Bonjour! This blog will be talking about the review over a well known movie created by Disney, called Moana. This movie debuted Thanksgiving of 2016. Many people while watching thought Moana was the same as any Disney princess ever created, but one author, Eliza Berman, thinks she is the exact opposite of any princess gal.
The Argument
Berman believes that Moana is an Anti-Princess. A heroine to join the ranks of Belle and Ariel, the ones who saved themselves and didn't need no man to help. Moana's of age journey is different compared to many of the other princess as Breman decibels,“I don’t know that any of the other princesses we’ve been involved with we’d describe as badass" (Time). She talks about how the Polynesian movie was based off myths from their people, the wayfinding by using the current and using the stars are all true. They also made a 16 year old girl save the universe. By herself. Moana is a role model for anyone that wants to independent: "we thought it would be very appealing to do a female empowerment story that didn’t center on any sort of romance" (Time). Moana, unlike the rest of the princesses is built different too. She is made for the harsh expedition unlike her counterparts who were made to be beautiful, Moana was made for stardom (Time). She concludes her article by saying Moana will inspire a journey of self discovery for the audience and hopefully a chance to relate through a person’s own journey.
This argument is very valid since most princesses have most been to just look at and let the prince handel anything bad that comes their way. But Moana presents to the public that women are more capable to fend for themselves and in the movie, she proves it over and over. Breman does a good job of bringing up the fact that she is an independent young lady. But, her evidence usually suggest that it was an opinion. A weakness that Breman has is that her opinions on female independence is clouding the evidence, even though she also has a very strong voice in her writing and really knows how to express herself.
Improvement
I think the article is relevant to today’s society. Women still aren’t treated equally and maybe this will open the eyes and let people understand the anyone can be capable of anything. The author could’ve done a better job of adding quotes from Disney producers or maybe people who worked on the movie, she only had a few in her blog. The author does hit the main points from the movie explaining why Moana isn’t like all princesses but a definition of bravery. The evidence is pretty convincing to show that Moana is no ordinary girl. But I think the ending could be better, but it does talk about a serious topic. People could possibly take this another way and then t wouldn’t be convincing anymore. This article has proven to me that I need to be more reliable with my evidence but that I also can do more research
on my topic/movie to make it great.
This was a great passage to read and to light the differences in our modern society. This is important so everyone can be equally represented both on and off screen. It is import to empower young girls so they can come into the workforce passionate and determined.
Bonjour!! Today I will be reviewing a professional animation, more specifically the new short animation that recently came out; In a Hear5tbeat by Beth David and Esteban Bravo. I thought his animation was very well made it was absolutely amazing. So without further ado, let us watch the short film.
David, Beth and Esteban Bravo, directors. In a Heartbeat. Ringling College of Art and Design, 31 July 2017.
Design
What made this animation particularly amazing was the many principles of design they included into the project. The balance was great, nothing was too ark or too bright or too busy. Everytihng was layed out very nicely and it didn't overcrowd for example in the beginning when one of the characters is in the tree, nothing took away from that moment. It was layed out nicely to not draw attetion to unneeded things. The movement was also very good. It flowed smoothly from one scene to the next and no one was left wondering or confused. The Unity was also very good, the colors and aniamtion in general was very pleasing to the eye for example, when the two meet in the center of screen with the slight contrasting colors canceld eachother and the nothing was too eyedrawing, the whole piece is very balanced.
Story
The story was very easy to follow, a boy who has a crush is scared to make any contact or talk to his crush but then his heart leads him around, making descions for him leading the two boys to met for the first time. The boy with the crush becomes very flustered and tries to ru away, leaving a piece of his broken heart but after a while the other boy finds him and he helps the main boy to heal his broken heart, bringing them togther in the end. A classic, Dsiney romance. The tale was to share the commiunty f the LGBTQ and make everyone a bit more aware and accepting. They also hoped to inspidre young kids to do whatever they want and et their heart take control to do what they love. The animation team did a great job with their overall look, it is very pleasing to watch with the fluid movemnet and great artwork. They also did a great job at bringing up important issues (LGBTQ equality) and turning it soft for everyone to recongize it. It brought up awreness for a now common occourance.
Improvemnt
An element I could take from this animated short is definitly cleaning up my work and making it look better. This short was well organized and the art looks amazing so maybe if I start working t prove my skills at digital art, weather that be 3D or 2D my projects might start looking a little more professional. The throuhgness this flim has compared to my work is also very unbeliveibble. My work is ok, but there are usually many errors that I make and that I don't go back and fix so possibly trying to fix most mistakes wiol help again with the profesional feel. Something both my work and the short film is probably the time taken. It took me way too long to create my animation and the In a heartbeat probably took at least a year. But we also share the process so storyboarding and then concepting then eventually creation. The process for every animator is silimalr in that sense. To me, the overall animation was pretty good, there are probably ittle mistakes here and there but the story is very creative and differenct. Plus the animation is pretty amazing. The story could get better by adding o to it. Possily showing the characters after they realise they share feelings or maybe a little from the ther boy's point of veiw.
Overall I think this animation is truley a work of art. I may not be a part of the LGBTQ community but it is important for any group to represented. Hopefully this hsort will open up people's eyes more and create and more accepting envirnment for anyone and everyone.
Bonjour! This blog will be about one of my projects that I have done this semester in my animation class. The project I will be talking about is my ninja or story animation that I worked on forever. The project was supposed to teach us how to create a short animated slim, or an animation short. There were a few requirements but nothing too restricting. It was also very fun to work on something that we could make anything up for.
