Week 14 Comments

This week was a full out work week on the Chicken Short. I worked on it pretty consistently throughout the week and I was able to finish it on time thankfully. I think mine came out pretty good but I definitely need work in the animation department. I probably used humor and sound effects to distract from that though, so hopefully that works eh? Anyways, something that made me happy this week was probably what I just said, finishing the Chicken Animation. That was a big relief. But I'm looking forward to now starting the 3D Short and the choice project defintally the most, and of course to seeing everyone's Chicken Animation and seeing what people think of mine. Something that made me frustrated this week though was probably having a lot of problems in Maya. They were never to hard though, I just felt bad for asking for help all the time.  Hopefully now that I have my bearings things will go more smoothly in the future. Now onto the link of interest. Ah a Steam game link, that's a new one eh? Anyways its for a game I found today called Besiege. It's a Physics based game where you make Catapults, Trebuchets and all around weird contraptions to destroy soldiers and areas. It has a nice looking art style and generally looks really fun. But I probably think so just because I love Physics games so much. I haven't gotten the chance to pick it up yet, but I definitely will in time. It's in Early Access as well so I expect them to add more features in the future, so here's hoping it turns into something great.
Anyways, sorry for rambling. But also don't forget Better Call Saul premieres tonight and I'm super excited and so should you. But yeah, anyways see ya next week.

Slow and Steady

This article was about Maleficent director Robert Stormberg's Superbowl ad for Mercedes Benz. In the article it is revealed all the work that went into it. The commercial is based off of the Tortoise and the hare story. Stormberg explains how he didn't want to just use animals in it, but have them have their own personality and character. The characters where first drawn, and then made into 3D models animated in Maya (nice choice). The commercial was pretty popular and sparked some conversation about it.
I personally thought it was kinda weird that they went against the original message of the tale, being slow and steady wins the race but what ever. The animation was pretty good I have to admit, the whole thing looked nice. Only thing I don't approve of is the negative light they portray Rabbits in of course. Disgraceful.

How to pretend you have more friends in your shots

This article was about how to create shots that seem like they're full of people, when in reality theirs really only a few. There are several techniques to do this which both the article and the video by Film Riot cover. First is group your actors closely together. This makes the shot seem much more occupied if the entire shot is filled to the brim of extras. Next is shooting with a long lens. This creates more depth which even further makes the audience believe that more space is being filled by the extras on screen. Next is shooting your subjects on a different plane than your extras. This is again, to help create more depth in your shots as it looks like more space is being filled by the people on screen. And lastly, a technique to use is masking multiple shots of extras wearing different outfits and locations. Unless you really pay attention to all the people in these long shots, you probably wont notice that it's the same people over and over again. Now not only is it implied that there are a lot of people in the location, but you can see some of it too. And also sound can play a big part in a shot, where if there is a lot of crowd noise that can lead people to believe there is more people.
I think this article is very helpful. I for one don't have many friends who live in my area. So making due with what I can get is very useful for people like me and other losers.