First Semester Entertainment Final

This semester in Entertainment has been crazy. At the beginning of the year I wasn't even in Entertainment, I was actually in Animation. I switched into Entertainment because I felt like I was a stronger video student than an animation student.
The first project that I did in Entertainment was the music video. This being the first project that I did in this class, and being a little late to the game, I took a easier position in the production team. For the music video I was the Art Director. I wasn't really able to do much because of schedule conflicts. As for the actual production itself, I don't feel that I was involved, really at all. Not only were there schedule conflicts, but there were also conflicts in our team. I understand that there are differences within teams, but this was new to me. I came from Animation, which is a work by yourself class.
The other project I was able to do this year was a short film. For this we all wrote our own scripts and the in groups decided which ones we wanted to do. I wrote my script about a schizophrenic teen boy, who is able to lead a normal life despite his mental illness. Overall I think that project went extremely well. The script was called Friendly Delusions. While we originally had set roles for our production team, those roles changed with circumstance. Scheduling was a big issue at the beginning of this project. Many of us had to make cancelations to our schedules as well as rearranging.  Our cinematographer wasn't on set, at all.  So, we improvised. The rest of our team co-produced the entire project. While doing this, we ended up working well together to complete the best project, I think, I have been a part of so far. We put a-lot of time and long nights into this project. Our team, as well as our actors, had great communication with one another. We did actually face a-lot of trouble, however, with the camera and tripod. First issue we ran into was the lens that was given to us on the camera we had checked out to us. The lens was not able to get a wide enough shot. At the same time, the camera had the plate for the pan on it. The screw had been stripped too badly to use a screwdriver to get it off. I ended up taking it to my dad, who is a photographer and he was able to get it off. But we still didn't have a plate for the tripod. So, I borrowed all of his equipment. I had to use his tripod, and lens.  Overall, the situation worked out. Some of the shots I got with the borrowed lenses were actually better than the shots with the lens that we were given.

As for my time in class, I feel I used it well, depending on the project. For projects such as the music video, where I wasn't all that involved, I worked on my website and other projects, because I didn't have access to the project. When it came to the short film, however, I used my class time to work as much as I could. I was either editing the script, editing, making a hot list, talking with my team and actors, or filming. I was here quite a-lot after school to complete a project that I would be proud of. When we didn't have set projects we were working on, I was working on my website and film reel.  I was actually able to film outside of my class on vacation to get some of the shots for my film reel. I had fun filming what I wanted to, without having a set schedule or plan for what to film.

I fell that my strengths for video production are along the lines of directing and editing. Through the short film editing, I learned how to really edit sound. Its a lot easier than I expected, you just have to know where to look and listen closely. I also feel that I was strong with directing. I don't like to boss people around, so I was able to communicate well with my team and make something we were all proud of. We did not argue abut much when it came to the short film because we were either able to compromise, or we had the same basic vision.

On the other hand,  there are still quite a bit of things that I still need to improve on. I still need to improve on scheduling and time management.  I feel I need to improve here because, during the short film, I was here editing until probably 9 or 10 o'clock at night, during the school week. It was really the only time I had to work because I work on the weekends, all weekend.

As for the guest speakers, I feel like I learned a-lot about characters, oddly enough.  I learned how to develop a strong character to fit the story. With that being said, I also learned how to develop a strong story. How to take a concept or idea, and turn it into a detailed story.

For the feature ilm we will begin when we return form break, I have been assigned as one of the editors.  I feel that this is a good role for me because I am not able to be on set a-lot. I live with a very jam packed schedule and don't have a-lot of time outside of class to work on things other than schoolwork.

The thing I loved the most about this semester was script writing and creating. I loved being able to express myself without having to actually speak to people a-lot. I am quite shy in person and kind of hide behind that when it comes to working in a group. I don't like to take charge when it comes to large projects.