Process
The process started with us watching some past students works to get ideas for our own short. Then we had a very brief discussion on what the requirements had to be. Some of the things that we must include were having a multiplane and use the puppet pin tool. After the rules were set in place we had a few days to storyboard and draw our characters so we can scan them in. It took me a while to try and think of what I wanted my story to be and how I wanted to do it. I eventually, after a week or so, decided on doing a story about a ninja. But not just any ninja, a ninja who isn't stealthy. One who would trip and fall and ultimately rip his pants and end up having to go to a clothing store. After I got the story down, I then had to draw my character and took me a while too, until I just started looking up characters to reference. I also wanted my character to somewhat historically correct so I did look up a few ideas on what traditional ninjas would've worn but some of the styles would be too difficult so I stuck with really simple designs. Next, after the coloring which took forever, I got to put everything into Aftereffects. I had a hard time seeing how I would set it u but I eventually just started making new compositions for each new scene and just shortening them and clipping them when I needed to. The whole editing process took a few long weeks, especially with my trying to get this done and the musical and my homework. I actually just finished this project quite recently, which I am very proud of getting it done.
What Did I Learn?
I learned a lot while creating this project. I learned that I should manage my time way better and that nothing can ever get done in 5 minutes. But I also learned how to better use aftereffects like the tools and just getting the extra practice I need to be able to do well on my projects in the future. I learned how to keep my layers organized because I had about 60 for all the different body parts. This project was more of a final review with Aftereffects since we started in a 3D program a short while after this project was supposed to be finished.
What Would I Change?
I think I would go back in and clean up a lot of stuff. I think the biggest issue is the sliding that my character seems to do. But there are body things that are weird too. Some of the limbs don't match up so I would go and clean those up and maybe add some new layers for that hand and head since it was the same for every single part kinda making it seem really unnatural. I really liked the backgrounds that I created for this project, they look pretty ok for the project. I also like the story and I sorta wish I could add on to it but, where it is at now I really like it.
Next Time?
This was a great way to wrap up the 2D animation that we've been working on all year so far. I really enjoyed being able to create something. I also hope that I will remember all the things I learned for next time and that I will hopefully not take so long when I am working on it so my life won't be more stressful then it needs to be.
Bonjour mes Amies! I am here writing my reflection over the whole first semester in my animation class. This is my final blog, it is actually my final. I am going to be talking about all my experiences and leanings this year.
Character Walk Cycle
One of my favorite projects we did this year was for my walk cycle, the one that looked like Russel from up, I really enjoyed creating everything for it and figuring out how to make him move. I learned a lot from that project, like how humans versus how robots walk and how to correctly do a human walk cycle. I watched a ton of reference videos because I wanted it to look as natural as possible when the character walked. I learned how to create the human walk cycle from watching YouTube animation hep videos and from asking for help after I had failed at creating a human walk cycle. I picked this project to talk about because it was the third/fourth project we did in this class so it was towards the beginning of the year and I really enjoyed coloring it and working on creating this great walk cycle. I think I have improved quite a lot from last year, I think last year the biggest project I made was this Dino thing for my final last year, but this year we started off by doing walk cycles and making worms inch. I think some streets would be my ability to draw, it isn't necessary to be an animator but I think it really helps it creating a story when you can tell what they see. I definitely think a weakness was me not taking enough time to clean up all the layers of Photoshop which resulted in some weird messed up stuff in the walk cycle. I would change the way I made the hands and feet, the feet are at this weird angle so it doesn't look like my character is walking correctly. I would change the hands because they just look awkward and I want to change them. Overall I really enjoyed working on this project, it was fun to try something new and learn how to do a walk cycle.
Inchworm
The inchworm was so fun to do. It was a cute little thing that just inched across the screen. It was to make a cute little inchworm. I learned how to use the puppet pin tool. To learn how I did the puppet in the tool I watched a YouTube turtioal worth the rest of my class and I figured it our further. It was fairly easy to figure out since you are just creating pins on an object and moving it around. I picked this project because it was the first project that we did in here that was different from last year. The first couple projects were reviews from my last year animation class so the inchworm was our first "big" project in this class and it was fun to make the worm move. My strength was how I was able to make the work move but not make him look distorted. My weakness was that I sorta fell behind because I put too much effort into making the worm look good instead of animating him. I improved my skills in photoshop since we learned a lot of new tools that have helped me In other projects. I kinds want to change the way the Worm's underbelly looks, the shading looks rushed and I want to really clean it up, but as far as the anion goes, there isn't much to clean up since it is just icing across the screen. I enjoyed working on this project because it was fun to learn the new things that come with Aftereffects and the other new programs I am using in my animation classes.
Story
This was definitely one of my favorite projects to work on because there was a whole bunch of freedom on what we could animate and include in our story. there was so much to earn while creating this, I learned how to piece together a small story animation so that it is interesting for the audience to view. I learned how to piece together things in Aftereffects so I can create whole different competition so I don't have to worry about piecing it together in another program. I learned all these new skills by building off them after each project. Because in project one we had to use puppet pin and I used the same tool in the story animation. I learned how to use a multilane and I used that in my story animation. There were so many new skills o learn and use In this project. I think I grew stronger in learning the ways of Aftereffects and how I can use all the different tools like the Pick Whip tool to parent all my bodily layers so when my character moves they all move with the character. My weakness was time management. I fell really behind because I was putting so much into the project, it still didn't turn out as well as I'd like it to be. I will be going back to aftereffects change and fix all the sliding errors I have in this project because there are so many but I was rushing to get this done. Overall this was one of my favorites to create and all the art was really fun to make. I feel like this project came out ok despite all the errors it has. I hope to carry all the newly formed 2D skills with for next semester/year so I can continue to improve.
