I sketch my ideas for animations in my sketchbook and many of the ideas that come to me are for 2D animations. I have decided to make that my main focus for this quarter. However, I am also very open to 3D animations as they come more naturally to me since drawing is not my strongest area. Nevertheless, for this project I picked up a drawing I made a year ago and tested it out in Photoshop to see how it looked. I have fallen in love with my little monster and I am looking forward to seeing what I can accomplish. The sketches below show the four main frame stages of this animation. I am going to start adding as many frames as I can in-between these stages to make the animation look smooth and fluid. I plan to animate the tail moving as he moves towards his food and perhaps adding some squash and stretch when he jumps. In the end it will probably look something like this:
-standing at neutral -sees the cookie flower -anticipates a jump -jumps through the air and lands next to the flower -anticipates a large bite -chows down on the flower and ends with some chewing
Some photos of the concept art for the main four frames of the animation.
I am mostly inspired by Disney movies but there are short films that I have found on YouTube that I am also aspiring to be. Here is a link to my YouTube animation/special effects inspiration playlist:
Overall this year I want to gain experience in all forms of animation, particularly 3D because rigging fascinates me but also working on making my 2D animations appear more smooth and flowing. I want to also experiment with stop-motion to see if that could be something to pursue in a future project. Finally, I hope to receive an opportunity to experience the mechanisms and methods to motion-capture because that is also very intriguing to me.
This last project took about a two weeks to complete. We started with an introduction to the project (listing the requirements), followed by a few examples from previous years for reference. Then, we gathered into groups to start bouncing ideas off of each other. One of our first ideas was a space theme, which we liked the best. After making a list of many other ideas we decided to rank our favorites and combine the best into one film. Once we agreed on the basic storyline, we got to work on the storyboards and scripts. We started filming two days later, getting half of the film finished then. We edited these clips before filming the other half of the film. Editing and rendering took about three and a half days.
Reflection
Takeaways
Technology wise, I learned how to organize and manipulate files on my computer for maximum efficiency. I also learned how to use After Effects to export and render works as well as add special effects by importing files. A major thing I learned is how keyframes work and the amount of calculations that go into making them so precise. By working on personal projects, I became more familiar with the different tools in Photoshop such as smudge, dodge and burn. In After Effects and Photoshop, I practiced with the pen tool and found how useful it is when creating masks and selecting very specific areas to edit. Some challenges I faced during this year was accidentally moving files and getting them accidentally deleted from a project. From this I learned to NEVER move anything in your computer until you are finished with a project, just in case. Saving Multiple copies is also really important. If you are making a change that you are not totally sure about, save it as a copy so that you can go back if you need to. Frequent saving can also be a lifesaver in case of program crashes. These skills will help me in my future years as an animator.
Fire that I illustrated in Photoshop. I used
the blur and smudge tools to give the effect of
heat and the detail of the flames.
I created my own profile picture in Maya.
Using my knowledge about lighting, I created
dramatic spotlights shining inside spherical room
toward my initial.
I also started making my own YouTube
channel banner. While this is still
and unfinished project, you can see my
use of layers to create two hills of grass and
a raven sitting in the leaves.
Collaborationand Communication was something that really came into play these last few weeks while working on our final projects. This was our first group project of the year and it was a lot of fun to put our different areas of expertise together to make something spectacular! In our group we split up the work to compliment each others best areas. For example, Brianna did the 2D art of the project, Andi did the 3D work, and I did special effects and music/sound effects. Other projects this year did implement collaboration as well. My friend and I talked about ideas for e-Magine next year and we helped each other develop stories for our animated short films earlier this year.
My Short Film Animation
It is important to learn these skills while we are still young and in school because of how much communication is required to succeed in adult life. Professional animators don't do everything by themselves! A large team is required to make a great movie. I enjoy working with people and the openness of my classmates have really made animation class a great place to work together and freely express our creativity.
Project Management is an important part of all classes, especially animation. While working, you must keep in mind the estimated export/render/upload time as this will likely limit the amount of days you have left to work. Getting behind is a big mistake that I luckily avoided this year. There were a few times where I got behind in class and there was the possibility of getting set back a day, but I battled this by staying after school, during lunch and coming in during seminar.
I learned a lot about Leadership during my time in e-Communication this year. Making sure that we had fun while working but still focusing on the end goal was hard at times but now I am confident with my skills in leading a group to success. In video I had a few projects where our group got distracted and it made everything harder. I worked constantly throughout the year to get better at keeping everyone in line.
Strengths and Weaknesses
My greatest strength this year were being able to channel my creativity without restriction in my work. There were guidelines we had to follow, but I never felt that there were any boundaries to what I could attempt to do with my projects. My weakness this year was making sure I stayed focused during class. The freedom to work mostly without instruction sometimes caused me to slack a bit on some days. I have overcome this by listening to music while I work to prevent me from talking as much. However, this is still something I am working on.
