Bouncing Ball with Archs

      Bonjour! Comment ça va? Moi bien! How are all of you? School is finally starting up for real, this has been my first full week back from winter break. We've had some "crazy weather" as well as many professional days, so i'm enjoying the time off. But that also means I can't work on my animation, have no fear; I've come back with another project to share. This is another bouncing ball, but this time it's with ...*drumroll please*  ... archs. Because every non-man made thing  in nature moves in arcs, or at least not in straight line. So without further ado, lets get right into the projecttttt. 


The Project


      For this project we had to make a ball bouncing come bouncing into view as if it was being thrown by something or someone. First we had to make the sky with a gradient, then of course the ground. I again choose a bright spring green and a midday blue, I think the colors look rather all with each other and it reminds me of great spring time weather. I did not change what side the sun was one but this time its a  bit more circle looking instead of drawn in the corner. Then we made a path for the ball to follow, so the arches path. Next we had to create the ball with a face on it, I wanted to do a blue ball so I was thinking of blue cartoon characters, I came up with Sonic the Hedgehog, but I didn't have his blue hair? It would've been to difficult and I was being lazy as well, oops. Anyways, we did squash and stretch and also learned easing in and easing out. When the ball goes down you squeeze it in and stretch it out as well as spreading the frames further apart to create speed, for the bounce up you squeeze it back down and make the frames closer together to show the effect gravity's work. After the ball was done bouncing you have to create a surprise ending, my ball his eaten by a hole and is never seen again. Pretty great if I do say so myself. To create a finished look you want to tween the frames so it will fade in and out nicely, make sure the background (Grass and Sky) is present either wise it will make the transition sloppy. Also make sure you pause on the title page, the first frame of the actual animation, the punchline, and the end screen. This will give people time read the title and take in the screen as well as try and add humor. 

What Did I Learn


       I learned that nature is always moving and nothing is going to be in a straight line, also that gravity exists in animation, and that exaggeration always looks better. I know to make sure everything is in different layers so it can actually animate as well as not mess you up. I learned how to better use easing in and out to change up the speed and make Sonic look like he's going faster on the drops and that he's losing speed on the bounces. I also learned that I need to make sure everything is still congruent so all the holes line up and the frames are in the correct order so it doesn't flash or jump back. 

How It Went


       I love animation, as I have said before and I think it went well. It kinda took me a while to make the project, but that could've been the lack of school we've actually had since returning from break. I messed up a few times while creating Sonic so I had to start him over, I keep forgetting to change layers when I add stuff, and my squash and stretch could be better. Everything is better exaggerated in animation and I feel like I could've exaggerated so much more. But Over all I think it went pretty well and I'm happy with how it turned out. 

A Bientôt! See you later my friends!
Sophie the First.

Bouncing Ball Animation

 Hello fellow bloggers, tis I, Sophie the first again. How are you all? Winter break was fantastic for me and now I'm back at school and this quarter I'm in animation. We are learning the ropes and it all beginners stuff, but I love it! So without further ado here we go:

   The Steps 

    The frist this you want to do when creating an animation is make a background. I choose to do midday, with the sun high in the sky. Then you choose your foreground and background colors. After click the gradient tool to create shading, this tool will help it look more realistic and 3-D. I also added in  couple more colors to the sky, like yellow for the sun. All you do to add it to the gradient is click a place in the shading bar, choose your color, and move it were ever you want. Next we made the grass or the ground, were the ball will bounce. I choose to do bright green grass, like springtime color. To make sure your grass doesn't come out of its respected rectangle you have to command click on the layer and that will only select the place you want your grass. Then just add in more colors and voila, you have shaded grass/ground. After that I created the ball. First choose the rectangle tool and change it to the ellipse tool and hold shift to make it a perfect circle. Then you just make more and more layers, slowly moving the ball down, spreading it further apart, and squeezing it in. This will give it the effect that its gaining speed and moving down. Make sure you always label layers and lock them when your done, this will preventing anything from happening.

                                                        

          What Did I learn

       During the project I learned how to better use photoshop for animation and not just touching up pictures. I learned that animation is not as easy as I orginally thought, although I still love it! There are always things you can add to layers to make it look better and more real. I learned that layers and spacing are key points in making animation look good, the more layers you have and the closer your animation is together will determine the speed. I learned a couple techniques like: squash and stretch, this means that as your object is moving it will stretch more to make it seem like its moving faster and then you squash it when it makes impact. In animation everything looks better exaggerated. We also learned easing in and easing out. When an object is easing in, you start with the frames closer together then spreed them apart as they gain speed, its the same with easing out. You start with the frames far apart but then make them closer as they lose speed.

How Did It Go

      I think that this project went smoothly and I had a lot of fun. This was my first animation and I loved it, no matter the hard work it took. I have learned a lot and am so ready for our next project. I wish I didn't have so many colors because as you can tell from down below, my projects looks a little grainy. I've learned how real animators feel, although this is probably little compared to what they do, but I think I'll get the hang of it soon. The hard part was remebering all the steps it takes, I have never used a Mac before e-COMM so all this stuff is new to me and is sightly diffcult to remeber but its all worth it because I always love the finished project.