Polything
The Polything was a challenge to create. I am not the best with 3D animation/modeling because I usually end up losing a fight with the software because it doesn't like to do a certain to a command. It was a fun experience and it was actually really to cool to start learning how to use the software the pros learn. This project was teaching us how to use lighting correctly when we have a subject. I learned how to use the lighting correctly by watching an intro to lighting video on Youtube. I also had to make notes by filling out this sheet and creating examples for different lighting situations. I picked this project because the lighting is important and I think my Polything looks pretty cool. I think one of my strengths in this project was having to rotate things by hand (without the sphere around objects) since mine isn't visible and I don't know how to fix it. I do think I could change the resolution of the rendered picture because it didn't render correctly and here are a whole bunch of ridges around the sides which can be easily fixed in Maya. I am excited to continue learning how to use Maya, even if I prefer to use Aftereffects, the stuff we have made have turned out really cool. Hopefully, these skills will carry with me over to next semester where the hard stuff will begin.
Castle
This project was so challenging for me. I, of course, made it hard on myself by making this huge castle and trying to fit all the polygons together when this is only their project that I have ever done in Maya. I did enjoy working on it though, I think the castle looks really cool, even if the textures don't look the best and the lighting is a bit off. In this project, we were to focus on creating a whole bunch of different shapes and learning how to use short cute tools like the Snap Align tool to keep things straight, and the Manipulator tool that can make fixing the lighting way easier. I learned these from watching my teacher show us the instructions as he was talking in front f the class. I picked this project because it was very big and it took me a while to figure out how to do. I think my strength was me pushing myself to make things harder then they needed to be. But I think my strength could be my weakness too since I am always rushing to finish projects since they are too big to finish in the time given in class. If I could change anything I would change the texture alignment, it looks really bad in some parts, there are even runs! I enjoyed this project a lot, even if it was huge, I really like creating new things and learning the new skills needed to create cool stuff.
In conclusions, this semester has been very productive in terms of all the projects I've done and the time and effort I've put into them all. These are my top 5 favorite projects we did this year and I am very excited to see what I will be working on next semester.
Bonjour mes Amies! Recently in my animation class, I made a worm inch across the screen. It was fairly easy with the help of a Null Object to drag the worm across the screen. A Null Object is an invisible layer that can be used to make something move and not have to create a whole bunch of frames in order what is being animated to move. This technique is very useful in the process of animating as it shortens it and makes the whole thing easier and this little trick definitely saves time.
How to find and create the Null
The Null Object can be used by anyone looking to save time in an animation. It is for people who need a fast and efficient way to move an object around on the screen without having to make too many new keyframes or changes to the current animation.
This is the worm being moved around to create the positional frames and getting it to move.
The first step in using the null object would be to create it. When clicking right on the mouse, or however the options menu appears, find the 'New' option and slide the cursor to the right to show what options here are to create. Moving the cursor down the list find 'Null Object'. After the Null Object is placed in the timeline make the worm be parented to the null by using the lasso or Pick Whip tool. This will allow the null to move the object without having to change the animated sequence too much since it is on a sperate layer. Next stay at the Null Layer and use the keyframes to set different worms, so there needs t be one keyframe with the worm laying flat and another keyframe with the worm arched. You can arch the worm by using the puppet pin tool and dragging the points around to however you like it. After the keyframes are set on the worm's portions, you can then go back up to the Null Object and use the positional keyframes to get the worm moving around. Simply press the diamond when the worm is one side and move the worm across, another diamond should appear et voila!
These are the keyframes for positioning the Null Object from one side of the screen to the other
I hope this helped in understanding how to use the Null OBject and how to save time and energy in an amazing animation!
Until next time,
SophietheFirst.
Here is a personal example of me using the null object to get my worm to move from one side of the screen to the other.
This is a great tutorial video to get started on working with the Null Object in Aftereffects.
Bonjour mes copains. Comment ca va?
Hello my friends, how are all of you? I am doing well, it's finals time again so this blog is my intro to film final.We got to create a sophomore version of my school's newscast. It was very fun and interesting and working with the real equipment was also very cool.
Process
The process was easy but difficult. First, we got split into two teams within our class and then we got put into our jobs within those two teams. I got put on the spot of the reporter which I was very excited for but also nervous seeing as I am not the best at piecing together the stories. After we got r jobs assigned we had to think of the content that would be on our newscast. My group went through man before our producer made the final cut. I was put on the story for the underclassmen play that was currently taking place at my school. I also helped a little bit with my friend's story over the holidays. It took me a while to think of questions and a script for y story but after a while, I had gotten everything figured out with my cameraman. We filmed on a Tuesday and got lots of the bRoll and interviews in a short thirty minutes. Then the following Thursday we filmed again to finish the last interview with a cast member. It took me a few days to edit the story but I definitely think it turned out better than my previous stories. I think I finally figured out how to do voiceovers, hopefully.
For the day of filming, I got to help out on the floor and direct the anchors like smiling or fixing a Santa hat. I also got to see the process from behind the scenes since we did a practice run through the following day.
Learned
I learned a lot over the course of this project. This one wasn't like the others because it wasn't a base project and adding new things but rather, we put together a newscast. I learned about all the equipment that is used behind the scenes, there is a computer that controls the packages or the stories that have to be played, a computer which is actually filming the whole thing, and another computer with the script from the teleprompter on it. These computers were in the booth and they all displayed the stuff happening from inside the studio. In the studio, there was a huge greenscreen that created the "newsroom" and the anchors would sit at a table that would be edited to look like a news desk. There was also the teleprompter which was interesting to see the anchors read of it.
I also learned how to work with difficult people. Sometimes people would get on my nerves and I would have to just deal with it and not get mad. I learned how to communicate with my team members and how to get a project turned in on time.
