Maddie's Magnificent Movies!- Ice Cream Project

I'm animating my favorite food! YEET!

This project was one of the most complex, elaborate, and anticipated projects we have done in Maya thus far. There were two parts to it: modeling and animating. This was the first time that we animated something in Maya.

First, let me explain how I modeled this. For this project, there was a lot of joining shapes together and applying textures. However, unlike the previous projects, which had fairly basic textures, for this one we used bump mapping. Bump mapping allows your models to appear, well, bumpy, and makes things look more organic as opposed to the artificial smoothness of the lamberts, blinns, and phongs. I used a cloud texture for the ice cream scoops and a leather texture for the cone.

Now, time to explain how I animated this. Basically, I used a cylinder to create a rotating platform for the objects to sit on, and I linked all the objects together so animating it would be less of a hassle. Then I opened the animation timeline and added a keyframe at the beginning. After that, I rotated it, went to the end, and put a keyframe there. Automatically, the platform spun in the animation. Then it exported it as a series of pictures and I put it all together in AfterEffects.

I learned a lot about how to animate in Maya and how to use bump mapping. I am very excited to see what more we will do with this skill!

Final Maya Project- The Pen

For our final project in Maya, we were asked to make a pen. However, the catch was that we needed to model it after an existing pen and make it as close to the original as possible. For reference, this was the pen I used:

So, we had to use all that we had learned to create a pen. I started off by making a simple cylinder, then adding subdivisions. After that, I went into Vertex Mode and made it so parts of it were more pronounced while the end of it tapered downward. Then I separated the grip and the top of the pen from the rest of the pen. After that, I created the push thing at the top of the pen using another cylinder and Vertex Mode. I then created the clip by drawing a NURBS curve, creating a surface from it, and extruding that surface. My initial plan was to use lofting, but that didn't turn out like I wanted it to. Then, after making the main body of the pen translucent, I added the ink and its container using yet more cylinders, and finally, I made the point of the pen with another cylinder and Vertex Mode. I also added colors and textures to everything- the plastic-like Blinn for most of the pen, the matte Lambert for the grip, and the metallic Phong E for the point. After that, I added lights and a floor, and I was done!

This project was a very exhausting one, but it was quite simple once I got the hang of it. After all this time, I'm proud of how far I've come in Maya. I'm amazed with what I have been able to create in Maya recently, and though I prefer 2D animation, at least I know how to do 3D animation now.

ONW Now- Sophomore Edition

For our final video project of 2017, we were asked to create an ONW Now news segment with other kids in our class. I was one of the two news anchors, the other one being my best friend. I also was asked to do a story about the underclassman play.

The story about the underclassman play wasn't all mine- my best friend helped out. I gave her questions to ask the director as well as information about the underclassman play, and I also helped her get B-roll. At first, I thought that the day she got B-roll would be a day where everyone came, however, I read the schedule wrong, and I wasn't needed that day. I came anyway to see if my friend would get her B-roll, but later she said that I should "go home, do something productive, and pet a dog". So I went home. Later on, I acquired more responsibilities as the anchor.

I learned, for the most part, what being a news anchor entails. It's harder than it looks- you have to smile and speak clearly all while stating the information and looking respectable. I also learned that getting B-roll of a play is easier said than done, especially when you're using the Cursed Tripod.

Next time, I should give myself more work to do, as I believed I didn't have enough to do in this project. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this project and can't wait for Entertainment next semester!

Maddie's Magnificent Movies!- Story Animation

All of my animation career has led up to this moment.
An animation made by me with an actual plot.


Our final project to conclude our 2D Animation unit was an animation with a story, and from the moment it was announced, I was psyched for this project! As I have stated before, I have a metric ton of characters, both fan characters and completely original ones, so deciding who to use was very difficult. In the end, I settled on characters from my upcoming book series In My Element. In My Element is a series starring humanized versions of periodic table elements who live on a secret island known as Mendelevia, which is concealed from humans. So, now that you understand what the basic gist of the series is, I'll give you a brief rundown of the plot of this animation.

We start at the Central Nucleus Diner, the best (and only) diner in Mendelevia. Carly Buckley, our main character (who represents carbon) works as a waitress there. In the first scene, Carly asks the Geld sisters (who represent the Group 11 metals) what they would like to order, and Argentia Geld (who represents silver) places an extremely specific order. In the next scene, Phoebe Andersen (who represents phosphorus) states that she wants a Coca-Cola. Carly then explains that they only have Pepsi products, but Phoebe threatens Carly with a match and demands a Coke. Then, Courtney Kobold (who represents cobalt) orders 7 plays of What's New Pussycat, then 1 of It's Not Unusual, followed by another 13 of What's New Pussycat (a reference to the John Mulaney skit "The Salt and Pepper Diner). Of course, this makes Carly angry. Later, Carly is walking over to the Halogena family (who represent the halogens) to give them their food, but she trips and drops their food. Flo Halogena (who represents fluorine), the de facto leader of the Halogenas, demands they all attack Carly to get revenge, and they all beat her up. After that madness, Carly goes home, tired and grumpy after all she's been through, only to find that her brother Sidney Buckley (who represents silicon) had heard her day wasn't going well and baked her a cake. And with that, it ends.

