Final Blog Post (2016)

1. Why did you take this class?

I took this class initially last year because I thought it was the perfect way for me to get a kick start on my career as early as possible. When I first went to the BOCES presentation at my school I wasn't really expecting much. It was mostly stuff I wasn't really interested much in. But then, I saw the class which was at the time called "Digital Media". As soon as I saw the animation class I knew that was something that I needed to do. Not only would it give me credits, but also I would be spending time doing something in school that I love. And again, this year I decided to take the film portion as well because I thought it would further enhance my skills in of course video production, but Animation as well.

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

I liked learning a lot of new stuff this year that further enhanced my skills in video making. After Effects is definitely my favorite program I learned about. I was excited to learn about it, as I had never known much about it and been fascinated by it. And now, it's my favorite program to Animate in. I love how good it's compositing tools are. And even for a non animation program at heart, It's so great to use for animating. I also got to learn Premiere better this year, and it is definitely my favorite editing software I've used. While I was already pretty familiar with Photoshop, I still learned a few new techniques this year as well which I now use regularly

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

The biggest thing I struggled with this year by far was meeting deadlines on time and general lack of time on projects. I'm not really putting the blame on anyone either as film naturally is a bit more complex than animation when it comes to time management in many ways. I also understand that we have to move fast to get to all the projects. But halfway through the year I don't think there was a single project that I 100% finished on the "due date". Even if a few projects where cut out (such as smaller ones like the Video Poem Project) I think it would've benefited everyone in general.

4. What was your most favorite project and why?

I guess I'll give two answers for this one. One project I actually finished, and one I didn't. My favorite finished project is probably my Furry Documentary. I think I managed to be very non bias and well using humor, still managed to make something that could be respected by non-furries and furries a like. I think the script and editing where nice and tight as well. The only thing I wish I had done was use more of my own art/animation and fixed some of the audio levels and color correction. And my favorite unfinished project is a tie between my Evolution video and Fictional Short. I used a new animation style using Photoshop and After Effects in the Evolution video that I came to enjoy very much. And in my fictional short I think I had a good story, humor and decent effects. I plan to finish both of these projects and others in one way or another soon.

5. What was your least favorite project and why?

Probably the Video Poem. I don't hate it or anything, but it just feels like kind of a filler video to me. It doesn't help that it's another unfinished one as well. I do think that I pulled off a pretty interesting style though.

6. Discuss the overall effectiveness of the instructor (for example: preparation, availability, interest, content knowledge, expectations, etc.).

I always thought Ms. Licata was a great teacher and I have very few complaints over these past few years. She always was very helpful to me and answered questions I had even if she was busy with something. She is also of course very knowledgeable in the subjects that she teaches as well.

7. What are the most valuable things you learned in the class?

Definitely learning a lot of new tools that I use in my projects. The most valuable being Photoshop, After Effects and Premiere probably. Also probably a general sense of what a professional work space is like in the field.

8. Do you feel that this class will help you achieve your future academic or career goals? How or why (or why not)?

Definitely. I'm soon going to school in Daemen for Animation and the skills I learned in this class directly apply to this. I want to go into making video games and everything from the environment to the techniques started with this class for me.

9. How could this class be improved?

Slightly adjusting deadlines in coordination to student interest in projects. Maybe have big projects that everyone has to do and smaller ones to choose from. This way students will have a individual deadlines and also have the interest and time to finish projects when they're suppose to. Of course this would be a lot harder to keep track of and grade, But I think it would benefit the class exponentially in the end..

10. What would you tell incoming students to help them be more prepared for the class?

Be prepared for a lot of work, but still be excited. It's not a walk in the park but really would you want it to be? There's still a lot of great people you'll meet and it's just a great environment to work in. Be excited for your own work and to see what your classmates are working on. Always look for ways to improve yourself and take constructive criticism well. No one is trying to put you down, they just want to see you exceed to the best of your abilities.

11. Additional Comments:

I'll always look back on this class and be so happy I did it. It really did make High School so much better for me and I would strongly recommenced it to anyone with an interest in animation and video production who wants to improve there abilities. Also, I liked it.