Next Time
I would like to change the overall look of the newscast to make it look better. I could've talked to my teammates better but I think some of the stories we ok, nothing great. I think I would like to edit my story better when we watched it during the newscast it seemed long so I could've shortened it and I also want to change my voiceover. I know I said I liked it better but there could be lots of room for improvement. I wouldn't want to change my story or my team. I liked the topics we did and I felt like my group did a great job with almost everything. My story was good, again a few small changes and I think it could be better than where it's at. My overall experience was pretty great. I became better friends with a lot of my classmates and I got t learn the behind the scenes of something we see every day. For my next video project, I will try to talk to my team better to try and get the best creative look and I think I will try to be helpful and understanding with my teammates more so than I already am because yelling at everyone never works and getting stressed doesn't work either.
Overall I had a great time working on the project, even if I am not going into convergence next year, it was a great experience.
Olathe Northwest Highschool Finished Golf Season Going Down Fighting
A local high school finishes golf season with a strong finish after a hard-fought season to keep themselves on top. The team is from Olathe Northwest high school, teammates came from many different grades all ranging from sophomore to senior. The season started in early September ended on October 18th after their trip to state with a final score of 75 points and finishing in fourth place.
The Lady Ravens Golf Team has been dominating the playing field for the past four years. This year was a setback on their record last year at state when they placed higher, but making it to state is a pretty big deal. Madi Dalrymple tried out for the team last year and did not make the team, but then this year she kept up her perseverance and made it to varsity after taking up golf lessons just last year. She said "Being on the golf team was a grand old time" and that "I could put multisport on my college resume". She did end up moving down to JV by the end of the season but that fact didn't really bother as she said: "Even though I didn't do the best, I still had a great time on the team". Kylie Guerrein was also another sophomore that made the varsity team. She wanted to make the team because Madi was doing it and she wanted to have a good time. She also said " The team did terrific, we slay the green". Kylie believes the team did very well and is very much looking forward to next year's season.
The Varsity team finished fourth at state and before, placed first at regionals. During the regular season, they placed second and third many times. The JV team finished fourth and fifth for the majority of their tournaments. The only thing the golf team wished was that they had more support from the rest of the school.
Blood shortage in KC area, local high school is set to help out.
This week at Olathe Northwest HIghschool there is a blood drive to help the community blood center with their blood shortage. This blood dirve will be november 10th from 8-3pm in the main gym with bunches of free food and drinks. The school's very own student council has helped prepare this important activity for months now and they are excited to finally get it up and running. The blood drive is set up the day of the event with special medical chairs and food that sits in the corner. Students are able to make appointments at lunch or right at the blood drive, but before blood can be given they must get their fingers pricked to check hemoglobin levels. During and after giving blood students are free to take the food given by companies and hang around until they are able to return to class. Be sure to donate blood this Friday if you can to help support your fellow citizens!
Bonjour Mes Amines!! Comment Ca va??? Je suis très fatigue mais Je m'amuse! Hello my friends! How are all of you? This week my school did a really cool lip dub and today is also the blood drive. Speaking of blood drive, I recently did a interview/feature story over the blood drive that is happening currently at my school. Our assignment was to interview two people who were outside of our class and do a story over something that wasn't class related. We were originally going to do something over community service but then we choose to dive deeper and focus on the blood drive.
Process
So the first couple ideas were over community service, they were really board ideas and we didn't exactly have a great plan. Then we got three ideas about community service but we thought those were too far apart, they didn't connect well with each other. Two of my group members were in Student council and suggested doing something about the week of giving so we hen cut down our giant community service idea to a much smaller idea over the topic of our school blood drive. A bunch of ideas were thrown around on who to interview and what bRoll we should get but we settled on our very own stucco president, Austin and his vise president Sydney. They were both very helpful and nice during the whole process of interviewing and Austin was extremely helpful because he had to get interviewed twice due to tech issues. My group didn't have a whole bunch of free time to film, a group member and I were apart of the school musical and the other person named Kevin was busy with his school commitments so were got everything filmed last Tuesday and we all edited last Thursday to turn the whole project in on Friday. Editing was pretty ok. I couldn't use my computer half the time because this other person was constantly using it, but I made due with putting it on the server and editing it somewhere else. I did have to restart a few times because of glitches and I couldn't find my clips but I got it done.
Learned
I learned a lot during this project. I earned how to handle some what difficult group members and I also learned that if I need to ask something or say something to ask it and not be so nervous. Deadlines were hard to do in this project but I learned how to use my time to the fullest so that I can get stuff done. I learned how to add graphics (Names) into my project to introduce someone and I thinkI better understand how to do voiceovers but I am still not sure on how to do it entirely. It is stil a very confusing topic to me. I now know how to add in a delayed lead into my story so that it can add some extra interest andmake it bit different.
Changes
I would definitely change the way I edited my video. I don't like it and I do't think it flows nicely or gets the info across. I would also change the voiceovers. Sophia did a fantastic job but I kinda wanted to do it myself so I could learn how to do it correctly and it would've also sounded better for my story instead of having Sophia do it and I have to fit in her voiceovers. I would really just like to re edit it again but I have no time since I am working on a really big animation project and a really important English video.
Keep Same
I wouldn't like to change my group. Kevin and Sophia were wonderful to work with and I think that everything came together nicely despite out time constraint. I also liked the topic we had, I think it was very important and it was fun to do. I really do like some parts of my video but I'm not a huge fan of the way I did everything.
Experiences
This was once again a great experience that I have had in eComm. I really liked working with everyone and the projects are always fun to do no matter how stressed I am.
Thank you for reading and I hope you all are having a great start to this holiday season!
Sophie the First.
Bonjour mes amies!!! Comment ça va?! Je me fais bien et vous? My week has been going well, the musical practice has been going great and I'm very excited for the show coming up in two weeks! I have also done some very exciting things in my eComm class. I have been working on a character walk cycle. We have been working on this for a week or so now and the finished product looks pretty cool.
