Animation Semester Reflection

Over the following semester, we have been creating several things. Today, we were asked to reflect on our favorites. Here are mine.

1. Walk Animation

In this project, I learned how to shade in Photoshop, and that moving the limbs of characters is a lot harder than one may think. You have to move the opposite arm and leg, alternating between them, and make sure the rhythm of the movement isn't off. I chose this project because I am so extremely proud of how Metal Girl looks. She's fully shaded, anatomically sound, and the metal blades on various parts of her body actually look like metal.  Not to mention, this was the first video that I got to incorporate my characters into. I think the best part of this animation was how Metal Girl looks, but the worst part of it is the background, which looks quite out-of-place in comparison to the style of the character. I'm going to use this knowledge of how to make characters walk for my upcoming web series, Dank Meme Warriors. I will also use my new knowledge of how to shade in Photoshop for the official character portraits in my upcoming book series In My Element, among other things. If I were to change anything, I would most definitely use a different background and not just a screenshot from an NES game. In conclusion, I feel like this project showcased how beautiful I can make my characters look and how smoothly I can make them move.


2. Maya Castle

This was our second project using Maya, a 3D modeling software. I learned how to use booleans to make more complicated shapes and how to apply textures to objects. The only reason I chose this project is because we had to choose 2 Maya projects to reflect upon, and one of them is one that I am NOT proud of. I will use what I have learned to make appealing and detailed things in Maya for this class. The best thing about my castle is that it actually turned out decent. Throughout my project, I had no idea how to do a lot of the things due to my terrible memory, so I had to get others to help me on several occasions. However, my castle is a little basic. If there was anything I would change, it would be adding more things to make it stand out. In conclusion, this castle was very difficult, but I am so proud of it.


3. Polything

Going from one Maya project to another, the Polything was our first attempt at using lighting. I learned how to use lighting in Maya, for the most part. I also had some more practice with booleans and making complex shapes. I chose this project because it's the Maya project I'm most proud of. It's so beautiful! I will use what I have learned to make equally beautiful things in Maya. I believe that while I could work on the lighting, the shape and the way the light shines off of it are spectacular. If I could change anything, I'd make the light a little brighter. In conclusion, this is the best thing I've made in Maya thus far.


4. Multiplane Animation
This animation, which I have dubbed "Moonscape" was not only a project that I learned a lot from, but also an opportunity to sneak in references to astronomy, mythology, and pop culture. I learned what a multiplane animation entails, and that the things in the back must be shorter and move slower than the things in the front.  I chose this project because I'm proud of not only how it moves, but all the things I was able to sneak in there. The best thing about this animation is the smooth animation, but I do think it could have been shaded more. Again, I will use this skill when making multiplane animations for my upcoming web series Dank Meme Warriors. If I would change anything, I'd take some time to shade everything. Overall, this animation is truly "out of this world".


5. Story Animation

Finally we come to my In My Element Story Animation, which I consider to be my magnum opus. I learned not only how to put audio into an AfterEffects animation, but also how to use the various skills I have learned to create something beautiful. I chose this project because it is the greatest thing I have created in this class- beautiful, quirky, lighthearted, smooth, heartwarming, and educational. The best things about this animation are the character designs and the voice work. However, there were a few slip-ups, such  as the beginning when Argentia's mouth movements didn't match up to her lips and when Courtney had to have her mouth covering up a clear spot at all times even when she was talking. If I was to change anything, it would be those slip-ups. I will use everything I have learned here not only for my class, but for my own independent projects. In conclusion, this is the gold standard of my animations, that will lead the way for sodium many good animations. It may be a little silicon, and it could be ironed out a little, but as it is, it shows that for me, animations are serious bismuth.

Thanks for reading this, everyone. See you in 2018!
-Madeline

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!- Feature Story 2: Electric Boogaloo

Now, I had to work with a team to create this video, and my best friend Tate and I worked together to make this. Our group decided to do our feature story on the French class and the Paris trip, and I went along with it even though I wasn't in French. The first thing we did was we went down to the French room to film some B-roll, which was pretty alright. Then, Tate and I put the B-roll and the video footage together. Tate then recorded narration. 

I have to say we did pretty well with this. While this isn't our best work, it's not our worst, either. We could have done better with balancing out the audio, however.

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.

Maddie's Magnificent Movies!- Feature Story

For the past few weeks in Video Production, we had to do an interview video. My group decided to interview me, since out of the 4 of us, I had the most issues to talk about. On the first day of this project, Mr. Cooper asked everyone to share their story. I talked about my Asperger's Syndrome and how it has affected my life. This ended up being the topic of our interview. The filming process was, put simply, tedious. We originally filmed on Thursday of the first week, but because of one of my group members losing all the footage, we had to reshoot the entire thing. After that was all complete, I chose some relaxing Kirby music to play in the background, and I added B-roll.

Technologically, I learned how to use B-roll, sync up two audio clips better, how to use a clip-on microphone, and how to look like you're playing Mega Man on a PC when you really are just watching a video of someone playing it. I also learned about teamwork, how to not be such a drama queen when it comes to how quickly my videos are made, and how to act when I'm interviewed.

If there's anything I could have done better, it's the decision to use subtitles instead of narration. The only reason I didn't use narration is because it seems a little weird for the interviewee to narrate it at all, let alone refer to herself in the third person. I believe I did an excellent job on editing the B-roll and selecting the right music, though.