You May Never Be as Good at Filmmaking as You Want to Be, & That's OK

Some thing that just about every one does is compare them selves to others, especially in film making and animating. in your eyes you may feel intimidated by some one else or think that there better than you. you may think that some one will always be better than you, but you are your own person you have your own ideas. Many people put them selves down because they think they will never be as good as some one they look up to, and this can eventfully lead to wanting to give up on film making or animating. you just have to always try your hardest and be the best you can be. look to people for inspiration not a comparison.

I really liked this link, it was on a more personal side where many people can relate, me especially. last year in the animation class I was almost embarrassed to show my animations because I had no confidence in them, because I was constantly comparing my self to others, thinking that they will think its dumb of not animated very well. i'm sure many people have been through this struggle but you can only continue to do what you love to do and not let other people's work put you down, look to them for inspiration.

Thumbnails and Planning.

 Planning and creating a story board for your animation is some thing you always need to do before you add in details, or even begin to think about animating. Having a well planed out and well thought story board will help you later down the road. this can save you a lot of time and money. When planning your beginning steps for an animation you don't want to make them very detailed. its better to have just enough detail so you can tell what the movements are. Later in production you can add details and color depending on the animation. to much detail at first makes it hard to go back and tweak small points. when doing this you really want to show the movement and not the detail.

This wasn't one of my favorite articles to read it was very short and not a lot to say. every animator should start off with a story board, new animators and old. this helps you get ideas and lets you add in details later when you are actually animating. its also important to draw different poses of your character from different angles to really know the character completion. different facial positions and expressions are important to draw also to know what your character would look like wither different emotions and when saying different words. It really is important to plan out your animation before animating.

Weekly review 8

Week in review-   This week went by kind of slow.  Monday we had our documentary conferences , to talk about what were going to do for our next big project. Tuesdays Wednesday and Thursday were all shadowing days.  Wednesday Niagara falls came, i think maybe one or two were at least a little bit interested in this program. most of them talked in our demo or were on there phones. Thursday Starpoint came, and they actually seamed interested in this class, they asked questions and talked about there experiences with programs and even thanked us for showing them some cool things.  Thursday we also had an explosions demo in aftereffects. its a lot easier then i thought it was going to be. but this will be a fun project to do since we can get footage of some thing we want to blow up. Im honestly glad were done with shadowing for a while now to work on explosions and the typography project.

Some thing i learned-   Well, Thursday we leaned about explosions, yay. this is some thing i wanted to do for a while, and when i heard we were eventually doing this project i just couldn't wait. Again its a lot easier than i thought it was going to be.

Some thing i want to learn- Id like to learn more bout my new camera, so many settings i have no idea what they mean. I'm going to end up reading the little book that comes with it front to back.

Some thing that made me happy- I'm just about done with my typography project, just want to make a few adjustments. Bridge didn't crash on me for once, yay. I also got a camera a few weeks ago so i don't have to worry bout signing one out anymore.

Some thing that frustrated me-  Saturday we brought my great grandma to the states from Canada for a visit, and on the way back to bring her home the boarder people stopped us and made her walk up into the building to be scanned and have all these background checks done, because she has a dual citizenship and her passport doesn't say that she lives in Canada. She's 94, can hardly walk and it was freezing outside. They gave her such a hard time an were beyond rude to us all. On the way home they yet again stopped us, saying that one of the carpets were folded over in they trunk. So they pulled us aside again and tore out every thing in the trunk, went through every little nook and cranny of the car. On top of that my mother had had her daily medication and vitamins in a small container in her purse. Well they thought she was trying to sell drugs in Canada so another two hours go by with them searching the car again. Apparently its illegal to carry medication in any other container than the one it comes in, if she didn't have the Walgreens app on her phone we would have been detained over night in Canada until they could verify that they were hers. Not a fun day.

Link of interest- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb6xGKxRpP8 this link it so a Photoshop tutorial that i thought was really cool. This adds a smoke effect to your image, an makes it look like your image is make of smoke. This person has many photoshop tutorials, some better than others. i always liked to play around with photoshop and there are tons of tutorials out there to do amazing things in this program.

Keys to creating complex transitions.