Process
The first thing we did was spent a day or two just sketching our ideas and brainstorming what we wanted to animate. I, for some reason, was in a very Up mood. Maybe I was because I had watched the cute movie last night, but I decided to do something with Russel. I looked at concept art because Russell is 3d and we aren't doing that yet so I needed something 2D to draw. this part took a while for me to do because I wanted it to look pretty close to the art I was looking at. I also changed his gender so Russell became a girl, I didn't want to copyright Pixar, things would get worse. When we sketched this, we had to separate every body part so we could animate the arms, legs, head. Everything. After we were done drawing we had to outline the sketch in sharpie so the copier could read the lines. We copied the picture onto our computers and then put them into Photoshop so we could color the individual pieces and add detail like shadows and highlights. After all the sperate body parts and layers are colored we than exported it into Aftereffects so we could start the animation. This part was a bit tricky because you first have to change the anchor points for each layer, but also have to parent each layer to each other. So the left thigh parents the left calf and the left calf parents the left foot. This continues on until everything is parented to the main body part that won't move, which in this case is the chest. Then I created rotational keyframes for each part that moved to give it that human feel to it. After you had the character walking in place you must create a null object once again to make the character actually cross the screen. I forgot to do this at first but I went back to render it again with my gender bent Russel walk across on the same background as the worm and ball.
Learned
I learned a lot again for this project. I had to learn how to create a bipedal walk cycle which is why everything had to be rotated because we naturally walk in arcs. I learned how to better use the keyframes, so I learned that rotations would work for this project and I learned how to use them correctly. I had to create a pattern of the leg going forward straight and backward bent. Once I got that down—after watching many animation guides for realism—I was able to make it look semi-realistic.
Different
If I would change anything I think it would be the speed of the walk cycle. I think Russel is walking way too fast, almost at a run, and I don't really like it. I also think there is sliding. I really need to work on the no sliding thing because I seem to be having a bit of an issue with it. I also am not really liking background, it is the same as the others but for this project, I feel like a grassy field doesn't fit Russel. I think the background also downgraded the quality of it when I rendered it out.
Same
I wouldn't really change anything about the animation save for the speed. I think the colored Russel looks really cool and I think I did a good job because I've had a few people come up to me and ask me if it was Russel and it is. I am pretty proud of how my first bipedal walk came out. I think it looks pretty neat.
Experience
This has been really fun to work on. I have really been liking animation so far, even if we have been breezing through all our projects. I know I still have a whole bunch to learn but I am really enjoying my animation class. I have learned so much so far and I have worked hard, but it's all been mostly enjoyable.
Overal I am pumped for the future projects we are going to do and I am just really excited to continue learning everything. I may not be the best at everything but I am definitely improving so much.
Stay fun, my friends,
SophietheFirst
P.S. Please listen to the Spooky Scary Skeletons Remix by The Living Tombstone. It's so lit and just in time for the Halloween season.
Bonjour! C'est mon ver vert et jaune. Il est très mignon! A few weeks ago we worked on using the puppet tool to make an inchworm cross the screen. I had a great time doing this and I think he turned out very cute.
Process
We got the first few days to create our little worm dude, it took me longer than most because I kept changing his design. At first, I wanted him to be a monarch caterpillar but I couldn't get that to work, so I tried another design, but that one didn't work either. So I used reference pictures of tropical worms to create my lil' dude. After the worm was created we got to put it into, you guessed it, Adobe Aftereffects! The first thing in this program to do was to use the puppet pin tool to be able to create the arch of the worm. But, before you make the arch you must make a keyframe of the worm laying flat. Then just grab the pins and move them around until the worm is arched but it doesn't look too awkward. To fix the problem with the antennas you starch them and they should move naturally with the head instead of going way too far forward. After that is set, it's time for the background and shadow. I added the background first but the order doesn't really matter. I imported the files from the bouncing ball to create this background and make sure to drag it down to the timeline. For the shadow, copy all the worm layer and make it into a new comp. and change the brightness to put it all the way down so it's dark. Then flip it upside down so it's right under the worm and make the worm parent the shadow so now the shadow will follow everything the worm does. After the background and show are added create a null object. The null object will guide the worm across the screen so you just have to parent the null to the worm. Use the positional keyframe to get the null on both sides of the screen and the worm should follow it across the screen.
Learned
I have learned many things in this project. As I have mentioned in my last blog post, we have started working in a new program so all this stuff is pretty new to me. I am still trying to figure out which keyframes I need to make because not all are going to be rotational or positional. I am still working on trying not to let things slide around too much and trying to get used to the null object dragging things across the screen. I learned how to better my skills in Adobe Aftereffects and Photoshop.
Different
If I could change anything about this it would be the way my inchworm inches. I think it looks too awkward or maybe I didn't make it arch enough or there could possibly be some small sliding going on. It just doesn't flow effortlessly, the head looks a bit weird everytime the worm goes up. His colors also match the landscape in a way, which makes him sorta blend in, around his back at least. I would probably change the amount of time I spend adding detail than animating, but then again, it wouldn;t look this good would it?
Same
I think the background looks cool, it is the same one as the bouncing ball, but sadly in class, if I want the animated subject to look good I can't work on a different detailed background every time. I do like my worm, he's cute and the animation looks ok. I really like the shadow that follows him and his eyes are really cute. As I have said, the animation looks good, just not great.
Experience
This has been a very fun experience because I have gotten to learn how to animate an even bigger and more complex object. It took me a while to do this project (Up until the last day I believe) but I am glad I took my time because I think the extra time I took made it look better. The detail is definitely better than most of my classmates but it may not look the best in terms of animation and technical stuff.
Overall I am happy with how my worm turned out, I think it's really cool and I really like it. I am really excited for the next project and for the rest of the year actually. As always, I am excited to continue my learning in animation and for whats to come next.
