Weekly Comments #11

This week we didn't learn a whole lot except 3-d math, which I already knew from a class I took in school, It's pretty easy. I'm starting to get more excited for 3-D and finally see if I'll like 2-D or 3-D more. One thing that is frustrating me is time, and it's running out for the project, I have been working a lot at home on it to make up for Mondays class since I won't be there. Other then that great week.

Here is your link of the week:

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

This is the reason I will not be here Monday I am seeing The Hobbit marathon leading up to this movie, can't wait!

See you guys later, peace!

Serious Time #21 Let's All Just Make Stuff and Fall Asleep

Pendleton Ward, this is the name of the creator of Adventure Time, the hit Cartoon Network TV show. Adventure Time is about a boy named Finn and a dog named Jake who go on adventures together, I know sounds silly right? But, actually it was pretty ingenious being able to relate to people young and old. Sadly Ward has now left. He says that it was too much pressure for him and he just couldn't take it anymore, so he left after season 5 of the show. Ward explains that he was never the guy who liked attention and has a comfort zone that he doesn't like being broken. He says that he'd rather sketch then talk to people. Which is why he ended up leaving. He said that he would rather make stuff and fall asleep.

So lets just all make stuff and fall asleep shall we? We have two great things stuff and sleep what could be better? Oh I know creating one of the most widely popular animated series on TV right now. I understand that he was pressured and started going crazy, I get that. But that one little thing he said just made me lose all empathy or whatever it is I felt for him. Saying that just makes it sound like this"Okay guys I made a lot of money! Time to move on to something else!" "Ward what are you going to do next?" they say, " Well you know... stuff." "That's it?" they reply, "Well you know I'll sleep too.". Seriously? Come on man! Now I know he said he would work on a movie, but I doubt it. Anyone with an attitude like that won't get much done. But it's okay because he has enough money to set him up for life probably, so good for him (sarcasm). Well now that my rant is done the rest of my thoughts. I did like the article even though it made me like the creator less, it was very interesting to delve into the mind of Pendleton Ward. I have now learned who that random guy in the crowd was based off of in that on episode so yeah that's cool, I guess. I do disagree what they said about his desk, in that pic. they showed his office looked very nice and cool. This is more relevant to the more animation side of Digital Media. Overall meh article.  

Serious Time #20 SFX vs. VFX

SFX is better! No VFX is better! This is the argument people tend to get caught up in when bringing up effects in general. They are both great in movies, one is not better then the other, they both have their pros and cons. Lets get into definitions, SFX is are practical effects, ones that are actually in the given space. VFX are virtual or CGI which are effects animated and put in the given space in post. Though both different one is not better then the other. For example, SFX has been used in many great instances the main one being Jurassic Park. Jurassic Park didn't just make them look good they also made you feel immersed and more "realistic". Why? Because the dinosaurs were actually there, and you could tell because they were puppets and not animated what so ever. The downsides are that you use them limited because of their sensitive angles and in some cases require more work then CGI or VFX. VFX is great which they use in a lot of today's modern movies a good example would be The Hobbit Trilogy, almost everything is CGI, this isn't bad when used correctly like Peter Jackson does in The Hobbit. One instances where there was bad CGI was I am Legend the dark seekers in this movie weren't all that great, none of it looked real, to fix this problem they could have just had a few actors play as them. Good directors with good tools make good movies, crappy directors with good tools still make crappy movies.

I liked this article just by reading it I could imagine hardcore fan boys mashing their keyboards in rage, which is funny because there isn't that much to get mad about. Like I said above they both have their advantages and disadvantages. Still others I know will disagree. Honestly if I had to choose between CGI or Puppets I would probably choose CGI in most cases just because that's my preference. One of the cases I wouldn't choose CGI would have to be an Alien reboot or something of the sorts to give it that classic or original feel. This article was pretty straight forward that being said I didn't learn nothing new. This is relevant to both classes of Digital Media. Overall entertaining article.  

Weekly Comments #10

We didn't really learn to much this week to be honest, just a lot of work days for our animation. 3-D is what I wan't to learn in the future. My fire frustrated me and made me happy at the same time. It frustrated me because it took forever to get it right but in the end it ended up looking really solid.

Here is the link of the week!
https://www.toonboom.com/community/video-tutorials/glow-effect-1-2
This is what I used to figure out glow, it's a really good video!

Until next time, peace!

Serious Time #19 Animation and $$$

Animation has been an art form practiced for decades, but does it pay off? Shrek was one of the first animated films to win an award in its own category. Being one of the first ones recognized. Before animation would just be basically put in the "other" category. This is where money becomes a factor. Animation can cause something called box office magic, which means making a lot of money in the box office. To do box office magic you need a movie that appeals to all ages. A good recent example of this is Big Hero 6 which made 56.22 million at the box office in November. The animation industry is growing and it shows with the demand for more animators rising, which equals more money. Overall good news for the future of animation.

This was a great article, being very factual and short at the same time. I liked how it showed the box office and that Big Hero 6 made the most money that month. I was curious about how much my favorite animated movie this year made, How to Train Your Dragon 2, finding out that it made $176,983,845 that's a lot of money and that's only the domestic total making $618,890,011 worldwide. I never realized how well some animated movies do in terms of money. This is more relevant towards the animation side of Digital Media. Overall awesome article.

Serious Time #18 Techniques For Creating Depth

All depth in film is just an illusion. Movies just trick the eyes making you think there is depth. These are five good techniques on how they do it. First up lighting and shading, this method works like this, the higher the lighting contrast the deeper it appears in the film. The exact opposite of this works too, the softer it is the more round the subject will appear. Focus is another great technique people use to create depth. Focusing from objects in the front to objects in the back can show the distance between objects. One of the best things to use is perspective. Perspective gives a lot of control on ways to use it, and also happens discreetly. For example, how far away the horizon appears, and also placement of camera which creates even more depth. Next is parallax, this is when objects that are closer to the camera move faster then objects farther away. The last and one of the most important techniques is occlusion. Occlusion is just simply putting someone in the foreground  to cover someone in the background. This shows a lot of depth especially when combined with others.

I thought this article/video was interesting, it had a lot of good points that I never really thought about before. For one I never noticed how many of these were actually used in films. I also never knew the correct terms for these things, and now I do. Also I never saw depth as an illusion until now, I guess I've just never thought about it before. This is more relevant to the video side of digital media but can still be applied to the camera in animate pro. Overall eye opening article.