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.