Week 16 Comments

This week sure was productive. It was mostly a work week again with few interruptions in between. I spent most of it trying to create most of my assets for my short, But I did finally start to work on some animation towards the end of the week. I think I'm pretty on track so far to finishing my 3D Short on time, so that's pretty good. What frustrated me the most this week was trying to rig my main cat model. I finally figured out how to weight paint (to an extent) but I just couldn't get the arms to work 100% no matter what I tried. So I just had to settle for 70%. But that's ok because the animation is still coming along. What made me happy this week was voice acting for an Animation. I always enjoy Voice Acting, and I'm glad I got to do it again for Gage's Animation. My Short doesn't really have a lot of voice acting in it this time, So it's nice to get to do it for someone else ( unless I get cut out you heartless man).  I'm also looking forward to seeing everyone's 3D Short the most I'd say. I always love the big critiques like these ones because it feels like a mini premiere almost. Now onto the link of interest.

This video is about how artist Artsy Omni, created a fake Super Smash Bros. character leak. The whole thing happened a few weeks ago, but had a lot of people including me think it might be legit. But after a while the guy revealed it as fake with this video. It's just really fascinating how the guy went about doing it, creating the fake character select screen and the art for Rayman and Mew-Two. But anyways, thanks for reading my weekly comments. Hopefully my 3D Short as well as everyone else's is top notch.

Bouncin Light

This Article/Video was about how to bounce and reflect light for your shots, to provide the best lighting possible. The first point he makes is directing your light a little bit off screen, to make your lighting seem more natural. But then he brings in the reflector. Now with the reflector in play, the light is now not the actual light source. Kind of like the sun rays bouncing off the moon, to provide light at night. he shows how you can position the reflector and adjust the light, to provide the best lighting for your shot possible. And the last point made is how you can aim the light at the ceiling to make a more natural look in your shot. I thought this article was pretty useful, especially for film students. While watching it, I was wondering if maybe I could create some of the techniques digitally in Maya. But I don't know if it would work that well. But never the less, I thought the video was very interesting in creating different ways to light your scene.

Spongy Bits

This article was about was how Animation Studio Lloura, brought the 3D sequences of The Spongebob Movie: Sponge out of Water to life. They first explain how when building the characters, they didn't want to look too realistic, but also not to look like toys. So all the characters have slight textures to them, to prevent it from looking too weird. They also used sub-surface scattering to make their skin look like...well, skin. Next they talked about how they filmed the live action portions. They used stand ins too help the actors react to the "later to be added" cartoons characters. Next they discussed the animation. They explained how they studied the show and how the characters move. They discovered that they move snappy and fast, so slow movements would look awkward. And for the ice cream shot, they had to take many measures to create "wet-maps" to make the ice cream look very realistic and scrumptious. I thought this article was pretty interesting. I saw this movie about a month ago and really enjoyed it. I was really impressed with the 3D Animation in it as well. I thought it did the show justice, and look very impressive. It's interesting to see all the work that went into making it look so good.

Week 15 Comments

Wow! It's almost been a whole month without a Weekly discussion. Well I just get right into it then. This week was another work week with barely any real instruction ( which are always nice ). What made me happy this week was getting 2nd place in the class competition project. I was a little surprised because I thought that I would get 3rd place if anything, but I was pretty excited. I'm glad I got 2nd place though because I thought that Patrick's animation was clearly the best one, and I would have felt bad if he got snubbed for 1st place. What made me frustrated this week was texturing, riging and weight painting my character for my 3d Short. What's great about my 3d short is that there's really only 2 unique character rigs I have to make, as the differences between the characters are purely textures. But it took me a long time to even figure out how to do my textures to begun with. But once I figured out that, Weight painting smacked me right in the face. Basically it sucks and I hate it, but I will figure it out eventually. But I recently found out about Automatic Mapping in Maya which basically does UV Mapping for you. I almost pee'd my pants when I found out about this, and I'm so relieved now because I always hated UV Mapping and Now I'm re-doing my textures in a much more realistic way. I'm looking forward to continuing to work on my 3D Short, and finding out the best way to do things in Maya. Sorry for rambling, On to the link of interest.

Yesterday I found out about this Gem. It's a Korean film about a Bat Swinging Circus Gorilla who ends up playing baseball for Korean Basball Team, The Doosan Bears. As soon as I found out about this movie I immediately had to see the trailer and oh my god, it did not disappoint. It looks pretty action packed and epic. The whole movie can be found on YouTube here. I Strongly suggest you check it out in the near future, I know I will. But in the back of my mind watching this movie, I'll probably be thinking of this the whole time. Anyway Thanks for reading. I'm looking forward to finishing my 3D Short and seeing what you guys think about it.

What is good editing?

This Article/Video was about what makes good editing, and what makes bad editing. In the video we see some veteran editors like William Goldenberg ( The Imitation Game) Joel Cox and Gary Roach ( American Sniper). One of the main points that they address is that the best editing is the editing you don't notice. If the viewer can watch a Film and understand the story perfectly and not getting bored at all, the editor has done their job. But bad editing can be where your brain notices something weird and has to think about it, breaking the emergence. Also if there are too many scenes, cutting them completely can be a bad call. Try to edit in a way that keeps as much content as you can in without being to long and essentially, boring the viewer to tears. I thought this article was informative, especially to some one who is interested in editing like I am. But I couldn't help but feel they went over the basic details without actually explaining what makes editing good. Watching the clips they provided I really couldn't point out what made those particular shots have great editing. But that's probably because I don't have a masters degree in Film Editing. But they do. I would have liked to see some good examples on how to edit your shots to perfection, but this video on its own did bring up some good points and I thought it was still good never the less.

Why you need creature animation in your demo reel

This article was about how important creature animation is to put on your demo reel. Shawn Kelly, lead animator over at Industrial Light & Magic discusses some points of why this is.
First he discusses how creature animation gives you a much better chance at getting a job. Variety is important, and nothing says variety more than creature animation. Speaking of variety, the next point is on how variety is never a bad thing. Most animators didn't start out miraculously at Pixar after they graduated from college. They worked they way up at different studios, until they could get the great gig that Pixar is. Basically, don't set out to work right away at a top dog company. Get some experience first and when you're ready, you're ready. And the last point is about how there isn't a Creature Animator or Feature Animator, only an Animator. Most animation companies are looking for a certain thing, like Pixar primarily looking for more character animation than super realistic debris falling from buildings. But any different style can help you out no matter where you are applying for. It all comes back to variety. And the last point that Shawn makes is that there is only one type of Animator, an Animator. No matter what you do for what company, where all the same.
I thought this article was pretty good, and brought up some good points for animation students looking to make a demo reel. Although I thought a few of the points kinda blended togethor. But never the less a good informative article.

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.