Week 11 Comments

This week was yet another work week, but I'm not complaining at all. What made me happiest this week was getting more work done on my 2d short. It's coming along nice and I really hope I can finish it in time, but time is closing in and I really need to hustle this week. But what really really made me mad this week, I didn't even know about until this weekend. I was going to get some work done and low and behold, I can't find my flash drive. I'm a little nervous that I lost it, but I'm pretty sure I just left it in the computer at boces. But if I lost it, ugh.... I don't even want to think about that now. Anyways I'm looking forward to finishing my 2d short and the party this week! Now onto the link of interest.

This is another video by Every Frame of Painting,  who I'm sure you're familar with at this point. After I posted a video of theirs a few Link of Interest's ago, and one of there video's was used in a Article Response it probably rings a bell. Anyways, this video is about Jackie Chan and how he does Comedy through his choreographed fight scenes. It's really interesting to see how much different fight scenes are done now than back then, and also how Jackie pulls humor from strange places but that's what film-making is all about. So yep that's it for this week. Hopefully you guys will enjoy my 2D Short when it is complete. I'm definitely going to have to work on it in class and at home double time though, to get it done.

You okay Pendleton?

This article was about Pendleton Ward, the creator of Adventure Time. The article explains why he stepped town as show-runner of Adventure Time and how his life has changed ever sense the show was green lit. It explains how running the show did a number on him and how he couldn't go on with the stress anymore. The article is very descriptive of everything going on as Pendleton talks, explaining every thing they can to make him sound as depressed as possible. He goes on to say how his childhood consisted of him being a bit of an awkward kid, wanting to be nice but was considered an outcast. And the author draws parallels between his dark side being the Ice King, and Finn being his good side. Also, no drugs were consumed according to Pendleton, which...well...I'll let you and myself decide the truth behind that.
I thought this article was very very dramatic and I don't really know how much of this is completely true to be honest. I mean don't get me wrong I believe most of what Pendleton says, (besides the no drugs thing) but I feel the author of this article was trying their hardest to make Pendleton sound like a Suicidal shut-in. I mean, maybe he is really like that. But I really doubt he's even 80% as depressed in real life than they make him sound in this article. But I'll give the author some props, nice imagery in this passage there Neil.

Practical Effects or VFX?

This article was about the differences of CGI effects and Practical Effects in movies. It shows some examples and asks practical effects veterans Rick Baker and Tom Savini. The first example shown is the transformation of a human to a werewolf in two different movies. The first being the new movie "American Werewolf in Paris" This shot was entirely done in CGI and definitely has a different look to it than the other shot. The other shot being "American Werewolf in London" which is the first film, where the shot was done with practical effects. This shot also has a very different feel to it. Then in the last clip Practical Effects veterans Baker and Savini explain the differences between the two, and how they can both be used to create an equal balance.
I found this article very interesting and I liked it quite a bit. First of all about the Werewolf argument. Overall I liked the practical effect better, but there where parts in both sequences I thought looked a little weird and obvious. In my opinion, I think that Practical effects are much better for things like this. Up close and personal shots. But I think CGI is essential for creating giant ensemble shots that practical effects couldn't even dream of making. It's best to find a mix between the two and find which one works for your specific shot. There's nothing more awkward when CGI is un-necessarily used in a shot that would work far better practical, or when a practical effect is painfully obvious and that CGI would have much better suited it. And this is basically what the two Practical Effects veterans where saying as well. It's not about which one is better and taking over the other, but rather finding a mix between the two and see what works best for creating the most immercive effect.

Week 10 Comments

This week was very productive in the work department that's for sure. The thing that made me happy this week was getting more work done in my 2d short. Up until this point I didn't feel like I was progressing all that fast. But I feel like I've been getting more work done which makes me feel a lot better. Something that made me frustrated? hmmm.. nothing that I can think of really. Maybe that I only got one slice of pizza haha. I'm looking forward to finishing my 2d short, our Christmas party and starting 3d after break the most. And now the link of interest...

Aw man... looking pretty good Nintendo. Now normally I'm not really that much into Zelda even though I'm a huge Nintendo fan, but good god this looks amazing so far. I like the new concept of a huge open world too, I think that's exactly the type of change the Zelda series needs. And that map size and those graphics man... So yeah that's all for this week, buh bye.

How to make depth

Creating depth in a 2D environment is no easy task, I know this first hand. But there are a few things you can do to improve depth in your work. First of all Lighting and Shading can make a huge difference a can even make your film "look like a hundred bucks". Next is focus, this is basically what the camera is focusing on while maybe something else is more blurry. This will really improve the final result. Next is perspective witch can add a lot of aesthetics to your work. Parallax, adds a certain kinetic energy to the shot. Hopefully the effect doesn't make your viewers hurl from dizziness though. And last is Occlusion. This is things that are closer to our eyes block out other things just like real life.
I thought this article as very helpful to making shots for not only 2d but even 3d, look way better.

Animation Domination

The animation industry has been thriving for a long time now and there has been no chance of slowing down anytime soon. Before the movie Shrek, there wasn't even a category for best animated picture. But Shrek won it, and sense then animation has been taking way more seriously today than ever. Before this though, there was just too few animated movies for this category to work. There was the occasional Snow White or Who Framed Roger Rabbit but that's about it.
These days though not only are they widely accepted, they make huge bucks. Shrek 2, The Lion King, Toy Story 2 and Frozen are a few animated films that hold huge box office records. Even recently movies like Big Hero 6 beat out all the other movies in the box office like Interstellar and Gone Girl.  There's also many jobs available that pay pretty well even though job out look is only 6%.
The animation industry is also expanding to beyond the U.S as well. The Independent film, movie and television sector has reached the highest record ever.
I thought this article was informative. It's interesting to see the info about how animation is doing right now as a serious buisness.

