Creature animation

• There are many things to consider when animating a creature. Like what kind of creature they are dictates how to creature would move. If they're a giant like a skyscraper they wouldn't have graceful movements the way a ballerina would move. 
• Include diversity in your reel and when you're animating. When animating different actions you should use a different kind of character every time, like a short one or a heavy one so you aren't limited. When creature animating you should think about the size and weight of it and give it realistic actions, cause if its made up the audience wouldn't understand it probably not like it
• It's really important not to limit yourself to just animating people; animating creatures is extremely important too since it's a part of a lot of animated films so far

Creature design is one of my favorite things but I've never done creature animation before. I'd like to try it soon, this article makes it seem like a huge challenge though.

Another thing I like about this article is that it keeps giving us tips about things we should include in our reels. 

Why does it matter if the creature is moving realistically, I thought uniqueness was better?

Making things seem more Frozen

• They've been thinking about doing this movie since the 1940's. And when a new version was made the idea was pitched in 2009. 
• It took 30 hours to render one frame of the ice palace, and that meant 4,000 computers rendering at one time. 
• Jennifer Lee is the first woman to direct a disney movie. Kind of weird that now is the very first time but I'm sure women have had other huge roles in making a disney animated feature.

Kristen Bell is a great actress and I'm glad she's lending her voice to a character again bc her character Lucy Stillman from assassin's creed was short lived! And had a really sad ending.
I like that Disney didn't use the exact story when making the movie. They realized there was a lot of  things missing from the plot and the characters need more, well, character.


A question I have is, how difficult was it to make the movie score? How hard was it to be able to portray the different emotions going along with the story

Weekly comments 11/22

This week was pretty okay

learned:

-Other than work days we had an audio demo and it taught me a lot so yay. And it was a lot to take in so hopefully my notes will be semi helpful later on?..

want to learn:

-I need some robot sound effects for my 2D short.

something pretty cool this week:

-to make this project a little easier I got a drawing tablet, its an intuos and its just a lil guy but it's really helpful. I also got my teeth scraped to death by the dentist but at least no cavities, woo.

something frustrating:

Whenever the weather starts to get really cold I develop a small cough and that was annoying. I probably need a new modem bc my internet is being strange but most of importantly I'm not able to play mass effect multiplayer ///sadness.

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as if Charlie isn't already adorable enough here's an Up parody from It's always sunny in philadelphia featuring Charlie Kelly and the Waitress. (▰˘◡˘▰)
http://animationart.tumblr.com/post/67709641225/rudolph-jaaamesbaxter-charlie-kelly-the

VFX industry is pretty cool

• Building a great reel is key to your success in finding a good VFX job.
• VFX is everywhere now in commercials and TV shows now too.
• It helps to be both skilled in fine art and have com computer skills for a VFX artist. Most of all just being able to understand and solve a problem is important too

I wasn't that interested in VFX before, just animation and conceptual art was what I liked most but this article and the videos really made me interested. 

I definitely agree that in this field of work you really have to want it. And understand it's not an easy job at all. I like conceptual art because you get to create a beautiful scenery or character and it can be as intricate or simple as you like. And in the end you animate it and it comes alive. That's what made me want to do this.

A question I have is when your a runner/pa at a studio, how long are you doing that job until you actually get to work there?

Weekly commentz 11/17

learned:

It's really easy to fall behind on work in this class. I just hope in the next couple weeks I get caught up and I'm also hoping I can get started on my 2D short sometime this week 

wish to learn:

well right now I'm teaching touching up on my drawing skills and making them look more realistic, so hopefully it'll look nicer when I animate

happiness:

Friday I went to my first fight night and it's basically just a bunch of boxing matches hosted at this boxing club I go to. I've never been to a fight before so naturally I was shocked to see someones nose bleed like a waterfall and someone fall out of the ring.

frustration:

I need to learn how to speak better in public I feel like I can barely talk to people now bc I'm so weird and awkward and I end up saying something really really stupid. This happened several times this week. Maybe it's because I listened to this????

linky link:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/745014573/dead-meat

the grim adventures of Billy and Mandy was one of my favorite shows on cartoon network, they barely show it anymore which is sad. The creator of the show Maxwell Atoms is trying to get a new show off the ground Dead Meat. If you're into the same kind of animation and grim (ha haha a) style from Billy and Mandy, you'll enjoy Dead Meat. This time it isn't a children's show but I doubt anyone who'll watch this will pay attention to that detail. Anyways, the deadline for donations is over but this page holds a lot of info on the show and it's still nice to know he's making a new show right??