Stay healthy at the beginnings of the sickness seasons,
SophietheFirst
Bonjour mes amies! A while a go we reviewed over some basic animation principles like Squash and Stretch. We than got to make a ball bounce, sounds like a lot of fun I know. But we got to do all of this in a new software which is pretty cool. It's called Adobe Aftereffects and it is way better than Photoshop in terms probably just because it can take less time and it looks a bit better.
Process
First we reviewed animation and I think we got to watch some short films and talk about all the twelve basic principles briefly before diving into squash and stretch. Than we set to work on our first project of the year, making a ball bounce. We went into Photoshop first and created our background like the sky and grass, than we created our ball. I was gone the day we did all of this so when I came back I created the very basic shapes with no shadows or anything and I added them to Aftereffects. Than we were to create key frames of the ball at the top of the screen and at the bottom to show the ball's movement through the simple bounce. After that we added the exaggeration and used the positional key to make the ball bigger or smaller etc... After we did all of this, there was a very basic looking ball bounce on the screen of it just going up and down and repeating on forever. This is where I went back into Photoshop and changed my ball and background to make it much more realistic so there are shadows and fun colors now. All you have to do is import the file into a new completion in Aftereffects and you can choose which files are visible or not. But we aren't done yet. Next we took the same idea as what we just did but turned it into a more complex bounce so now it jumps across the screen instead of just up and down. We used the same ball and background from the simple ball and just changed the direction. So instead of the key frames guiding the ball up and down it now guides it through arcs and bounces. It's getting interesting now. We still used the rules of squash and stretch but now we added ease in and ease out, although Aftereffects messed this up so no one really used it, and arcs. The ball first starts in the top left corner of the screen than bounces three or four times until it gets off the screen. We than had to mess around with it's path making sure the arcs are wide enough and that all the bottoms or squashes lined up. This project didn't take too long considering it was the same stuff as before just in a different way.
Learned
I learned a whole bunch through this. I definitely got a refresher on the elements of animation but I also learned how to use a whole new software. Aftereffects is hard to get used to because I have trouble remembering how to create the correct key frames because you can't just use positional the whole time, there are rotaional, and whole bunch of other options to help with keyframes. I learned how to better use arcs when creating a bounce sequence; this whole project just taught me how better use the new program and the review really helped me remember.
Different
I would change the way my bounce sequence better because it looks really awkward, the bounces don't just flow altogether. The ease in and ease out doesn't look good so I ended up getting rid of it, but I think it could've helped. I also think it just pauses at the top and bottom of each arch making it look awkward. the ball also just slides off the screen and it honestly annoys me, but I couldn't think of any other exit for the ball without it starting another arch.
Same
I do like how it turned out, sure it's a bit slow, but I liked this. The squash and stretch actually looks pretty good and the archs are nice and big so those look nice. it's the transitions that need work. I liked how the background came out. I learned how to use the grass tool in Photoshop so that was nice instead of trying to draw every single blade of glass.
Overall this was a fun way to review the animation principles and get a start on our new program. I am really looking forward to the next projects we will be doing because as we all know, I love animation.
Bonjour! Lately, in my film/journalism class, we have been working on how to create an interview. It has definitely been a process, we have been working on this project the last couple weeks, our school schedule has been crazy recently with homecoming a few weeks ago and now we have this weird testing schedule so this project has taken a bit longer than everyone would've liked. But with the long period, I can now edit and try to make the interview look as best as I can.
Process
The first thing we did was get put into groups from the drawing of a hat. I got put with a really colorful group so it took us a while to warm up to one another and figure everything out. It took us about two days to think and decide as a group what our topic wanted to be, everyone in my group presented great topics but we eventually settle on mine, my experience with theater. We then got to work on the questions, which took another few days because of us not being able to figure things out, again. Then a group member of mine got all the questions figured out so we set off to the location we had found a few days prior. It was in the theater hallway at school, in front of the two masksThalia and Melpomene. But the camera didn't work that day and by the time a teammate could get back to our classroom, figure out the problem, and walk back time had run out so we had lost another day. This pattern of something going wrong continued on for the next few days until we changed locations and finally got everythingfilmed in one 48 minute class period, which is pretty impressive considering all that been going wrong for us. After we had filmedeverything the next day we were set to edit, which brings a whole new load of problems. Since this was a school-related interview (My theater stuff) there was a lot of things that had to be shared among my groups like pictures, videos, and sound. I had to find pictures of me in elementary school, I also had recorded my theaterrehearsal and used that as background music (The song is "Sit Down You're Rocking the Boat) and sometimes the clips wouldn't load on the software or the clips weren't found. At one point I had lost my entire project and had to restart twice, but I got everything finished on the last day that I could've turned it in.
Learned
I learned a lot with this project. I learned how to handle my patients better when the software doesn't work or when my group is having trouble working. I learned how to better operate the new cameras we are using this year for the exploring film class and I learned how to use Adobe Premier better, even though we've been using it for the past year and a half now. With Adobe I now know how to change the sound and how to make sure it is not going to be too loud or too quiet. I know how to add pictures and make sure they fill up the whole frame instead of being tiny little things in the middle of the frame. We now know how to use the clip on mics called the Lavalier, which is really fun to say. We were taught how to make the interview interesting which means adding B-Roll or extra footage and that we need to change up the camera angles. I also learned that if I start stressing out about not getting my project done on time than it will not turn out good. Like when all the bad stuff was happening before and after filming I was freaking out a bit, but after giving up some of my lunch periods and accidentally being late to my fifth-hour class I got both the original and re-edit done on time.