My Plan
With the skills I have learned this year, I plan to create multiple animations and films to submit them e-Magine next year. I want to use my experience to try for endorsement as well. I am striving to make neat and professional-looking animations that have meaningful storylines. Right now I am sketching storyboards for an animation I plan to create next year about a girl trying to manage her anxiety while in public. I also want to continue my knowledge of video production to bring more variety to my animation content. I could even experiment with a collaborative environment where both live action characters and animated characters exist. To gain more knowledge I will also get to know some upperclassmen. I was inspired by the senior showcase this year and how smooth some of the animations were; I hope to create work like this in the near future.
What I Would Change
Next year I hope to talk to my teacher more so I can learn extra tips and tricks while working on personal projects. This year I tried to add something a little extra to all of my work because I finished early. Striving to add these things led me to some more advanced skills that came in handy during later projects. As I continue in e-Communications, I hope to go above and beyond with my projects like I did this year and leading myself toward success.
Conclusion
Overall e-Comm has been great for me this year. I have really improved since freshman year and I am very excited for another year! I have met many new people through this from hiring actors to sitting next to each other in class. This program has helped me become more comfortable and find a home here at ONW. At the end of the day, I am always thankful for the opportunities I have the ability to create and learn freely at school.
Tag Line: The mystery that will change their fate.
Pre-Production
In the beginning of this project, we all wrote scripts for our own short story idea and presented them to the class. After getting into groups, we decided on whose story we would be filming and creating. My group was Katie, Tayah and Mason and we chose Katie's short film called Connected. Her film was about a brother (Jaxon) and sister (Alix) who were separated at birth and meet up at school. Upon seeing each other they experience a series of blackouts and strange dreams where they see each other inside a void. They consult each other and come to the conclusion that they might be brother and sister. The film ends with the two confronting Alix's aunt about their assumptions. She tells them that it is true but they were never supposed to meet each other. We drew up storyboards and rewrote parts of the script before beginning filming. Katie was our director since she knew the story best and had a vision for what she wanted it to look like, Tayah was the director of photography, I was art director and Mason was the editor.
Production
After hiring all the actors, we met up over the weekend Katie's house to film the ending scenes where Alix and Jaxon come home and demand an explanation from her aunt. At school the next week we continued working backwards and got to work filming the scenes where they are researching dreams and blackouts in the library. We had to work around a few scheduling conflicts where the actors couldn't film but we got everything filmed on time. We also had to work around issues with broken equipment and used a Canon DSLR to film some scenes. Do do the scenes where Alix and Jaxon see each other in a void, we filmed in front of a green screen and Mason edited black all around them. To manage time the best, Mason worked with the clips we had already filmed and editing them together while we went out and filmed what was left. A struggle we had was moving the camera around to film different shots from a variety of different angles. Sometimes this made a scenes take a long time to film.
Post Production
We got a little behind in editing because of the order we filmed the story in. Looking back, we should have filmed the green screen room scenes first because those take the longest to edit. Overall however, everything went very smoothly in this project. The things that we learned from previous projects and applied to this one helped us to be successful here. I will remember our strengths from this project and apply them to my remaining work this year and other assignments next year.
For this project we were to make a realistic animation of a bowling ball, tennis ball, and golf ball bouncing. For accuracy, we took real video of these balls bouncing, and then recorded the height of each bounce and the frame number in Google Sheets. After modeling the balls and applying bump and color mapping, we used the graph editor to create keyframes for the bouncing. The measurements we recorded earlier helped us to make correct keyframes. Using the Graph Editor, we also edited out the ease-in and ease-out by making the bottom points linear. The final steps of this project were to set a background. To do this, we made a plane for the floor and chose a picture off of images search and set it as the background. We used the camera toggle controls to make it look like the balls were proportional to the environment and actually sitting on the floor. Lighting was the last thing to adjust.
What I Learned
During this project I learned how use the Graph Editor in Maya that allows keyframes to be made using precise measurements. I also learned how to adjust the lighting by choosing "Look Through Selected". This changes your perspective to that of the light you have selected. You can use the same camera toggle controls to move and direct your light to the position you want it. This option makes it easier to see exactly where your light is shining. Another trick I learned in this project is how to assign a new material as a background. This allowed us to take a real-life picture and place our bouncing balls inside of the setting. All of these skills will be very helpful to me in future projects. I found the "Look Through Selected" option to be the most useful because lighting is usually a bit hard for me to get right the first time.
I was very pleased with the way this project turned out and I decided to make it my top video on my YouTube channel.
For this project we designed a label for a fictional product and created it in Photoshop. Next, we modeled a container for the label to go on and applied the label we created as a texture. After adding lighting our final step was to animate the container spinning around so you can fully see the label. The label I created was for a can of candy called The Candy Man Can. I also modeled some little candies for the inside of the container.
What I Learned
During this project I learned how to use the Cylindrical Mapping tool which helped me to apply the label without the design getting stretched out and repeated unnecessarily. I also learned that design is a very big part of animation an they often come together. It was a lot of fun to make a fictional product and get to create it and make it look real! I hope that we will continue to learn more abut textures, color mapping and bump mapping in the next projects because it is really cool to make objects that look like that could be in the real world.
