Within Animation, we learned much from this past semester of fun, trial, and error. So, for our final animation project of the year, we decided that since Jessie Blom, Greta Lundy, and I worked so well before, we combined our forces once again to bring forth the best of our capabilities in our own respective way. We immediately got to story boarding our final piece. But finding a concept was difficult to do, as we wanted to be as creatively free as possible, but still have at the very least, a hint of the plot. We threw around ideas, nothing really sticking until Greta comes up with the idea of a visitor on an alien world. Our group loved it, Jessie even saying that the encounter should be with a robot. The creative process truly started when Greta sketched out a basic plot from our idea, and we then got to work instantly. Greta would animate and create the robot, I would create the opening title card, and Jessie would wrap the whole thing together. It would be hard to do, as it encompassed our entire semester of learning into a single project. But again, it was to show off the skills we acquired from the semester, and it was an ambitious, fantastic feeling of pride when we put ourselves to work. So we set out to complete our goal, displaying the best of our capabilities to a single, coherent idea that was just as creative as we were.
The Process Begins!
After being introduced initially to the tutorials of Video Copilot and seeing how detailed and simple they could be, I discussed with my partners on what type of sequence would be used. Would it be mysterious, foreboding, magical? But in the end, there was a tutorial on a grid looking sequence, robotic and calculating. After seeing the entire overall look of the piece, I knew it would be fantastic. So, having a cool lightning effect within Adobe After Effects and editing it to look like a grid layout, duplicating the layers, and having them fade in and out was the first step, simply achieved by utilizing the many positive aspects of After Effects. But then the second step emerged, having the letters emerge from a moving, 3-D background. I had never done this before. So, I converted all of the layers into a 3-D layer like the tutorial said to do. However, the effects kept creating problems within After Effects. They slowed down rendering with each one I added, and even changing one detail within the keyframes of my work caused it having to be re-rendered to even see if it would work. But then, I discovered the perfect looking grid fad-in that I stuck with for our title sequence. But since we had extra time as I finished, I chose to use a fade out effect on the text layer and I believe it turned out fantastic. Greta had used Maya to create the stunningly beautiful robot. Jessie had made the background in Photoshop and brought the whole thing together with After Effects. We had finished before the deadline of May 19th, so we enhanced our effects and made them better with mine taking more time with the fade out effect, and Greta added more fluidity to her robot. We managed our time well, I believe, as we had enough time to enhance the effects and footage we had rather than attempt to cram everything at the last minute. I've actually had to render out my project 3 different times to make sure I got everything right.
The Robot
Afterwords and Last Words
This entire year was full of firsts, exciting and new animation skills being awakened as well as the high point of my creativity. I loved what I've done this past year, my animating skills have greatly improved and I've done things I've never thought of before. Green screens and After Effects and 3-D animating has me excited at the endless possibilities available to me now. Although I love the project as it is, I would change the color of my grid effect, to match the robot a bit more. I also would want another idea to attempt, maybe have someone live with the robot like a sitcom. Or one idea I wish we had done was to have the video go a bit longer, and have a different encounter with a creature be highlighted. But I did enjoy creating the grid effect itself, so that part would stay the same. I also enjoy the look of the robot, and how it moves, so I would retain those things as well. But one thing I would keep the same about this project is the people I was with to create this project, as it wouldn't be good without Greta or Jessie. I will draw out some of the effects from After Effects, like the lightning to help make better looking openings. Perhaps I will find the other effects and make my own original openings. I also want to experience the 3-D converter in After Effects, as it was an interesting thing to try and succeed at. I hope that next year will bring more excitement and thrills to the field and help me achieve my dream of being an animator at Disney.
For the final project of Graphic Design, we had to decide to make a box for a product for children. So, after discussing for a few minutes, we unanimously decided to design a package that had something inside in which all three of us had as children, stuffed animals! So Katie Arpin, Danielle Sleigh, and myself wanted to do something clever while boxing the stuffed toys. But then Katie asked us if we had seen the Animal Crackers circus box design. We looked it up, and it was a wonderful design of a circus boxcar with animals peaking out through barred doors. We decided that it would be perfect for a children's toy box! The color palette would be yellow, red, and blue, as the primary colors are both simple, and fun for children to look at. The animals we chose to have boxes are the wolf, the fox, and the lion. We chose the three in order to show variety of the animals, not just doing circus animals for our box. So we got to work immediately!
The Fox
The Lion
The Wolf
Designing a Logo
So my job on the project was to create a lion logo for our circus. So I looked up old circus posters of lions, and decided to do a lion in profile. I chose the orange and yellow, as children recognize the form of a lion in cartoons from these designs. I checked in with my friends on the design, and they agree that its simplicity was admirable about it. The wild mane of the lion was designed with the pen tool within Adobe Illustrator, creating a new shape, then combining it with the shape constructor tool. So the three of us kept consistent tabs on ourselves so no one strayed from the goal of designing the project with glee. Danielle designed the box die lines, bleed lines, etc. Katie worked on the actual look of the box on the outside. We finished early, so we decided to add bars that are see through bars in the box, and even added a silhouette of each door of each animal on the back door.
3-D render on Illustrator
We test rendered it and it looked beautiful, but the print was messed up due to the print shop messing with the size of our box. but we pulled through, with our cooperative skills enabled and we believe it was beautiful!
