Technical Tutorial Review

In this tutorial I will be showing you how to make ice cream and how to color and texturize it. But before you start make sure your workspace is set to modeling in the top left of your screen.

For your first step you will make 

a sphere by clicking the sphere tool on the 

far left under polygons.

Then you should have a sphere in your workspace and it should look like this.

Next you will hold down the 

right click on your mouse 

and go down to assign 

favorite material and 

then let go once your mouse 

is hovering over lambert.

Then you will see a menu

appear on the right of 

your screen. Click the grey

box next to the word color.

Then the color menu will appear. 

Change the H value to 60, 

the S value to 0.207,

and the V value to 1.

Now your sphere should look 

something like this.

Then still being in the attribute editor, click the 

checkered box across from bump mapping.

After you click on bump mapping look for

the texture called fractal.

Then under the fractal attributes lower the 

amplitude down to 0.048.

Then you have your ice cream!!!

Professional Article Review

http://www.animationarena.com/motion-capture-animation.html

The link above leads to a professional article by Annie Gray, a journalist who talks about motion tracking in many famous movies including Avatar --- no not the animated one, the one about the blue people.

The article basically talks about how professional animators use motion tracking in movies to turn someones skin to blue from its original color. We need this skill so that way we can still have different skin colors like green and blue as well as others. Also its not just for skin color, it's also for showing emotion such as Deadpool's mask. The author does show very good points but has trouble defending them. Also her conclusion over the whole thing is that animators need motion tracking to pull off incredible projects to make such amazing movies.

In her article she had many good points, but she could still not defend them as well as she could have. Yes, as they may not have good arguments, but she does have solid main points that defend themselves in a way. Also her evidence she has is convincing because she has placed pictures in the article to also help prove her points. Her main point though is explaining why we need motion tracking and how helpful it can be. Also her vocabulary and the way she words her article is very easy to understand and simple.

In conclusion, the article is very well written besides a bit of a weak argument, but she does have solid points that are hard to argue themselves.

Professional Project Review

That animated short that you probably just watched was called "Glued". It was one of the funniest I have seen and has a good point. The scope of this project was to show the moms emotion towards the kid playing video games all the time and not going outside at all to play with the other kids. The animators show this throughout the entire animation from her twitching eyes to an evil laugh after burning all of the electronics in a massive pile.

The story that was told that the animators were trying to tell is that parents get irritated of not doing anything else and will eventually force you to go outside. Also one element I could add to my own is emotion that the characters have. Back in first semester we were assigned to make a story animation and mine was a fish. I did the animation but could have added more emotion to my character. It didn't look like he was too upset after his food was taken, which I would be. So in the future I now know to add more emotion to my characters in the future. One element I have already learned is how to texture the characters.

Based off of this project the creator did everything well from once again the characters emotion to the textures and the characters appearance. The only thing that I would change is when the mom is burning the electronics is to keep her moving and doing something else other than just stand there and laugh like a crazy person.

In conclusion this is a really impressive animation and really shows how irritated and aggravated the mom became and eventually went insane.

Personal Project Review

This year in animation my group was tasked to make a short film that required a green screen, a 3-D object, and special effects. My group had the creative idea of making some type of military  movie with something cheesy to make it funny and not so serious. 

Our short film was called the lunchbox which was a lost lunchbox that got lost and the situation becomes very intense very fast. Anyway the scene starts off with jets flying over the school. Then the 'office aid' walks into the 'headquarters' and announces that there is a missing lunchbox. From that point on the three men go on to complete their op and return the missing lunchbox to its owner.

The main intent of the project was to take something that would normally be very serious and attempt to make it funny. The process was fairly long to make this project. First we started brainstorming ideas to do for our project and we all knew that we wanted to make something somewhat military themed but to add a twist to it. Once we came up with the idea, Brady and I started making the script and Mason and Josh started making the hologram. Once that was done all of us acted and Brady and I filmed.

Along the way I learned to never trust Brady with the footage because he might lose it and he might forget about the camera in the back of his car :O. Jk Brady it good :D. Also that filming can be fun as much as people might think it isn't. Our collaboration was perfect as we got our project done just in time as we had conflict with people having to work and study for finals. Overall we were a really good group!

If I could have done anything differently I probably would have came in after school more often since we had to stay later than any of us would have liked to a couple of days... But it was worth it! I would do just about everything else the same because we worked together perfectly.

Experiences I will bring into the next project is to look very carefully over every scene to make sure that the camera man isn't in the reflection of a piece of glass in the background. Also to come after school more often.

In conclusion we worked very well as a group and we didn't mess up on the main parts just the little things. Everyone can always improve... no matter what you do.

Animation Final

End of Year Animation Blog

This year in e-Communication I was in the animation and graphic design strands. Specifically though in animation I learned many things such as learning how to use new tools in After effects and learning how to use Maya for the first time! I gained these skills over the year by being taught and actually going into the programs multiple times and actually making projects. The 2-D story animation in After effects we did consisted of us making a character and making him a setting, plot, background, and more. In Maya we would make a 3-D model of things like ice cream or even a hammer!

These skills I learned this year in animation are important as I go into my junior year of e-Comm and continue to improve my skills in both programs. I have strengths and weaknesses in both programs and they are almost the same for both. My strength is that I know how to make and finish the project I am currently working on, but then I won’t be able to make it look nice and neat unlike how others would be able to. For example, I would attempt to draw a fish and it would look like a circle and a triangle eating other circles when it should be a fish eating fish food. This, of course, would only be a problem in After effects and not in Maya since in Maya you don’t scan your projects into your computer. Yet, I still have improved from circles to ovals so I am making progress.

With what I have learned this year I may be headed into graphic design but could still apply my abilities there. For example, in graphic design I could make something and it look really nice but want to make a gif out of it. I could then take my animation skills and make a gif. Throughout my time in animation I would not have changed anything that was taught or shown in the class.

Overall I would have had a wonderful time here in animation this year. I have learned and gained skills for using After effects and Maya, and learning how to make many different objects and making short films.

Professional Project Review

In this video is is a bunch of small birds not letting a bigger bird in their group and the smaller birds end up getting launched up in the sky from the telephone pole. The emotions that are on the characters face is one element I could apply to my own work because it shows how the birds are feeling. One element I have added to some of my own works is the squash and stretch that is in the video like when the birds are launched, and when they hit the ground. The best part of the animation is when the birds start pecking the bigger birds feet to make him let go of the telephone pole wire. This work could improve by adding more emotion to the bird's faces.