Highschool Portfolio

 

Investigation 5/9

 Character Drawing

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Investigation 5/2

2D Animation Consistency

An issue with making 2D animation is keeping consistency after drawing each frame. The size of my fly seems to be a bit weird and different than the frame before sometimes. It is a little but a part of the style I’m going for in this animation and I want to make the animation look sketchy, but I do want to try to keep it overall cohesive so, I watched some videos about it.

This will be especially useful in animation with more complex characters. For now I just really have a fly which is only a couple basic shapes, but hopefully I can use this to then in the future work on something with a more complex body. I might even do a few studies and create a character and move it around or do a rotation to understand how characters take up space in 2D.

Investigation 4/25

 Color Theory

In my 2D animated short film I do not want to use much color, but there is a point at the end I do want to. Color can mean a lot in a film to convey emotions or simply just make the composition pleasant. I know 2 years ago we really delved into color theory and that still sticks with me today. I hope that by making the first part of my short film black and white it will show how mundane and annoying the fly's  life is, but later when he finally sees the world as more than just a place where he must find things to eat it turns to color. I want to make that scene as colorful as possible to express that. Using colors that work well together will be very important because it's the first part in the short film that uses color.

Progress

-video-

-how I feel about my progress- 

Marking Period 3 Peer Reflection

Seeing my peer's work this marking period is a wake up call. I can tell how hard they worked and how much progress they have made throughout the year. Their ability to still be motivated and make amazing pieces of work during this time both amazes me and inspires me, but at the same time I feel like I can't equal the sheer hard work and talent of them. I know it's all in my head but I can't help feeling like everything I work towards is pointless and just fails in the end. Nonetheless, my classmates did an amazing job and I loved to look at what they put their hard work and time into. 

Zach

Zach Willard's film was phenomenal. Aesthetically he had everything down. There was great color grading and camera angles, whilst keeping a coherent style throughout the film. This I feel is especially hard to do, yet he makes it look effortless. Not to mention his storyline was thorough and I feel like I really connected with it. I remember some lines physically hurting me inside like "Why is it the more you want something the harder it is to get? I just wanted to do something. I just wanted to do something so bad. I just didn't want to be a bum." and others. I very much related to the story because I am there and I feel exactly as the characters feel. Overall, his film is wonderful and I am jealous of his drive and strength to put up with the challenges of working on something like this.

Here is Zach's other film that he did complete this marking period and it has a similar concept. Again I relate to the storyline completely and it hit my feelings a little too on the nose. Again his film is beautifully crafted and I don't know how he does it every single time. I don't know if I could make anything of his caliber but I would really like to try and make something that really does come out well. I mean this one is so witty but also deep. I went through a whirlwind of emotions, I was alone and sad, then on the verge of breakdown, and then I literally laughed out loud. I aspire to be as ambitious as Zach and be able to commit to an idea.

Brendan

What I really like about Brendan's work is that he has a goal and knows what he is working for. Working on objects for the video game. He is starting out small to then work up to more specific things. I love that he is working towards something that he is really driven by. I envy that. Also though I relate to him in his struggles. He said that he feels he hasn't done much with his work due to the pandemic and I completely agree. It has been very hard to keep everything together let alone be motivated.

Josh

Josh's work I admire because he always has a clear and clean concept. He always comes out with finished products. You can tell he is doing things he is interested in. His logo for his friend's ceramics is very clean and polished. I also know what it's like to make channel banners and twitch elements so it's interesting to see someone work on them for their project and trying new things. I would love to see the work he does in the future and am looking forward to it. I hope I can have a final product as solid as his.

Marking Period 2 Reflection

Going over my peers work and comparing it to mine, allows me to judge what I need to do better by taking away what they have done and using it. One of my favorite parts of the class is looking at other people's work. Not only is it nice to see what they have been working on, it is also nice to see how they were able to use their time. Also, after reviewing their work it makes me want to work harder so I have something better to show them in the future. I know especially after this year of marking period 2, I need to step up my game. I took so long stuck in a rut, then I see other people's work and how they have succeeded this year and it is a great motivator, because I want to put forth something like that.  

Sean:

I really enjoyed what Sean has done with this marking period. He went above and beyond, doing not only one film, but two. The behind the scenes is basically a whole other film in itself. Paintology, the original film, definitely had a lot of thought put into it. I like the whole kind of avant garde look with the painting and then the use of colors to then show the emotion or memories and feelings the painter was having. What I want to take away from this is his use of more art for art styles. I normally don't go for that type of film animation or actual camera, because I think they can be really cheesy sometimes and I don't want to fall down that hole, but what he did was very cohesive and interesting. he pulled off the art for art ganre in the film really well. I don't know if I could do that myself, but after seeing this I would love to try. His work really inspired me.

