Week 14: Credits

I am rapping up with my credits and my slate, and I worked with a bunch of effects in After Effects in order to come out with my slate, and I animated a little roach crawling around the screen for my credits.  I am pretty happy the credits, but I would like to do some bloopers if I have time, when my film is finished.  Something like the credits that Toy Story does.  It all depends on time but it would be fun if I could squeeze out some time for this. 

Week 13: Regular Show

I watched the show "Regular Show" for the first time on Cartoon Network and I found the animation to be quite interesting because it was very limited and the characters generally had weird movements.  Also, some of the things that the characters said was inappropriate for the kids who were watching it.  My cousins watch the show and they were singing a song from the show and I could not believe the words.  I found them funny, but I did not think they should be singing it.

Week 12: Credits and Titles

I am excited to work on titles and credits because they can enhance the film if done correctly.  I am done with the slate, but I would like to have some cool animated credits with some roaches moving across the film.  I am really hoping to have some cool credits for the end of my film with sound and what not. 

Week 11: After Effects Emotion

Well, this week were supposed to work on our next project, which was to show animated emotion in After Effects.  I decided that with the upcoming winter weather, and your lecture on how to use the snow effects; that I would do something that involved snow and driving conditions.  The only thing that I know for sure is that I want to use the theme from the Shawshank Redemption.  Overall, I think this should be a fun project because we can further experiment with more effects.

Week Ten: After Effects

This week we continued working in after effects, but on our now found object project, and I found that After Effects has a lot of aspects that can help our projects.  The basic 3D effect that I used to show my Bugs Bunny turn around, worked well in showing a basic turning motion.  I used other thing such as text, and played with the opacity, so that it faded on the screen.  Overall, I think that After Effects has many things to offer our projects now and in the future.

Week Nine: After Effects

We started working in AE and I it was a little bit of review, but good because I needed to be refreshed on certain things.  We worked with the Halloween/ Cat thing, and it helped me remember the thimgs that I learned last year with Mr.Cone.  I'm glad to to be learning AE because if used successfully, it can add an extra thing to your animation through effects, and such.  I also learned the importantance of knowing where the action box and the title box are located in order to keep my animations inside of the screen when watched on tv.

Week Eight: Stop-Motion

Well, this week we were assigned to make a cut -out "puppet" for a stop-motion anim ation.  I was really low on an idea, and then I was watching the national geographic channel.  I then got the idea of a frog eating a fly, and I went through the process of creating a frog cut-out.  It was kind of fun making the cut-out, and then I went through and drew a couple of thumbnail storyboards.  I am looking forward to animate the frog.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pUNbT6DpRs

Week Seven: Weight

Well, I had an issue today when I was taking out the garbage.  The bag ripped, and I all of the garbage poured out of the bag.  It inspired me in the animation that we are doing for the weight assignment.  I decided to make my character lift a heavy garbage bag and as he goes to put the bag in the garbage can, the garbage spills out and it is left with a mess.  I found the perspective references very helpful in knowing where to put hands and arms in order for them to be correct.  I am pretty happy with my key frames so far, and I am excited to see this project completed.  I am hoping to do some pretty cool things with this character.  I have uploaded a copy of my animation, but i would have loved to caught the real garbage spilling out on camera. 

Week Six: Weight

After watching this video, you can clearly see that there are many things that go into weightlifting. If you watch the different body parts such as the arms or the legs, they do very specific things. For example, you can really see the tension in the arms as he lifts the weight. Then the tension switches to the legs as he pushes the weight over his head, and you can see the the relief in his body as he drops the weights after he finishes.

Week Four: Run Cycle Rap-Up

Well, it was the final moments of my run cycle, and I am happy with some things, but also disappointed in some other things. I found it a very difficult to animate an animal that I have not had much experience drawing, as well as, not having studied the animal too much, but I did enjoy the project and am hoping to have time to correct the animation after obtaining some feedback from you ,and our classmates. This weekend I watched several videos on Ostriches, and helped me in many ways.

Week Three: Run Cylce 2

After working on this weeks speed exercise, I found that I need to manage my time a little better, and the difficulties in making a run cycle look correct. I am really hoping to produce a well done run cycle, which shows god solid leg movement, as well as, correct torso movement. I am hoping to make my character run smoothly, have some really good motion that includes a jump during the run cycle. Through the speed exercise, I learned a couple thing that will help me when working on my character run cycle. I found another run cycle that I liked, and I believe that can help in creating my own run cycle. At about the 50 sec. mark of the video, I like the way that Wile E. Coyote runs while chasing the Roadrunner.

Week Two: Run Cycle

This past week we started talking about run cycles, and after reading the survival kit; I found there are many different things that go into the run cycle. You have to worry about where each body part goes, and maintaining the size of each body part. Then you can enhance your run cycle by adding details such as hair, clothing movement, and adding personality to the run cycle. I was watching Disney's Snow White, and the run cycle of the dwarfs as they are racing after the evil witch is so well done. The amount of detail that is shown to the dwarfs and the witch as the are running is incredible. The run cycle happens in the first couple minutes of this video, and I really enjoyed the detail that was showed here and I hope to accomplish some of these details.

Week One: Flow

This past week we worked on a speed exercise that demonstrated the principles of flow animation, and I found the speed exercise to be challenging but fun. I found that I was able to get more work done than expected because I forced myself to work. Then as a follow up to this project; I decided that I was going to create a whole new project exploring flow animation, and demonstrate it by showing a rope under water. I found this challenging, and I also ended up fixing my seaweed and putting it in the new flow animation I worked on.

First Day of Class (Sitting Next to Jim)