Exploring Animation - End of Semester Reflection

It's finally here. After almost twenty weeks that honestly felt like four days, the semester is over. And after a semester of work in my Animation Class, I have plenty to show off. So without further ado, here are five of the animation projects I'm most proud of.

Project 1. Multiplane Animation


The multiplane animation project was one of the only projects to have a bit of a history lesson attached, telling about how multiplane animation is used and how it was created in the early days of animation. I picked this project because it was so much fun to work on and was surprisingly easy to animate. A funny story- I had actually spent a REALLY long time on making the animation look good in Photoshop before I put it into After Effects, until I realized I had done everything backwards and made the layer lengths the wrong way. I was pretty bummed, but it was an easy fix nonetheless. I wouldn't change anything in this animation at all, because there are no glaring errors aside from maybe a bit of scrolling speed issues, but I'm proud with what I've got.

Project 2. Maya Castle

Jumping from After Effects to end-of-year Maya projects, we have a castle modeled in Maya in order to teach us about textures, extruding, and booleans. I picked this project because out of the total three things I've made in Maya, this one is the second best-looking in terms of model and texture, as well as it being a crucial step in learning the basics of Maya. While I'm not the most adept modeler, I'm proud of this castle because it's a good way to show my understanding of Maya at its simplest. If I had to change anything, I'd make the door something other than a flat rectangle balanced against the castle wall. Even though this project literally had me grinding my teeth at some points due to lack of understanding, I'm happy it turns out as well as it did.

Project 3. Polything

The Polything was the third project I made in Maya, meant to build upon boolean and texturing knowledge while also teaching about three-point lighting. I picked this because it's undoubtedly the nicest looking thing I've made in Maya thus far. It was also easier to make than the castle, because I didn't have to fiddle around with jagged armaments and seamed textures the whole way through. This was a fun way for me to learn about lighting in Maya. I actually wouldn't do anything different here, because there are no glaring flaws that need polishing -- and I'm completely fine with that.

Project 4. Walk Cycle

The walk cycle was our third project in the 2D animation chunk of the semester, and it was one of the most fun projects to work on. The point of this project was to teach us how to animate a basic walk cycle with a character of our choice. I chose to reflect on this project because it's one of the cleanest 2D animations I've ever made, as well as the first complete walk cycle I've ever made. My greatest strength in this project was the movement of the joints and (in my opinion) the overall drawing, which looks very nice for being haphazardly scanned in from an old sketchbook and painstakingly colored in Photoshop. My greatest weakness is, and forever will be, timing the walk cycle with the movement speed of the character to prevent sliding. If I could go back and fix this, I'd try and get the timing to be more precise so that there's no slides to be seen. This was my second-to-last After Effects project, and it's one of my proudest works yet, trumped only by...

Project 5. Story Animation



The story animation was by far our biggest and most complicated project in the class. We had to put our knowledge of every previous project to the ultimate test in a full animation that not only looks good, but tells a story. I chose this project because it is, without a doubt, the BEST thing I've made in this class, if not my entire life. The entire process of creating this animation was fun -- from drawing the characters and background to animating everything in After Effects. Although it was a fun ride for sure, the animation stage was extremely clunky and disorganized. I found myself getting lost more often than not and having to make multiple files of the same asset for different scenes, but this issue didn't change the fact that I had a blast the whole way through. The ONLY thing I would change is, once again, the speed of the walking animation -- which has a bit of floating and sliding. But other than that, this is my sophomore animation magnum opus, and by far my favorite thing I've made in this class.

Conclusion

My first semester of animation was more of a learning experience than anything- guessing and checking, working blindly with no idea how things would unfold, and LOADS of trial and error. These projects were all meant to develop my skills and help me take the first steps to becoming an amazing animator. And I can safely say, that after five months of skill building, I've come a long way from the little flip books I made in second grade. I can't say enough about how proud I am of myself and what I've created. If only younger, flip book-making me could see where I am now -- on the road to fulfilling one of my lifelong goals of becoming an animator.

Thanks for reading, and see you next semester.
-Tate

Exploring AV Final Project Reflection- ONW Now Sophomore Edition

For my semester final in Exploring AV (The sophomore video class), we had to try and recreate the school's weekly news show -- ONW Now -- with our classmates. We as a group were required to plan and film different stories and current events, make our own intro, and anchor the whole thing. I originally wasn't planning to have as big of a role as I ended up with, but the thought of being an anchor alongside my best friend was too good to pass up.

The Roles- What They Where and What I Did

We first started out by splitting into groups and assigning roles, such as production manager, sound booth people, and anchors. As mentioned before, I landed the role of anchor alongside my best friend Maddie. But we weren't done yet. Despite having specific roles for filming, we still had to decide what stories and current events we would have to film. Everyone had to do that -- therefore, I decided to do a story on the Underclassman Play, which was only a week or two away at the time and perfect for covering in the broadcast.

So, I stayed after school one Tuesday, checked out a bucketload of equipment, and slowly shuffled down to the flex theater to film b-roll. I had originally planned to film an interview with the director that same day as well, but due to time constraints and technical errors it had to be pushed to a later date. Filming of the b-roll went very smoothly nonetheless, and I was able to get all that I needed.

I was able to schedule an interview with the director the following Wednesday during the first half of Power 50 (our lunch period), which went very well. Out of all the questions I asked, I eventually narrowed the selection down to why there were four short plays this year instead of one or two longer ones. There was a lot of good information, but due to time limitations I sadly wasn't able to include it all. Overall, filming and the subsequent editing went great -- the only real problem I had was having to lug around all the camera equipment and the tripod. At least it made for a good arm workout!

How's Everything Going?

I'm not 100% sure on how the sound people are, but from what I've seen I'd assume they're doing just fine. All the stories (aside from one that was cut for a reason I don't remember) have been filmed and edited, and we're ready to film. As of the time I'm writing this, we actually haven't filmed- the other group is filming as I'm typing, though. Here's hoping that when we do film, everything goes well!

And after a few days, we've filmed -- and I can safely say that it went very smoothly! The second take, at least. It wasn't too hard to read off the teleprompter, maintain a smile and good posture, and sound interesting to help grab attention. There were a few hiccups, as one would expect, but they were mild (light coughing, accidental touching of the microphone, and someone saying 'What's up raisins' instead of 'What's up ravens').

Reflection and Conclusion

If I had the opportunity to do this project again, I wouldn't make too many drastic changes aside from maybe putting aside more in-school time to film and edit, adding some polish to my work. I'd do everything else the same, because of how well everything worked the first time. Working on this project has taught me a great deal about filming, properly interviewing, editing, and anchoring.

This final project is more of a preview into the world of news and journalism, rather than a thing some people slap together and pass off to a teacher. I don't plan on staying in the video field for a long time, but this has been a great learning experience that I'll keep with me for the rest of my life.

Until next time,
   Tate