PluralSight Evaluation

The PluralSight Course that I decided to do was the course "Construct 2 Fundamentals by Jeremy Foster". I decided to do this course because I have a strong interest in making video games and have been interested in the program for awhile. So when I saw that it was one of the course available I decided why not try it. I watched about 2 hours of the course. This was enough to finish the game and I watched that much because I decided to do the tutorial as well as watch it. There was no available sample files for me, at least for my membership level, which is fine because I didn't feel like I needed anything at any point. As for PluralSight itself, I was thoroughly impressed with it. It was pretty easy to find a course I was interested in and I didn't have trouble navigating the sight. The only thing is I wish there was a list of programs that there's courses for. The Website also had a nice look to it, very pleasant to look at. The tutorial that I watched was very good as well. There was a few parts that the instructor that while some people might find educating, I thought we're a bit unnecessary though. He went into talking about how to go about your market and the various ways you can sell your game but I just wanted to learn how to use the program. The actual course itself was helpful and clear. Sometimes he went by a bit fast but I just backed up a bit in those parts (If only you could do that in real life). I personally would definitely prefer doing these video tutorials than packets. I find that a lot the packets can be very confusing in their wording. When you see a person do it and follow along it's a lot easier to follow along with whats happening. It's also just a lot more engaging in my opinion. If given a year access to this program I would definitely be happy and take advantage of it. I'm always looking to learn more programs, and more about ones I already use. So for me it would be very helpful. Like if I ever wanted to for example learn a music producing program or something similar. So in all, I definitely enjoyed learning this way. It's pretty cool that you can learn about new programs this way. It makes everything much more accessible and nice. Also here's the game I made if you want to play it yourself. It's pretty hard though so good luck.

How CGI Works

This video was about how computer programs and math dudes were able to come across the various obstacles of creating realistic lighting and rendering through computers. Math and science are deeply connected to this video as all of the problems that needed to be solved such as shadows, reflections and refractions needed to be solved by using math equations that can be put into a language that computers can understand. So basically coding.
The first method used was Rasterization. This technique involved using projections to shoot through a grid system (being pixels) to detect where shapes were and to delete empty space to produce and object. This is different from Ray casting as that involves sending light through the pixel holes and looking for intersections. Rasterization was good at figuring out shapes but wasn't that greatest at actual lighting.
 This is were Ray Casting came in as it was able to find what objects were in front of the camera and which one were behind. The three major problems with these methods though were creating shadows, reflections and refractions. This was solved when ray casting evolved into Recursive Ray Tracing. This sent out different projections when collisions where made and depending on if it again made a collisions would decide how to shade the pixels based on lighting. The problem after these methods were in effect was figuring out Indirect vs Direct illumination.
 While Indirect is decent at creating the general lighting it does not account for the other sources of lighting, because in the real world light bounces everything. While rather direct lighting accounts for all the other various sorts of lights. This creating an issue that wasn't overcomed until an equation was made by James Kaiyja to combat this. This equation basically had to figure out which lighting factors would be affected by what. While this equation didn't handle transmission and sub surface scattering that well, it was still a start of a better representation of physics which is still be improved on today.
 There are also two laws that were hypothesized because of these advancements in computers. One was Moore's Law being that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit has doubled in about every 2 years. This meaning that rendering sees a sizable improvement give or take in this time frame. Then there is also Blinn's Law being as tech advances rendering time stays constant. While this might seem obviously false at first what it really means is that the better our tech becomes, the more we push the limit of what it can do, further and further.
 These two laws relate heavily to the topic as advancements are being made constantly in the CGI field and the people at the helm are never going to stop pushing it's potential.
CGI is a massive tool that isn't slowing down at any point soon. But even though it's amazing what it can do, I wouldn't say it's that different from any other art form. When it started it was very foreign territory and it took talented people to push it to the main stream. And it's still being pushed to this day to reach it's full potential. And I think any art form is like that being that there is a constant flow of new people trying to figure out mathematically and scientifically what can be done to improve it.

