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.
Bonjour!! Comment ça va? Je suis fatiguée car des finales et je suis très nerveuse!
Hello, how are all of you? I am tired and very nervous for finals. The tests coming up are very big and tomorrow we are typing our final blog for this class. But this quitter we have been creating a product of our own design and mine/my teams was Live Stickers and we created many things like a commercial and lots of graphics. With out further a-do let's jump right in.
Brain Storming
Our first task was to brain storm our product info like our product name and what our product was. After many hours of hard thinking I thought about some of my favorite movies more specifically Harry Potter. I thought about some of the more magical elements and than it came to me. Sticker that come to life when they are put on any hard surface. My group liked it so we did the idea and had to figure out colors and a slogan. For colors we wanted something with bugs, greens, and yellows so we made the Dino green and the title blue and white. We choose a Dino for the "face" of our product because I felt like it would appeal to more kids and we could do a lot of cute things with him. Next we worked on company name, we eventually choose Imagination Station after many, many days of thinking and looking at examples. For this we wanted it to be bold and creative since it's imaginative.
Process (For Everything)
-Video
We went into video first so we created a commercial, I wanted mine to be entertaining but cute for our target audience which is children 4-13 but I mean anyone can buy our product. So I wanted to do something with our little Dino friend. A group member named arson was out filmier and helped us get good shots while giving us creative ideas. We filmed many shots and even had some stop animation that Carson and I did. I made the frames while he took the pictures. After we got all the shots filmed I spent a week or so on our commercial to try and give it that special feeling that would leave children hooked. I choose the song Happy because it's a carefree song that gave fun feeling and go happy feels. We were all supposed to work on one and only Carson and I did so it was a battle to see who's would be on the website, and honestly I think Carson's should've because he's was more dramatic and funny while mine was cute. I think both our ours were good but I did a lot on the website so think that his should've been featured.
Commercial For Live Stickers
-Product Logo
Next we did graphic design which is where all the logos and coupon designs come from, really we just did all the designing there for our product. First we worked on our product logo and I spent a day on it I wanted the Dino to be smiling so I did the wink to try and make him appear really happy, which I think worked our pretty good. I also kept the original color scheme with the blues and greens as much as I can. This took me a few days to finish because I wanted it to be very clean and cute looking, which I think the end result turned out to be pretty good. One of the first sketches was the Dino having a larger head and longer nose but after drawing that out I went for a more Disney approach.
Product Logo
-Company Logo
After the product logo was created we worked on the company ago and I think that was the hardest logo we had to come up with, we just couldn't find anything that worked and it was hard because another one of our group member named Ramal wasn't sure on how to work some of the tools, it was look because he figured them out, but it was a bit rough at first. We decided to do a brain because that is how you imagine things and w kept the blue in our logo. I drew the brain by hand and we were in a rush so it doesn't look our best but I think it turned out pretty good. I also added the bold black line to make it look more dramatic.
Company Logo
-Product Ad
After the company logo was created we worked on the ad for our product. I left Carson in charge of the ad but Ramal and myself gave him input and suggested certain ideas, I think I made up the Dino to be the circle of the 10% but that might have been another group member. I do think that if we had used the text tool instead of hand drawing everything if might have looked better, cleaner. But than again our target audience is children so maybe the less clean way was in our favor. we also tried to match all the blues in our product add with product logo and we did that for the most part. We also added our company logo in the bottom left corner to copy right it.
Product Ad
-Product Description
The next thing we did was a product description type thing which was supposed to grab the audience's attention and give a little summary over the product while having the slogan somewhere, little story; our slogan took us forever to come up with, it was originally really long but we shortened it after having another groups input. We also wanted this ad to be very eye catching so we added the blue, black, and white gradient. Ramal was in charge of this part but again we all pitched in ideas to create this final product. The little words on the bottom say "Pick any sticker, stick it on any surface, and watch it come to life" which is a clever play on our slogan Pick, Stick, Live!
