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.
For this project we first had to create a character of our own on paper. We had to leave out shading and colors because that was to be added in Photoshop later. Then, scanned or sent our drawing to our computers and imported it into Photoshop. From there we edited out the extra space so it was only our character. Next we had to separate and copy the parts of our character if we were planning on having them move in the animation. After that we added in color along with shine and shadows using the dodge and burn tool. Finally, we added in a background and then we were ready to move on to After Effects. In After Effects we started with setting the anchor points for each of the body parts that would be moving in the animation. Then we parented all the parts from the body to keep them from falling off. From there we set position and rotation keyframes accordingly. Every part had to move opposite from each other which was the hardest part. Before moving on to the null object we added a shadow by making a shape and applying a Gaussian Blur effect. The last step was the null object which we only had two keyframes for; one at the beginning, one at the end. If your character walked faster you might have had to move them closer together to make sure your character wasn't gliding across the floor. After that, you were done and you could export and upload to YouTube.
Overview
At the beginning of this project I had a hard time creating a character I really liked I had two designs before I came up with my little dinosaur: a robot and a teddy bear. I ended up pulling out my sketchbook when I had some extra time in another class and started doodling, ending up with my dinosaur. The Photoshop portion of this project was pretty simple for me. I implemented some skills from some previous projects to make the window looking outside and the shadow-like effects on the floor and door. In After Effects things started to get a little tricky. It took me a while to get the movement of the legs to where they are now. There is still a little glitch in the right leg every few seconds. After finishing the arm and leg movements I realized that I needed some head movement to make the animation look more smooth. I had to go back into Photoshop and separate his head into another layer before I could make it move. I ended up having some extra time so I made his eye blink as well.
What I Would Change
Overall, this project was a lot of fun! I missed a day of class due to orchestra but I was able to catch up pretty easily. I really liked how it turned out. The only part I would change would be glitch in his leg. I believe that happened because of a mistake keyframe when I was first attempting to make him walk. I would also like to make the background more realistic because it looks pretty 2-Dimensional.
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.
