Final Blog Post (2015)

1. Why did you take this class?

I took this class mainly because I have a strong interest in animation, because I would eventually like to work in that field for a career. I also am interested in film, but I don't think I'll be pursuing that much more than a hobby.

2. In general, what did you like the most about the class?

I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the class. I liked being able to get assignments and working on them myself, with the addition of asking classmates and the instructor for help. I enjoy working with computers and animation a lot, so this class was a lot of fun for me. I'm also a big fan of the class critiques, as it's fun to see the reactions and response from the fellow class mates. I also enjoy watching other student's animations.

3. In general, what did you like the least about the class?

For the most part, I feel there was some projects we had too much time on, and other projects we had way to little time on. I had a blast working on the independent study, but I would have much rather had more time working on the Final Project. I also wasn't a fan of the early 3D lessons we had to do. I understand why we did them, but I wish we had more creative projects that we made concepts for like the Chicken Project and the 3D Short.

4. What was your favorite project?

It's a bit hard to choose because I have 2 in mind that stick out the most. But I'm going to have to say the Final Project. This was mostly because I feel it showed how much my art style has improved sense the beginning of the year. But a close second would have to be the 2D Short. This is because up until that point, I had never really done anything like it. I was proud of myself that I had actually made a decent animation with a story. Even though looking back on it, I know I could do it better now. But that's the point of the creative process really. To put your short comings behind you, and to become the best artist you can be in the future.

5. What was your least favorite project?

This would have to be the puppet animation. One of the things I learned this year is that I prefer frame by frame animation to puppet animation immensely. So I really didn't enjoy the puppet animation project. And building the puppet was a lot harder than I expected. I had previously used an animation program called Anime Studio Pro, which I still think has better puppet animation tools. But I much prefer Toon Boom Animate Pro because of it's frame by frame capabilities.

6. What was the overall effectiveness of the Instructor?

I thought Ms. Licata was a very good instructor. She made sure we knew what projects were coming up soon, and how much time we had to complete them. And she also helped us out when we had questions. She was always very nice and helpful too when assisting us.

7.  What was the most valuable thing you learned in class?

The most valuable thing I learned in class was learning how working in an animation environment is like. We never really worked together as classmates on anything besides voice acting. But I still got a better Idea of how to get projects done on deadlines, how to learn new programs efficiently, and how to help others out with their problems in addition to yours.

8. Do you feel this class will help you reach your future academic or career goals?

I definitely feel that this class will help me reach my future goals. I wish to go into the animation/game development field for my career, and this was a big step towards getting ready for that. I learned what the environment of the class will be like for college, how to approach deadlines, and also the basics on 3D animation. I'm also looking at a few colleges currently, and apparently at Villa Maria we are offered a bonus if we attend this digital media class for their animation classes. This is a huge plus for me, which I am seriously considering attending there.

9. How could this class be improved?

Like I said earlier, more time on more important projects like the Final Project with less on ones like the Independent Study. Also I would like to see more creative projects in the 3D unit, but I understand if that's not possible. I would also like to see more class competitions, as they are very fun to compete against class mates.

10. Additional Comments

I would just like to say that a school year has never gone by so fast than this year. And Digital Media was a big reason of this. I'm really happy and honored that I was given an opportunity to take this class and I really feel it helped me become more prepared for my future career. I'm excited to take the video production section next year as well. In conclusion, I really enjoyed my time in this class this year, and I'm certain that I will pursue a career in this field after next year.

Final Project Reflection and Analysis

When we first got the script to the final project I immediately started of thinking ideas of how I could interpret the script. I went through a few ideas before I finally settled on the "thing" to be a physical character in the short. I thought it would also be funny to have a character that takes a beating throughout the entire animation, while the other unintentionally causes it with their stupidity.

I constantly thought of the animation principles while animating the final project. I used "squash and stretch" in the scene where the red guy is yelling "well obviously THATS not going to work!". This shows that he is really angry to the point his body is stretching and squashing because of how angry he is. I used "arcs" in the scene where the thing is slamming the red guy on the ground left and right. I used this technique there to show the whole motion of the slamming so you would get the full effect of the motion. I used exaggeration on the part of the animation where the characters become a different style of animation briefly. I exaggerated they eyes and head sized on the red character to show that he was amazed. And I made the green guys eyes and mouth huge to show that he was shocked. I used "anticipation" on the part where the thing has a folding chair and he is just holding it in the air. This prepares the audience to realize that the red guy is about to get hit by the chair. I also used "appeal" most predominantly on the green guy. His actions are very innocent and small but cause huge consequences. This creates the feeling of giving him appeal because he seems so stupid and innocent, while the red guy is just angry about the situation the whole time (though rightfully so).