Transitions, some thing I personally don't like. I find most of them kind of cheesy, even know they are very helpful. Transitions are often over looked or underused. Transitions connect two parts of a story. Make sure that the subject in your videos are lined up perfectly and that the lighting is the same in both parts of the transitions, to make a seamless transition from one clip to another. Sound is very important. even if you footage isn't the best or don't fit very well together the right sounds can totally change that to make the transitions better. when the perfect sounds and clips are put together it can really seam amazing. this helps make the transitions fluid.

This wasn't one of my favorite articles, there wasn't very much information provided and when I watched the first video to me it was like there was no transitions at all. the transitions he was talking about was one clip fitting with the next clip, I don't really consider that transitions, more like clip alignment. There was a lot of amazing shots in the video some that make you wonder how they accomplished that with out breaking the camera or how close they must have been to some what dangerous things to get the right video needed.

Weekly review 7

Week in review-  Tuesday and Thursday we had 10th grader shadowing, and its not very fun. Wednesday there was a typography quiz and a notebook check. I'm also about half way done on my typography project, hopefully ill be able to finish in time.

Some thing I learned-  typography is a lot harder than it looks, especially with adobe bridge hating me. I ended up starting over and my second project is coming together much better.

Some thing I want to learn-  I really want to learn how to make explosions, I think this will be a super fun project and cant wait until we can start them

Some thing I enjoyed-   I did enjoy finishing my tutorials finally, and starting in my type project, once I got the hang of it

Some thing that frustrated me- shadowing, shadowing is no fun. most of the time no one says any thing not even a smile a giggle or a hello, like there scared of us or some thing. I cant wait until shadowing Is over.

Link of interest-   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOi5P1qxrM4 this is a link to a tutorial on how to do a simple typography project, this helped me out a lot because I wasn't even sure where to start off,

The peanuts movie.

Honestly I was never a big fan of the peanuts movies, every year my family would always go the extra mile to call every one and let them know that the movie is on, so its been like a family tradition that I'm not a part of. It is nice to see that they kept the original character designs from when it was 2d, into a 3d animation.  Each character looks exactly the same, just in a more 3d style. before they are able to animate in 3d, they drew out every scene in a comic book strip to make sure every part is just like they want it to be before they go ahead and animate it in a 3d animating program. They must also make fully rigged designs of each character, from being able to move there joints to changing facial expressions. The style of this 3d animation is amazing, like the different shades of colors in there faces really give it a nice touch. the snow in this movie is amazing looking it really looks fluffy and cold, and even has small sparkles in it like real snow would have, the characters may be some what simple but they really paid attention to small details that really adds to the over all animation and makes it look fantastic.

Weekly Review 6

Week in review- Oh my goodness, Just about every day this week we had an after effects demo, and tutorials. Monday there was a fieldtrip to Daemen, but I didn't go, I went last year and I'm not interested in that college. Most of the tutorials are fairly easy so far but the one type one I keep messing up and have to redo it. Its quite frustrating.

Some thing I learned- This week we learned quite a bit about after effects and I'm likening it so far, One thing that is kind of odd is you have to preview different effects in a different program, but  its fun to see all the different things you can do to a video clip.

Some thing I want to learn- In the future id like to learn more about computers,  maybe take a computer class or two in college. I have never been good with computers at all

Some thing that frustrated me- Well most of the day Sunday my computer was being wonky, and wouldn't connect to my internet or only connect for a few moments, Luckily my boyfriends going to college for computers and he fixed it right up. Good thing because I know very little about computers.

Something that made me happy- Finishing a tutorial Is always wonderful, only one more to go and I'm all caught up. (I think) I also got to see the new hunger games movie, mocking jay part two over the week end, it wasn't as good as I was hoping it to be, in my opinion it seams like each movie gets a little bit worse. Not to mention the popcorn wasn't good.

Link of interest- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juPPR53K9M8    I thought this video was quite interesting, It shows a bit of the green screen work in the hunger games movie, It talks a little bit about how the actors did random movements and was later animated in to look like they were using this holographic table thing.

