Professtional Articale Review-Moana

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.

Review over "In a Heartbeat"

   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. 

Until next time, 

SophietheFirst

Personal Project-Ninja

        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. 

Until next time,

SophietheFirst

1st Semester Reflection

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. 

Until next time, au revor!

SophietheFirst. 

Get a Little Techincal with the Null Object

     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.

ONW Sophomore Edition

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. 

Au revoir mes amies, 

SophietheFirst. 

here is the story I worked on.