Inchworm Animation

Overview

As our second project of the year we took it up a notch and animated inchworms. We started out in Photoshop designing the layers and then moved to After Effects for the animating. We learned how to use the null object and how to make a shadow using one of the previously existing layers. This time we did not use the paintbrush tool to make grass because it would be too hard to see the inchworm behind the grass. Since I didn't want to have a flat layer of grass I decided to make my inchworm on the moon. I was also going to animate my worm coming out of the crater on the left but it proved to be beyond my skills. You may also notice that the shadow of the worm is missing on my animation. This is because one of my files got lost. Otherwise, this project was really fun and my experience in the Adobe programs are getting higher.

The Project

I was a little behind on this project because I wanted to try and get the worm to come out of the crater. After a few days of trying and redoing lots of work I decided that I should just wait until my animation skills were higher so I could come back to the project. My worm stayed on the moon and the crater is still there but they don't interact. When I came back to school to finish the animation, one of my files was missing and the animation was messed up. That is why my worm doesn't have a shadow. 

What I Would Change

If I were to do this project again I would probably wait until the end of the semester or even the end of the year because I wouldn't have more experience and I might be able to get my worm to come out of the crater. I would also make sure that when I make my worm layer in photoshop, he is flat on the ground and not pulled up in the middle. When I did this project my worm started out curved instead of flat so I had to work backwards from the instructions when making him scrunch and move. 

The New and Improved Bouncing Ball

The Project

You might remember a project similar to this one on my older posts from last year. Now that we are back in animation, we revisited our first project ever: the bouncing ball. This time we were working with the 2017 Photoshop update to make the objects and the backgrounds, but not to make the actual animation. For that, we used Adobe After Effects. 

Overview

During this project we learned the new features of Photoshop and made realistic grass using the paintbrush tool. We also got to use the bevel and emboss window to create more realistic shadows and shapes rather than using the gradient tool. Then, we learned how to use a completely different program: Adobe After Effects. We downloaded our photoshop project into After Effects and then started working. Instead of making loads of layers to animate it, we used keyframes to move, squash stretch and rotate.

How it Went

My animation went well, I found it easy to learn how to use the new program. If I was to do this again I might add some more things in the background like birds. I could also try having an unexpected ending.One thing I would like to change is to figure out how to animate the clouds so they move slower and look more realistic. In the future I want to add music or sounds to my animations.

ONW Procedures Video

It's the beginning of my sophomore year and for our first video we were to make a short procedures video that might be used to show freshmen the expectations of our school.

Pre-Production

In my teammates for this project were Tressa and Emma. We decided we would be showing how to use the hall passes in our planners. Since this video is silent and the sound was only background music, our script consisted of actions for the actor. Using the script, we crafted our storyboard. Our video was much longer before we started filming and editing. Originally we had get up from her seat and walk to the teacher to ask to sign her pass. The actor was going to get stopped three times in the hallway. Once for running, again for talking/singing and being loud, and third time for peeking in the window of a classroom and distracting a friend. However, we ended up eliminating the third one because of time issues. It took a few days to learn the ins and outs of the camera, but once we were finished with all the preparation, we were very excited to begin filming.

Production

 I was the main actor in the video while Emma was the actor who was stopping me from being disruptive, Tressa worked the camera. Since the video was only allowed to be around 30 seconds, we got finished with the filming in one block period and the clips were uploaded to the server to be edited the next day. During editing some of our original clips were eliminated or shortened. The audio was to be made up of only background music. I silenced the original audio and added in happy music up until 0:15 when I become mischievous and start running down the hall. I had some faster music start playing until Emma stops me. However, it starts up immediately again when I am out of her sight. I tried to find a singing effect for the part when I start yelling over the staircase but failed. I ended up using a dinosaur roar instead. In the last few shots the happy music returns and the video ends. I was going to add in a title and end screen summarizing the video by listing the dos and don'ts of the hallway, but we had already met the time limit.

Overall

Overall I was very excited to learn how to use the professional cameras to get a higher quality video. I also was happy to see that we are using the 2017 update of Premire Pro. I loved the changes because it was easier for me to understand where everything was and that helped me edit my video quicker. I did need some help along the way with audio. I am hoping to explore some new sites we can use for it because ISM Films loads very slowly. If I were to do this video again, the only thing I would change would be the time limit. The 30 second limit  is crucial to keep the video from rambling on, hut I also think that it might be limiting some people's capabilities. I know I could have made a better video if we just had a little more time. I really enjoyed this project and I can't wait to see what the rest of my class did.