Inside out

        I really really wanted to see this movie when it first came out and I hear a lot of good things about it. they really did put a lot of small details into this film, for instance joy is some what in charge of all Riley’s other emotions to show that children are kind of care free and happy. The fathers main emotion is madness, to show his competitive nature and when watching the game. on the other hand the mothers main emotion is sadness, to she that's she is still a bit uneasy after the move. every one has different emotions some stronger than others. Another thing I liked about this film is there take on memories, your long term memories go into Rem when you fall into a deep sleep and settler there way into the long term memory, while short term memories kind of just get flushed out right away

 

        Over all I liked this article, I wish it was more in an information state rather then question and answer, I feel like the characters were designed very well and showed off there specific emotion very nicely. I cant wait for this movie to come out on to dvd so I can see the full movie. some thing I really likes about this movie is the characters them selves, each one is either very likeable or not so much and that's clear to see, the textures on the characters also made then stand out even know they remind me of some kind of sour candy. This movie is like a one of a kind, not many other movies deal with certain emotions as there own being, so its a first.

Weekly review 5

Weekly review- On Monday this week we had a premiere demo and also got to listen to the group sound effect scavenger hunt. Tuesday we finished up out quest trailers and handed them in. Wednesday our second group project, the shot scavenger hunt project was due and today (Thursday) we got to watch every ones project, our group did pretty well and got most of the shots correct. tomorrow e get to go on a field trip to Villa Maria college along with the graphics class and fashion class. later in the day we we will get to watch the animation class's flour sack animation. for me this was one of the more difficult projects so it will be interesting to see how well they did.

Some thing i learned-  i learned that its hard to get a clear shot, thats not super shakey with the schools dollys. Theres not to many great surfaces to roll the dolly on. It was also cool learning about different shots and how to do them, some are quite difficult like the extra credit one but the end result it really cool.

Some thing i want to learn- I need to learn how to be more confident in my work, even when filming I'm afraid of failing or, no one will like my ideas or not see it the way I see it.

Some thing that frustrated me- some how i managed to pull a muscle in my leg, and its a bit sore to walk up or down stairs. The marking period for my high school also ends Friday and my english teacher told me i owed two things that i know i handed in, so i had to redo them. i'm glad i asked her, i was certain i didn't owe anything.

Some thing i enjoyed- i think its really cool to see others people's work, and i cant wait to see the morning classes animations. Saturday morning i'm going with my step mom to get her new puppy. i hope her other dogs like him, Im a bit worried because she has two full grown dogs (husky and a husky-chow mix) so i hope every one gets along.


Link of interest-http://emptyeasel.com/2012/08/12/how-to-be-a-more-confident-artist-and-grow-your-art-business-too/ This link shows a few steps to help you become more confident in your art work. I lack confidence in my art, films and snimations big time, and this always effects the final result.

THE CINEMATIC HISTORY OF FAKE BLOOD

This video gives some history on fake blood and shows different ways to make it. Stage blood has been around for a very long time, stage blood began being used in a theater in Paris France. This theater featured plays that were very gory, including dismemberment and even eye gouging. this theater was widely popular until the early 1960's when the audience began going to drive in theaters instead. At this theater the fake blood they made was made up of equal parts carmine and glycerine. This formula is one of the easier ones to make, and is quite effective. Its important to make sure that the fake blood is relatively the same color when shooting different days. Many black and white films began using chocolate syrup as blood because it was dark and showed up really well in black and white. Also easy to use and already prepared. Not to many black and white movies had a lot of gore, just a quick glimpse of something, if anything. In the year 1952, the court case Joseph Burstyn, inc v. wilson came to play, this case resulted in films being protected by fee speech. large studios began using wide screens, surround sound and epic productions. while on the other hand independent moviemakers were using blood sex and monsters to lure people in. another type of fake blood used is kensington gore, which is made up of golden syrup, water, corn starch food coloring and a bit of peppermint for a better taste. this type of fake blood was first used by Hammer Film studio, and specialized in gory reboots of classic horror icons that featured a lot of blood.

This video was quite long but had a lot of history in it, i enjoyed this video because it shows how far gore has come in movies. Its also cool to see how to make different types of fake blood depending on what kind of effect you need, its better and cheaper than halloween blood. i would have never thought of using chocolate syrup in a black and white film, but it actually looks really good.