There are many aspects of my Final Project I feel I did pretty well in. I think I dramatically improved in my visuals over the course of the class. While I do think Lemonade Stand is one of my better works, I feel compared to the visuals of my final project, the art has dramatically improved. For instance, in this animation I shaded the characters by giving them shadows for every frame. This made the animation look a lot better, and even though it took up a bit of extra time, it was very well worth it. Another aspect I improved on in the visuals is, instead of using black outlines for everything, I Made most of the outlines a darker shade of what ever color it is. This also helped out a lot by making everything more colorful and more pleasant to look at. I will definitely be doing these two techniques for now on in the future, as I think they add a whole lot more to my animations.

There where also a few things that I could improve on though. For starters as the animation goes on, it's apparent that there is less frame by frame animation and more key-framing. This is because I had to finish up to meet the deadline, and doing key-framing was much faster. I also got lazier with the lip sync as the animation went on. I even tried out right avoiding it. I should have done a better job on the parts where you see the mouths towards the end, as I was rushing it a bit. And I also should have included less scenes where you don't see the mouth. In the future I will try to make sure I have the right amount of time on everything. And also make sure I'm working whenever I can, and not forget about it when at home.

Overall though, I feel like I did a good job on this project. I feel it shines the most with the way the art looks compared to my earlier works. I want to get better at doing more "in-betweens" and "ease in's and ease outs" the most the though. I learned many things while working on the project as well. Like just how far shading and different colored lines can go to make the animation look. My strategy to get the project done on time worked fairly well. It is just a tiny bit apparent that I was rushed towards the end. Next time I'l definitely make sure I can have as much frame by frame animation as possible.

Final Project References

For my Final Project I used many different sorts of references to animate it the best of my ability.


Images

For the short Anime portion of my video I used these two images so the style would look authentic. My animation style is probably the farthest thing from anime possible. So it was quite difficult to pull this part off, but at the same time very fun to do something different for a change

Some other references I used was the work of Jim Henson and his style for his puppets. I usually do animals whenever I animate, But I decided to do something different for this final project. I designed my characters to look similar to Jim Henson's work with big round noses and nice colors.

Videos

I used the style of Baman Pideran briefly when the green guy is doing a somersault towards the thing. I'm a big fan of the floppy and normal human skeleton defying animation style of the show. So I tried to incorporate it briefly in my Final Project.


Work By Other Artists


There are many Animators whose style I'm a fan of that I tried to incorporate.

                                              

John K is a pretty big inspiration of mine. I love his his exaggerated fast paced style, so I tried incorporating that a bit into my animation. I didn't go to overboard in the exaggerated style, but it still did inspire me to make some weird looking parts, like the zoom in's on the face.

Edgar Wright is another good example of a fast paced style. I was already a big fan of Edgar Wright and in this animation as well as many others I tried to incorporate his style slightly. This is a clip from one of my favorite movies of all time Hot Fuzz to show what I'm talking about. I used the same principles I discussed about John K as well with fast paced animation with many cuts.

Books

I used the Animators survival kit for the green guy's walk cycle towards the beginning of the animation.  Every animator knows that walk cycles are tough. But The Animators Survival Kit is famous for it's insight on how to make a decent looking cycle. With the books help I was able to make it look alright for the few steps that he took.

Tutorials

I used a new technique in this animation where I decided to shade every drawing instead of just using flat colors. I feel this added to the animation tremendously, and I will definitely be doing this technique for now on in my Animations. Here's the tutorial I used to shade my Animation. The tutorial is done in Adobe Flash, even though we use Toon Boom Animate Pro. But I followed the rules and applied them to Animate Pro, even though it was in a different software.