Week 9 Comments

This week was pretty productive. The first thing I did when I started my 2D short was start the voice over recording process. It's the first thing they do in real animation after the storyboard, So I figured why not do it like the professionals do it. Then the rest of the week I worked on my Animation. The thing that made me happy was the recording session itself. It was super fun to do and I had a blast doing it. I like voice acting myself and doing it with friends was even more fun. I also enjoyed the audio editing a lot. I only edited the dialog though, as I will do the sound effects and music once the animation is done in the editing process. The thing that frustrated me the most was Right at the end of friday I think I might have accidentally deleted 2 days work. My mind was not ready to process what I had just done at the moment so I just turned my Mac off and left. I'm pretty upset about it because I'm so done with animating the same first shot again after all that work. I think what I might do to be honest, is work on a different shot on Tuesday and come back to that shot later. That way I can get some fresh ideas in my head and not having to completely start over once I get busy again. I'm looking forward to the Field Trip tomorrow the most. I was kinda disappointing that it got understandingly delayed because of the crappy Buffalo weather that's been going on recently, But I'm ready to go tomorrow. I'm very excited to see how it compares to Villa Maria. So anyways, on to the link of interest.

This the teaser for an upcoming trailer for Jurassic World, the next installment of the Jurassic Park franchise. I love Jurassic Park, it's one of my favorite movies so I'm pretty excited about this movie. I've always liked dinosaurs as there the closest thing to real life giant monsters the world has ever seen. So I really really hope this movie doesn't suck like most of the Jurassic Park sequels. But it has Chris Pratt, so it has to be good right?

Everything you hear is a lie.

This article or really video, was about audio in film where how almost everything you hear was added later in production. The first example in the video was a scratch on the face. The mic didn't pick up what you, yourself would hear. Instead a Sound effect was added later. The main sound effects are broken up into 3 different categories.

Ambience
This is background noise. When filming and recording your footage. Make sure you get a recording of the background noise in your shot. This is important because it can sound weird if your ambiance is cut out when your shot changes.

Library Effects
These are pre-recorded sound effects that you can find on websites or other sources. These include gun shots, explosions, etc..

Foley
This is a sound effect that is recorded specifically for a certain element in a shot for a film.

Foley sound effects go back a long time. They started before they even really made movies. The first example of one was drummers performing for the actors to make effects, usually humorous in Vaudeville Productions. This is where the classic Rimshot comes from.  They where next used in broadcast radio productions. Before everyone had TV people had to listen to the radio. As boring as that sounds, somehow people back then got some enjoyment out of it. I know, I don't get it either. Voice actors back then did a whole lot more than just voice work. With the help of a few other crew members, they all helped to create sound effects live to give a better picture of whats going on into the listeners head. A good example was also in Saturday morning cartoons. Back then they relied on musical cues much more than today's cartoons. The musical cues went with the motion of the cartoons.

But perhaps the best example was in the 1920's when Universal was getting ready to realese  it's first Sound-Picture Film. They decided it was time to get into the Sound-Picture game but where having some trouble syncing up the audio to the visuals. That's when a guy named Jack Foley (That sounds Familiar) helped created a technique where they created the sound effects live as the movie was playing. This was pretty ground breaking for the time. Other studios tried replicating what Foley did and he even got a sound stage named after him, wow! Foley's techniques are still used to this day as well. In fact pretty much every feature film and TV show uses them. The creator of the video even showed it by making his own short film comprised entirely of Foley sound effects. It's pretty funny as well.

I Thought this article was very intriguing. At first I rolled my eyes because I saw the video was 15 minutes long and was the same guy from the other article who took way too long to explain things. But the whole video interested me greatly. I have been interested in sound effects for a really long time and it was cool to learn the history of it all. The only thing I have to say is they guy could have done a lot better on the video he made. Just watching it made me want to do so much more with it. One of my favorite directors Edgar Wright ( who I've talked about before on my blog ) is a great example of this. He makes simple actions such as the ones people where doing in the video have much more intense sounds to make a funny dramatic effect. It would especially have gone with the video too as the effects get increasingly louder as they go on. But otherwise pretty good article.

Character Poses Refrences

This article was about Shawn Kelly and how he uses references for character poses. First he talks about Eadweard Muybridge's photography books and how they can be a big help for reference. He especially likes the book Stopping Time by Dr. Harold Edgarton. In this book it shows fast photography, which is merging several frames of movement into photography. This is a good reference as it shows how the real life movement works and how easy it can be applied to animation.
Next, he talks about how comic books are an underrated excellent source of reference. He talks about how Jim lee's work on Batman comics and J.Scott Campbell's work on Danger girl are very inspiring and great art in general. Next he talks about how video live action and animated reference is good. Watch other peoples work to improve your own. And finally, He says how video reference is very good too. Film yourself and your friends to see how the movement actually works in real life. He also makes a point to not just watch and copy the references. But to actually study them, and apply what you have seen into your own work.
I thought this article was pretty Interesting. I might use some of the tips Shawn Kelly has given in some of my future animations. It's interesting to see how many forms of reference are really out there.