Behind Marvel’s marvelous trailer titles

New movie trails have to be good, this is what basically determines if a person wants to see this movie or not, on several occasions I've seen movie trailers, and they ended up being not as good as the actual movie, or the parts in the trailer where the only good parts, sure you want to make the movie look good but you don't want to over do it with the trailer where the movie almost seams boring compared to the trailer. Another important part to a movie is the title, you want the title to really pop, so when some one sees this movie in a store they know exactly what it is and don't have to try and figure it out. Color can set the mood of the film too, based on the colors of the title you can determine on your own what kind of movie this is or what it is about.

This article was not one of my favorites, it was quite boring to be honest, not to mention I know little to nothing about marvel. This article mostly explained about Fede Ponce and his experience making marvel trailers. it was interesting that they usually work on the trailer 2-3 years before the movie is out. The trailer starts off with an idea which is turned into a sketch which then is turned into a 3d version.

8 Habits of People Who Always Have Great Ideas

People who always come up with great ideas haves several habits that they use when coming up with an amazing idea. Creativity depends on many different things from experiment to time limit. Most people look else where for inspiration, if your sitting there thinking to much about what to do for a video project or an animation an idea will never come to you. I had this problem when I trying to think of some thing good to do for the PSA project, then I randomly thought of some thing good when I was watching a movie. Making slower decisions can also help you to come up with better ideas, having a longer time to think about some thing is much better than needing to make a decision about some thing the very next day. A very creative person must be very interesting, involving, exciting, satisfying, or personally challenging, this allows some one who is passionate about creativity to be more, well creative. Creative people make things from scratch, instead of building off an existing idea. come up with some thing totally new, be original. A creative person is one who is willing to take risks and try new things. I need to work on trying new things, I would much rather take the easy way out than to take a risky path. Learning from past experiences is another important topic, if you know some thing will end badly why retrace those steps? learn from your mistakes and weaknesses.

Overall I really enjoyed this article. creativity is now my strong point, I had the hardest time last year coming up with an idea for the 2d and 3d shorts, id rather have guide lines to follow than having to come up with some thing all on your own. This article helps you think out side the box a bit and learn how to get in touch with your creative side. Any one who is having trouble with creativity should look over these 8 habits of creative people.

Weekly Comments 4

Weekly Review- This week was a bit slow, Monday Tuesday and Wednesday we had premier demos.  After the demos we got to listen to some peoples sound stories, some were really amazing and you could just imagine what was going on. Unfortunately some of my audio got cut out some how, i handed it in with out listening to the exported file. Thursday we handed in our first group project that we have been working on for the past two week, the sound scavenger hunt project. Every one was put into a group and had to figure out how to recreate sounds, every one was given a part to do. Friday was mostly a work day, i was able to finish all four of my premier demos and even work on blogs. Next year our class will have to wear class uniforms or shirts, luckily we don't have to.

Some Thing i Learned- this week i learned a lot about premier. Some new tools we learned about are the ripple edit tool which allows you to move every other clip down after a clip id deleted. The rolling edit tool, keeps the duration the same but alters the length of clips next to the selected clip. We also learned about the pen tool which is very helpful wen adding key frames, you can also adjust audio levels with the pen tool.

Some Thing i want to learn- next week Tuesday we are going to have a camera demo, and i cant wait. once we learn a bit about the camera we can get into producing and editing our own films! Our first big project is the PSA project, prep work is due Wednesday he 28th.

Some thing i enjoyed- i really did enjoy working my way into the tutorials, i enjoy learning new things about video editing, much more than animation. (No offense) Over the weekend i also got a new pet, its called an axolotl, they are amphibians but they never leave water, so there kinda like a plant fish lizard.. thingy. The also have the cutest smile and always look happy. They eat frozen blood worms which is kind of gross. His name is chrome.

Some Thing That Frustrated Me- This week was quite easy going, so nothing really bothered me, i suppose the premier demos are a bit tedious. I also had to present a project in statistics all alone in from of a good twenty people, i hate public specking i get so nervous.

link of interest- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT8lw1Rl-WM this link is to a psa that i thought was very good. This psa is simple but a very emotional one and i think they got there point across very well.




ps- my step mom has recently got a new puppy, just have to wait a few weeks until we can bring him home, but no one can decide on a good name for him, she was thinking about naming him Gunner any one have any ideas?