Week 23 Comments

This week was a straight work week and a stressful one at that. With having a substitute throughout the whole week, it was kinda stressful when I couldn't figure out big problems. But what really frustarted me this week was realizing I'm probably not going to get my Final Project completed on time. I really tried to go all out on this one at that was my downfall. It still not over yet, and if I work on it non stop tomorrow, maybe there's a chance. But I also couldn't sign out a tablet this weekend, so that didn't help either. As much as I had fun doing the Independent study, I really wish we cut that to work on the Final Project. But anyways, what made me happy this week was seeing Mad Max Fury Road on Friday. Not really Digital Media related, but that movie was still great. I'm still looking forward to summer vacation for the most part. Now link of interest time.

I've been meaning to use this as a link for a long time but here it is finally. This is Star Wars fan animation in an Anime style. The Animation in this short is astounding, and it was only done by one guy over the course of 4 years! That's some dedication right there. I'm not a huge anime guy, but the Animation in this, and my love for Star Wars made me use it as a link of interest. Enjoy it.

Anxiety and Filmmaking

This Article/Video was about the anxiety and struggles that go on during film making. Eli Roth talks about how he grew up in Boston away from Hollywood, and even though people told him that you need to be from there and know people, he pursued his dream. Joe Carnahan talks about how you should put relatable moments with your characters, so people can connect to them and remember them. James Cameron talks about how you can make the exact vision that you had in your head, but your movie can still fail due to a disconnect with yourself and the audience. David Fincher explains that if a movie works it's probably due to luck, or rather a series of good breaks during the film making process. Quentin Tarantino explains that he has many emotions that he wants the audience to feel. When there's funny stuff, he wants the audience to laugh. When there is exciting stuff, he wants the audience to be on the edge of their seat. And when there's shocking stuff, he wants the audience to be shocked. Peter Mullan talks about directors try to stay away from cliche's and mistakes. Directors are constantly searching for ways other directors messed up, so they can improve their selves. Peter Jackson explains that there's always stress when making a movie, but it's important to make sure whoever's paying for the movie get's their money back, so you can have a career. But also to provide an experience that the audience is happy they payed for.
This article was very informative, and interesting to hear all the different things that each director talks about. It was also cool to listen to a bunch of directors I'm a fan of like Quentin Tarantino, David Fincher and Martin Scorsese.

Do's and Don'ts for your Demo Reels

This article was about things you should put on your resume, and things you shouldn't. The first thing you should do is only show your best work. Even if you like something that you did a long time ago, you need to be completely honest with yourself and only use it if it's good. It's helpful to get a second opinion from a friend when you do this as well. Next, something you shouldn't do is have a 5-10 minute demo reel. This is way to long, and will probably bore who ever is watching it. Only using your best work should help on keeping the demo reel 1-2 minutes long, which is ideal. The next thing you should do is to start and end on the best examples of work you have. This will help leave a first good impression, and also leave the viewer on a good note at the end. But also you should make sure the work in the middle is still good. The next thing you shouldn't do is edit in a bunch of titles, music and transitions into your demo reel. It is important nothing is distracting from your work. Clarity is important. The next thing you should do is keep in mind the order of what each clip is. Of course each example of animation isn't telling a story, but you defiantly need to keep in mind the rhythm of your reel. If you just showed of something big, maybe slow it down with more calm animation. And the last thing that you should do, is include a portfolio with your demo reel. Most animation studios, also welcome this as an option. It's good to see what other works you might have done such as Still art, Short films or Storyboards.
I could have sworn we did an article exactly like this in the past, but I think this article brought some useful stuff to my attention. I'm glad to hear that Studios are looking to see other work as well. Because if I ever want to get a job in animation, I could show them some of the stuff I'll do in the Film portion of Digital Media next year.

Week 22 Comments

This week was a work week with a few other things that we're squeezed in. We started to discuss the our portfolio and resumes. I'm happy to start working on a website, but I still need to get started on the resume. There were also interviews this week, which I was happy to find out a person I know from school will be joining us next year. What made me happy this week was getting that online test done. I was a little nervous knowing that we needed to pass one of the two, and the second one was a lot harder. But thankfully I passed this test, so I don't have to worry too much about it next year. What frustrated me this week was not getting a whole lot done on my Final Project. The deadline for the final project is approaching fast, and I don't feel I've made too much progress. I wanted to focus on it looking as good as possible, but that might be my downfall. But hopefully I'll have it done on time, and have look as sexy as possible. A lot of Final stuff is starting to approach us, which has me a bit nervous but I think I'll be able to pull through it. I'm excited for finishing all the final stuff, and also the summer vacation. Now onto the link of interest.

