Short Story Animation: Be the Change

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.

Op-Ed on Raven 50

Are We Getting the Full Benefits of Raven 50?

     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.

Written News Story

LyLena is “On the Bridge” to Success

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.”

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Process

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.

Interview with LyLena Estabine: Feature Story #2

The Assignment

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!

MultiPlane Animation

What is a MultiPlane Animation?

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.

ONW 1 in 2000 Interview

The Assignment

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.

Walking Cycle Animation

The Project

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.