How Virtual Reality Could Change the Way We Watch Movies

In the next few years movies could be shown with virtual reality headsets like the oculus rift or the Samsung gear vr. unfortunately there is no standard technology or off-the-shelf gear for capturing 360 degree 3D video yet. Inventors are doing there best to get the technology up to par, we already have all the basic principles we need. building some thing with a full 360 degrees of video requires a camera or even multiple camera with several different sensors in each. This makes the cost of these virtual head sets very expensive over $350. These headsets will change the future of movies and gaming. they allow the player or watcher to feel like they are right inside the game, allowing them to look around and move as if they were actually inside of the game.
 

Action Scenes

What makes a good action scene you may ask, well a good action scene will always show exactly what is going on instead implying that some thing happened. Wider shots and loner movements also allow you to see every thing that is going on rather than a close up. A clear since of space is important too, this helps you to focus on important things rather than the back ground. Emotion is super important in an action scene, show how the characters are feeling and what is going threw there mind, show why they make that decision. Another element that is really important is character development. having characters that don't fit in in with the over all story may make your action scenes seam out of place, the more attached some on is to a character the more they would root for them in a fight, hoping they make it out alive which makes the viewer want to continue watching the film.

~Weekly comments 3

Weekly review- this week we finished up the worth 1000 project, they look really good up on the wall, some people handed in several different projects. on Friday we watch the movie Hugo, over all I enjoyed the movie, and had some funny parts. The colors and the camera angles really made the movie great.

Some thing I learned- One basic thing I learned this week is how to resize a photo in photo shop. you can also see what percentage you increase or decreased the image size by.

what I want to learn- id like to learn more shortcuts in photo shop. I always go into the drop down menus and try to navigate around.

Some thing I enjoyed- I did enjoy watching a movie in class, photo shop is fun and all but it can get to a point where it is annoying and it was nice to take a break from it.

Some thing that frustrated me- well since I'm considered the "artistic one" in the family, family members are always saying "Andrea could do that" now I have to do my cousins history project, which he has to make an Indian long house out of twigs and things. he's more musical than artistic

Link of interest-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAhBz8F2N9E This is a link to a simple Photoshop animation. the gives you the basics of how to begin an animation. this helped me because I had not the slightest clue as to where to even begin.

~Weekly Comments 2

Weekly review- second full week for my senior year done and over with. This week we ;earned a lot about color theory, and also had a quiz on Friday. Color theory was a review from last year so it was relatively easy. This week we also started the worth1000 project, were we have to make a plant-animal, two animal crossbreed, or animal camouflage in Photoshop. I'm really having fun with this project.

What I learned- Well a big thank you to Ryan for showing me a few tips on different eraser brushes, and which ones work best with fur. This allows you to keep the realistic fluff around your animal with out making it seam like its cut out from another picture or blurry around the edges. (Thank you again!)

what I want to learn- I really want to do some more experimenting around with different eraser brushes and settings, there is a ton of different brushes even ones that look like leafs. Each one can be helpful in a different way.

Some thing I enjoyed- Over all Photoshop is really fun, but the "worth1000" project is really fun, kind of hard to find pictures that fit well with one another but when you really do, its fun to combine the two into a new creature.

Some thing that frustrated me- Every one is sick, My mums got strep throat, my boyfriends got bronchitis, everyone at Lockport high school is stuffy and sneezing and coughing and yuck, I going to end up catching some thing again.

Link of interest- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg72MU9GzQE This is a link to a photo shop tutorial in how to combine two images into one. Its not the best tutorial and its a bit long but it is very helpful in some ways.

5 Psychological Mistakes

This link tells about mistakes that beginner film makers make.  these mistakes can also apply last year in animation, I know I've made some of these mistakes a few times. These mistakes include- 1) To much typing. 2) caring to much about what's popular. 3) Not making enough narrative content. 4) Worrying about failure. 5) Practice humility.

1) to much typing, computers may be helpful in film making, but a more hands on experience can help you to become more creative. sitting at a computer all day may make the film making process seam boring or distracting.

2) Caring to much about what's popular. some thing that you think may sell or some thing that is "in" may not become as popular as when you create some thing totally new. or when you create some thing you enjoy making or a story you wish to tell

3) Not making enough narrative content. One way to get experience with narrative content is to practice communicating to an audience threw stories and characters

4)Worrying about failure. Some times failure is unpredictable, always worrying about it will prevent you from doing your best and not wanting to show the word your film, who knows it could be really awesome. failure is some thing I always worried about in animation

5)Practice humility if some thing doesn't turn out the way you want it to, don't let that get you down tomorrow is a new day to create some thing new.