Nintendo + Universal Parks & Resorts = New Theme Park Attractions! Visit http://t.co/4D6ChB9hER to get details. pic.twitter.com/wZxBobjyRs

— Universal Orlando (@UniversalORL) May 7, 2015

I know a tweet for the link of interest is kinda pushing it, but the blog it links to is included in that as well. Basically Universal Parks announced that they are partnering with Nintendo to make new attractions at the park. Which means they are basically making a Nintendo Land. This makes me very happy because this will probably take the cake from Disney for being the Happiest place on earth, at least in my book. The possibilities are endless. Mario Kart races? F-Zero roller coaster? KOOPA TROOPA THEMED SUPER SUNDAES?!? The sky's the limit on this one. I probably won't get to go for a long time though, because I'm actually going to Universal and Disney this year ironically. Which I'm still really excited for, but with this news I'll be probably be crying myself to sleep in my hotel room every night because I couldn't get a picture with Mario yet. But anyways that's all for this week.

The Science of the Avengers

This article/video was about how scientifically accurate certain things would be in The Avengers. The video starts out talking about Iron Man's suit. When it starts off his suit is pretty bulky and heavy which isn't very optimal for cruisin in the skys. But when he makes his less bulky shiny suit, that suit would be even heavier to fly. They also mention how Tony Stark invents a new element to power his suit and himself. This is actually pretty scientifically sound, as many elements on the periodic table were made by scientists. Next they talk about Captain America and Black Widow. They have super healing and super strength. This is probably done by more powerful white blood cells, which can repair damage to their bodies faster. They then discuss Captain America's shield. His shield is made from a fictional element called Vibranium which can with-stain an infinite amount of heat and pressure. So how's it do that you must be asking. Well when Thor's hammer hits Cap's sheild, you see a bright light but nothing happens. This must mean that the Vibranium converts energy to light.
I thought this article answers some good questions but overall is a bit pointless. Most of these things are just the way they are because it's a comic book movie and not everything has to make sense. But I still think the stuff it did cover, did shed some good light on how maybe it did work.

Making Dragons

This article was about how the Pixomondo Animation team brought the dragons to life in HBO's Game of Thrones. Senior animator Florian Friedmann was the main talent to make this possible. He had previously worked on projects like Hugo, Hunger Games and Star Trek Into Darkness. But 2012 on wards, Florian left his biggest mark with his work on the dragons of Game of Thrones which he recited many rewards for. But animating them through out the seasons has proved not to be an easy task in the slightest. For starters the rigs get more complicated as the dragons grow older. To start out they were just small things crawling around with not much detail. But when season two came out they started to fly, which made the rigs vastly more complicated. And by season three, their chests had grown so controls for the chest muscles had to be made. Now the rigs have gotten so complex there's over 400 controls for them. Down to the horns onto their head, and their individual fingers. Also all the dragons have the same basic rig, but small changes in their proportions and textures are made. To study how the dragons would fly, the animators studied bats and watched how they flew through the air and crawled on the ground. To hide the fact that dragons looked weird walking, often times they would hide it with the wings so the animation didn't look weird. The animators also wanted to show the dragons have feelings, but still at their cores are lizards. So they made sure they look reptilian, and not too soft faced like humans. They also make a point that animators don't have to do everything. Multiple simulation tests are done to make subtle movements seem more realistic. The animators are looking forward to the future seasons, for what cool things they will get to animate next.
I thought this article was very interesting. I think it's cool how the dragons get older and bigger through out the show. I'm also even more intrigued to watch Game of Thrones now, which I've been meaning to watch. But overall, very fascinating article.

Week 21 Comments

This week was another work week which is always welcome. We did get to watch everyone's independent studies as well. I'm glad everyone enjoyed my Stop-motion, and I enjoyed your guy's stuff as well. What made me happy this week was getting more work done on my Final Project. I really want to make this one look as nice as possible. I'm even shading every frame which is proving itself to be a tedious task, but I know it will make the animation look so much better in the end. I still don't have that much done yet, because the way I work is by finishing every shot to completion before I move onto the next. It may sound pretty unorthodox to a lot of you, but it works well for me, and it's what I'm used to. What made me frustrated this week was not being able to sign a tablet out, so I could work on my animation over the weekend. Like I said, I want to get more work done. And because I didn't sign out a form I wasn't able to work on it this weekend. But hopefully that will be fixed by the next weekend. I'm looking forward to getting my Final Short done and enjoying summer break once that comes in a few weeks. Anyways, onto the link of interest.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/playtonic/yooka-laylee-a-3d-platformer-rare-vival

