Final edit, Midterm

I would say that this was rather painless. I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to once again revise this. Working on this was great because it wasn't a rush to get finished with something and instead was really focusing in on the tiny glitches that were already there. I took out the first part of the animation after realizing that it isn't needed. I also tried to make it appear to chase more. If the rabbit goes left, I go left. I dont think this was clear in my initial edit. Hopefully it is more clear this time. Lastly, I went through and made sure none of my layers were popping and no alpha channel becomes exposed. So there were definitely changes to be made but no overwhelmingly so. I wish that it was a bit longer, and that I could have gotten my motion/speed down super well. Overall, i'm pleased with the outcome. I must say that I am really itching to add to this project and am strongly considering it for the final project.

T

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Revised Midterm

I had much more success working in a smaller resolution in order to speed up my workflow. I would have liked to refine this a bit further. The speed seems off and there are tiny little glitches here and there. Overall, I am pleased. I am having issues with rendering however. I rendered last night and came to view it this morning and unknowingly the file only rendered part of my work.

I'm not really sure what happened, I'm hoping I'm not going to have to drop the class because of this. I definitely don't have my whole project rendered so I'm worried.

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Midterm Working

I really like that look of this one. I had intended on using mostly ink drawn imagery and, in fact, did take the time to create all my assets. When I got them scanned it, everything seemed muddy and it was hard to distinguish shapes. So I am using both ink and vector. I like the limited color palette and the creepy mood it sets. I wish I could have gotten further. I spent so much staging my scenes in AE. Since my comp is essentially made up of moving through z space I had to meticulously place each of my assets in z space as well so that I could weave through them. This really messed with my brain and took me a good full day just to get them all in place. As far as the animation goes. Theres a lot to be done! I feel terrible that I didn't get more accomplished. I have worked on this a lot more than is probably apparent. Looking forward to finishing it though!

Visiting Artist_Julia Walker

I attended the artist lecture last tuesday. I was impressed by Julia, she seemed intelligent and clearly explained her topic. She focused on the idea of Sustainable Chic as a style of architecture that have become popular. She describes this style by showing us ultra modern housing in the American Southwest that are supposedly "sustainable". We see huge homes that are catering to the area in that they use Southwestern vernacular, appeal to a modernist aesthetic and must overcome the harsh desert climate. She talked a bit about Frank Lloyd Wright and how he "brought modernism to the desert". She also showed us his famous Taliesin West. Many of the home she showed were architecturally spectacular. Very beautiful and modern, many of them were huge. They were sustainable by using recycled materials, solar panels, heat resistant glass, special hvac systems, etc. After viewing all of these homes and sort of convincing us of their sustainability she explains that these are not truly sustainable. She makes the point that just using recycled materials does not mean sustainable. Some of these homes are like oxymorons in that they are massive, yet sustainable? That doesn't make sense. Homes that are sustainable should not have 17 rooms, that just unnecessary and excessive. She describes this new sustainable chic trend as just that, a trend. She argues that sustainability is much more than a style, it should be a method. There should be standards to which sustainable housing should be held to. I was disappointed that she never really explained what truly green housing is like, she only showed this "sustainable chic" style. I would have liked her to contrast the negative with a positive. Overall, I found her talk interesting and engaging. She also seemed enthusiastic and genuine when answering questions.

Midterm Project

I am going to convey a dream of frustration I have had. It involves chasing after something and never being able to catch it. This dream involves me chasing a rabbit through a wooded area.

I want to limit my color palette to black and white. I want to hand draw all of my assets using india ink. I think that this will help create a dark moodiness to the animation.

I want the camera to be from my point of view. There will be a lot of panning from side to side, as well as an unsteady camera to mimic walking or running.

Narrative:

Starts out blurry vision. Quickly comes into focus. I'm in a heavily wooded area. I look from side to side surveying the unknown area.

There no one around and there is no clear path out of the area.

I spot a rabbit grazing in the distance.

We lock eyes.

It immediately gets scared and runs.

I decide to follow it...initially at a walking pace which picks up to a run.

What began as curiosity become an obsession. I have to catch that rabbit. I follow it through the forest hastily.

The scenery changes to create more obstacles like rain and snow.

Ends on a snowy scene. I trip over a tree root and the rabbit hops away into the distance.

_______

A lot of what I want to convey is emotional. So its kind of hard to storyboard that. I want the emotion to go from confusion>curiosity>obsession>frustration>dissapoinment.

The overall story is really simple but I think with the manipulation of space, constant motion, and gestural assets that it could be a lot nicer.

Ideas for Larger Project

As far as my more involved assignment goes, I'm thinking about creating a scene that animates a dream of frustration. I think that a larger project is going to be a good platform for a more emotionally developed scene. Carrying the audience through that frustration is going to be key. The scene will either be a feeling of being lost and not being able to find my way, or chasing something that I can never catch. Visually, I can't decide whether or not I want to use photography or hand drawn elements. I'm leaning towards photos. However, with animations the possibilities are limitless. I really want to utilize cameras and exploring a space more thoroughly than head on. I really like the limited color palette that I have used in a few of my animations. Also, I like the sort of cold, lonely feeling that I had in my "falling" video with the cold blue sky and b/w photography. I feel like it really captures the somberness of a dream. The way I have been thinking of the projects so far is that the camera is my perspective. I would like to exploit that more in things like looking side to side, and the motion captured by walking or running (how the camera moves up and down slightly)

Matte Project

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I felt a little overwhelmed with mattes at first because I didn't get a good grasp on mattes in class on Tuesday. When I went back and looked at the matte examples I decided that I wanted to utilize the split-screen effect. When I began working it was pretty much a trial and error type situation. I just played with the arrangement of layers and then tried the different types of mattes. So i just clicked away until something struck me. I like the way the eyes look with the night sky looks behind the eyes. I like that it is peaceful looking. I initially wanted to look like I was running through the forest but I ended up making the scene fit the peacefulness of the bottom part. Im not sure of the moon moves too fast but I was weary of making to too slow because I made the timing way too slow on my type project. I like the overall coldness of the comp. I would have liked if I had conveyed moon phases with the moon rather than it staying the same shape the whole time.

Puppet

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I think that the puppet tool was a lot easier to use than the rotation tool to make the blades of grass move around. The comp is pretty simple and straight forward. I had a hard time trying to come up with imagery that could utilize the puppet tool. So this comp is similar to another of mine because I wanted to do a landscape to best utilize the new tool.

Try at Tutorial

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Video CoPilot Failure

So I went through the tutorial for the text that explodes. I followed the directions very strictly, and walked through each of the steps along side the tutorial. It was hard to complete the tutorial because I wasn't able to preview any of my work and make adjustments. In fact I never previewed it. I just got sick of waiting for it to load and just decided to render and see what i got. I walked through all the steps closely and I didn't end up with what I'm supposed to have. I couldnt figure out what was wrong because I couldn't preview. Perhaps I can get advice for this type of thing in class because I'm really frustrated at the fact that I can never seem to complete my assignments without something going completely wrong. I just want to be able to work easily without problems so badly.