Woah.

I don't know about you guys but I just found out someone has read my blog in Alaska.

 So yeah pretty cool eh? How about anyone else?

Week 8 Comments: I'm boring you with my frustrations edition

Well technically this is Week 9 as we skipped blogs for last week. But whatever, continuity and such you know? This past week we mainly worked on our 2d short storyboards and puppet animation excersices. There was a few things that disappointing me this week unfortunately. I guess I'll start with last week sense I wasn't able to talk about it until now. I was ripped to shreds in the 11 second club critique. There where a few problems with my animation as a supposed non-realistic tree and clouds that changed positions, and issues with other stuff too like two left hands at the end which I did not notice. And to make matters worth a certain someone in class had to make a point "Who cares if its funny right lololololol." And then a whole speech was said stating how that your main point was to not be funny and to have a good animation. I know that the speech wasn't directed at me for the most part but it kinda saddened me a bit. I want to make it clear that this is not my main priority at all, in case it seems like it.  I like to make my animations enjoyable and funny, but I always focus on making a good animation first. I thought I did a better job than I actually did to be short. But hopefully I can focus on making my 2d short as awesome as possible. But I'm not done crying about class yet there's more. I was mad at myself for not turning my 2d short storyboard and puppet animation on time. I have been falling behind in class recently and I'm going to fix this right away. I hate to fall behind in class at all, and especially in a class like this where I enjoy it so much.
But wow, there had to be some stuff that made me happy right? Well yes. Even though I turned my storyboard in late, I think it came out AMAZING. I had to cut a few things due to 1) Not having enough time to add them, and 2) Animation would be to long. But the final version if I can do it the way I want to, Will no doubt be the best thing I have ever created in the class. I can't wait to get started on it after this puppet animation stuff (which I kinda hate to be frank).
So yeah I look forward to starting my 2d short mostly, with the editing, voice acting and countless other steps to making it perfect. Now enough about me, on to the link of interest!

This one's a good one. At first I only watched the first few minutes and thought it was stupid. Oh it's a sitcom theme that goes on for a while, Hilarious. But then I watched the whole thing and I got to say, It's genius. The whole video plays with your expectations and completely does a 180 to where you thought the video was going. I did not expect the twist at the end at all and this is one of my favorite things Adult Swim has ever done ever. This is the type of stuff I'd love to make next year and I hope everyone can appreciate how much effort goes into stuff like this.
So that's It for now. Thanks for reading my longest blog post yet (at least it feels like it), Although it was kinda in order after a week off.

Big Hero Science

This article was about the healthcare robot in Big Hero 6, Baymax. In this Article, they talked about how Baymax worked in the film and how it can be applied to real life. First the article talked about how because Baymax is a soft air filled robot, rather then a sharp metal robot. They talk about how because he is soft and non threatening it has more appeal as a health robot. You wouldn't want a robot that could hurt you buy bumping into you, so this creates much more appeal. They then talk about how we really don't have anything like Baymax now, but it's not that far fetched at all, Robots with certain tasks similar to Baymax will probably be similar to him in the soft air filled design as it a lot more practical then a threatening metal spider.
I thought this article was pretty interesting. I have actually seen this movie and I thought it was great. But after watching it I wondered if there was anything like Baymax today. I hope that eventually Scientists and Doctors figure out something like Baymax in the future. The medical world can always afford to get a little more adorable.

Interstellar Insight

This Article was about how accurate Interstellar was to actual science. The Article starts out by discussing the agent of destruction in the film which is Blight. This exists in the real world but is not nearly as threatening as it is in the film. There seems to be a trend in films and video games where they take something that exists in real life that is not that dangerous at all, and expanding on it in a what if this was was dangerous in the future scenario. This is present in the 2013 video game "The last of us" where the zombie virus in that game does exist in real life but only in ants. This trend is a pretty cool concept and I can see it being used more in the future. But back to the article. Next they talk about how they represented black holes in the movie. Before Interstellar, black holes have never really been shown as they would actually appear in films. For this movie they hired scientists like Kip (I think that's his name) help them. They used Einsteins and other ideas to make an accurate depiction which I think looks pretty cool. Next the article talks about how fast face travel would actually happen realistically. In the movie there is a wormhole that they go through. While it would take us humans forever to actually invent this type of technology it is possible. Lastly they talk about the dangers of black holes. In the movie they play with the idea that if you where to travel through a black hole time would behave differently. While you wouldn't notice any difference. Time would mov much slower than for the rest of the universe. And if you returned afterwards you could only have been gone for a short while while many years have passed.
I thought this article was pretty interesting. I have not yet seen the movie but I may in the future. I appreciate Nolan's (as well as everyone else who worked on the film) respect for science and being accurate.

Week 7 Comments

This week we learned about using 3D space in our animation, Lip Sync and continued working on our 11 second club. What frustrated me most this week was getting my Spaceship exercise to work. I'm sure everyone else reading this is rolling their eyes on me and I don't blame them. I probably made it way to complicated then it actually was to be honest, but I just couldn't get a whole grasp on how the 3d space editor actually works. Once I figure out that however I'll be a lot happier. My favorite part of the week was the last few minutes of Thursday, where I turned in my 11 second club. It was a huge relief because I was worried I would not finish it in time as I had a half day on Friday and I couldn't make it to class. But thankfully, I finished it right on time and wow it felt great. I put in a lot of effort into it and I'm pretty proud of it actually. It came out great in my opinion and I hate to sound so pretentious, but I think it's pretty funny. Unfortunately though I didn't submit it to the contest but honestly I didn't really care about that aspect of it, I just wanted to get it done and perfect. But anyways, I'm looking forward to showing my 11 second club to the class in the critique and starting the big 2D short project. I still have no idea what I'm going to do for that one, but I'll start brainstorming some ideas soon. So now onto the link of the week..