Week 38 Comments

This week was nice but a little busy. We had an ok amount of work days but had to worry about presentations/papers. What frustrated me this week is not getting a lot of progress on my poem. The Poem is due in a few days and I haven't made much progress yet. But I can wine about it all I want. In the end I brought this upon myself by procrastinating an worrying about how I would pull what I want off. So I'm going to finish it by the deadline and I'm going to try a few interesting styles to achieve that. What made me happy this week was think of an idea for my next video. I decided to the evolution contest and I thought of a good idea for it too. It's going to be an animation and I can't wait to work on it. I'm currently looking forward to working on that and I hope things go as smoothly as I can make them in the days to come. Anyways link of interest...

This is the trailer for the new Lego Batman movie. I really liked the Lego movie when it came out in 2014, and this movie looks like everything great about that movie now with Batman! I love the art style they do for these movies and it also looks very funny. Also funny enough it looks a lot better than what Batman V Superman was... ughhh.  I personally didn't really like that movie that much, The stuff with Batman was good and Ben Affleck was honestly one of my favorite on screen Batmans ever, but the rest of the movie was just really boring and nothing really made sense. But this movie looks like they are attempting to add some sort of joy to the film.

Drawing people that look some what real

This article was about a few techinques to draw more real looking people. The first tip is to draw around a line of action. If you don't have this, your characters posture could look weird and not focused, almost like a robot. It's important to draw a line of action so you have a certain flow to your character. The next tip is to do a head count for your characters. By this it means drawing out how many circles (being the size of your characters head) tall your character is. A smaller more cute like character might be a only a few circles tall, but a taller more heroic character might be a lot more. The next tip is about keeping in mind how broad your characters shoulders are. This might seem like a pretty insignificant detail at first but it really does change the look of your character. The wider and broader your characters shoulders are, the more strong and heroic he will look. Similar to the last technique. The next technique is keeping in mind where the parts of your face go. It's important to keep in mind that eyes are pretty much dead smack in the middle of your face. Meaning you should start with the eyes and build off of that, being how tall the forehead or chin should be for example. The next tip is keeping the next straight but not too straight. You shouldn't draw the neck as flexible as a noodle, but it should be shifting a little bit in some direction just so you don't look like a stiff robot. The next tip is to make sure smiles go from ear to ear. Smiles can look really awkward if you don't do this, so make sure the outlines of the mouth are almost like a bridge between the ears. And the last technique is to think inside boxes. This technique is to draw 3D boxes and then construct your character inside these boxes. This technique is especially useful for drawing in perspective.
I found this article very useful. Most of these I had heard before, but I hadn't thought of using the box technique before. I usually construct my characters from lines and circles, but I'll defintaly try out that in the future.

Reverse Shot

This video by Every Frame a Painting is about the art of reverse shots in film. Reverse shots are shots that are one after another that some how mirror each other. This video specifically focusing on the Coen brothers way of using this technique. The Coen bros. typically put the camera in between the two actors while dialogue is going on. This way each character gets separate shots, and unlike other films you don't see the backs of the other character. The coen bros. also use a closer lens so you don't as much feel as though you are spying on the characters but right close to them while the action is going on. This fits the Coen bros. common theme of isolating the characters, with shots and plot. The lens. And finally the Coen bros. use a certain rhythm with their editing. There's never any long pauses unless they are obviously intentional. A lot of other directors tend to be a little more realistic with pauses between two characters talking, but the Coen bros make the dialog go back and forth very fast which gives it a nice feel.
I liked this video a lot, as I am a fan of this channel. One of my favorite technique that the Coen uses that I try to use regularity as well is there fast editing style with dialog. You definitely have to pay attention to that stuff because it can really bog down the rest of your video. In my own work, I try to get a certain rhythm to it as well.

