Weekly Comments #9

This week was great and overall very productive. First of all I finished all of my dialogue for my 2-D short and finally finished my cutout animation, which I really like. We also learned about special effects which was cool and just adds to what cool things to experiment with in the program. That being said nothing really frustrated me this week. I am now starting to look forward to 3-D more now that we are almost done with 2-D.

Here's the link of the week!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjh35bEZLLc&list=UUsn6cjffsvyOZCZxvGoJxGg
This is a cool video showing a top down perspective and this is what I want to learn next year in film. I also reminds me a bit of Hotline Miami.

Thanks for reading! Peace!

Serious Time #17 Foley

Sounds are crucial in movies they make a scene feel alive and vivid, but half of them don't actually take place not in the scene there actually in but in post-production. There are three types of sound; ambiance, library effects, and foley. Ambiance is the sound in the background like birds chirping or a restaurant bustling, these are usually recorded in the same location but not on scene. Library effects are pre-recorded sounds that you can get with or without purchase, these are typically used with sounds like gunshots, explosions, or glass. Foley is the sounds specifically assigned to the character such as footsteps, cloth movement, and prop noise. Vodville is the source of these effects which is where the rimshot came from. Vodville began to die out so it was then replaced by radio broadcasts and talking pictures. Radio especially making their own sound effects from everyday objects. Music can also in some ways be considered a sound effect setting the mood with what is happening or what the character is thinking. Sound duties are mixed into 3 different categories; dialogue mixer, music mixer, and sound effects mixer. All of these people get together with the director and watch the film to see what goes where with their specific job. Now there are plenty of props to make sounds with an example being celery being used as bones breaking. Sound is an important part of any film and is a necessity too.

I thought that the video was good but it was I feel way to long. I don't need to know Jack Foley's life story I'm watching the video for sound not a biography. Other then that the video was great, I especially liked when they showed the old process of radio broadcasts. Radio broadcasts must have been very stressful with so much going on at once and the pressure of being live. I learned about some the items they use for sounds which is cool too, like saran rap as fire. Overall this was a very factual video with a lot of great info at hand.          

Serious Time #16 References

Animators use references all of the time. They use them for guidance and help in visual aid, and even connect the dots for us every once in a while. Animators use them for techniques such as rotoscoping. The article goes through references of photography and how it shows the realistic form of movement. How a golf ball squashes and stretches all the way to a baseball photography is a great resource for reference. The article then goes into a means of reference I have never thought of using, comics. He goes on to say how great it is for seeing poses because of how many there are in comic books, he also mentions films are a great source of reference too. The next thing is a reference library, making reference videos yourself are great if your looking for a certain specificity for reference. This is especially useful when working with characters and dialogue. The article then states that when working with references you should study them and also to never copy. Remember animation is an art, not math.

I for one found this article particularly interesting. Sure I already knew some of it, but the article still delivered it in a way that wasn't boring or in other words short and sweet. I also learned about how good comic books are for references. I never noticed how many poses there were in a comic book I guess I never thought about it when reading one. Other then that I believe the article was very straight forward. This is relevant to both the animation and the film aspect of Digital Media. Overall solid article.    

Serious Time #15 Baymax's Potential in The Future

Baymax is a robot in Big Hero Six. He is not your typical metal heavy robot though, instead a big and soft robot. He is basically a balloon and was inspired by a robot arm made through soft robotics at CMU. This shows how close Baymax can actually be real. The only thing holding this back is the fact that we don't have the tech. yet or any full versions of a soft body robot. If one was made though it would probably be used for medical purposes because of the fragile type of environment. But hey maybe in a few decades this will be possible.

This was a pretty good article. I've noticed that the articles this week were all about things in movies becoming a reality. Coincidence? I think not! But its cool because these articles were very interesting, this one especially. I really think this is a cool idea that has a lot of potential for the future and is a lot more convenient then a big hulking piece of metal. I didn't even know this was a thing till today. But this was overall a great article more relevant to the animation side of Digital Media.

Thanks for reading piece!

Serious Time #14 The Wonderful World of Science Fiction!

This article was a about the actual possibilities of means of survival if we are placed in the situation of the movie Interstellar. Interstellar is a movie based on the idea of earth becoming to a point where it is uninhabitable and we have to find a place to live outside of our solar system. The threat to earth in the movie is this dust that kills crops, this means no food. This could actually happen if Ug99 gets out of control. To ensure the survival of the human race we would have to try to find a home outside of the solar system or go Interstellar. The only way this could be possible is if we could somehow make or find and go into a wormhole, which is basically a shortcut through space. But, this is only theoretical no one will know for sure what will happen. The article also showed how they made a black hole in the movie, the cool thing about it is that that is what a real black hole is supposed to look like. They figured out this from Einsteins theories, which I don't understand.