For our second project in Entertainment we were to create a remake trailer of a high school movie. The movie our group chose was Napoleon Dynamite. In my group I was the Production Designer so I created the storyboards and tried to make sure we filmed as accurately as possible.
Pre-Production
During our early preproduction stage we planned everything out and had a good plan on paper. We ran into conflict when we began searching for actors. Our first actor was already being used by another group and our second actor was very busy and had little time to film. Around this time we decided that for the sake of time we would use one of our group members. Since we only had a few days left and after school time was limited for our group, most of our filming was done between two days during class. This resulted in our video looking a little rushed and not fully perfected. We now know that we should pick out more than one actor ahead of time just in case and to double and triple check that they are available for all the times on the agreed schedule.
Production
Our costumes were all prepared a week or two before we settled on a final actor so that was one thing we had prepared ahead of time. We filmed everything at school except for the shots with the grandma which were filmed at the house of one of my group members. Some shots such as the tetherball scene and the scene with Trisha's dad were not included due to time restraints. We filmed a couple takes of each shot to make sure they were ok. There was one day where we filmed outside and we forgot to check the audio, another problem with this was that many of us either had incompatible earbuds (iPhone 7 or AirPods) or didn't have them at all. For these scenes we had to film a voice over to use instead of the original audio.
Post-Production
Post production was fairly simple for me as I was very familiar with the original trailer having done the storyboards but I kept the video pulled up in another tab just for a quick reference. I used QuickTime to record the text screens in between shots and then dropped them into Premiere Pro. I then used a YouTube to MP3 online converter to get the audio for the background music and the school bell sound at the beginning of the trailer. All that was left after that was making sure the audio was at the appropriate level and the shots were not cut too short or too long.
Overall this project was really a learning experience for me. I was interesting to have something professional to look off of and try to recreate it with the same amount of prestige. I think my team Collaborated well at the beginning but we started to drift apart a but as we kept hitting more bumps in the road. Even though it may not seem like it, I also think we did a good job with Project Management, we persevered through it all and found a solution and produced a decent video with what we had in the end. Communication was a small issue as some of our first actors were not in quick contact with and they misunderstood the importance of the project. Leadership was important in this project but I feel like we could have stepped it up a little bit. Another team member and I were mostly trying to pull everyone else along and keep going. I did a lot of outside school work and even sent reminders to those who were filming on certain days. Finally, our Technical Skills could have used a little work. I think that all of our editing was good but while filming we slacked on checking sound and focus and some shots were not at the same angle as the original trailer.
During this project, we advanced the use of our skills that we learned from other projects from this semester. We used the create polygon tool which was similar to the NURBS curve tool to create the individual snowflakes. The extrude tool was used to make the window frame and make the snowflakes three-dimensional. Bump mapping was used to make the wall and snowflakes look realistic as well. Finally, we used our knowledge of making keyframes in Maya to animate the snowflakes falling past the window. The create polygons tool was new but very similar to other tools we have used. To create a snowflake, we took one arm and created it point by point, very much like the NURBS curve tool except to make a rounded edge we had to make several points and manipulate them to roundness. We designed one arm of a snowflake and then duplicated it six times around a 380° point. After combining all six of the duplicated arms into one shape, we extruded and added color/bump mapping. We made six original snowflakes and then copied/resized them to make the rest of the snow. I really enjoyed the project although I did get a little behind in the animating stage. It took everything we have learned to a new and more complicated level and I hope we will continue to develop intricate skills such as the ones we used in this project.
For this project we revisited a previous project where we modeled a scene inside an ice cream shop. We made a cone inside a cone holder, a scoop and some more ice cream in a dish. We came back to this project after the pen and added a lazy susan that would spin in our animation to display the tasty ice cream.
What I Learned
In the first half of this project I learned a lot more about how to add textures and bump maps to objects. For the ice cream, cone, table and floor I applied a blinn or lambert texture and then added a bump map to them. The ice cream was made with a cloud bump map, the cone with leather, the table with wood and the carpeted floor with gravel. The other objects like the cone holder, scoop and dish had a blinn or phong E material added to it to make it look like shiny metal or glass.
On the second half of the project, we learned how to make keyframes and animate in Maya. First, we had to select and group all of the ice cream and the lazy susan into one group. Then, we opened up the animation settings and made a timeline that had 120 frames and would run at 24 fps. We set our first keyframe at frame one by pressing S on the keyboard. Moving over to the 120th frame, we set another key that had a rotation on the y axis going around 360 degrees for the selected group on the table. By right clicking on key all in the channel box we created another keyframe, if we pressed play the lazy susan now spun all the way around, displaying our models. Our final step was to remove the ease-in and ease-out on the animation so it would play seamlessly. We rendered it and exported it into a QuickTime file in Adobe After Effects.
Overall, this project was a lot of fun because we have started animating our 3D creations and I can't wait to see what else we can do!