Week 37 Comments

This week was pretty busy. I finally got all the filming done for my main actors in my fictional short. I have to some additional filming and also do the special effects for it though. It's pretty special effect heavy so hopefully I'll get a decent cut of it done by wednesday. What frustrated me this week was the editing tutorials probably. The Wall Cut took me forever to figure out but once I got it, it seemed so obvious to me that I felt pretty dumb. The rest of the them came out fine honestly. What made me happy this week was starting the next project. I'm working on it with Jack and it's going to be a 2D/3D hybrid type thing. I think Jack and I are equally happy to work on it which is good. It will be interesting to divvy up who does who. I'm looking forward to finishing my Fictional short and starting the next project currently. Personally life is ok right now. I started playing Pokemon Red as I want to prepare myself for the new game at the end of the year. I decided I want to play a game from each generation so I have a decent amount of high level pokemon when I start the Pokemon Moon/Sun. Pokemon, Zelda and Metroid are the Nintendo games I've never been that into, and I intend to change that by the end of 2016. Call it a belated New Years Resolution or something. Also Better Call Saul has been really good this season so far, so all of you go out and watch it! But anyways onto the link of interest.

Speaking of Better Call Saul, my link of interest this week contains an actor from it. Mark Proksch use to do a thing were he would pretend to be K-Strass the Yo-Yo guy. He would go to news stations and present himself as such and show off his "skills". But really he would just talk about his characters awful life and couldn't yo-yo to save his life. It's really funny stuff and just hilarious to watch the news people squirm as they don't know how to react. But anyways that's it for this week.

Left or Right

This article/video was about the concept of "Left or Right" in film. They discuss how the different movements in film can express different feelings. Moving towards the camera shows assertiveness and dominance, while moving away shows weakness. Also characters being looked down upon seem weak while characters being looked up upon feel more dominant. But lateral movement is a lot less obvious. Movement going left to right often shows the progression of time, as we read left to right and in 2D video games, characters often move from left to right. An example of this would be in full metal jacket where the characters move from left to right in one shot and then right to left in the next. Stanley Kubrick deliberately did this to make it seem like the soldiers where moving around aimlessly. Another example is where soldiers moving into the war move left to right, while soldiers injured are moved from right to left as it seems they are going back home. Scientists even tested this by making a study group who perceived the same exact clip of going left to right more positively than the right to left. Even characters on the right side of the screen can be perceived more positively than the ones on the left.
I liked this article a lot. Staging in film is very fascinating to me. From what I've seen the director that does this best is Akra Kurosawa. I find it interesting to see what an viewer assumes by just looking at the screen. I will try to remember these when I work on my next project for sure.

Regretful art student

This article is by a game developer and what he's learned throughout his career, and what he wish he had known when he started. He talks about how he was shocked how when he first started his job of how many people didn't go to college. He found out quickly that having skill was basically it's own form of educational expeirence. He also says how getting into games is easier than ever with programs like Unity and the Unreal Engine being so accessible. He also talks about how he wished he had learned more about art foundations like drawing and sculpting and less on the programs. He explains that while programs features will change constantally, art foundations will always stay the same. He also talks about how you shouldn't worry about being the absolute best possible but try to improve your current self as much as you can. He also quotes Neil Gaiman by saying "Make good art, make it on bad days, make it on good ones too." He closes on saying how you never really stop improving as an artist and not to worry about not being as good as you wish you we're, but instead focus on improving.
I thought this article was very inspiring and insightful for younger artists, such as myself. It's very useful information for me, as I want to pursue a career in games as well.

Week 36 Comments

This week full of work, per usual. What made me happy is that I finished my competition project and I think it came out very good. I'm really excited to start my fictional short as I have very ambitious ideas for it and I think it could possibly be my best work in this class. I'm probably going to do a 2 day shoot for it. One day with most the actors and the next day for more practical shots I don't need everyone there for. What frustrated me this week was being a little late on turning in my storyboard and script for the fictional short. This week I'm probably going to me doing the camera exercises and more prepping for the fictional short.

This video was originally going to be one of my vlogs this week but I discovered that longs videos with jump cuts aren't very appreciated. So enjoy my one and only vlog that I'll probably ever make.