Differently
If I could probably change anything it would be how productive my team was and what camera we used. I would change the productivity levels because some days we weren't really focused and that slowed us down in being able to turn our project in on time with everyone else. The project wasn't late, it just wasn't on the day my teacher would've liked it to be on. I would also change the camera we checked out, after continuously checking out the same camera a few days in a row and falling behind, we could've checked out a different camera and maybe we would've finished way sooner. If I'm talking about editing I would probably change my voiceover, it isn;t the best one but I was really confused over that part. Another thing I would change is the way my group treated each other. I wish we all would've been a little nicer towards one another because once we realized we were on a time crunch we all kinda snapped at one another everyone once in a while. It wasn't bad, but it also didn't help that half the group wasn't working half the time so it was just me and another member who was doing all the work. But that's how group projects are, right?
Same
I wouldn't change my group members, even if something were difficult we solved everything and I am always learning how to better my team working skills through hard groups. It was fun to work on another project and I did like how my interview came out.
Experience
It was definitely an experience. All my stuff was malfunctioning and my group taught me leadership skills. I learned how to not become freaked out when something doesn't go exactly as planned and that groups and partners may not always be 100% compatible but that it's in your best interest to try and get along in order to help the rest of the group and get something finished. I learned how to create something of decent quality under a time limit and how to improve it given the ability to re-edit the project.
All in all, this was another great project from my favorite program and I am as always, excited for whats to come.
See ya next time,
SophietheFirst
P.S. It was my birthday the day we filmed this, that's why I got to say I was 16 years old. X)
Bonjour!! All this week we filmed and edited a video about some procedure or rule that is at our school and or in the eCOMM classroom. Then we yesterday we spent all class period giving each other feedback on our videos and altering the to make it better. In this blog I am going to tell you about the process that went down all this week and some parts of last week.
Process
The Process included a whole bunch of work including filming, acting, editing, and storyboarding. My group and I got it all done in about two weeks starting on last Monday when we thought of the idea and brainstormed the whole hour. At first we were going to do a fire alarm but my friend, Sophia suggested we do something a little less popular, a video on how to properly use the school elevator. We all agreed seeing it was a great idea and were going to start filming on Tuesday but sadly I missed school due to being sick, they still tried to film though, it was hard for them because there was only one person to work camera and one person to act. Thursday we picked up where we left off, but one of my group members forgot her clothes and we decided to redo the shots rather than be marked down on points for congruity errors. I think that since we decided to redo the shots, it turned out better, there were two people to give feedback and bounce ideas one another. Plus I got to help film with the new, professional cameras we have. Finishing all the work on Thursday and Friday I was ready to edit on Monday. But Monday came and we found out the school district has blocked downloading content on school computers so I had to go home Monday night and download music onto my flash drive to bring into class on Tuesday. On Tuesday I finished my video and was ready for the critiques we did yesterday and today we get to blog. So here I am now, blogging to tell you all about my project process.
New Knowledge
I learned a lot during this process like how to use the new cameras and how to take multiple shots of the same thing. I bettered my team working-well hopefully-and I made new friends. I learned how to better use Adobe Premier like how to change lighting and how to change the volume of things. I also learned how to add a transition to the audio so it can fade in and out without it just starting and stopping. I learned how to give feedback to my team and how to receive it, we changed a lot of shots and there was a lot of brain storming that happened even though we had our storyboard done. We as a team learned how to get our project in on time and worked around my absence and we finished everything.
Re-editing
I think I would add a better extreme wide, may of my peers said I didn't have one, but I did, it was just not as extreme as needed so I need to go back and put a better shot in the beginning. People also said it was confusing at the beginning so I will probably add more shots of the main actress, Sophia walking to make it not as confusing. But some things I wouldn't change out be the music, I really think it mostly fits, especially since I had such a small music selection. I think It is mostly good, save those few shots that I am thinking of redoing.
My Experiences
I had such a fun time learning how to use the new camera and being with my team. We all liked each other and our teamwork was pretty good. We all sort of had jobs, Sophia was the main actress, Nichole was our main camera woman, although we all had a few turns to toy around with it, Nicole was the girl who gave Sophia the key. I was the girl was who banging on the door and I was also the decision maker/helper. I was the person who everyone asked things ad I tried to give answers. It was a great time to make this video with my fellow teammates though. I hope we can do more things in the future.
Overall I had a great time making this video and I think it turned out pretty great considering the limited tie and resources we had to create this. I really love working with Sophia and Nicole, I think we became better friends/acquaintances and I am very excited about what is to come this year.
Thank you all for reading and I hope you all have a great rest of your week!
Sophie the First
Bonjour!! Comment ça va? Je suis très excité pour la classe animation. J'adore le classe animation! Hey guys, I am back again this school year in sophomore year. To recap from last year I went to a whole new school just to take a class to better my self in some of my greatest interests. Last year we took the beginners class to test out of the four strands which are Video, Graphic Design, and Animation. Now this year we get to choose two classes that we liked the most and have two full class periods to work on both subjects. I choose Video and Animation. In this blog I will tell you all more on why I took Animation over graphic design and web and why is was my first choice.
So there is this really big company, that makes really good movies. Mostly about princesses and how they change their lives and how they lived happily ever after. This company has been around and it all started with a man and a mouse. Yes that company, it is called Disney, and I want that place to be my future job. More specifically I would love to be an animator help create these masterpieces of movies that have been capturing the emotion and be able to make people feel happy, sad, or even content. I would love to be an animator. The way that people can make such a beautiful thing from just moving pictures, I want to do that.
Animation was definitely my first choice this year out of the five different strands. I loved last year, even if it was just a basics class it was very fun and I enjoyed working on projects everyday. The end results were pretty rewarding. The Dino I animated last year was very fun to work on and I definitely loved how it came out. It did take a week or so but it didn't feel like a project at all, I enjoyed every minute of it. I also love to watch animated shorts on YouTube and behind the scenes for movies like Marvel and I watch early story boards for Frozen and Moana and I love to see the whole thing come together and make it to the big screen in a totally different manner.