Friendly Delusions Reflection

For this project, my team used my script, Friendly Delusions. The script was about a schizophrenic teenage boy, who struggles to differentiate reality and delusion. My goal for the script overall was to suggest 2 points. One, the idea that mental illness only affects girls, which is not true. And two, that schizophrenics are dangers, which isn't always true, this only occurs in some cases.  Overall the process was stressful at first, but it ended up working out in the end. First we decided which script we were going to do. We choose my script because it seemed the most capable to do with the time we had, and it was a new idea, not the same old crime film. The storyboarding was pretty easy, because when writing the script I described what kind of shots I was visioning. Production team roles, at first were simple. I was the director because it was my script and we felt it was best. Amelia was editor because she was most comfort with the role. Sarah was the art director and storyboard artist. And Damian was the cinematographer. With the schedules the way that they were and being busy, roles changed quite a bit. Amelia, Sarah and I basically did everything. We co-produced everything together and worked very well with each other. Our production schedule was tight  but we were able to get everything done on time. It included me canceling plans and a lot of communication amongst our team.  Our team, as well as our actors, put in long hours to complete the film.  But on the other hand, we also had fun. Most of the editing was done by Amelia and Sarah, but we all communicated well with each other to created edits that we all liked. I think that editing was a little more difficult than we really expected, because thee software would crash or freeze up and some editing was lost.  We ran into a couple issues with the cameras we were using while filming, like having a few dead pixels in one of the lenses that we used. Really, the only thing I would do differently would be to use different lighting in some shots, as well as not having the script so visible in most of the shots. That was a mistake made on my part. I thought it would look like just a natural, like a magazine or a newspaper. I disagree with some opinions I got on the lighting in the shots with Luke, because I feel like having him only partly lit,  gave the idea that he was a delusion.  Overall, I thought the project went pretty well. I am very proud of the work my team and I produced. 

RKO pictures

1) Who created the studio and when?

David Sarnoff created RKO pictures on October 23rd 1928
 
2) What major stars worked in that studio?

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Alfred Hitchcock

3) What famous movies did they make? 

Cimarron (1931), Bring up baby (1938), King Kong (1933)

4) What is the studio known for?

 Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers series (musicals)

5) Is the studio a major studio today?

The studio ceased production in 1953 after being bought by Howard Hughes
 
6) What movies or TV shows have they produced recently?

They have been out of business since 1953

Connection Music Video

The song we chose was Connection by OneRepublic. Our concept was about a guy that cannot get a love connection with anyone. The process was pretty long in pre-production. We did not all share the same vision so there were a couple bumps along the way. We were able to compromise, but we still had to re-edit it after we were done filming. Finding actors was pretty difficult. We didn't find enough actors in time so we had to use people from our class. Even though we filmed kind of late in the time allowed, our video, I think, came out extremely well. Finding locations was really easy because we figured all of it out during pre-production. Post-production was simple for me because I was not editor. Something new I learned during filming is how to pull focus. I think we didn't do the best at sharing our ideas because we didn't always get along. I think we did ok on project management, but we could have done better. It was difficult to film because we all work and it was hard to find a time that was available for both us and our actors. I think next time we could work on compromising, because we didn't all share the same ideas and we did the "If I get this you can have this" thing, which I don't feel is good collaboration. I will learn from this experience by getting done filming sooner. I think overall our video turned out very well and I am very proud of it.

Professional Music Video blog

The music video I choose to watch was in French. The name of the video was Comme Dab. This song is by VITTA. The translation means as usual. This video is about how we go through life and don't do anything interesting with out lives. I like the the lighting and use of bright colors in the video. I like the variety of shots given The creator had nice transitions but did not have very strong in some of the lip-syncing. To be fair small children were some of the actors and they don't always open their mouths so it looks like they don't know the lyrics. I like the music, not sure I like the video so much, but it might help if I understood the language more.

Animation Final - Reflection over the year 

Technology

This year in Animation we learned how to use Maya and aftereffects. My favorite animating software was aftereffects because it was easy to get around and was compatible with the other adobe softwares. I first learned how to use photoshop to scan in my sketches and create the object on the computer to animate. After learning how to navigate photoshop, then we would take our jpeg into aftereffects and begin the animation process. Aftereffects was fairly simple to animate in because it was the same basic set up as photoshop. Once we learned how to do 2D animation, we started to learn how to do 3D animation. I wasn't able to pick up the instructions in Maya very quickly unless it was demonstrated. I hope to take what I have learned with me onto a career in this field. I still need to work on the different ways of animation using more than one software.

Collaboration

 I learned how to collaborate on different animating techniques and styles in our final project. I felt it was important to get other peoples opinions on my projects and learned to draw on their feedback. My greatest weakness for collaboration is the way I take other peoples opinions. I was and still am very hard on myself when people don't like my work.  I plan on taking what I have learned about collaboration and use it in my other classes, especially on group projects and presentations. I would change the amount of collaboration I was involved in because I did not really work in a team very often. I still need to work on getting around the different softwares and become more familiar with the different techniques.

Communication

I feel my communication was ok for Animation. Animation itself we don't really do a lot of group work so it was really easy to agree on things when you are working by yourself. When I did have to work with other people though, I feel we always did well because we understood each other. Im going to take what I have learned for communication and apply it to other parts of my life like work. I would like to try to gain some communication skills next year and apply them throughout my life. I still need to work on communicating with each individual member of a team when one of us is confused.