Product Description
-Web Banner
Lastly I created the web banner about two days before we were going to animation so it may seem a bit rushed but we can call it the sloppiness that worked in our favor. It does look childish and the font only makes it look for younger children anyways. I wanted to add something different so after looking at other web banners for big companies I decided I wanted to do these little circles that drew attention but not a lot, just a little something in the background. I also wanted to keep the original blue that we had for the product logo so there is some of that in there. The web banner was easy to make, I just used rectangles and colored in the edges to make them all look them same and the circle tool to create all the little circles in the background.
Web Banner
-2D Animation
Our last station was animation and let me tell you I loved it. The animation took me the whole two week we were working there but it turned out pretty good. I probably could've added a few more frames while he is running to make it seem faster and less laggy. I also could've made him a little bigger so people could actually see what was going on, but the animation turned out all right. We started the first day off as a review and than my team brain stormed on what we wanted to do, I mostly followed my design but there were a few tweaks because let's face it, the first version is almost never perfect. I wanted him to first see the mysterious white circle than eventually end up inside to make the product logo and that happened but I used the wrong green so there's a little fade of colors but it kind pf looks cool. Overall it looked great and I am proud for making such a cute animation in two weeks. I'm kinda mad that in the commercial it speeds up certain parts and slowed down certain parts so it looks bad and not clean, but I'm a beginner so I will learn how to fix everything in time.
2D Animation
-3D Animation
So I was not in charge of the 3D animation that was Carson and Ramal and let me tell you, they both did fantastic jobs. I don't really like 3D animation, which is kinda bad if I want to make it in the big world because that's the common thing now but I just can't figure it out. So Carson did the Live Stickers packet that is shown below to showcase how many stickers would be on a packet and what it would look like in a real environment. Ramal did a 3D animation of our company logo and I know she had a hard time working on it, but I'm pretty sure it turned out pretty rockin' awesome. it took both of them two weeks to finish their animations as well and that's just because animation is such a patient hobby. They both did their part very well and although Carson forgot to add our 2D company logo, it still got the point across.
3D Animation Sticker Packet
What Did I learn and What Would I Change
I learned a lot while doing this project like how to work with a group and how to get everything done within a certain time limit but getting everything done great. I learned how to get my not-so attentive group focused for class periods so that we could actually get work done. Maybe I would change some of the end products, like all my things for example, I would add tiny details and make it look neater than it already is. But I liked my group so I wouldn't change that and I liked our product and everything that was made for the most part. I would keep everything the same with the group stuff because we all got along and I really enjoyed coming to class and getting to work on the project.I would change some things with our presentation because we did not cover everything we were supposed to. For example, we did not say the target audience, we didn't show the animations, we didn't even talk about the bios page. It was kinda a mess, we also almost lost all of our work, Thank goodness we didn't. I'm just going to blame everything on nerves and we can try better next time.
Overall I loved this and all though I felt stressed 24/7 I enjoyed making the project and working with a team that was very nice and cooperative. We could've done somethings better but where the fun in boundaries and rules. Everything is more of a guide line anyways.
Hope every one's final tests go great and you pass with flying colors,
BONJOUR!!!! Welcome back to my blog, today's is al about or product animation. I enjoyed making this so much so with out further a-do lets get right into the blog.
First we had to brainstorm with our team so my group of four split into two pairs, one for the 3D animation development and my group was the 2D animation development. I suggested our "face" or dino to be messing around than suggested our dino to find circle to get trapped in and eventually becomes the logo you know today.
Next we got to work. The whole thing took me about 2 weeks or how ever long our animation rotation was. I was working on it the entire time to make sure everything was perfect and that the detail was good, no sloppiness. I tired to remember the rules like squash and stretch as well as the go in and go out. I accidentally made the dino's skin color a bit to green so at the end you can see the color shift and at the beginning it's a little sloppy and moves so fast you ca't really see him sniffing the air, so the small details of my animation was lost due to the speed. But it turned out ok so I'm not to worried about it.
Overall I loved making this animation. Well I enjoy animation in general but this one was one of my favorites. It was fun to make something of my own creation and do whatever I wanted to do with the animation. I further developed my animation skills and it was a challenge to convey what I wanted to with a 2D character but I think I succeeded. It was also a little hard to create a story that was interesting but not to advanced for me, because I'm just starting to learn the ropes.