Van Gogh's teachings

This article is about the teachings of Van Gogh and why he's an example to us all. In the fast paced world we live in today, we expect success to our work right away, but that's not how the world works. Van Gogh is a perfect example of this. He was late into the art game and didn't start until he was 27. He had a teacher for awhile, but the teacher thought he sucked and kicked him to the curb. At this point Van Gogh was broke, hungry and homeless. He was forced into moving back in with his parents. His parents didn't think much of his art and thought it was a waste of his life. He worked for a long time on faces from this point out, and never gave up. His first masterpiece in his opinion was called "The Potato Eaters". His brother was less than impressed though. It's really hard to go through life and only have one person to judge it, but Van Gogh did just that. He was a very Autotelic guy as the author points out. This mean he made art for himself and self improvement. He then studied color for awhile as he found it to be so much fun that he couldn't stop if he tried. Then finally his brother delivered him the great news that one of his paintings had finally been sold! But Van Gogh told his brother in the form of a weird metaphor that many people have a goal in life but ultimately don't know what they really want
I thought this article was very interesting and that is great advice for not only everyone but myself as well. I struggle with not wanting to create because I have no audience, but the philosophy that you should create for yourself and improvement is very important.

How to not destroy your vertabrae

This article/video was about the importance of good posture, how bad posture can be awful for your health and good precautions to lead to a healthy life of desk work. As of the recent years, most people who work do it mostly by sitting down. Even at home we are mostly sitting when we watch tv, play video games or write mundane blog assignments. This can be detrimental to your health and it has been shown that people with sitting jobs have twice the chance to get cardiovascular disease than sitting workers.Even if you spend a lot of time doing physical stuff outside of work, sitting and working is far worse than that is better. Keeping up with your posture is the best way to prevent your back from snapping into two. It's important to sit in an upright position if you are in an inactive chair. Make sure you don't cross your legs. Leaning to far forward and backward can also be bad for you, so again sitting up straight is best. Rocking back and forth in your chair helps not only your back, but your ability to concentration as well. Even just two hours of active sitting can help you burn calories. You should interrupt your sitting at least once every thirty minutes. Doing some simple lunges with this can help you a lot.
This article is helpful but I don't think is as big a problem as its making out. But if all of this is true than I think we should follow it's advice! Lets all of us rock and forth back in our chairs to improve our posture. The chairs will make a annoying sound sure but that's just the sound of us burning calories! This way we can show Ms. Licata that we are actively showing our improved posture.

Week 35 Comments

This week was mostly a work week but we had a few curve balls thrown in like a few demos and quizzes. What made me happy this week was finishing my documentary on furries. It came out great in my opinion and I can't wait for the critique. I get the most excited for critiques when I know I'll get strong reactions from people which is what I enjoy the most in what I do. I think this documentary is one of the best things I've ever done so I'm looking forward to the critique the most in class. What frustrated me most this week was not getting very far in my other projects though. I'm very behind in the class competition but hopefully I can finish the prep-work (not for a grade, it's too late for that) and get to actual filming soon so I can catch up. I don't have any ideas for the fictional short yet though so I'm going to have to think long and hard on that one. Personally though I finished one of my favorite animes I've ever watched, One Punch Man, and I really loved the first season and can't wait for hopefully more. I also started playing Undertale more which I am enjoying more and more. I want to start making games soon and I hope I can produce something that's half as good as that game. But anyways link of interest...

This is game play of one of, if not my most anticipated upcoming games, Dreams for PS4. This game is made by one of my favorite developers Media Molecule and takes the play, create, share aspect that they are known for and completely revolutionizes it. In this game you can sculpt landscapes, make characters and all different sorts of games and movies. It honestly seems like the most ambitious games I've ever seen and if it's have as good as it looks I can't wait. Also they want to have VR support which would be 10x as amazing. I honestly can't believe Nintendo and Xbox aren't investing in VR yet because I honestly think it's the next big thing in gaming. But anyways, that's all for now.