  Till next time,
Sophie the First.

   

e9 Quarter 2 Reflection

Bonjour!!! I'm back again for another blog, comment ça va? I'm doing well, as well as I can be, i'm very nervous for my finals. I am double blogging for my e9 final though, it's that neat? So here is my reflection on e-COMM.

     My area of strength this semester would probably have to be graphic design. I am a good drawer and I really enjoyed drawing almost all the time in this class. I learned how to use colors correctly and how to make a cool logo. We watched a whole bunch of videos that helped layout everything and I just really liked being able to draw what ever I wanted, I loved the artistic freedom. I would also say I'm good at video. I liked to make the videos and I understood all the things we had to do.

   I need to improve on my creativity. I feel like I am not creative and I cannot work good under pressure so probably I need to calm down. But I think I did ok. In video I need to make sure I'm following the six shots and that I am not making congruity errors. In graphic design I need to be more time manageable. I kinda worked slow, I was still ahead of the game, I just didn't finish a couple projects.

    I loved video this semester. I really enjoyed being able to create my own mini movies and learn everything about the process of creating anything digitally. I liked being able to edit and being an actress in some of my films was fun. I'm really excited to continued in video (If I can) and I enjoyed the fun atmosphere of the classroom.

    I wouldn't really want to change anything. My class is nice and I have a friend as well as making new friends. Everything is so cool to learn about and I enjoy it very much. Maybe I would change the wifi so it works, for some reason I always have bad luck with my school's wifi but other than that I really enjoy everything.

     Oh man, I'ver learned so much this semester. I can make video and they actually look good. I can edit anything I want to thanks to the Adobe programs. I know the secrets of graphic design and how to create a logo that it cool but simple. Colors mean different things and I learned how to use them to make people feel or see a certain way. I now know that making a movie--even if it's a minute--is not easy and everything has to be thought out carefully.

    I would like to continue with my good grades next semester and I want to keep having fun. I hope that animation will teach me a lot and that the final project we do at the end of the year is really fun. I love the e-COMM program and I don't want to be anywhere else.

Thank you,
Sophie the First.

Web Designer Reflection.

        Hello my fellow friends, how are all of you?! This week we have been working nonstop to create a website over all the cool things we have done this semester in e-COMM. I sadly did not finish it but I will explain the process and all that jazz on how I did work on it and what my experience was.

         So the process for creating this website was mildly difficult for myself, I thought it was kinda hard and I kept forgetting to do things. When you first start your website off you have to make sure in in a certain mode, design mode, it won't work in live mode because in live, that's how you can preview everything and make sure it is ok. You have to be in another certain setting too because otherwise you'll see the coding or may even mess up the coding. It has to specific to the http:// that we were using. Then you have to drag in the design for the website that will make the text as well as the layout and what the colors will be. After that you put in one of your favorite graphic design projects and a favorite video project. I choose to do the enchanted rose from Beauty and the Beast and my A to B Sequence video. Before we put in the video and picture we had to make sure that it was a good size so it wouldn't mess anything up. We did all of this stuff while watching video tutorials from one of the other e-COMM teachers. He was very helpful and sometimes I had to keep rewatching a section but it's ok because it helped me understand it better.

       I took my time trying to make my website because like I said before I am not very good at making one. It has taken me almost a full school week and I am going to try and finish it after my final (This blog). In class I used my time wisely. I was always watching a video and I kept working on it. Although I did not get it done i still worked very hard and finished the majority. I only have one video left to do, out of 6.

       Some challenges I faced while working on my website was the computers. I feel like everyones computers weren't working and it was hard because it's finals week and it was crazy. I was stressed out a lot and I think the kinda slowed me down while trying to make my website good so I can get a good grade. The wifi wasn't working with me for a day or two so that kinda threw mw off and I couldn't connect to the server, were everything was saved. Another day I was trying to take a good picture for my profile for my website. But I think the main problem was trying to crunch this project in with only having four days to work on it and the deadline was distracting me from getting it finished.

     I learned a lot of things along the way like, making a website. Even though I thought it was hard I can know say that I've built a website. I'm proud of my work and this took a lot of time. Like I learned about all the coding and stuff, that was kinda cool, made me feel like I was in a spy movie or something. I also learned that pictures have to be a certain size or else they can make a website crash. I also now know that everything has to be in a specific way or things can go badly.

    Overall I thought this project was ok. I don't really know if I want to make a career out of web design but it wasn't terrible. I am liking how my website is turning out and I'm really disappointed that I could not finish it but I will try to work on it a little more at least. It was cool to see and experience they ways of making a website. I enjoyed graphic design as well, drawing all the time, I love it!

  Have a wonderful day my lovelies,
thanks for reading
Sophie the First.

