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.