Psychedelic and Grotesque

learnded:

• These phenakistoscopes have been around for hundreds of years and even now they're so interesting to look at 
• The phenakistoscope inspired other types similar to them like the zoetrope that was made a year later, they used a long strip with a design on it and placed it on the inside of the cylinder and spun it.
• It's very tedious to make one of these and get them onto the computer to make it into .gif form. He would take a photo of every illustration, trying not to make them look too fast or too slow or he'd have to start again.

opinions:

• I'm glad this type of artwork hasn't been forgotten since its so intriguing it'd be a shame if Richard Balzer never picked this kind of work up cause he wouldn't have influenced others either.
• I think its important that he shows his artwork by using social networking sites so that it inspires other like the way he was. 

How long does it take to make a phenakistoscope or a zoetrope?

Tips about using natural light

learnt:

• Timing plays a huge role in getting the right natural lighting, good times to shoot quick night time scenes are during Blue Hour, the hour after the sun goes down or comes up and the sky still looks colorful. And during Magic Hour is the hour leading to the sunset or just after sunrise, for those warm and fuzzy scenes you need to perfect. I didn't know those terms existed but I think they're really beautiful times of the day, nice for them to have a name
• The right camera and camera lens is a hugely huge deal because whether you're filming more night scenes or day scenes should help you decide on the better camera. For example, if the movie is mostly outdoors and day time then you'll need a camera with dynamic range that helps with any lighting that you would have to edit with a different camera. Same for lenses, for exterior scenes it would be helpful to use a wide lens for a landscape.
• Make sure your actors and everyone else are prepared because that perfect natural lighting thats going on might go away in a couple hours and you'll have to wait another day to reshoot.

thoughts:

• I love this article with a passion because using these types of tricks for filming movies are clever and inexpensive. Just like the other article with using 'forced perspective', it would make me feel more accomplished and proud I used these tricks instead of going all out with lights and CG and whatnot
• Just like other types of tricks for movie making, its a lot of work to perfect the right scene when you do natural lighting, you can't be lazy about it. You have to pay attention to your time especially and requires a lot of planning ahead to so you can get used to your surroundings. But in the end it paid off

my question is, how far would a director go when using natural lighting? would they make trip to the other side of the world just to use that setting

Weekly commentos 11/1

We learned animation principles earlier this week, like the way a ball should look when it bounces on a surface, and the way a heavy ball would look when it rolled off a table. I'm just really happy all this rotoscoping madness is done and we're back to learning things. You know it was only a couple weeks long but it felt like a month for me

I'd really love to learn ways to help my back bc it's been sore a couple days probably from those days when I literally sat on the computer for almost 6 hours for project reasons. I had to get my boxing instructor to stretch my back for me twice today which felt awesome so yeah oh and I'm really excited to learn how to use audacity and more ways to animate smoothly.

I got AC4 and I went trick or treating with my friend, I haven't went with her since 6th grade so it was cooooooooooool. Like 1000% of my candy was pretzels and snickers but it was still fun (I guess). My mom was able to take me to boces today too since I didn't go to school today, I would've regretted not going to boces today bc that guest speaker was cool as heck and provided some good info on making a portfolio and whatnot.

I was beyond excited to get AC4 and I have the receipt to prove that I in fact pre ordered it and got a cool ass poster SO IT BELONGS TO ME RIGHT but I played 5 mins and my moms stupid boyfriend says "Where's my game?" so he claims it belongs to him somehow? Also he "claimed" Battlefield 4 so I can't play anything until he's done with both those games and of course I'm pissed but what can I do? Oh, I can blast Regina Spektor in my room and smash the patriarchy.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmgwk-6lY6o

this is pretty much what these guys went though when making the unique voice of my favorite Mass Effect in the whole wide universe, Legion. The reason his voice is so unique is because, he's a Geth (basically an intelligent race of synthetics created by the Quarians), and they were able to give him the perfect amount of emotion and life to his voice, but still indicates he is a robot. If I ever get into doing voiceovers later on then I'd love to experiment with different kind of effects like the way Rob Blake did in the video :)