I have to say, this went a lot better than I expected. Aside from the occasional animation error, it looks great, and all the characters turned out just like I imagined them. I've learned a lot about how to use AfterEffects to create an animation with a story. I did have to overcome some obstacles- for instance, every time I edited a new scene, I had to extend the length of the layer from 0:15 to 1:54- but it did turn out fine. I learned a lot from this, and this is the first time I've made an animation with a coherent plot, so I looks forward to doing more things like this in the future.

Maddie's Magnificent Movies!- Multiplane Animation

This week in Animation, we made multiplane animations. Multiplane animation is when you use several layers of animation and move them all separately to create a feeling of depth. It was invented in 1957 by Walt Disney, and he did it using a special device called the multiplane camera, which he and his crew invented. Back then, animations were made using transparent celluloid sheets with drawings on them and large glass frames with cameras above them so they could take a picture of each frame. Then they put the frames together to create an animation. It was a long process, and because of this, old animation studios looked like factories because of how many people it took to draw so many frames.

Now, we don't need to do that anymore because we've got computers! My class made our multiplane animation using Photoshop's multiple layers and AfterEffects' instant motion tweening. I put mine on the moon, because I thought that had a lot of creative possibilities. The first thing I did was draw the earth in the background. Most people in my group put the sun there, but since mine is on the moon, I thought the earth would be more fitting. Then, I created 3 layers of a moonscape, all in different shades of gray, and then added craters on each layer. Then, I added details. On the front layer, I added the Moon Rabbit (a white rabbit from Japanese folklore that lives on the moon, making rice cake) and Majora from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, who lives inside the moon. On the middle layer, I added the American flag from the Apollo 11 (complete with footsteps that will never go away due to the moon having no wind) and Desmond the Moon Bear (from TomSka's "asdfmovie" videos). On the back layer I added a lunar rover and, of course, the one named Sailor Moon! Then I trimmed down the back and middle layers to make them shorter, put them into AfterEffects, and made them move across the screen. And that is how I made my multiplane animation!

Maddie's Magnificent Movies!- Walk Cycle Animation

Throughout the past 2 weeks, we made a walk cycle animation. Since we weren't skilled enough to make the legs bend, we just didn't bother. Because of this, the instructor recommended we use robots. Now, I have several OCs that are robots, so it was a difficult decision, but I decided to go with Metal Girl, a grumpy and emotional android girl who throws razor blades, is the daughter of Metal Man from Mega Man 2, and is generally Very Edgy™. I sketched her on paper, then drew over it in Photoshop. Also using Photoshop, I separated her arms and legs from the rest of her body, colored her using Metal Man's official art as a base, and shaded her using the Sad Italian- I mean, Burn tool. I worked especially hard on shading the razor blades on her head, shoulders, boots, gloves, and in her hair to make them look metallic. Then, I put Metal Man's stage in the background, put it in AfterEffects, and started animating! The animation went as smoothly as I imagined, and soon enough, I was done.

Most importantly, I learned how to to take a photo of a drawing and draw over it in Photoshop. I also learned how to use the Sad Italian- I mean, Burn tool (no seriously, look at the Burn tool's icon) and how to animate a character walking semi-realistically in AfterEffects.

See why I call it the "Sad Italian" tool?

I think I did best on the character drawing and the actual walking animation. For someone who hasn't shaded digital art before, I find it relatively impressive. And while the walking animation does look like a wind-up doll, that was sort of the intention, since she IS a robot. What I could improve on is giving the background more depth, instead of just using a screenshot from a NES game.

Product Project- The First Rotation

DAWN OF THE FIRST ROTATION 

3 ROTATIONS REMAIN.

So for the Product Project, we were supposed to come up with a product and advertise it. My group came up with the Lingua, a microphone that could translate things super accurately. We then split up to do our jobs: Riley and Evan did the 3D modeling, Hannah made the website, and I made the animation. So here is what I made.

I put a lot of effort into this. Like, a lot of effort. I spent several days procrastinating and procrastinating but finally it is complete. I now it's cheesy and all, but it's the best I can do.