Josh:

 

Josh's work very much surprised me. He took a difficult ganre and type of film and was able to do it very well with the time he had. His storytelling was phenomenal, it had me on the edge of my seat and I really made me want to work harder, to achieve something to this magnitude. His twisted story was very thorough for a student film and it shows. I might go back and check on my own story to up the story to better understand my character. You could tell by how well he did his film that he was so eager to do it and that he had fun working on it. I miss working on something you feel really proud of and want to show to everyone. Even just thinking about this film makes me want to go work on my own work, because I am inspired. I never thought you could pull off a dark story like this in a student film, but he did. So, I think maybe taking a couple risks and trying some new things on my end would be a good thing to do.

Brendan:

I chose Brendan to look over, because he is also studying digital things rather than film. I loved how he talked about working on a videogame for and with his friend. I like that he is taking the maybe extra time he has to work on a project with his friends. He has this beautiful character for the videogame he made using some sort of character creator. I have looked into character creators, but I only found ones that you had to pay for, so I don't know if he payed for this software of not, but I would love to know because this turned out very nice looking. He also worked on a crate for the game, he said he's working on basic models for objects to place into the game like crates and barrels. This is a good start and I am excited to see what he does in the future with this project.

End of Marking 2

 Exploration Of Ideas:

I have had many different ideas through the course of this marking period. Too many to show, but overall I know the idea of each animation is emotion. I originally chose politics and the social order to study at the beginning of the year, but after a couple days I realized what I really want to do is looking inward at the human experience. What I really care about in animation is emotion and bringing something not real (2D or 3D) to life and feeling human, or like the subject has human emotion and qualities. After I came to that conclusion I found many ideas for films and animations both 2D and 3D. None of them seemed realistic though for me to do because the ideas were too eccentric. I then felt lost so I began to study facial expression in 2D animation. I tested that for a little while, then went back to the drawing board for my animation I want to work on. I took up a lot of time feeling down that I couldn't do my big ideas, so now I have found a great idea for something I will definitely get finished and be able to show my work. I have decided to do 2D animation this year as modeling and rigging is not something I like to do and it is hard to find models with rigs that work well with ideas you want to do. 2D animation allows for a lot more freedoms and less materials for animation and after taking so long amongst my thoughts, simplicity and easily accessible is what I went with.

Planning:

 

At first I really wanted to make sure I was making an animation short film the right way so I studied a lot of videos on how to do it correctly and follow the right steps. Then I needed to come up with an idea that is actually reasonable for me to do and I can do quickly so I have something to show to my peers and colleges. A short cute story about a fly is what I came up with. The process of making this came very quick and easy after I settled on simplicity and didn't try to get perfection. I know I can finish this project very quickly as I think I am only going to use black and white or only some color and not worry too much on details. I made sure before I started on anything to have a very clear vision of what I wanted to create. I made a thorough storyboard and outline in both my sketchbook and notepad on my phone. I see what I want it to look like already and think it is a blessing and a curse.

 

Producing:

The story Flybye is my concept. Below you can see what I have created so far and it was very easy to accomplish, yet there is something there. I have only gotten up to my second panel of my storyboard if you compare the animation to my production, but so far so good. This only took me a short amount of time, so I'm sure if I simply work on this for some hours I can get a substantial way through the animation and have a full story to show.  

Evaluating:

This year has been very hard for me and my head has been in all sorts of places. I could not tie myself down to an idea for the life of me, but now I can finally say I have an idea I am sticking to and I am able to do. Do I feel the idea is too simple and I can do more? Yes, but I think it is much more important for me to do something fun and simple than struggle with something more difficult that I may not get done. This for sure I know I will get done because even just working on the animation part for a little time I got a bit done. I will not let myself give up on this project halfway through just because it doesn't meet the standards in my head. I am excited to pay this out and have a finished project and after this maybe I can do another small project like this or start on something bigger, but for now I think I am finally in a good headspace to get something done and I can show it to my peers and put it in my portfolio. Back though to it being to simple, it worries me that by the end I will see it and it looks like something anyone can to and not something that is 'me'. I know that is not really the case, but I am in my head about every step and every frame from every project I do. Overall though, I do think this project will turn out well.

Integrating:

I learned a lot from myself and my research this year. After being stuck in and rut battling myself, I have come to terms that I can't do a lot of my ideas and that simplicity is not a bad thing. I grew a lot and am excited to see what comes from it. Studying the "how's" and "what's" to do to create an animated short film helped me get a good foundation for my ideas, and without a good foundation you can't have a good creation. Hopefully my animation lives up to my expectations, although I know it possibly couldn't, I also know it could also be better than what I expected it to be like and I just need to trust myself and my abilities to get what I want done. In the future I now know to trust myself better and that I should not get caught up with perfection. I know I have big ideas and I love them, but it is unrealistic to believe I could get something like that done with the time I have and materials I have. Some of my ideas would be possible if I put everything I had into it like I would want to, but as the responsibilities of a student you can't just do that. For the future of this class I will finish this, then start on a new project that I will want to finish before the end of either next marking period or middle of next marking period. I plan to finish this animation probably in sometime next moth, towards the beginning of the month or sooner. I want to make up for the lost time of me stuck in my head and come out on top. I would get this animation done as soon as possible, but I have a lot more classes to work on other than this, unfortunately.