Project management

My project management could have been much better because I was gone a lot I was most of the time behind. I feel that I did use the time given to me during power 50 well though to get caught up. I feel that I have had better time management in the past. I feel that part of what contributed to bad time management is that I had learn a new software that I was not use to. The other thing that majorly contributed to my poor time management was my attention to detail, I would get so caught up in the way I wanted it to look that I would take way to much time trying to make it look as perfect as possible. This would set me back pretty far in my time line of the project and I would be behind on the following projects. I want total what I have learned onto my junior year in animation and hopefully get a little better withy time management. I would try to change how often I missed class because missing one day would set me back for the entire week.

Leadership

I felt that I did not really take a leadership role when we did group projects. I felt that I was very "go with the flow" about it and did not take charge in my group. I was more the one that would make sure everyone was ok with what they were assigned and helped if needed. Not to say that I didn't ask for help, because I asked for help 9 times out of 10, but I felt that there were some parts that I could easily help with. I feel that I would like to have more opportunities to take more of a leadership position in following years. I would like to still be able to help when I can but also be able to help manage a team. I still need to work on how shy cam in a group of people and make more of a presents.

What has changed over the year 

I feel that I have greatly improved since I have been in e-Comm. I was not able to participate in some of the basic classes that was taught freshman year, but I feel that I have caught up and used my prior knowledge to help me along the way. I feel that even though I was gone I was able to pick up very quickly and am ready for what is ahead.  I am excited to continue in animation next year and gain new skills to begin working with clients.

I have built great relationships with my teachers and peers. I really enjoy coming to these classes, not only because of what we do but because of the wonderful teachers who are guiding me through the process. I like the more relaxed feeling of their teaching style compared to some more strict styles of teaching. I feel that I have good relationships with my peers because we all kind of understand each other. we all kind of think the same way and it helps to have them in a creative environment.

The longest I have probably spent on a single project was about a month and a half. The project I felt that took me the longest was the snowflake animation. I feel this project took the longest because I wanted it to look a specific way and did not quite until it was the exact way I wanted. I remember being after school until 9pm one night working on this project. I was working after school on this project a lot and stressed over this project because of how I wanted it o turn out.

The projects below are the ones I am the most proud of for the year. These projects are also use Maya which is a new animating software I learned how to use this year. After creating the 3D models in Maya I had to render them and take them into aftereffects. The only project I did not animate in aftereffects was the snowflake project, which I animated in Maya. This was very confusing to do for the first time.

Ball Drop

What did you learn?

For this project I learned how to animate from footage. This project required a lot of work in aftereffects, google docs/word and Maya. For this project I had to take the footage into aftereffects, which was new for me. I had to track every time the ball hit, the frame, and how far it bounced back up.  Google docs was used to keep track of all of this information. I had to do this process for each individual ball. This was a little time consuming but was fairly simple. After this was done I was ready to start creating in Maya. After I created each individual ball I had to find textures, bump maps and color maps. The golf ball bump map was easy to apply. The bump map and color map for the tennis ball was a little confusing at first but overall worked out as soon as I figured out which channel to put them in. For the holes in the bowling ball I had to create cylinders and bolenes-subtract. This was really simple, and its one of the first things I learned how to do in Maya. The process of actually animating them was a little frustrating because it was so time consuming and I did not know how to do it. I had to create all linear curves which was very confusing for the first time. After doing this fro each ball I had to create a background. I just created a cube and deleted 2 of the faces to make it simple. Then it was time for lighting this was really easy because it the animation does not rotate. I then took it into aftereffects and finished the animation. All I had to do in aftereffects was render it and make it a jpeg. This project was not as simple as I expected and very time consuming.  

Container

What did you learn?

In this project  I learned how to create a jar shape using the curves tool. After I created the label in photoshop I had to attach it onto the jar. I had to learn how to make the label fit all the way around the container without repeating. Then I had to turn the jar transparent and create the jam that goes inside. One of the hardest parts of this project was creating the shape of the container and the lid. the lid had to be a little bit larger that the top of the container and it was hard to make it even.  After this I had to begin rendering. The difficult part was animating this in Maya because I had to rotate it and keep all of the different parts together, my main problem was making sure the pivot point for all of the separate parts in the center. Other than that the rest was already done for me through the program. After rendering, which went really quick surprisingly, I took this project into aftereffects to animate it. This was really to deal with and I fell I got it done in a good time frame. 

Snowflake animation

What did you learn?