I'm sure at least 5 people have already used this but I'm doing it anyways. This is the Kickstarter for the upcoming game Yooka Laylee. It's made from a bunch of ex-Rareware employees. This game is considered to be the Spiritual Successor to Banjo Kazooie, which..... well we know how that turned out. It was funded in less than an hour, and already smashed it's way through all the stretch goals, which means it's probably got more stretch goals on the way. I'm very intrigued by the game, but I do have some fears as well. I really hope it finds it's own identity than just being a Banjo Kazooie wannabe. It's ok to be inspired by things, but there's a difference between being inspired and copying. I know it's made by Ex- Rare employees, but it that really an excuse for not making original ideas? But other than that, I'm sure the game will be fun to play. I mean it's definitely in the right hands. That's it for this week. Happy 21st blog!

How 3D Printing has helped out stopmotion

This is a shorter article by Anya Jaremko Greenwold (ever thought of using a pen name Anya?) about how many techniques help make Stop-Motion animations immensely. The first point is about Costume design. Usually, animated characters only don a few outfits. But starting with Coraline, Lakia used Costume Design to show the passage of time. This means that knitting was used a lot to help make the characters some sick threads. The next point is about how 3D Printing has helped out a lot. With 3D Printing, many different objects that are similar can be used to create more realistic animations. With color printing, more detailed textures can be produce to. Next is how armatures come into play. Armatures are more advanced than ever now. The metal skeletons now are composed of more pieces than ever to add more precise, realistic looking movements. With an average skeleton being made up of about 1.5 million pieces, compared to an older puppet like Jack Skellington that only had about 800 pieces. The Article then closed off by talking about Lakia's next Animation that will take place in Japan.
I thought the title for this article was a little misleading because only one part was about 3D Printing. But never the less, I found this article very interesting. As a big fan of Stop-motion myself, I found these advancements they have very intriguing. I'm glad that technology is letting us move beyond clay, and involving more digital stuff to provide better results. I find 3D Printing very promising for not only serving practical reasons, but helping out more and more in the Arts as well.

Everything is Trash

This article by Charles Kenny was about how Disposable Animation is more prevalent than ever. In case you didn't know, disposable is something that's really only meant to be used once and then never again. In most cases, in a novelty fashion.  Disposable Animation has always existed sense the very beginning. Like any form of anything, if someone can make a quick buck on something, some guy will exploit it. Like any other form of media Animation was bound to have this happen to it. A good example of something like this would be Van Buren or Hanna-Barbara cartoons. Cheaply made cartoons that don't look spectacular, but never the less come out much more frequently than well written big budget animations. And more frequently, means money coming in faster. But on the opposite end of the spectrum there is the animation giant himself Walt Disney. Disney wanted to create projects that take time but remain timeless throughout the decades, for multiple generations of people to enjoy. And while he was extremely successful at it, most people can't dream to be as successful as he was. Which is why fast made content is still being made today. Which brings us to now, the 21st century. The age of online content. The author of this article makes a point that the same quickly produce content is being made today on this new format, for the same reasons. And after all these years we still have people making content that's entertaining now, but probably won't stand the test of time. Charles finishes by saying that you really won't find anything truly spectacular on the internet, because people need to make money and that's how most of them will accomplish that.
While I agree that this point is as important now than ever, I have a big problem with this article. And that's how the author believes there's nothing worth while on the internet, and that its all just cheaply produce garbage compared to someone like Walt Disney, Some of the best Animation I have ever seen has come from the internet. And let's keep in mind that Walt Disney had a whole team of Animators so he could get his big movies done. And it's not like online outlets are making it any easier. YouTube's revenue system now goes by "Minutes Watched" while it used to go by "Amount of Views". This is horrible for Animators online because most people on the internet have very short attention spans. And also most big budget stuff get's more views than fast produced animations. Meaning it's much harder for them to get money. But i'd just like to say as a final point that all Animation should be respected no matter if it's cheaply made or not. Although cheaply made people still talk about TV shows like The Simpsons or Spongebob, which is vastly faster and cheaper to make than a huge Animation movie.
In the end, art is art. It should be respected for it's quality, not the means of which it took to make it.