For this project, we were asked to choose an interesting and complex pen to make a realistic model of in Maya. Above I have included pictures of the real pen that I chose to model. In Maya I used the NURBS Curve tool and revolved it to create the shape of the body. After that it only needed a little resizing and manipulation to make it look correct. I used a cone and sphere for the pointy end of the pen. For the clicker end of the pen I used a taurus, cylinder and a sphere that was covered in a lofted material that was a kind of clear plastic spring. The final step of modeling was to create the clip of the pen with a NURBS Curve that I duplicated and then closed with a planar surface. To make the polka-dotted material on the body of the pen, I had to make it myself in Adobe Illustrator and then import it into Maya which was very interesting. Finally I threw in some spotlight lighting and paired the pen with a piece of paper. I was very satisfied with the way this project turned out because it ended up looking a lot like the real pen. The only thing I wish I could change was the end of the pen was not as rounded at the real pen, I had originally used a cone and pressed 3 on my keyboard to give it a more rounded view but it did not stay during rendering. Next time I would possibly try a revolved NURBS Curve for the tip of the pen.
Our first video of second semester and the beginning of our entertainment unit was the music video. For our music video we chose the song Telephone by Lady Gaga. The story follows a girl who has just experienced a breakup, her friends are there for her and throw a girls' night to cheer her up. By the end, she has regained her confidence and she moves on from the bad relationship. The theme for our video was uplifting and overcoming to show that you can move on from hard times and even become a better person from them.
Pre-Production
Our pre-production stages consisted of storyboarding, beat sheet preparation, song choosing, location scouting, and casting. We first had to decide what song we wanted to do. Our three songs we were deciding between were Fireflies by Owl City, Party In the USA by Miley Cyrus, and Telephone by Lady Gaga. Then we planned out our story, we were originally going to film inside/around outside a store like Target or Walmart and use a payphone in different locations all around town. We had issues with getting permission to film in the public spaces so we brainstormed our next idea which became our video. One of our final steps before we began filming was choosing and actor and setting up a date to film that would work best for them. One of my group members knew a girl from another high school that would be a strong choice for our main character. We got to know her before casting her, and we filmed the next Saturday in the basement of my house.
Production
While filming we had a few issues with getting a variety of shots because of the limited space and time we had to film in. Another obstacle we found out later was that some of our shots looked a bit yellow because of the lighting in the room, next time we are going to pay more attention to this and make adjustments accordingly. It was easy to get off track and distracted since the environment we were trying to create for the film was similar to a party scene. If I were to film another video like this I would try to steer clear of any party-like environments because they prove to be rather problematic. In the end we had plenty of shots but many of them couldn't be used due to actors looking at the camera and low quality.
Post-Production
Many of our mistakes from the production stage of our video carried over into editing and post-production and made it a bit difficult. Our original ending for the video did not make sense with what we had envisioned and we had complications with finding a time to reshoot with our actor. We decided to end the video with a flashback type of edit in which all of the previous shots were played in reversed order at a sped up speed and closing with a shot of our main actor smiling. During reedits we are going to revise this and make sure it isn't as abrupt of an ending. I believe we did the best we could with what we had and it turned out decent. I consider this project to be a major learning experience for all of my team and we are hoping to treat the next project with a more serious and professional attitude.
When creating the salt shaker in this project we used the lofting tool. We started with a NURB Primarive Circle that would outline the body of the shaker. We made four evenly spaced primative circles and a normal circle on top of each other. To make the outline into 3D, we used the lofting tool by going to Surfaces>Loft. The finishing touch for this was to close the bottom by selecting the bottom curve and selecting Surfaces>Planar.
Revolving
To make the cup in this project, we needed the help of the revolve tool. First, we drew a profile curve in the shape we wanted the cup to be. Next, we found the revolve tool by going to Surfaces>Revolve with the curve selected. This repeated the curve multiple times around the axis to create the 3D cup shape. When doing this step we had to make sure that the curve was drawn on the y-axis so the cup would be standing up.
For this project we expanded our knowledge of the extrude tool to make a hammer and a nail. We started with a cube which we extruded into a long rectangle. We closed off a section at one end, splitter it in half, extruded it again and divided it into six sections to make the claw of the hammer. We made the curve of the claw by going into vertices mode and selecting the vertices we wanted to bend and using the manipulation tool. Opposite from the claw we made the hammerhead by individually extruding four sections and widening/shortening them using the manipulator tool. On the last section, we beveled the corners to make it look smoother and round. Next, we shaped the handle by bending the vertices again. After that, the final step of modeling was to bevel the edges of the handle. We were also told to make a nail to go along with the hammer this was achieved by placing a cylinder and extruding both ends. On one end we widened it to make the flat face and on the other and we shrunk it into a point.
The Shading Process
After modeling we began shading our hammer and nail. On the nail and head of the hammer we applied a phong to make a shiny effect instead of a lambert or blinn. We kept the end of the hammer at a grayish color and made the nail into a dull gold. On the handle of the hammer we applied a regular lambert and changed it to brown. The final step was to add a texture to the surface that our hammer would be lying on. I chose a raw wood texture to look like a workbench.
