Semester One Portfolio in Animation

A Worm

Here is my favorite and smoothest animation, a worm guy. I decided to convert it to a gif, so it keeps playing! For this, we learned how to manipulate and bend 2D objects, and use a null. Isn't he just a cute worm? Possible Future Disney Animator, right here. I said this is my smoothest animation, although the more I watch it, the more noticeable that bump that means the animation cycle is repeating becomes. I kind of want to smooth it out more. But hey, I still like it.

A Pen

This one isn't a moving animation, but it teaches a skill required to be a modern animator: 3D modeling. Everyone's pen looks a little different, that's because we base it off of our real life pens. For 3D modeling, we learned a lot: polygons, booleans, texturing, and lighting to name a few. Most of the time, I was having trouble with Maya, but this pen didn't turn out so bad. It looks like a pen you would see in a 3D animated movie, and that is good enough for me. However, some parts should be more transparent, but I've finished it.

A Ball

Here is a remake of something I made in Freshman year, and something I was drawing on paper long before that: A Bouncy Ball. Only this time, I used Adobe After Effects for the first time. I learned how to use keyframes for animation, instead of just drawing every single frame. It definitely looks more realistic than my Freshman animation, the squish and stretch method is a bit more subtle. It stops when it reaches its highest point though, and that does annoy me a bit. All in all though, I like it.

A Panorama

This is probably my most majestic animation. We studied Bambi, and learned that Walt Disney used a panorama machine for the opening shot. This made the forest move with the camera, while the sky stayed still, like looking out the window of a moving car. Instead of a big machine though, we used layers in Photoshop, some of them longer and traveling faster than others. The only problem I had was this (and it was very minor) is that I can't draw. So the grass in just a brush option, the moon and sky aren't blended very well, and the wolf was attempted. But the most important part of animation is appeal, so I added music to complement the night sky. I was also going to add trees, but ran out of time. But I still really like it.

A Story

This one has its own blog post about the whole process of making it, and I really like it. I may be, well, not good at drawing, but I definitely hit the appeal principle. This was putting everything I learned in Adobe After Effects together to create a short film. Although a few things could be improved, like opening the setting a bit more, I'm really proud of it.

Final Exam In Video

This semester, I took video production, and we've focused more on the journalism side of video. Here are 2 projects I made:

ONW 1 in 200 Interview

This is a news interview of my friend, Lizzie. This took 2 classes to film, 3 to edit, and I chose not to revise. Some challenges I faced was finding a good location in the building to film. I found a well-lighten hallway, yet students occasionally passed through. However, I learned how to use white balance. The feedback was positive, and I was praised for the creativity of the interview. This is probably my best video of the semester.

Feature Story: The Culture House and The Arts

My most recent project is another shot at the whole feature story thing. This took around 2-3 hours to film, 3 classes to edit, and 1 to revise. Some challenges I faced were finding subjects and classrooms to film in. I wanted to interview teachers, but obviously teachers have to teach, so I didn't interview my first choices. But the very nice receptionist helped guide me, so props to her! Some feedback I received was that the subjects were looking in the wrong direction while the camera was rolling, but it was on me because I didn't realize this. Lesson learned: YOU direct YOUR interviews. Obviously I wasn't going to re-film the whole thing. When I was revising though, I noticed a few jump cuts from when I was cutting the interviews, and covered those up with b-roll. I really like this one though.

Now how did I use this time to film, edit and revise?

How I used my Time

Of course, the first step was the concept. You can't just walk into somewhere with a camera and start filming random stuff, you have to plan out how you are going to use your filming time. In my freshman year, I would storyboard, but this semester I used writing. I would write out my interview questions, describe b-roll I could get, and voiceover.

The next part is filming. I would interview my interview subjects, and film my b-roll. Just in case I didn't have enough b-roll, I would film some more.

Then I would edit. I would try to get my video in the time limit, and cut my interviews so that it flowed without me asking questions.

When I was done, I would rewatch it, export it, and upload it to YouTube. We watch all the videos in class, so I know what to revise through feedback. Then I would export and upload the final project.

Strengths

I think I was doing the best as creativity. I knew cool shots to get, and how I would get them. I was also good at cutting videos just right, so that the b-roll was interesting and the interviews flowed nicely.

Improvements to Make

Definitely need to improve my use of the camera. I still don't feel comfortable holding and operating a camera, with things like the tripod, white balance, and focus.

Summary

This semester was a good one, and I liked journalism more than I thought I would (even though I still prefer Entertainment). I would take more control of my interviews though. Next semester, I would like to unleash my creativity and have fun making the short films. Well, see y'all 2017!

Article Study: The Fur in Zootopia

Here is an article I found on the world wide web: https://www.fxguide.com/featured/the-fur-reaching-tech-of-zootopia/

So go ahead and read it.

And now, I will just talk about this article here. Isn't it really cool? I've heard about how the team of Zootopia had animated every hair on every mammal in the movie, but this article goes really in depth. To make all that fur, they used a program called XGen. Watching the video, you can see how layered and detailed the hair on the koala is. Each strand is in a certain direction. The animators went to zoos to see real animal fur, and that's how they knew precisely how to model it.

The article goes into other aspects of Zootopia, like the vegetation.

Tutorial: Making a New Project in Adobe After Effects

The Video Helps You Learn

Here's a little something I did: How to Start a New Project in After Effects, and the wordy title says it all. All you have to do is open the program, create a new composition, and then import your footage. Yep, it is really easy. It is import to make the compositions though, because those act as scenes for your video, and you can organize them. Hope this helped, and good luck starting out!