6 Steps to beat procrastination.

Procrastination, procrastination, procrastination some thing I know all to well. hey look cute cat videos! Anyways I found these six steps helpful, the six steps include- 1) take a step back and look at every thing you have to do. 2) make a list 3) the internet is not always your friend 4) what is the most difficult thing on your list do that first 5)don't skimp on pre-planning 6) break it down.

(1) taking a step back to look at everything is helpful when deciding what to do first in the time limit you have. this helps you decide which things you need to pay the most attention to and which things don't take as much time to complete

(2) make a list, yes make a list this will help you decide which things you need to complete depending on importance or due date. a list can also help with time management

(3)The internet is not always your friend. one video will lead to another or you can get sucked into games or social media. make sure your on schedule and not constantly checking your messages. take a 15 minuet break every two hours or so from work to check what you need to check.

(4) do the most difficult thing on your list first. get the hardest thing out of the way, so you don't have to stress over it, this will also help make other things seam easier when you get to them.

(5)don't skimp on preplanning. a good pre plan will make everything seam so much easier, every thing doesn't need to be don't right away.

(6)Break it down! this is one of the most important steps I my opinion. a task doesn't look so big when you break it up and look at small individual parts instead of one big whole. this also helps you pay attention to details when your looking at smaller parts instead of the whole big picture.

~Weekly Comments 1

Some thing i want to learn- It seams hard to do but I would like to learn how to animate in Photoshop. I know a few people who use Photoshop all the time to animate but I've never actually seen it been done.

Link of interest- https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/until-dawn-ps4/  This is a link to a new ps4 exclusive game that recently came out. This game features some thing called the butterfly effect where every choice you make leads you down different paths, I got this game a few days ago and I absolutely love it. The graphics are so realistic and the story is pretty good. I feel like more games should come out where you have to make different choices and decisions based on your own personality.

Practice post, whoo!

references

References, so helpful. I began my animation with a reference picture of a couch, since my animation kind of revolved around the couch for the first few seconds. Couches are harder to draw than they look! 
The next reference picture I used was of a basic floor lamp, I added a floor lamp into my animation just for some thing in the back ground. I didn't want to simple of a lamp so I went with this one.            
The next reference I used quite a bit to see different mouth shapes in animals, I originally was going to do some thing more complex than I origiinaly did but again time was an issue. But I did end up using the top and 2 row quite a bit (sorry for weird cropped picture, doing this on my phone)
I also used another mouth chart to get a better rang of mouth shapes, I didn't use this chart as much as I used the other one
Another reference I used was of course "the animators survival kit" book. This book has always been super helpful from small arm movements to fluent mouth movements, this book is great.

analysis and reflection.

- the way I chose interoperated the script was, two characters having a conversation about some thing that was on the television. Soon things go from bad to worse where the television starts to spark, then cracks. The television then falls over onto the floor when it is trying to be fixed, this causes a fire that the two characters are amazed by.

-I didn't get as many animation principles in my animation as I would like to have, overall there is very minimal movement. Unfortinutly I'm a slow animator. I did use anticipation on several ocasions, like when character 1 is waiting for character 2 to make the television stop what it is doing. Another time I used anticipation is when the two are looking at the telivision waiting for some thing to happen. Another animation principle I used is secondary action. Like when character 2 is turning off the television and his tail moves too. Secondary action was also used when the character blinks and moves his ears. Another animation principle I used in this animation is exaggeration, this was used when the character eyes get really big when some thing goes wrong.

-I feel like my animation got better as it goes on. I feel like towards the end it was just put together better. I'm still not the greatest at lip sinc but the lip sinc in this animation is so much better than my first one. I also think I did well when character 1 uncrosses his arms and put his arms down,

-one area I need to improve in is adding in more movement. My animations tend to be a bit stiff almost like pupet animations. Another area I need to improve in is time managing, I'm a slow animator, I will admit. I got close to finishing but I didn't.