The 3-Point Lighting Process
The finishing touches of this project included lighting it up with spotlights and using the method of 3-point lighting to give off the best shadows and display the details. We started with the key light on the right which was closer to the subject. The fill light was on the left and farther away/less bright than the key light and was used to fill in unwanted shadows cast by the key light. Finally, the back light topped it off which was put in between the key and fill lights but on the opposite side of the subject. After placing all of these lights I went into render view and made my adjustments according to what I wanted my render to look like.
Overall this project was very interesting as I got to implement skills of lighting from the Polything project and adding textures and materials from the Castle project. We dealt more with extruding and manipulation as well as more complex wireframes. I can't wait to see how we will expand upon these skills to make more elaborate models and animations.
Our second video of the year was a feature interview of a student from our school. We collaborated in teams to find a suitable location to shoot the video and choose good b-roll to incorporate in with it.We had one week of planning to prepare a list of questions and decide what we were going to interview the subject about and another week to film and edit. During this project, we struggled to find b-rol that was good quality, many of it was shot vertically from a phone and it was hard to resize inside Adobe Premiere. Another thing we struggled with was the jumpcuts. When I was talking I moved around a lot, making it very obvious whenever a cut happened. For the final product we were able to cover most of this up with b-roll. The first time we edited the video we had included the interviewer's voice saying the question. We learned for the reedit that we were supposed to either have voice overs introducing what the subject was going to say next or have title slides saying what the question was. Due to time constraints, we chose the title slide option. Feedback wise I believe people enjoyed the video except for the low quality of the b-roll. Considering it was one of my first videos of the year I am happy with the way it turned out and I learned a lot regarding the transitions between different shots and questions.
Feature Story #2
For our second feature interview of the year we interviewed another student about a book she had recently written and published. We spend a few days preparing the list of questions and setting up a good time to film with the subject. After that we spent a couple days filming and the rest of the week editing. Our weakness with this project was the first day we went to film, the equipment we chose wasn't charged all the way and by the time we had swapped it our there was no more time to film so we had to come back and film the next day instead. When we finally got around to filming the video we forgot to check if it was focused or not and the whole video turned out to be a bit blurry. Our communication issues with the subject also led to a lack of b-roll but we still made it work. In comparison to our first feature interview I can tell we definitely made some improvement. The flow of the shots is much smoother with the voice over and there are less jumpcuts.
The finale for this semester was our sophomore edition of ONW NOW which we produced as a class. We chose production roles and split into groups to produce news stories to put in. We spent one week learning about the requirements of the project and deciding what would be included in the final product. Another week filming and editing and a third week filming the live show. We had students who wrote and controlled the teleprompters scripts for the anchors, other students who monitored sounds, cameramen, directors and more. Our group made the band concert segment, we struggled with finding time among us to work outside of school and film. Our second interview was very last minute but we ended up making it work. The only thing I wish I could improve about it would be the volume. The interview with Nathan was very quiet as was some of our voice over even though we edited it to full volume. I learned that I need to be prepared for all situations and if something goes off from the original plan, I should have a backup. Overall, the sophomore edition of ONW NOW looked like it could almost be aired to the full school! All we need it a little work on cues and facial expressions and we will be all set to air live!
Time Management
My time management has been pretty good in class, I have only had to stay after school a few times to finish up small things. On days where we finished early we always make sure that everything is done on google classroom before working on another class. Outside of class I sometimes look into the work of other students or people around the world to see what I can do differently about mine.
Strengths and Weaknesses
My strengths as a video student would be editing. I like making sure shots look as clean as possible and I am looking forward to seeing different methods to this. I am also looking forward to our Entertainment unit because I have some ideas for short films that I feel would be a lot of fun to make, I want to see what it would be like to be a director. I also really like writing scripts and lists of questions of interviews, I hope this can be handy later on in the year. My weakness would be performing on camera, I usually find myself at a loss of words if I am not prepared enough. My solution to this would to make a check of myself before I go on film and confirm that I know what my plan is.
Summary
I really enjoyed learning about life as a convergence journalist this semester and I am now considering taking the class next year. My favorite part was working as a class to make the ONW NOW video, I think we really got to know each other better and I hope we do more projects as a class later this year. I am happy to say that I am a lot more comfortable with the equipment and more familiar with the editing system and I can't wait to learn more about the hidden secrets they have. Next year I hope to learn more about how to incorporate animated texts into a video and how to check sounds more effectively on the cameras before filming.
This year has been a lot of fun so far! I have gotten better at character design, learned a lot about story structure and gotten to know the mechanics of the animating platforms better as well. I have chosen my favorite projects from the years so far and embedded them below with a little reflection to go with them.
Walking Cycle
I picked this animation to reflect on because I thought it was one of my best ones visually. The colors are really nice and even incorporated some of the skills I learned from the bouncing ball project to make a window. I became very attached to my character while working on this project.