All right, all right, all right, come on someone had to say it for peed sake its Matthew McConaughey! But seriously I heard this is a good movie so I am definitely looking forward to seeing it especially after reading this article. First of all the black hole thing that they did was one of the coolest things I have ever seen in visual effects, this was the highlight of the article. The other thing that was cool about this article is that it showed me all the possibilities that this movie shines light on which is interesting, we haven't had a realistic apocalypse movie in a while. This really makes me wonder how accurate this movie would be if we were actually under the same circumstances.This is more relevant to the video side of Digital Media.

Thanks for reading peace!    

Weekly Comments #8

This week we didn't really learn much, it was pretty much a work week. That being said we did a lot of work. We had to work on our storyboards for final project and a cutout animation (which I am still working on). Getting my storyboard finally done made me happy though. I am really looking forward to going to Daemon College next week. Nothing really frustrated me this week.

Some cool links!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuaNuBp09Gk&list=UUWXCrItCF6ZgXrdozUS-Idw
This a new show on youtube that is being released weekly, it has some good animation and style, enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pMUWNSvFrQ&list=UUOfQ6AvnnfzjyBYJihTuzgQ
This is just a genius video that I thought had to be shared, genius!

Thanks for reading! Peace!

Serious Time #13 Great tips for storyboarding from Dreamworks

Dreamworks gives some great tips on storyboarding. The first is avoid flat staging unless necessary, this makes for an uninteresting storyboard. Set a grid and use different grounds to keep the character grounded and to create depth. Logically group characters to make shots a lot easier. More of these include using different shots to show height, dialogue, and reactions. Last but not least motivate your cuts, without motivation your cuts are uninteresting and bland. Motivation also gives a lot more light in your characters and animation. Storyboards are a very important step in animation.

This article was great it gave a lot of good and important tips on storyboarding. I especially like the last tip about motivation which is also the most important in animation especially. I learned a lot of new things more importantly how to group characters to make shots easier. One thing that I am wondering is if they do storyboards for non- animated films. This is relevant to the animation side of digital media.

Serious Time #12 OH SO SPOOOOKY!

This video dives into the mind of horror and describes reasons why we watch and like horror films. Scary movies have fear triggers which can make us scared. The amygdala is the fear part of the brain, but is surprisingly not affected by these movies which technically means we're not scared of horror movies at all. 3 things that make up a scary movie are tension, relevance, and unrealism, all of these are key factors in a horror movie. People actually would rather watch a scary movie then a scary doc. This is because of how we know that when we walk into the theater that it is just a movie and fictional, this gives the viewers a sense of ease. There are also a bunch of unfinished theories of why we watch horror movies. One is the excitation transfer theory which is a belief that the negative feelings throughout the movie intensify positive feelings at the end when the victim wins, but this isn't always the case. Another is the disposition alignment theory which is how we like to see the characters get killed because they deserve it. More theories include horror films being a reflection on societal fears, gore watching, thrill watching, independent watching, and problem watching. Still none of these say why we like scary movies. The truth is there is no definite answer on why we like/watch horror movies because everyone watches them for different reasons. Always remember where there is no imagination there is no horror.

Wow this was a nice change of pace for Halloween. I really enjoyed this video it was very interesting, so interesting that I had to take notes. There are a lot of aspects to horror and I am glad that the video included pretty much all of them. I had to watch this a couple of times actually because of all the info. they give. I also learned a lot of new theories on why we watch horror movies.I also like how there was a theory for each type of individual. This relevant to the video aspect of digital media. Overall solid article.

Weekly Comments #7

HELLO ALL YOU LOVELY FACES AND WELCOME TO MY BLOG! I'M PRESSED FOR TIME SO LETS GET STARTED!

This week learned how to lip-sync and use the camera. I never knew that the camera on animate pro could make the world look s much more 3-Dimensional, when you use it correctly. I also had to do some more research on lip-sync to get the grasp of it, but I think I have it down now. I still really want to learn cutout animation to see the difference and if it is easier then drawing the characters frame by frame. One thing that frustrated me this week was the 11 second club, more specifically mine. First of all that audio clip was terrible because no matter what you did it had to have something to do with a car being eaten, which means not a lot of creativity to go on. I for one thought my idea for the 11 second club was good and somewhat creative, that wasn't the problem though. The problem was how I couldn't show the idea's justice, no matter how hard I tried I could not get it to look good. I really wish i could find my own style I really feel stuck in the middle between rough and garbage, but hopefully I'll find it soon enough. One thing that made me happy this week was the space ship project. That was a project I really enjoyed and showed how to use the camera properly, which i will apply in the future. Despite the 11 second club, descent week.

Two links of interest this week both from a movie I can't wait to see.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8kYDQan8bw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvMCtCgDLtg

GOT TO GO PEACE!