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.
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.
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.
It's a new school year and I have moved out of E9 and into Exploring Animation. This week we looked into the history of animation and how we got to where we are today. We viewed some old animations and identified what kind of animation it was: Cel Animation, 3D Animation, stop motion, 2D animation, etc. Then we got to research anything about the history of animation, I looked into the evolution of CGI.
I viewed this video, A History of CGI Characters - DOCUMENTARY:
It talks about how crazy creatures in movies used to be done with stop motion and puppets like in King Kong (1933). Then, in 1985, the first photo real computer generated character was created as the Stained Glass Knight in Young Sherlock Holmes. In 1989 Photoshop was used for the first time in a full length film to help create the water tentacle in The Abyss. It took six months to finish, but the movie won an academy award for the visual effects. Jurassic Park in 1993 broke new ground with the photo real dinosaurs including bones and textures, they used a dinosaur input device that would convert the movements they made into keyframes. In 1995, Casper the Friendly Ghost became the first computer animated character. In the same year, Toy Story came out becoming the first fully computer animated feature length film. Overall, the video is a timeline that effectively shows the progression we have made in film technology in the last 76 years, it is truly incredible. The video ends with Avatar from 2009 which is 60% computer-animated and 40% live action according to the director, James Cameron. This video is really interesting because it shows that hard work does pay off.
During this last quarter of e9, we have been working on a project with a group of four people that may not have been in our original class. Our groups were created based on our personality tests that we took at the end of third quarter. On the first day we were told to brainstorm a problem that we have or see in our world, or seek similarities among our different personalities that we could build a project off of. From there we made a team/company name and a product that we were going to spend the next four weeks making graphics, animations, a commercial, and a website for. Our product was the Tele-Pack, a backpack that is enhanced with teleportation. The Tele-Pack is both voice activated and works with your phone. We thought that the Tele-Pack would be the perfect solution to students' aching backs and air pollution by other transportation machines. Below I have included the material included on our website:
Our company logo:
Our product logo:
Our ad:
Our coupon:
Our web banner:
Our 2-D company animation:
Our 3-D product animation/demonstration:
Our commercial:
The main challenge in this project was our personality differences. Some of us were more outgoing than others so we had to make way for each other to be able to receive input from all of us. However, I liked this challenge. It gave me an opportunity to collaborate with all different people and see how the different personality types can benefit and counter each other at times. I learned that this is an important thing to remember even outside of this class, you may not always agree with everyone, but that is because everyone is different in their own way. Sometimes you will have to work harder to get along but once you get through the hard part of getting to know each other, things might not be as bad. I also got a little stressed when we started getting to the last few days and still had work to do. I took too much on to my plate when what I really needed was help. Then, we talked as a team and spread out the work evenly between us an everything turned out fine.
During this project, we all gave each other feedback on our work. I learned that we needed to speak up and show more confidence. We also found some flaws in our website that we promptly fixed and resulted in a really successful presentation.
My overall opinion of this projects that it was a great learning experience but also a lot of fun. I learned teamwork values that I will continue to apply to my life. I really enjoyed using all of the computer skills we learned this year to make one big project it was very rewarding to finally see it all at once during our presentation and see what others thought of our product.
We made pretty good use of our time during class on this project. In the beginning, we decided as a team that we would still continue working even if we were missing a team member or two. We agreed that if we didn't get everything done in class that day that we would schedule a before of after school time to come in and finish up. This plan worked well and we only had to come in early to tweak small things on the last few days. On days where we finished early, we checked and double-checked that everything on the website was working smoothly and that we had all of our requirements.
My strength as an e-Communication student is that I am open to ideas. I really like to collaborate with others to see how their mind works compared to mine and how we can incorporate our ideas together to make something truly creative. It is fun for me to try multiple approaches to a concept and select from the group which one fits all the needs. I strive to give everyone an equal chance while working in a project. I really want to hear what everyone has to say, I don't want anyone to feel uncomfortable around me, just to feel like they can share their deepest, richest ideas. That is how I contribute to making a team what it is. An area where I need to improve is being more vocal. While my teammates give their input, I need to give mine back. However, while I do this I have to remind myself not to overpower the others. During this project I improved on this by remembering that my team members wouldn't judge me because they wanted to hear my thoughts as much as I wanted to hear theirs.
This semester I loved seeing what the other teams in first hour e9 came up with and how they wanted to change the world. I especially liked seeing how everyone grew together and became friends over this whole year. The only part I would change is just getting a few more minutes to practice our presentation individually in our teams so we really know what everyone is sharing. My goal for next year is to produce even better work, and strive to make more friends and stronger relationships.
Graphic Design has ended and we have moved on to animation. In animation we were assigned to make a 3D animation, a 2D animation, and start the product website. After collaborating on what to do, we decided that the 3D animation would be a of demonstration showing how the Tele-Pack works. Our 2D animation is a little different, instead of making it full-length, we made a short animation of our team name: FLYLO. We thought that we could insert this at the beginning or end of our commercial from the upcoming video rotation. Below I have added some screenshots of the website-in-progress and our animations.
2D Animation:
3D Animation:
Screenshots From Our Website-In-Progress:
The end of this year is coming up fast but we are still working hard and I am very happy with what we have accomplished now that I am looking back. I am still considering changing the color scheme of some of our graphics to make the website stand out. We are also looking into adding some sound into the 3D animation. I can't wait to see how our video rotation and presentation will go!
This last quarter is off to an eventful start. I am starting off in Mrs. Smith's graphic design class and we have been given five tasks to create in Adobe Illustrator.
~product logo
~company logo
~website banner
~advertisement
~coupon
After a week and a few days of collaborating and hard work at the computers, we have accomplished our five goals:
Overall I am satisfied with our results. We worked to make our logos reflect a theme. Our product logo font was made to look futuristic and reflect our slogan of "Going Beyond" using the arrow in the T. The company logo was made to look professional with the cursive-like font. I think it says that our company and product are reliable. Finally, our website banner, advertisement, and coupon combined these ideas and looked very nice. We have to finish some last bits on our advertisements, but other than that, the last thing we might look at is the background colors. I am really excited to move on and see what our team will create in the animation rotation.