During this project we learned how to make our own little characters be able to walk across the screen. It took me a while to decide on a character to animate, I had three options: a robot, a teddy bear and finally my dinosaur. I bounced some ideas off some friends in class and I eventually chose the dinosaur. First, we drew our characters in our sketchbooks and then scanned them into Photoshop to be colored. We divided the arms, legs and head into different layers so we would be able to animate them separately later. Once in After Effects, we set anchor points so the arms, legs and head would rotate correctly. Next, began the keyframe work. We had to be careful not to make the character look like it was gliding, to accomplish this we had to add a little pause after every step. We also had to make sure the arms and legs were alternating and that the legs were never in the same place at the same time. Once we finished this we created a background and a shadow that followed our character. I finished early so I made his eye blink and added a little more to the background. My weak spot in this project would be the slight glitch in his leg due to a keyframe placement issue. I also wish I could have made the background a little better because it looks very 2-D. However, this project really helped me understand keyframes better and how to work with timing. We also learned how to use the dodge and burn tool to make objects really pop. Overall, this project is probably my favorite from the After Effects unit.
Short Story
I choose this animation because it was one of my favorites to do. Even though I got behind and it didn't turn out the way I had originally intended, it was a lot of fun to think of my own story and see it come to life.
For our last video of the After Effects unit, we developed our own story by first analyzing Pixar short films and taking note of the structures of plot lines. Our goal was to implement everything we had learned form previous animations, such as puppet pin tool and walking cycle. I collaborated a lot with friends to give and receive ideas. Originally, my story was to be about a homeless man who lives alone outside of society. One day he goes into town for food and is mocked by everyone. He becomes very sad and starts to leave. On the way out, he sees a little homeless boy who needs help. The man wonders why he should help the boy when nobody helped him. Suddenly the man realizes that that is not the way the world should be and decides to help the boy. He takes the boy to him home in the woods and they build a tree house together. My weakness during this project came from how behind I got while sketching and coloring the scenes, so I got started on the animation very late. From the animation point forward I had to manage my time very carefully and work quickly which meant cutting out some scenes. I had to stay after school almost every day one week to get finished. I also struggled with the size of my drawings. Some of my scenes weren't colored in a 1080x1920p canvas so the ended up looking a little stretched in the final product. If I come back to this project I would like to add sound because it might help make the message more clear. Overall I think the style of the art looks really good and I hope I can finish the story sometime.
Castle Model
A few weeks ago we began working in Maya. We have only made three projects but my castle model is my favorite. Instead of just making four towers with walls, I added in two more towers in the middle where the royal family lives.
For this project we learned how to add textures to things by using pictures we found on Google. We had to look up "seamless ______ textures" to find ones that wouldn't have a line going down the middle of them. To apply them to an object we added a Lambert and then connected a file to it. This was I bit hard for me and I ended up using a texture with a seam in it for the stone. I worked over this by shrinking the texture to make it less noticeable. Hopefully I can find a trick to finding seamless textures because it will be handy when working later.
PolyThing and Lighting
(Maya render) (Arnold render)
This is our most recent project in Maya and it was very interesting to me. We studied the different types of lighting and then implemented it into our model to showcase the details and shadows of the "Polything" we made. This project was very quick and easy, the only part that took a little bit to figure out was the order to delete the cylinders to create the holes in the sphere. My final renders were also a bit dark so I might go back and change the color of the plane to a lighter color to reflect more light and show more shadows of the Polything. The Arnold render showed the shadows and shininess of the blinn material while the Maya render doesn't. I am excited to see what else I can do with the different types of lights in other projects.
Be the Change is the story of a homeless man who lives alone in the woods. He sleeps in a hammock high in the trees. First you see him walk up and climb down from his bed. Then, he walks to the train tracks down the road to catch he train into town. Once he gets to town, he sees all the stores with clothes and food which he knows he can't buy because he has no money. He asks a supermarket owner named Jim if he can spare some food. Jim is blindsided by the homeless man's raggy clothes and refuses to give him food. The homeless man is defeated and begins to walk home sadly. On the way back he stumbles across a homeless child who asks him for help. The homeless man is about to refuse, probably thinking, "If no one helped me then why should I help him?" He instantly regrets feeling this way, shedding a little tear because he understands the boy's struggle. The man holds out his hand to the boy to help him up and take him home. The story ends with the words "It will be alright". This is to show that even if it seems everyone is mean to you and that no one understands there is always someone out there who knows what you are going through and that someday the hurting will end. Someone will come along to help you up.