Here's a pretty funny video. It basically shows these two guys taking Mcdonald's food and setting it up to look a little more fancy. They then take it to a fancy schmancy food show and have some people try it. They ask them what they think about it, and if its better than Mcdonald's. Of course all the pretentious food critics say how it's miles better and a healthy alternative to the fast food joint. I think this video is great because it really shows how people our unwilling to except that big companies like Mcdonald's and Wendy's have changed to make their food more healthy. But they have their false ideas of what these restaurants actually are and refuse to accept the reality of the situation, The video is foreign by the way, so make sure you put on subtitles (That are thankfully fully written, unlike the hilarious automatized subtitle feature by YouTube.)
So yeah, thanks for reading this pretty hefty Week comments.

Tips from Dreamworks on making good storyboards

This article was about making good storyboards that people actually enjoy and can get a good idea on what the final product will look like. There where many points made including...

Don't use flat staging: 
Always use a 3d perspective when drawing frames as 2d shots are very uninteresting, unless that's the type of look you're going for like director Wes Anderson.

Law down grids: 
This goes along with the last point. Making a grid helps you get a good understanding of 3d space when compositing a shot for your storyboard.

Use Background, Mid-ground, Far background and Foreground to sell depth: 
Doing this really sells depth in your shots. And makes it looks professional and more 3-dimensional.

Group Characters to make cutting back and forth easier:  
Creating shots in your head can be rather difficult, But when you group your characters and what you want to put focus on, it becomes much easier to create compelling shots.

Try to avoid having everything parallel: 
When you make everything show up at the exact same angle, your shots become very unclear and also make them look unappealing.

Careful on how you frame your characters: 
Don't put too many characters into a shot if they don't have to be. If they look like they are unnaturally trying to fit in to a group photo, you're doing it wrong.

Over the shoulder shots help deliver dialog: 
Dirty shots help make them seem more intense and can create great tension.

Avoid having characters look right at the camera: 
When your character is looking right at the camera it becomes awkward and weird. Unless you are of course going for this similar to Silence of The Lambs, It's best to be avoided. Try sticking to the 3/4th's view or slightly looking off camera.

Use camera or character heights to your advantage: 
Having the camera at different heights can help dramatically strengthen the feel of your shot. A higher camera angle can stimulate weakness, while a low one can provoke strength. But don't use the wrong angle when trying to create a different mood, or it will create a really awkward shot.

Motivate your shots: 
Make sure theirs a reason for everything your character does. This can either be a sound effect or and action that gives your character a reaction. An unmotivated character creates a uninteresting one.

I just want to say that I LOVED this article. Short and to the point, unlike a lot of other articles I've read. Maybe I'm biast because I'm very interested in story boarding and creating better shots. But then again who isn't? So anyways, good fascinating article and I hope to read more like this one.

Why we are interested in scary movies

This article was all about horror movies and how they work psychologically. It starts out listing what horror even is to begin with. It lists the main factors of horror.

Tension: This is created through suspense, gore and terror. This is very important to not only horror movies, but films in general.

Relevance: This is what makes the film makes you care about whats happening. It does this through fear like death and the unknown. But it can also do it through making you feel connected to the characters. When bad things happen to them you feel fear because you can imagine yourself in that situation.

Unrealism: This is some what of the opposite of the last factor but still remains important. A lot of what happens in horror movies seem unrealistic and surreal but yet, still make you fearful. This is because it seems so unreal and unfamiliar to you it causes fear.

The article also had various theories on what attracts people to horror movies. One was the feeling of Uncanny similar to Unrealism, on how something weird and sometimes gross can attract attention just because how different it is. Next is Excitation Factor. This is when you feel happy when the hero prevails in the end, but a lot of horror movies don't end that way sooooo, that's probably why this is just a theory. There are also many other theories like porosity and fascination, dispositional alignment, sensation feeling and gender socialization theory. People watching the movie also may have different ideals when viewing a horror movie. These are gore watching (which I probably am to be honest) thrill watching, Independent watching and problem watching. And finally the article closes by saying how we can uses horror as a creative outlet to showcase our scary but interesting ideas.

I can't believe I'm saying this but I actually preferred the article to the video. The video was way longer than it had to be in my opinion, and I lost interest rather quickly as I rather just read the article at my own pace. But I did enjoy the topic a lot as I do enjoy horror movies quite a bit.

Week 6 Comments

This week was pretty informative. We learned how to learn Lip sync and worked on our 11 second club projects. I enjoyed learning how to do sound in projects as it adds a whole layer of depth to our animations. I was most frustrated this week by doing my blogs late and finding out that you can't turn them in late. But thankfully I got a discounted grade for once only. I'm looking forward to finishing my 11 second club and starting the long animation project. And here's the link of the week...

This video speaks the truth in all this stupid feminism drama that has been sweeping the gaming industry recently. The lady in the video actually did her research and didn't cherry pick details from games like half of the stupid feminists on YouTube. I agree with pretty much everything she says so I definitely recommend this video. Thanks for reading my blog and I'll see you next week.