In this project I learned how to render without default settings for the first time in Maya.  To animate this I had to make a wall with a window and snowflakes. I learned how to use the create a polygon tool and the duplicate special command. After spending a large amount of time on creating each individual snowflake and making it look more realistic it was time to create the wall. This was fairly simple to do, all I had to do was create a plane then extrude where I wanted the window to be and make it transparent. After this I had to begin rendering. Rendering without default settings for the first time was pretty easy to do all I had to do was change it to a jpeg and change the end time to 240. Other than that the rest was already done for me through the program. After rendering, which went really quick surprisingly, I took this project into aftereffects to animate it. The first time I tried to animate it I messed something up so I had to start this part over which was no big deal.

What would I do the same/change?

For this project I think I keep that I was able to get it done in a normal amount of time. I payed attention to the directions very closely this time and it made the project really easy to do. I would change that I wasted most of my time creating the snowflakes because I got to perfectionist. 

Ice cream animation

What did you learn?

In this project I learned how to animate in Maya for the first time.  To animate this I had to make a tray and set all of the ice cream items on the tray and placed it on the table. The next step was to make the tray turn. This was fairly simple to do, all I had to do was group the tray and everything on it and then rotate it. After rendering, which took a while, I took this project into aftereffects to animate it. The first time around taking a project from Maya to aftereffects was a little confusing. 

What would I do the same/change?

For this project I think I keep my work ethic the same in the fact that I was able to get it done in a normal amount of time. I would change how much attention I pay to the directions and not just wing it. I got a little confused along the way because I wasn't really paying attention to the directions and messed up along the line. I do like how it turned out though. 

Cup and salt shaker project

Modeling 

The base of the salt shaker was fairly simple to create because it was a simple nurb. There was trouble with creating cap of the salt shaker because the holes were not going well with my lid. The background was easy to create because it was just a cube that I deleted 2 faces of it to create the "scene". I had trouble withe the coloring of the scene because I had to invert the color and it was hard to find. The lamberts was also really easy to apply. The glass texture was a new one for this project but was pretty simple to apply. For the cup I had trouble creating the correct shape. After I reread the instructions until I understood I was able to fix it and make it the shape that I wanted. There was only one Lambert to apply to the cup which was a color of my choice.

Lighting

The lighting I used was following the 3 point lighting system. I used the spot light for the salt shaker and the directional. I also used the directional light for the cup. I used a backlight for the cup scene I didn't have a background or stage. 

Ice Cream shop

Modeling 

The table and background were simple to create. The ice cream and bump making took me a little bite to figure out. I had trouble shaping the scoop because the handle and bowl part did not like to go together.  The lamberts were also really easy to apply because they were just colors that I got to choose. The phong was a newer material that was used on the ice cream holder and spoon. It added a metal like texture to it. The cone was really easy to create. For the table I rotated the cylinders for the legs.

Lighting

The lighting I used was pretty simple following the 3 point lighting system. I used the phong material which already had the lighting applied to it which made it simple. I also used directional light and key lighting. 

Music Video project

For this project we had to recreate or copy a music video. My group chose "Try" by Colbie Caillat. We chose this song because it has a positive and strong message about being yourself. This process was fairly simple. The film scape was a plain white backdrop, and costumes were plain white t-shirts. When trying to find other videos for inspiration it was actually a little difficult because of the simple and clean backdrop. The hardest part of this project was probably finding reliable people to film because some couldn't or didn't show up. I think for the next project that our team has to communicate with the cast more. Along the way I learned new things about our cameras and how to use them better. I also learned how to "pep talk" people to be comfortable in front of a camera. There were a couple of times where we had to help people practice what to say and how to use their faces to show emotion. The editing was fun to do as a group because we all had ideas that blended well together. I think as a team we worked well together throughout the whole process and were very open to each others ideas. Overall I thought this project turned out extremly well and I am very proud of both my team and our project.

Hammer in Maya

Modeling 

The base of the hammer was pretty to create. There was trouble with creating the head and part that takes out nails. The split vertices was really hard to create because the tool has changed over the years. I had trouble shaping the front of the head because I messed up somewhere along the way. The Base was easy to manipulate and shape. The lamberts was also really easy to apply. The phong was a new material that was new for this project. It added a metal like texture to the hammer with shine in it. The nail was really easy to create. All I had to do is extrude the two ends of the cylinder and shape them the way I wanted. I applied the phong material to the nail as well.

Shading

The shading for this project was really easy because the Lambert that I used had a bit of one to it and the phong material had a shine to it so they gave nice shadow. As for the actual shadows themselves they were pretty easy to create with the different lighting I used. 

Lighting

The lighting I used was pretty simple following the 3 point lighting system. I used the phong material which already had the lighting applied to it which made it simple. I also used directional light and ambient lighting.