionary for animation. He really defined what a short animation should be and how the general slapstick humor should be executed. LoonyToons definitely is one of his strong points, especially in the way he did the Road Runner shorts. Bringing life and humor to cartoons is one of the many things Chuck Jones will be remembered as for many animators.

Getting Over Writers Block

     Writers block is quite a doozy to overcome, but it is possible. one of the easiest ways to get away from it is to not let yourself be distracted. Distraction is one of the main reasons have issues with our projects. When we cant focus we cannot work, and when we cannot work nothing gets done. To fix this, buckle down unplug and start working it may be hard but is an important form of self discipline. Next issue is the inability to commit to a project, because you get new ideas and have issues sticking to one. Ideas are not hard to come up with and are not what make a project good, whereas the actual execution of the project is what makes it good. Last is if you cannot stop trying to make everything in your project perfect. An easy fix to this is to not be perfect, be as sloppy and disorganized as you want, but then go back and fix, it is the fastest rather than stressing over every decision.
     Getting a good workflow is important, staying on task and being expressive is the best way to work. This article has very good points on helping yourself out of writers block, I will reference back to this when I need to get working!