~practice post~

gfjdnhgjfdnh

final blog post - holla

What a wicked year it's been. Glad I mostly kept up with my blog posts.

1. Why did you take this class?

I took this class because ever since freshman year I had an interest in animation and how to do it. I was hoping it would be one of my college majors and when I found out about digital media class, I thought it would be a good idea to take it and I could have some experience in it when I do go to college.

2. In general, what did you like most about this class?
I like the whole atmosphere of the class, I don't feel judged or feel the need to hide any of my interests when I enter the class. Because everyone is here for the same reason.

3. In general, what did you like least about this class?
I think because of the snow days we had, we didn't have much time to do other projects and I really wish we could've done more projects.

4. What was your most favorite project and why?
My favorite project was the 3D short because thats the project I feel I did best on. I wasn't really interested in 3D animation as much as 2D but after completing the 3D short I found out how fun it is to model and I really liked it after.

5. What was your least favorite project and why?

My least favorite was the Anibot. The anibot just wasn't cooperating with me and parts of the rig didn't work properly so it didn't turn out so nicely. The eyelid stuck out of it's head and the eyebrows didn't move either so the anibot had a weird expression the entire time. It seemed like a great project but sadly it was messed up for me :(

6. Discuss the overall effectiveness of the instructor (for example: preparation, availability, interest, content knowledge, expectations, etc.).
I have nothing bad to say. Ms Licata always gave help when you asked for it and always gave us everything we needed when we went into a project. Considering how well all of our projects turn out.

7. What are the most valuable things you learned in the class?
Besides learning how to animate and how to use different programs, that this is not the kind of class you slack off in, at all. Because all of us were chosen to be here and it would be insulting to let your grades slip when there are other people who would've loved to be in the class more than you. I also learned how to accept criticism and let other people see my work and see how we could improve. I used to never do that!

8. Do you feel that this class will help you achieve your future academic or career goals? How or why (or why not)?
I think it would help me a lot. Being in this class gave me taste of that its like being in a classroom doing animation, all the demos that we did and all the hours we've worked on projects. It'll help me because being here has made me want to improve a lot more in my animation, I have improved a lot but I want to keep going when I leave this class.

9. How could this class be improved?
I really wish we did more group projects. Especially on the 3D shorts. It would be a lot of fun to work together with others and we could get out projects done a lot faster they'd come out amazing if everyone did a part of the project.

10. Additional comments:
I am going to admit it, this year was very rough for me. Balancing both schoolwork and animation and other things at home. I am a way different person than I was at the beginning of the year. But the last thing I wanted to do was give up, I still really, really want to pursue animation. And I want to keep getting better at it. And I believe this class will help me in the future so I want to keep doing it. I can't see myself doing anything else. This was one of the hardest years I've experienced, but I made it through the whole year. And I couldn't ask for better classmates either. They're all very helpful and friendly :)

here's another reason why pets are awesome

things learned:

• adding a pet to your character can make them seem more fresh and original
• even villains seem more interesting if they own a pet
• pets could also advance the plot of the story in different ways bc of they antics.

opinions:

• I hope when people are making their oc's they don't think of adding a pet as a way to make their character immediately interesting, but as an actual useful addition to the plot
• If there's an animal in whatever I'm watching I only care about that animal and if it lives or not. 

question: Can a pet also be a character on its own and not just a part of a main character?

weekly comments 5/17

learned:

I knew at some point I would run into a problem during my animation because things seemed to go smoothly and that didn't seem right to me. Well yay something happened.

want to learn:

there isn't much to learn at this time in the year. I guess now I'd like to work on making my resume look cool.

something frustrating:

Frustrating is an understatement. The thing happened to my audio and its completely messed up no matter what I do to try and fix it. Believe me I've tried everything. The audio tracks were fine and then all the sudden they start going out of synch. Its too late to do anything about it now.

something nice:

The trig course is over and now all thats left is review. and my pool is open now and thats all i care about.

check out this link yo:

http://vimeo.com/90252137

she uses these gloves and they help her make music on the computer. I know its not animation related but u could see how they could be used to help with certain animations.

anatomy in videogames

things learned:

• Psychologists believe that we subconsciously observe the size and location of shapes when we're looking at an object.
• The process of creating gollum from the hobbit was similar to forensic facial reconstruction because of how complex and rooted the design was.
• people can be more attached and believe a character more if a character has more familiar features.

opinions:

• it's amazing how far they've come with character design. And games are more enjoyable because of how similar characters look to us.
• I think they should maintain some imagination to the way characters look, if a character looked too perfect to humans it would seem too real to me

question: I love character design and creating myself. Is there a job where I can do that?

cartoonists on youtube

things learned:

• Youtube offers more creative freedom for animators
• Animators on youtube don't have to worry about deadlines, contracts, advertisement abandonment, and censorship like television animators need to think about.
• Cartoons on youtube also appeal more to adults and young adults 

opinions:

• I really like that cartoonists have more freedom on youtube because thats what they need to do, express themselves. And the success of some channels proves that people doing cartoons for youtube is successful as having it on TV. 
• I think it's also a good way to reach people. A lot of people are on the internet and they're always connected, so people can get noticed easier and build a fan base.

question: Does this mean that television cartoons will get less popular?

weekly comments 5/11

I learned that now its more important than ever to balance regular school and animation class because its so close to the end of the year. Which sucks because it puts a lot more stress on a lot of students but I hope everyone hangs in there.

I hope that I'll be able to finish my project, very bad.

Something nice this week was completing some artwork to put in my portfolio cause I never really complete anything--I've never had to.

Something frustrating is how much I've been procrastinating on some tasks. Even really simple things like doing laundry and cleaning my room :p

check out this link:

An anime style opening for super smash bros made by a 16 year old kid and yeah I'm super jealous. Although anime isn't my style, this person's skills are amazing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3KUZVkco4g