For this animation we were supposed to showcase everything we have learned in 2-D animation this semester. In the shot where he is sleeping in the hammock, his breathing was animated using the puppet pin tool. The first shot that is zooming in on his hammock I used multi-plane animation to make the hammock seem like it was closer to you than the trees in the back of the scene. I used arcs with the leaves in the train tracks scene and also with the homeless man's walking. I also incorporated skills I learned from the walking cycle animation to move his arms and legs. For future animations I have learned not to spend too much time on storyboarding and drawing. I spent a lot of time drawing all the scenes out which ended up with me having to cut out some scenes from the animation. I also struggled with the size of canvases in Photoshop moving to After Effects. I needed to remember to make the scenes be 1920 x 1080p in order too fit correctly on the final product. You can tell that I had to stretch some scenes to fit in After Effects, especially in the scene where the homeless man visits Jim's Supermarket. Overall this project was a lot of fun and I think I will be coming back to it later in the year to make some revisions and additions because I feel that it has a lot of potential.
This year the Olathe high schools are trying out a new system during lunch. We are given 50 minutes to eat and consult teachers for help. The time is split into two parts; Lunch A and Lunch B. However, the district is trying to decide whether the time is benefitting everyone or if we should just go back to the old schedule.
Personally, I am seeing that Raven 50 is very helpful. It allows us time to finish up leftover homework and ask questions to our teachers. Since school starts at 8:00, it may seem like we already have enough time to finish up homework before school, but some students cannot get to school until about ten minutes before the bell. Even if we already have our homework from the night finished, we can get a head start on homework from our first four classes or even study for tests we have later in the day. It also provides us an easier way to communicate with our peers. Last year we could only have lunch with our friends that had the same lunch hour as us. With Raven 50, we can sit with anyone, which helps friends who don't have classes together to stay connected. Raven 50 has health advantages as well. We get more time to eat so we don't have to rush. Students who felt that they didn't have enough time to eat a proper lunch are now freed from worry. I feel that it also functions as a de-stress time of day. I can sit down and distance myself from the busyness of school and have fun with friends for a little bit.
Overall, I think that our high schools should keep this system because many of my peers really enjoy this time. If it is felt that students are not using this time correctly, I propose that we enforce some rules. Students must only eat in certain hallways/classrooms, they must go in for help this many times a month, etc.
LyLena Estabine Olathe Northwest sophomore, just published her third book, On the Bridge. Her book is a dystopian novel that features a boy struggling through the problems in our society today such as bigotry and prejudice. With support from her family, Lylena self-published her book on July 1st 2017. On the Bridge can be bought and read online at Barnes and Noble and Amazon, but if you want a signed copy you can purchase them directly from LyLena.
According to LyLena, On the Bridge took about a year to write and publish. She used easy to access programs such as Google Docs and Microsoft Word to write the book and Canva to design the cover. LyLena wants other young authors to know that reading books, plays or poetry can really help a lot to “…find your voice and a particular style that stands out to you.”
When her book came out, she had book signings where people could come buy a signed copy of her book and talk to her about it. Her book seems to have been a hit with everyone who has read it, including her freshman english teacher, Ms. Toburen. According to Ms.Toburen she enjoyed the book and that she thought LyLena “...did a really good job, much better than I could have done at 15 for sure.”
When writing a news story you start with the five W's and then proceed with the most important information and concluding with the least important information. This is called the inverted pyramid style of news writing. Along the way we must remember to use quotes and to make sure that we are not writing in a fictional style. (Ex. we ALWAYS say, "...she/he SAID") As a class we looked at different news websites and analyzed written news stories to get an idea of what we were supposed to write. We also looked at our own Raven Daily and Raven Minute to see what other ONW students have made for written news stories before writing our own. I started with the five W's in the first paragraph. For the second paragraph I talked about how LyLena wrote her book and what advice she has for other authors our age. In the final paragraph I talked about the reaction of other students and teachers when her book came out.
My Thoughts
I liked being challenged to write in a less fictional style because I typically use very descriptive and shiny words when I write and this was very different for me.I still need to work on organizing my information from most important to least important and making sure my words are engaging the reader. I also need to remember to say "According to _____" and "______ said".
What I Would Change
If I were to do this project again I would make sure that I have enough quotes and that they are embedded correctly. I would also want to see what other opportunities there are to write news stories on and how much information there is for me to work with.
For our second feature story of the year we were to have two interview subjects talking on the same/similar topic. The videos submitted will be viewed and one will be chosen to be featured in ONW NOW. Our group decided to interview LyLena Estabine, a sophomore at our school who has written three books. In this video she talks about her most recent book, On the Bridge. Mrs. Toburen was our second subject. She talked about what she thought about LyLena's book after reading it and what she thinks the future has in store for LyLena.
Pre-Production
For this project we switched up our production roles. I was the script writer and the interviewer so it was up to me to think of 21 questions to ask our subjects. I found the job very simple because I also have an interest in writing. I was genuinely curious to know what LyLena had to say about the process of publishing On the Bridge. We had to contact LyLena to set up a time when she could be interviewed since she busies herself in other activities such as acting.