-over all I think my animation turned out better than most of my others. The thursday before the animation was due toon boom decided to crash on me, I had a lot of work done and I was confident I was going to Finnish. I was so focused on finishing the animation that I haven't saved all day and I lost every thing I did that day.

Art and Anxiety of Filmmaking

This video contained several different interviews of famous directions like Quentin Tarantino, David Cronenberg, Christopher Nolan, David Fincher, James Cameron, Peter Jackson, Ben Wheatley, Steve McQueen, Joe Carnahan and Lone Scherfig. personally, i barley knew any of them. some of the directors talked about fears, while others talked about how they got started.

one fear that several of the directors had in common was failure. A movie could turn out amazing and just the way you planed, but it all depends on the viewers, if the film catches on or not. Others also feared messing things up, or doing some thing wrong, thousands of dollars are on the line here.

Some of the directors talked about how they got stated. Ben Wheatley talked about when he was a child, he would draw pictures for comic strips and this is how he knew he wanted to make films. Others talked about always loving camera, filming and taking pictures of what ever they wanted. i guess some people are natural born directors.

I really enjoyed this video. its nice to see how directors got started, im sure many people can relate to there experiences. it was also cool to see what different fears each director had and how they reacted differently.

6 Animation Demo Reel Dos and Don’ts

This short article explains don Kim's six do's and don'ts when submitting a demo reel. Don Kim is an animation director who looks threw hundreds of animation reels. Don Kim suggests to put only your best work forward, allowing some one else to look over your work before submitting it. Another tip is to make your animation reel 1-2 minuets long. people only have a limited amount of time to review your demo reel. always start your demo reel with your best work, some thing that will really wow the viewer, so that they want to watch more! not only should you have animations in your reel, but you should include other talents, like a short film, animatics and even story boarding.

This article had some helpful tips, but over all i feel like this was mostly common scene when submitting an animation reel. i also feel like you should show some improvements. like an older drawing or animation next to a new one, to show how much you have improved. I also think that you should so a wide variety of different skills and abilities, from lip sinking to character design.

Weekly Comments #14

Weekly Review- this week was a work week. Our autobiography and resumes were also due this week. it was a pretty easygoing week, working on our final animation and portfolios.

Some thing that frustrated me- some thing that frustrated me this week is my computer decided to quit on me, i'm a bit behind on my animation because i'm  not able able to work on it at home. hopefully ill be able to finish in time.

Some thing that made me happy- well im quite happy that i haven't had any problems with animate pro lately its also nice not having to wait for Maya to render. i'm also glad that my aunt is back from Florida. 

Some thing i learned- i learned that you can shorten or lengthen the onion skinning in animate pro, i kind of learned it on accident but it is useful. the blue triangles above the red slider bar can move to show more or less onion skinning.

Some thing i want to learn- some thing i would like to learn is how to  make one color fade into another color with out changing the color of the object every time. 

Link of interest-  wooo! link time. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2948356/?ref_=ttpl_pl_tt This is just a short summary of an up coming Disney movie called zootopia. This movie is coming out in 2016, there isnt to much information on it yet but i really like this style of animation.

Secrets behind SpongeBob's live action scenes.

The SpongeBob movie sponge out of water, was a great family movie. My dad actually dragged me to the movies to see it in 3d the first weekend it was out. He just had to wear his shirt with SpongeBob and Patrick riding a cat in space.. anyways... this movie was a hybrid of 2d animation that later turned into animated cgi on a live action background. character consistency is very important when doing this. Placing 3d animated characters onto a live action back ground is amazing, I love this style when its animated right. in this movie they added different amounts of sub-surface that makes the characters look like they have actual flesh. this helped makes the characters look small compared to the other live action actors in the movie. every time a character is rigged, rendered and animated, it must match the characters 2d counterparts. the characters must keep the same consistency from when they are 2d and cgi. adding different kinds of textures and maps can help make a character look more realistic, like when Patrick was eating the ice cream, the ice-cream had to be glossy and wet looking. the actors eyes must match where the cgi animated characters are so that it look like they belong there rather than talking to some thing that isn't really there. Some of the different camera angels also helped show the details of the characters and helped show the actual size difference between the actors and the cgi characters.