Bubbles and Physics

Ron Henderson recently tried to help Dreamworks on their upcoming movie, on bubble soap and other physics stuff. But he didn't just give them a lector, he blew hydrogen bubbles in front of them and set them on fire. He also helped them on the physics on a lot other of their movies and plans to help them more anyway he can on the realm of physics in animation. Because some on has to right? I thought this article was honestly boring. It just wasn't very interesting to learn about physics and bubbles and it was way longer than it had to be.

Hannibal Spector

This article was all about the movie The Silence of the Lambs and how the director used different camera techniques to give a sense of ownership of each character. There where many different techniques used for many of the shots. One of them was how when Clarice sits down, Hannibal has the authority because we are slightly looking up at him and down at her. Another example is that how later on in the scene we see the first shot of them together in the same frame. This is because the hadn't seen eye to eye before hand and the scene is starting to pick up in excitement. And the video shows that ultimately, Clarice got what she wanted but she feels humiliated. This article was great because I had actually seen the video before. I used one this guys videos for my link of interest a few weeks ago and I like his videos on films a lot.

Week 5 Comments

Well crap. Sorry for the late blogs this week as I completely forgot to do them this weekend. But anyways this past week was pretty much full of Critiquing and work time. My favorite thing this week was taking the field trip to Villa Maria College. I thought the college was super cool and that the animation course specifically the one with the game design class was something that would be perfect for me to do. It opened my eyes to Villa and I am now seriously considering it as one of my options but hey, Damien College is coming up and I'm keeping my eyes open. The thing that made me frustrated this week was probably coming up with an idea for the flour sack animation. With most my animations I like to have appealing characters and to be honest a flour sack isn't very appealing at all. But hopefully I can come up with something. I'm looking forward to learning lip syncing, the 11 second club animation and the next field trip to Damien College the most. Now on to the Link of Interest.

This video is a fan made movie where fans created 15 seconds of shots from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back ( one of my favorite movies) and created the whole film. It's really cool to watch and some of the clips are down right hilarious. My favorite parts are probably when Han cuts open the Taun-Taun and when the Wampa ( the yeti dude who tries to eat Luke in case you aren't a loser) is eating on..well you'll see. Still enjoying the class as always but I do find that it can be a bit overwhelming at times, but when I finish my work it feels so satisfying so it's defiantly worth it. Sorry again for the late blogs!

10 and a half minute video on how to conceal Microphones

Mr. Chest-hair here isn't going to have much left after this stunt right here. Well at least it wont hurt as much the next time. Anyways this video was all about how to conceal a Lavalier Microphone for best sound quality but still having it hidden. It went over various techniques such as hiding it in a tie, or hiding it in the collar of you shirt. But in case you don't have the privilege to look sharp in a certain shot and have to wear a T-shirt or something he has you covered there too. On of the main techniques gone over in the video that applies for many clothing articles, was where the wire goes through your clothing some where and tape is used to sandwich the mic together to reduce clothing rubbing on the microphone. He also went over a technique where he puts tape on your chest to conceal the mic and stick to your chest. I thought this video was pretty informative, especially for the video class. But I think that the tape to chest technique is kinda dumb and it will probably end up something like this later on.

Interview with a very accomplished animator

This article was very fascinating to read this week. The animator Nicole Herr has been working in the animation business for quite some time with her most recent work being Guardians of the Galaxy and Game of Thrones. In this article, Nicole was asked various questions on her career. The first being

How long have you been a professional animator?
Here she explains that she has been working sense 1998 on the film Sphere. But her career really picked up when she saw The Little Mermaid for the first time, and knew she wanted to be an animator.

What was your favorite shot that you've worked on and why?
She explains how on the movie Fantasia she restored the original footage, in Sphere she got to animate for the first time, on Stuart Little 2 got to do character animation for the first time, got to animate a baby dragon on Suckerpunch and got to animate Groot and Rocket Raccoon in Guardians of the Galaxy. But she said that her favorite shot to animate was in Legend of the Guardians, where she got to animate an owls parents feeling proud of their son.

What's the difference between Character Animation and Realistic Animation?
Here she explains that for Character animation she mostly video tapes herself or other reference to get a feel for the pacing of the character. But for realistic animation she studies animals and trys to learn how they move.

What is your workflow for animating a creature shot?
She explains here that you must understand what your character can do and find out exactly what you want to see without even starting the basic animation.

How much time are you allowed to take to work on a shot?
She explains that it can be 40 hours or weeks depending on the length and production of the shot.

What was your experience like animating the dragon for the Game of Thrones Time Warner Commercial?
She says that it was very fun to work on as the rig was very well thought out and client was very supportive of them.

What references do you use when animating a dragon?
She explains that it depends on the type of dragon and it could range from humming bird to eagle to a bat.

What is the most common mistake you see students do?
She says here that most mistakes are
. over complicating their shots 
. forget they're animating characters
. not studying video reference
. not moving they're own bodies to study movement
. lack of weight
. using the wrong animal for reference
.  Not asking for help

To fix this she says..
Understand what you're animating, understand the mechanics of the actions, ask for peoples opinions, remember that animation is a team sport.

And then she says that all shots are dream shots yadda yadda yadda, dear god this blog post is waaay to long. I thought this article was very cool and helpful for young or starting animators who want to know how to improve their work.