Afterword
This final project and last hurrah for graphic design I believe went beautifully. My friends and I designed a realistic, beautiful box that could look like it belongs on store shelves. I would change the logo a tad, but all in all, our work I believe is exemplary. I will continue to carry on the legacy of the graphic lessons I have and use them in my animations. This year's been great and I can't wait for more!
This font is one I've used before, Young Shark, and one I love using do to the interesting look it has. But there are other ideas I've had for it. Merging the letters and making a completely different look to it was my mission. So I went into Illustrator to type out my name. I made all of them a compound path while adding and subtracting points within the font. I merged the V with two "S"es, The J with the L, and made a dragon-esque tail for the I. I also subtracted the extra fins from Young Shark, as they were getting in the way of my style. Now I can create my own fonts.
Afterword
Even though what I did was minimal, I loved what I did. I just can't wait to do more with making my own fonts. Hopefully they can be really nice on future projects.
Graphic designers do business with those who need help displaying their brand across to be viewed by the potential customers. They have to be beautiful, simple, elegant, and even memorable. This week we learned how to create an entire style with making package designs for made-up products. Mine was named Wyvern, a company that produced genetic altering medication that led one to grow their own natural wings, bat or bird. So I set off to complete the task at hand, making a well -constructed, interesting concept to carry out.
The Process
I began working on the box outline, die line, and bleed line by using the shape tool, pen tool to create other shapes to construct a box. I then used the shape combiner tool to create the complete, whole outline of my box. I then set up a color palette to see which colors would work well with my company. I knew I wanted a blue, to coincide with my theme of skylines and clouds, but needed a color to contrast and complement it by itself. So watching lynda.com tutorials, I found a nice shade of purple that symbolized royalty and even magic. Afterword, I found a beautiful font called Head Case that seemed as imaginative and innovative like my product. But editing with the 'y' in Wyvern, I found that I had warped it to be an interesting dragon shape. So I kept the design as my main logo for the company. By then, I had amassed enough pictures to make the 3-D revolve, which was one of the hardest to accomplish due to the repeated problems I had making them, from the wonky bottle to the box not being copied, meaning that I had to create ANOTHER box just to showcase the opposite side. But I pushed through and endured through the trying tasks, and my final project turned out beautiful.
Afterword
I felt that my box was original, and it inspires me to continue pursuing my designing skills even when I finish graphic design. The troubles were even fixable, and I can't wait to end the year on a high note.
Special effects have entranced movie watchers ever since the dawn of movies, from the first wonders of people disappearing and reappearing to the new aliens of Doctor Who, and so on. This week, we got the chance to explore the beginning steps towards these brilliant effects that people often overlook, but movies can't live without.
Starting out with the basics, we were given a simple task, to make a car garage explode, with small detailed effects being placed cleverly with layer masks to make it seem realistic. Alongside special effects like glows and camera shaking, I was proud to see the final result being so well constructed from a stock footage clip from New York City. But then a challenging task became to animate a still photo. So, stepping up to the plate, I decided to do a fire pit exploding. I took similar elements from the previous project and modified them to make the picture feel like it's live action, with using keyframes to measure out glow periods, specialized effects to create realistic flames shooting from the pit, and even smoke rising out of the ashes.
Finally, we took footage from my friend Greta Lundy and Jessie Blom opening a microwave, and having it explode. Timing the sound, compressing the footage, and even making the camera shake in After Effects, we created a funny, short clip of my friend being blown back by an explosion.
Afterword
These projects were used to show how easy, yet how hard it was to truly master these effects shown in even masterpiece movies such as Avengers, or Hunger Games. It makes one wish to do more, to strive to be the best they could be in their respective field of animation. I hope to continue to do we'll over the summer and discover these effects for myself.
The Hype of Animation Finals!
After being introduced initially to the tutorials of Video Copilot and seeing how detailed and simple they could be, I discussed with my partners on what type of sequence would be used. Would it be mysterious, foreboding, magical? But in the end, there was a tutorial on a grid looking sequence, robotic and calculating. After seeing the entire overall look of the piece, I knew it would be fantastic. So, having a cool lightning effect within Adobe After Effects and editing it to look like a grid layout, duplicating the layers, and having them fade in and out was the first step, simply achieved by utilizing the many positive aspects of After Effects. But then the second step emerged, having the letters emerge from a moving, 3-D background. I had never done this before. So, I converted all of the layers into a 3-D layer like the tutorial said to do. However, the effects kept creating problems within After Effects. They slowed down rendering with each one I added, and even changing one detail within the keyframes of my work caused it having to be re-rendered to even see if it would work. But then, I discovered the perfect looking grid fad-in that I stuck with for our title sequence. But since we had extra time as I finished, I chose to use a fade out effect on the text layer and I believe it turned out fantastic. Greta had used Maya to create the stunningly beautiful robot. Jessie had made the background in Photoshop and brought the whole thing together with After Effects. We had finished before the deadline of May 19th, so we enhanced our effects and made them better with mine taking more time with the fade out effect, and Greta added more fluidity to her robot. We managed our time well, I believe, as we had enough time to enhance the effects and footage we had rather than attempt to cram everything at the last minute. I've actually had to render out my project 3 different times to make sure I got everything right.