Production
On the first day we went to film, we had some issues with the camera battery and did not get any clips. The second day we went out to film was the day we finally got the interview filmed. We were lucky to have had just a enough time to go and film Mrs. Toburen on the same day. Because of this last minute decision I was completely unprepared with no questions. I ended up being pretty good at thinking of questions on the fly. We got LyLena to send us some b-roll a few days later. Unfortunately, there wasn't very much b-roll and I had to resort to using silent clips of the interview with the voice over in place of b-roll at the end.
Post-Production
Editing the video was difficult at first because LyLena had a lot of great things to say and I really wanted to include everything. Once I got past that and the scarcity of b-roll, editing was easy and I got it finished in good time. On the first edit of this video I did not have an intro screen. After listening to the feedback from my classmates and teacher I realized that I needed to add one. I already had an ONW NOW logo so I animated that and turned it into an intro graphic.
What I Would Change
If I was to film this again I would make sure that the camera is focused properly because our clips are all slightly blurry. I would also like to make sure we plan a more appropriate place to film according to what our subject is talking about and that we have a microphone to eliminate some of the background noise. We also might want to consider what possible b-roll there is and if there is enough before we choose and interview subject.
Overall
Overall this project was fun, I'm starting to see lots of improvement in my videos and I'm hoping my next video will be the best one yet!
A MultiPlane animation is a setting that has multiple layers. These layers range in distance from the audience with the sizes of objects on the layers being sized accordingly. When the animation plays, it is made to look as realistic as it would if you were to walk or drive along the setting. The first MultiPlane animations were made by sliding drawings made on transparent celluloid along different shelves and then photographing each fraction of an inch of movement among them. Walt Disney used this setup for his animations:
The Project
We started in Photoshop with a 10000-7000 by 1080 canvas and made at least five layers and a background. We had to keep in mind that the objects on layers in the back had to be smaller than the ones in the front. Also, the background layer must cover the entire canvas as it would not be moving in the animation. (Ex. When you are looking at the moon it does not move and it does not get any bigger or smaller.) When we moved on to After Effects it was simple, we put keyframes for all of the layers at the beginning and at the end. The keyframes at the beginning were all in a line, while the ones at the end had to be tweaked to make the layers closer to the audience move faster than the ones in the back. After that, all we had to do was export the project and we were finished. Majority of the work in this projects was in Photoshop and designing the layers and making sure they were proportioned correctly.
For our second video of the year we were told to interview one of the 2,000 brilliant students at our school about one of their favorite memories from the summer or beyond. In my group, I was the one to be interviewed. I talked about the trip that I took this summer to South Dakota and the wonders I saw there.
Pre-Production
Before we started filming we had to plan. We created a small storyboard showing where we would be filming, we had to choose a place that would fit the theme of our interview. Then, it was the job of the interviewer to write 21 interview questions that we could work off of during the interview. The person receiving the interview was not allowed to have a copy of the questions and was not scripted. This made the interview very natural and less nerve-wracking. We were also told how to conduct the interview. The interviewer would be sitting off screen and to the side so that the person receiving the interview would look at them instead of right into the camera. Once we had all these things down, we were ready to begin filming.
Production
The filming of our interview was very quick because we did it all in one clip. However, getting set up took a little while, we had to play with some stats on the camera to get the microphone to pick up sound. We moved setup as well, the window we were originally filming in front of had too much light coming through and made me look like a shadow. The only problem with filming in front of the courtyard window was that at one point in our video, a person walked by in the background. While filming I had a hard time finding one place to look, it was very tempting to look at the camera. Next time I will be more disciplined to look just at the interviewer. One instruction we forgot was to not pass the microphone back and forth. This created a conflict later in editing.
Post-Production
The first time I edited this video it was very choppy, the interview was too long so I had to cut some unimportant questions out. I also stuttered a few times and there were awkward pauses where I tried to think of what to say. These also had to be cut out along with the pass-off of the microphone. I used only three pieces of b-roll in the first edit. On the second edit my main goal was to make it have less cuts, I did this by putting in some more b-roll over parts with lots of cuts and taking out the interviewer's voice and replacing it with a question screen. I also added an end screen. The second edit looks a lot cleaner and I am happy with the way it turned out.
What I Would Change
If I were to do this project again I would try to find some different music because the music at the beginning is reused from the How to Use a Hall Pass video. During filming I would make every answer a different shot instead of having one long clip, this will prevent awkward cuts in the middle of sentences. I would also keep in mind only giving the microphone to the person receiving the interview so there is no passing the microphone back and forth. Otherwise this video went pretty smoothly.
Overall
Overall I think our group used the five guarantees of e-comm very well; we collaborated at the beginning to decide who we should interview based on what we had to share. We communicated through post-production to make sure we were editing correctly and that everyone had the clips and b-roll to make a professional video possible. We had effective project management because we finished filming and editing in good time. We each took on a bit of a leadership role depending on our part of the project (For example, I had to make sure I had plenty to talk about my trip to South Dakota and was able to bring in some b-roll). We used our existing technical skills combined with some new tricks we learned with the camera and Adobe Premiere Pro to produce and then re-edit our video to make it more professional. This project was fun because I learned a lot on how to film a proper interview.