I think my favorite form of animation would be 2D animation or Cell animation. There is something about the way it looks and that I know people had to draw it to make the scenes happen that I love. One of my favorite Disney movies is Beauty and the Beast. I would watch this everyday when I was a little kid. I still love it. I love cell animation a little more than 3D, not exactly sure why, I love the way it looks and I love the music and Overall i enjoy 2D more than 3D. So I think I am most excited for the first quarter of school because I hope this what we are going to do. I know that second and third are going to be 3D and I am excited for that too. But, I just love 2D more and I am more excited.
I know animation is very hard, the long hours of simply creating frames can be sure to drive a person crazy. But I would to think that I would be able to keep going. In animation you really have to study your character and be able to express all of their traits like how they smile and how they walk. I am excited to be able to do this, it will definitely help my artistic abilities and I would be come a much better storyteller.
I hope you all enjoyed my blog telling about how much I love animatio! See you next time, Sophie the First.
Bonjour mes amies! How are all of you? This is my final blog for my freshmen year so that's very exciting but also nerve-wracking. But it is all good. I am going to be talking about the project we did, so kind of like a reflection from yesterdays blog. But I am also going to be blogging about Q4 in general so let's jump right in.
Q4 Project The project was to create a product of our own design and than make graphics and other thing to promote the product. We had to work in teams to get a feel for the real life work space and I think that was one of the most challenging parts, but my group was good for the most part. So first we had to brain storm for our product and come up with good ideas that we would be able to actually make work with our limited amount of knowledge. We threw around many ideas but stuck with the
Live Sticker idea where any sticker put on a hard surface can come to life and interact with the target audience which we decided would be children from 4-13 years of age but anyone can use the product. We took the whole twoish months on our product and of rat most part all of class time was used, I think for the video section we didn't do anything because while i tired to help my team get on task they talked about teachers and were on their phones but when we got to graphic design I think they realized that this project was going to take much more work an we all participated after that, for animation three out of the four of us were working he whole time. One of the most challenging things was trying to get one of my team members on task without sounding mean. She didn't do anything except the website and even than she didn't actually work on it until and week it was due. But I think my group was pretty professional and that was one of the only problems. Another I think was once we got further into the project and had to create more marketing tools like a logo and 3D animation my group got nervous and thought it was hard to create a whole bunch of stuff for a 2D object, but we pulled through and it all came out great. I learned a lot, how to create a whole product from scratch and how to make things appealing when your in a crunch. I learned how to keep people on task and how to animate even better a even put a jpg inside of a gif. I also learned how to animate on a mp4 file, very hard and took like 3 mornings before school to finish but it looked pretty good for my first time. Our products feedback was good, during our presentation we skipped a lot of stuff but I' just gonna blame it on nerves because my group was very nervous to do the presentation in front of second hour.
Time Management
I used most of my time in Q4 pretty wisely, I tried to keep my group on task and working on somethings but somedays we didn't really do anything and I think its ok to have a relaxing day of sorts every once in a while because connately working on the project does get a little stressful. In times where I did finish early I went to help my group mates of they were there to help me, we all gave each other feed back and I really liked that about my group. I did always look at my work and try to clean up stray pieces of add missing info but mostly we used every second of class time. For my 2D animation I finished it like a week early but I went and cleaned up a lot of stuff, I think if I had more time the animation would've looked better but it still turned out ok. I did somethings outside of class, I created the product logo for Live Stickers outside of class so we had time in class to actually begin working and I tried to get blogs done outside of class so they didn't interfere with our work time.
Strengths
Some of my strengths for creating purposes in e-Comm was probably my ability to draw, it helped me a lot of be creative in graphic design and in animation. But some strengths that grew personality wise, I became more patient, projects sometimes took a couple of weeks and I had to keep working to make it look good the whole time, some teachers were a little slow at teaching to make sure we fully understood so I learned how to pay attention to them instead of becoming bored and daydreaming. I also improved at taking charge but not being too bossy, or at least I hoped I did. I tried to be nice even if I was stressed and if people weren't listening. My creativity was worked on and I helped make up storylines for the commercial and for the animations. I was also very hardworking because I had to make sure this group didn't fail because of being of task and was kind of an everyday thing. I did think I grew as a person through this quarter long group project.
Improvement
I do think I could've been a bit nicer. I didn't cuss or yell at anyone but when there was thirty minutes left of class and no one was working I got on my team and I think that was a bit much for a group project. I am also very competitive so I wanted out to be the best and look nice but my group didn't care as much so I was always taking about how we need more of this and more of that, I could tell they got tired of it. I also think my time management could've been worked on because sometimes I would spend forever on a certain detail but forget about other stuff so prioritizing was a big problem. While we were trying to write a script for our performance we kept using our phones and after we had nothing to do we were...on our phones so distraction was also bit of an issue but we got through everything.
Overview In all I enjoyed this semester very much, I got to try out animation which is what I really want to do and we got to do this project. I really liked ,y group, they were really fun to work with and it was a bast coming to e-Comm everyday, I love the environment and the people are different but its nice. I would love to have had animation longer but it's in the frame of 3rd quarter so sadly it cannot happen. I wouldn't really change anything, maybe make the school itself closer to my house because I live thirty minutes away so that's kinda a pain, but I liked how everything went. I have learned so much this semester, teamwork, leadership, hardworking skills, it has probably impacted other aspects of my life because you really have to manage your time and prioritizing certain things, but that's all good stuff to have. This semester we got to feel what its like on reality TV since we did a shark tank thing, but I also have a very, tiny experience of working in real life like getting things done on time and making them look good. A goal I have for next year is to continue with the program and improve my animation skills.
I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the week and finish through the final stretch of the school year.
Sophie the First.