Week 4 Comments

A lot of hard work this week. We mostly had work days throughout the entire week to work on our animations like the bowling ball and balloon exercise. We also had to do a little work with FPS math to see how many frames exactly would be in a certain timed animation. What frustrated me most this week was the extensive amount of time that went into animating without key frames. But in a way, it was also what I enjoyed the most this week as even though its painstaking work..I still feel great when I finish something and I feel so glad I went through with it. Speaking of key frames, I'm excited to see how they work this week exactly. I want to see if they really do help with in betweening a lot, or is just a cheap way out and that doing it yourself would look better in result. Any way on to the link of interest.

This is a very fascinating video on the different techniques used by one of my favorite Filmmakers, Edgar Wright. The video shows how most comedy films today rely way to much on dialogue, and show that what is actually on screen like the characters, scenery, sound effects and even the way the camera moves can be funny on itself and also make for a much more interesting looking film. Just because a film is a comedy, doesn't mean it can't have awesome cinematography. Also warning, there is some swearing and not G rated content from the films in the video, but the video is so interesting and perfect for the class I hope everybody can just look past it. I also can't wait to use some of these techniques for the video class next year. Anyways still enjoying the class per usual, and I hope everyone enjoys my cartoons as it's very worth it to know people like the hard work you do.

What makes you look at things in film

A team of Scientists and Filmmakers recently got together to answer the age old question. What pulls your eyes attention in movies? They set up an experiment that tracked a person's eyes, and lined that up to the movie ( which happened to be Iron Man 2) to see what they look at the most. And as it turns out, most people pay attention to what's actually real and not a special effect. This probably worried the director of Iron Man 2, Jon Favreau who's next film The Jungle Book is almost completely CGI except for the faces as they are too hard to recreate and reach the uncanny valley in result. He also explained that Physics are hard to recreate as even though a computer can calculate a scenario all it wants, real life is unreliable to predict as different factors can affect physics that a computer didn't even think about. The scientists are also still trying to figure out how our minds take all the information that we see in movies and create a seamless experiment. I thought this article was very interesting, as this can be useful for directors if they want the audience to look at certain things so they can emphasize that. One thing is defiantly for sure though, and that is we are going to be looking a lot of faces in The Jungle Book.

Grand Theft Art Direction

This Article was about the former art director or Rockstar Games, and his tips for starting as well as experienced artists. Ian Bowden had been the art director of Rockstar for almost 10 years, and people would often ask him to see his office and work. In addition to working at Rockstar, Bowden has worked in the game industry for 20 years. His tips for artists where listed as follows.

Watch the Trends but be original.
What he means by this is that, most of the game development industry is trying to get a similar look and feel. But this creates the problem of copying which should be avoided to create something original.

Don't skimp on visual quality for mobile games.
This means that even though mobile games are on a smaller scale than big budget triple A games, they should be of the same art quality as them. The visuals can be simple, but they must feel nice and have good color coordination.

Carry a sketchbook.
Be prepared to be inspired and draw or jot down anything that pops into your head. Some things in 2D like light, shadow, form and volume transfer to 3D art. So it is important to always be ready.

Experiment with new ideas
Don't always stick to the same way of thinking. If you always stick to one idea, your art will never be that different and it's a great way to expand your horizons.

Always be humble.
There will always be someone better than you in any form of anything. Be prepared for your mistakes and other peoples successes. Take inspiration from anything you can.

I really enjoyed this article as a huge fan of Rockstar Games, and I think that Ian Bowden gave great advice on improving your art and career as an artist.

Week 3 Comments

This week we learned a lot about physics and how to make animations seem more realistic. We did this through many Exercises like a Pendulum and a Bouncing Ball. One thing that made me frustrated this week was trying to make my animations looks fluid like many other kids in the class. It took me a few trys to get me pendulum right but after awhile it came out pretty good and I eventually was happy with my work. Something that made me happy this week was completing my Bouncing Ball animation which I think came out very nice and humorous.
Ok Link of Interest time.

This is a very cool video of a Gopro strapped onto a hawk while chasing another bird. How they managed to get the camera on the bird is beyond me, But I thought this video looked super cool and If Film makers could figure out how to get an effect like this it would be super rad. Well that's all for this week guys. Thanks for reading my blog so far if anyone else is reading this besides Mrs. Licata, still enjoying the class a lot and I hope I can get my Bowling ball and Balloon animation done by tomorrow afternoon because that is going to take all class for me.

The Boxtrolls: the newest stopmotion film from Laika

Stop motion is some what of a dying art. The article we read on Hullabaloo last week was very similar to this one as both art forms are facing this problem. But Stop motion is even a little more troubled. If you go online you're bound to see tons of 2D cartoons created by people, but how about Stop Motion? I mean sure there's the occasional Lego Stop Motion video or Claymation, but it's not nearly as popular as it was in the past. This is simply because it's seen as the predecessor to CGI Animation or aka it's a thing of the past. But this is simply not true at all. Stop Motion Animation is its own art form and has a unique charm to it that CGI Animation will never be able to match. I mean I'm not trying to sound harsh on CGI at all as I like it just as much, But many studios of today will just stick to CGI because it's what there use to. This is where the studio Laika comes in. They have produced 2 great Stop Motion films in the past years being, Coraline and Paranorman. And now they are coming out with their latest film, The Boxtrolls. This Article is and interview the CEO of Laika and head animator Travis Knight. They ask him questions on how the company has changed in the past years, how The Boxtrolls is diffrent from past movies and how he works in Laika. I thought this Article was very insightful and I'm glad Laika is keeping Stop motion alive.