How to make it look like you have money for lighting

This article/video was about how to use less than ideal lighting situations and still getting the best lighting you can. Natural light can be tricky but you can use your situations to your advantages. Like on a cloudy day you can get more soft light which can be good for calm shots. You can also use props that you can put around your lights to change lighting. Like putting a frying pan in the background to get more blacks. It's also important not to make the mistake of using too much light. Darkness can be very good depending on that look you want and is all over Hollywood films. Location is important to make your shots look better too. Even uninteresting shots can become interesting if there is something intriguing going on in it. Color is also a very important aspect. If a shot has strong contrast between two colors it can look very nice to the eyes. Emotion can also help. If the shots connect to the story it can add to shots a lot. Senses can also add to scenes. We can relate to stuff like being wet and having clothing sticking to us or being so thirsty our lips are cracked.
I thought this article/video was very helpful for filmmakers. I agree with pretty much everything said and will definitely use a lot of these techniques in my own work.

3D Printing is changing stopmotion forevs

This article is about how 3D printing is changing stop-motion as we know it. 3D printing is already becoming quite a big phenomenon already, but it is already starting to be used in stop-motion in movies like Paranorman or Coraline. LAIKIA is the studio that made these films and started to shape this way of animation. They use a technology called "replacement animation" were they swap out different parts picture by picture. To do this Lakia models all these parts first on computers and then 3d printed. They use many different techniques to stay efficient like splitting the head in two parts. Many characters have tons of different possible expressions so many different parts must be printed. A new film called Anomalisa takes it a step further where almost all the characters in the movie have the exact same face so many different versions of the same face had to be printed. Many home versions of 3d printers are available now like Formlabs or Makerbot. Even websites like shapeways can send you a custom 3d printed model of your choosing. Even big budget films like Star Wars and Mad Max use this technology which shows how truly innovating it is.
I found this article to be very intriguing. It's great to see a blend of 3D and Practical effects used in harmony like this. I think this is very good in animation for people who are better at modeling on a computer than with clay in real life.

Week 34 Comments

This week was definitely interesting. It's nice to get back after winter break and get back to the old grind. What made me happy this week was about 5 minutes ago when I realized that the documentary is due next week and not this one. I was getting really nervous because I need to get a lot more work done on it but I feel a little better about it now. What frustrated me this week was of course not getting enough work done on it. I'm looking forward to getting that and the competition done. Also tomorrows my birthday so that's a thing, but the link of interest has to be more interesting than that, eh?

This is the latest couch gag from The Simpsons. I thought it was really well made and it also made me laugh quite a bit. The animation in it is quite different from the normal Simpsons style as well. The whole 80's theme is quite well represented. Well that does it for this week.

Writers Block

This Article/Video was about tips to tackle writers block. The first tip is for people who can't think of ideas and take forever to finish scripts. He explains how this is really just procrastination and the best thing to do is pick a date and keep to a schedule. Next he gives tips on people who can't stick to an idea and think of too many ideas at once. The best thing to do in this situation is to pick one idea and stick to it. Another tip he gives is to write a list about all the reasons of which you like about this idea and why you're doing it. Next is about what to do when you run out of ideas for a certain topic. Some tips on that are to write about something else completely. Another way is to change it up by maybe changing the way you're writing, like how and where. Also writing about certain characters could help a lot. Exploring you're characters past and following them around is a great way to help add to your main story. Another thing is that you can add a big new situation for your characters to overcome. Force them to act and shake up the story. And the final point given is to stop shutting down every idea you have and not let you're inner editor keep coming through. You can't write and edit at the same time or you'll never get anything written.
I thought this was a very helpful video and it even somewhat inspired me to write more. I think he gave a lot of great tips like to set a schedule and to not shut out every idea you have.

Dancing Frog

This article was about the classic Warner Bros. Cartoon, "One Froggy Evening". Amid Amidi writes how this classic cartoon is the pinnacle citizen Kane of animation. He credits Micheal Maltese's story, Abe Levitow, Richard Thompson, Ken Harris and Ben Washam and of course Chuck Jones. He also talks about how impressive it is that Jone's team of animators spent only a few weeks working on these animations. Also the fact that a lot of the songs in the cartoon where written by them. The whole animation was really a labor of love and brilliant work from Chuck Jones and his animators.
I thought this article was good but not that interesting just being the writer praising Chuck Jones like a god over and over again. But I do appreciate all the hard work Jones and his team spent on it, and I think it is one of the greats.