P.S. I finished my website :)
 

Presentation Blog

     Bonjour my fellow bloggers!! Comment ça va? How are all of you?! I'm am doing great, just counting down the days until I am out of school for the winter. We got our first snow on Wednesday, it was great. Anyways we have recently created personal logos and we had to do a presentation own front of the class. Mine wasn't to good, I got very nervous and rushed it majorly but I explained well so that's good. Down below i'll tell you what exactly happened. 

       I have learned a lot on presenting in the class, we watched a dos and don'ts video and I didn't really learned more than I already knew. Most of what presenting is don't turn your back, speak clearly, act engaged, have good posture, make eye contact. All that great stuff. It's common sense, don't act like bored in front of a class while presenting, and if your conifentdnt you'll have fun as well as the audience.

   We watched a lot presentations from Ted to become better presenters and I thought it was pretty cool to watch people speak so passional about climate change and GMOs. That stuff is also a passion of mine and I thought it was cool. I did't really like saying what was wrong with them because that isn't very nice and I liked them the way they were. Like people were making fun of a guys hairdo, I don't exactly like to do that. 

       During my presentation my professional appearance was ok, I didn't know that I had to dress up I just wore a funnel, which is nice for me I guess because usually I just wear t-shirts. My hair was also kinda crazy yesterday but that's because I don't have a brush and it gets crazy on the bus. My posture was also good, I stood straight and tall as well and confident, at least I thought I did. My left profile was turned towards the audience so I didn't exactly cheat out all that much (Cheating out is a theater term for facing the audience)  but it was sill better than having my back to the audience. I tried to make a lot of eye contact during my presentation but it was hard because I was very nervous. I don't exactly have a fear of public speaking it just gives me butterflies, I wasn't to bad, I only looked at the wall when I had to collect my thoughts. I didn't walk around all that much because people said it was distracting while we watched the dos and don'ts of presenting so I tried to stay put for most of it. I tried to also make gestures with my hands, but again people said that was distracting and I wanted a good grade. For the most part I stayed put. 

    So now i await my grade for this presentation and now I'm off to draw about global warming(its real) 
Au revoir mes aimes, Goodbye my friends, 
Sophie the First

Personal Logo

      Hello my good readers, nice to blog again, how are al of you? I am doing great, just waiting for winter break. So recently in my awesome eCOMM class we have been working on logos. Why are logos so important and what makes a logo applying to the public? How do I keep my logo up to date. All this cool stuff. It was interesting to watch the apple logo grow from the apple tree to the half eaten apple we have now. There are five elements for making a good logo Simplicity, flexibility, color, branding, and timeless appeal. These components are helping people make logos grand all over the world. I have always thought it was hard to come up with a logo, for some reason I can't think of anything interesting enough. But this time around I like the logo I've come up with.

    My first and last name start with an S so I choose to do something with that, I ended up making it look like a snake, oops, but it is interesting. I choose the s's combined though because I am intwined with my family and we will always be there for each other. I thought the project was hard only because I'm not good at coming up with logos but other than that reason I though it was fairly easy drawing it out then drawing it on  Adobe. I used a green for the regular S because that's my favorite color and a more  blush color for the backwards S because that reminds me of my family, it's a different shade because I'm similar to my family but I am also my own person. Overall I think the logo turned out a little sloppy on illustrater  but i'm still proud of it nonetheless.

Good day to all of you,
Sophie the First

Green Vs. Orange

             Hello my good friends, Sophie the first is back with another blog and today we are going to be discussing colors. Now I have a lot of favorite colors but today I'm in a very green mood. No I don't mean I'm going to be sick or that I'm jealous of someone but i'm feeling calm and happy right now. Green reminds me of so many happy memories, unlike the color orange. So let's get right into the blog shall we?

      Green. I think of nature and happiness, renewal and calm. It reminds me of playing outside all the time when I was younger. Well I still go outside a lot. It's very relaxing and I like it. My family goes to Colorado every summer and the color green reminds me of the forest we hike through and the trees  surrounding us. It's a very particular green, almost like the green you get  after you walk into the forest after a rain and everything is glowing or like a dark green that's almost black but it's still a very vibrant green. Ahhhh yes I love nature. My siblings and I go outside and play sports in the backyards and I take my dogs on walks through the park. It's just very calming, I think of green and I hear birds chirping and I see a nice forest with a rushing waterfall. It'd great, unlike the color orange.

     Orange on the other hand is the very opposite of green. I feel like it's a very dull color that has no depth and yes it does remind me of fall but I'm more of a winter kinda gal anyways. The orange is out there but too much out there it's like boring, a weird boring, almost like a dull bring. ZZZzzzz sleeping ugh. I don't really have any bad memories of it but the color doesn't appeal to me, at all. The orange is the color for Fanta and orange and I'm not a fan of oranges.

   I hope that I didn't offend anyone with my options on green and orange. Have a wonderful day and goodbye my friends.
Sophie the First.