Cloudy with a chance of animation principles

That title is pretty clever huh? And so is the movie Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. I really like this movie for many reasons but one of them is how well it uses the principles of animation. The movie uses Squash and Stretch quite a bit throughout the whole movie actually but one of the more notable examples would be when Flint and Sam are bouncing inside the jello castle. Anticipation is also another animation principle. It is used in the film when Flint extends his arm to catch a cheeseburger from the sky. Staging is used when the giant colorful cloud is seen for the first time which sets the stage for the thousands of cheeseburgers to rain from the sky. With Straight Ahead Animation and Pose to Pose, I think that most of the animation was pose to pose because most of the animation looks planned and exaggerated. Follow through animation is shown when Flint's coat flows in the wind when he runs. For Slow in and Slow out, the food avalanche accelerates in speed after it has gone on for a bit. For Arcs, the characters arms and legs move in arcs a lot of the time. An example of Secondary Action would be when Flint talks on the phone and walks at the same time. One of Timing would be how the fat mayor moves super slowly and pops up at certain times to act creepy and intimidating. Exaggeration would be... well much of the movie but an example would be when the cop is jumping 10 feet in the air when maneuvering around the crowd. For solid drawing, technically there is none because the film is 3D animated but the closest thing would be when he made a David sculpture out of jello. And lastly for Appeal, the movie is very appealing because of how exaggerated and cartoony the characters are which is a little different from the more realistic animation of Pixar or Dreamworks.

Week 2 Comments

If you like colors then you would have loved this week in Digital Media. This week we went over all about colors and how to make them look nice in different ways. We also went over the principles of animation such as squash and stretch, anticipation, staging and many more. What frustrated me mostly this week was trying to organize the file that we had to work with for the color project. The file was really weirdly set up as there was no layers for the different characters and background elements. I thought it would be a great idea to copy and paste all the elements to organize my work flow so I could grab as I please from the different elements that I needed. But that turned out to be a colossal waste of time as it was much easier just to copy and paste the elements and put them on their own layers as I went along, rather then have it set up before hand. Also I was pretty mad at one of my character poses being censored as apparently sitting on a toilet is a little to edgy for Digital Media. What I enjoyed this week was watching Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and writing down all the principles of animation it showed. I think that it is a very underrated movie that I don't get the hate it gets. It has great animation and is really funny throughout. It was a great choice for showing the class all the different aspects of animation. Now on to the link of interest.

This is a video by one of my friend's dad that made me almost pee myself. Seriously. It uses a cool VFX trick that I bet none of you can figure out. We will probably do stuff like this next year I'm guessing so I thought it was good for this weeks link of interest. Well that's all for this week. I'm still enjoying the class a lot and hopefully my binder wont be temple of doom by the next notebook check.

Hullabaloo: The 2D Animation Savior

Most animated films today are done through CGI or computer generated imagery. Instead of being hand drawn, they are 3D modeled on a computer and animated in 3D space. It's been like this for a few years now with the last major 2D film being what? Princess and the frog? Let's be honest, who even saw that. 2D and 3D films are two different animals, and there are great examples of both the styles. But with the advancement of computers over the past 15 years or so, Most animation companies stick with 3D. This is where Hullabaloo comes in. The film is being made by Disney animation veterans, James Lopez and Rick Farmiloe. There goal is make this film bring 2D animation back to the mainstream. The movie is in a Steam-punk style, who anyone who has been on Deviantart for two seconds knows is a hybrid between Victorian style fashion, technology and architecture with futuristic technology. The film is also starring two female protagonists. The Film is being funded through Indiegogo which is a crowfunding website similar to Kickstarter where anyone can leave a donation big or small, and has received massive support and praise.
So what do I think of this? Well right now I have kind of mixed feelings about the whole thing. On one hand, I'm glad that 2D is getting more recognition, but I kinda feel that this film is kinda gimmicky and trying to hard to appeal to younger artists. One of the big things that this movie is trying to advertise is that it is changing up things by having the protagonists be woman to differ itself from the mainstream films, which I think is pretty ridiculous. Female protagonists have always been big, there are great movies with great female protagonists such as Ripley in aliens, Sarah Connor in Terminator 1 and 2 and not to mention frozen which had 2 female protagonists just like this movie. I don't like it when movies try to sound like they're being revolutionary by having something new, that has really been in movies sense the beginning. So that didn't settle too well with me reading this article. Also, I've never been a big Steam-punk fan as I think it's really overused and not really that interesting. This movie could be great and that would be awesome as I love me some 2D animation just as much as 3D. But it could also be terrible, and everyone just donated to it because it's "breaking new ground" and finally showing that women can do just as much as men in movies. Here's the thing with that, the character has to be well written or I will hate them if they are male or female. It doesn't mean that films are degrading to women just because they don't have strong female characters, it just means that the movie has bad writing. So hopefully the movie will be good, I just hope its not just trying to ride the current bandwagons of Steam-punk and strong female protagonists and forget that they still have to make a good movie.

Micheal Moore talks about documentaries and how to make them not suck.