Weekly comments #13

Week in review- This week was mostly a work week on our 3d shorts, I found a great mouse model for my short. I had a few problems with the lighting but overall everything is coming together really nicely. I guess 3d animation isn't as bad as I thought it was, even know I still prefer 2d animation. This week we also had our last Maya demo, and also had a Maya quiz.

Some thing that frustrated me- some thing that really frustrated me this week, was spending a whole day trying to fix the lighting in my 3d short. There was really weird block-like shadow that ended up being a spot light under the floor of my scene.

some thing that made me happy-  my overall animation is coming together very well, which of course makes me very happy. I'm just glad I dong have to work with the creepy chicken model any more, even know a few people keep saying that the mouse I'm using is creepy.

some thing I want to learn- I would really like to learn how to add in elements, I noticed that Maya has different effects for fire, water, wind, lighting and a few others. I don't need this for my 3d short but it could be helpful for other projects.

Something I learned- I learned that lighting in Maya is very particular. the more lights you have the more shadows there are. that end up going different ways if your not careful.

Link of interest- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdKpbdrbqaE this link is just a simple run cycle of a mouse I will use for my 3d short.

Weekly comments #12

This week was mainly work days with one demo. we also had Monday off. I was finally able to get my Maya tutorials finished Friday. Now I'm starting on the chicken animation. It really freaks me out, especially the eyes and the tongue.

Something I learned- I learned that Maya seams very complicated. I'm starting to like Maya less and less. Can we just go back to 2d animation?

some thing I want to learn- I would like to learn how to rig in Maya, even know I'm not the biggest fan of Maya I think I would be good at rigging.

Some thing that frustrated me- Maya, Maya frustrates me, period. it did end up crashing once when I was trying to save, not to much work was gone.  it is quite annoying having to back track.

some thing that made me happy- I do enjoy actually being done with the Maya tutorials and starting to animate the chicken. even know it is quite creepy looking.

Link of interest-  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GJLR2WHo8c This link is of a cgi rooster, I was more interested in the walk cycle for our chicken animation.

Peer into the Future

This link shows the steps Disney goes threw to render realistic cgi eyes. first off they start off with an actual picture of an eye so they can get the shape and size right, next they recreate the sclera which is unique to each eye. next they reconstruct the cornea even know it is transparent. next the iris is constructed threw the cornea , showing fine details on the iris's surface. last they add all of the steps together and add in colors and details. they also add in different lights and glossiness to make the eye look more realistic.

I found this link super interesting, all of the steps that's must be done to make an eye realistic looking. Disney is now able to make eyes look really realistic even being able to show how eyes react to different types of light with dilating pupils. until now Disney had to estimate how the eyes looked and were shaped.

Cinematography Tutorial

Camera angels, not only for giving different views but can be used in many different ways. Staging characters in different ways can make a character seam larger or smaller than the other characters or objects. Characters or objects closer to the camera make ones in the back ground seam smaller. A low camera angle pointing up on some one may make them seam very tall and powerful. Changing the size of props can also make a character seam larger or smaller than they really are, like low ceilings can make some one seam very powerful and taller than other characters.


I really liked the idea of this link, using different angles to make a character seam taller than others. some actors seam really tall in movies but there actually shorter than me because of different affects. Having small props will also add to the effect of making some one seam taller than they really are

Weekly comments 11

On Monday  we got to see every ones 2d shorts, after having two weeks off it was a nice relaxing day. I really like seeing every ones different styles and the creativity in there animations. Tuesday was a demo day, on 3d animation in Maya. I'm already beginning to stress over it. I could hardly figure out how to save it. Wednesday - Friday were all snow days, well more like negative temperature days we didn't get that much snow.

Some thing I learned- some thing I learned is that 3d animation looks really hard, there's a lot more to it than I expected

some thing I want to learn- some thing I want to learn along with others Is more about 3d animation I'm not to much of a fan of 3d animation but I would still like to be able to know how to do it.

some thing that made me happy- some thing that made me happy this week was being able to sleep in, on our snow days.

some thing that made me mad- some thing that made me mad is I kept messing up on the Maya  exercise on Tuesday, it frustrated me pretty bad.

Link of interest!-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ED_W4e4HGwA this is just a simple-ish Maya tutorial on how to make a book, just to see how different tools work in different ways. (not quite sure what kind of accent this guy has though)