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.