Who doesn't like Micheal Moore? Well a lot of people including myself, but the man may have some interesting things to say on documentaries. This article was a lot like last weeks, in list form giving Tips on how to make a documentary that people actually want to watch. First on the list is "Laughter is a way to alleviate the pain of what you know to be true." here he is basically saying make sure the film is not boring and something people are actually interested in. Next is "Don’t tell me stuff I already know." this means that documentaries should bring something new to the table and not informing people on something they have been nagged about to death. Next is "The modern documentary has morphed into a college lecture." this goes along with the last statement saying that it should be a new topic and not something that has already been talked about. "Too many documentaries feel like medicine." people don't like to feel like they are forcing themselves to finish the movie, so again make it interesting! "The left is boring". I think what he means by this is that the liberal people making a lot of these political documentaries need to get a sense of humor and focus on being more funny. "Go after the real villains." here he is saying actually name the people you are criticizing and expose them for what you are complaining about in the first place. "“Make your films personal,” again, he is saying to making your films interesting and something you are interested in. "Point your cameras at the cameras." here he is saying to show how the mainstream media is not showing you the truth. "The American public loves non-fiction." and again...sigh, Moore says in a voice that can only be described in all caps, IF YOU PEOPLE CAN'T EXCEPT THAT PEOPLE WANT TO BE ENTERTAINED BY A MOVIE THEN GET OUT OF THE BUSINESS!!!! “Only film people that disagree with you." here he is saying that filming people who disagree with you helps make your film more interesting, because you have a second opinion to talk to. And finally his last point was " While filming a scene, are you getting mad? Are you crying? Are you cracking up?" Here he is saying that you are the audience along with the people watching the movie, so make sure you are impacted as much as they are.
Good god, how much can a man repeat himself? Even though Moore brings up some good points, they are all points we have heard before if we've ever even thought about being a director or animator. It also doesn't help that almost all of his points are the exact same thing saying "Make something different and not boring". I think Moore should listen to his own advice and talk about something different and not something we have all heard a hundred times. And seriously, who could have guessed that people actually want to be entertained by movies. Do modern filmmakers really suck this much theses days? Did I miss something? I understand Moore's enthusiasm but I think he's seen too many bad movies if he has to give...THIS bad advice on how to make a good one.

Flipbook Fun

I just got done finishing my flip book, and I thought that the most obvious thing to do was to put it in gif form and share it on my blog. So I did just that. Enjoy!

6 Tips from Recruiters Article Response

This article was a very good read and very important for young or even old people interested in getting a career in animation. The article is broken up into a list telling the reader what to do in order to make it into the animation business. The list goes make a good impression in 30 seconds, Don't put everything you have ever done into your demo reel, unique acting is king, know your audience, make sure the link works and be aware of trends. This is a very helpful article and I recommend it to anyone trying to break into animation and doesn't know where to start.

The Order 1886 Article Video Response

This weeks first article is about The Order 1886 and how it is using an advanced way of using cut scenes by creating the imperfections of camera lens that we often take for granted. I thought this article was very good but there's one part of the article that I think that more people should think about. The last paragraph of the article talks about how some critics think that bringing hollywood style cut scenes could break immersion of the game. I could not agree with this more and I think a lot of game developers need to learn this. Lets talk about how a game can do this right. The 2004 game Half Life 2 does not actually incorporate the use of cut scenes and instead lets the story fold right in front of you without breaking the immergance of the game. I'm not saying all games should be like this. But the number one thing a game should be is fun to play. I think games that rely WAY too much on cut scenes and story such as Beyond: Two Souls and Heavy Rain suffer as a result simply for the fact that the game just isn't fun on its own, and I would rather just watch a movie instead. If their is one thing that I hope Game developers learn is that there is a huge difference between video games and film. I hope The Order 1886 is a good game, I really do. I've seen footage of the actual game and it looks quite fun. But I just fear that the more games become like movies the less they are...well...games.

Week 1 Comments

This first full week of Digital Media sure was fun. I was very excited to join the class and after this past week, I am very glad I did. I'm also very excited for the future when we learn more advanced things like frame by frame animation and 3D animation in Maya. But now onto what we learned this week. This week we learned the basics of drawing in Toon Boom Animate Pro which I came to like very much. In Addition we also learned the history of animation, all about computers and different jobs in the industry. The thing that frustrated me the most this week is trying to learn how to render a frame in Animate Pro. For those who don't know what I mean by this, a Rendered shot or animation is what the final version will look like. The reason I wanted to learn how to do this is because I wanted to see what my projects would look like in much better quality than Animate Pro can allow while using the program. But after looking all over the tool bars, I finally figured out how to do it! 

For those interested you go to Play - Render and Play and than move to Time bar to Frame one. 

It's the difference between this....

And this!

It may be a little hard to notice the difference at first (and granted my example isn't great because there's no detail in the background). But if you look carefully you will notice that the second image ( the rendered one) is much more clear and crisp, and also gives you a much better representation of what the final product will look like. 

Sorry for rambling about rendering let's talk about what made me happy now. What made me happy this week was learning how great my personal tablet really is on Animate Pro. I'm not great on drawing on a tablet and I will be the first to admit that. But the drawing tools on Animate Pro are seriously awesome and it works almost perfectly on my bamboo tablet.

Now onto my link of interest. For my first one I chose a clip from one of Richard Williams Animation Survival kit DVDs.

Richard Williams is the author of The Animation Survival kit and is a fantastic animator who's work you might have seen in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. This video while quite humorous, is also very informative on the importance of different walk cycles between different characters. Thank you for reading my first real blog post, and I look forward to making more posts in the future!

First Post

It works I hope.