So now there are things moving and scene changes. I call that progress.
http://vimeo.com/40636514
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Thursday, April 12, 2012
It's got style.
So this is an introduction to my final film. It shows the style for the rest of my film.
http://vimeo.com/40199367
http://vimeo.com/40199367
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Ruminating. . .
Um, wait. There's an easy part to animation?
There are always things that are easier than others, but most things that seem easy either a.) weren't really done right the first time or b.) got easier with practice. As for right now, for me, it's not really that animation is crazy hard or difficult to understand, it's that it takes a lot of patience, thought, and time in order to complete a fun-to-watch well-crafted animation. I am slightly lacking in the patience category and completely broken in the time category which also affects my thought process. So if you were to ask me, animation is not hard. Learning animation is hard.
I have just finished shooting for my second animation film in which the only requirement was to create an object based film using stop motion. Stop motion is a time consuming process like all animation, but not only does it take a long time to create, most likely all the work has to be shot at one time. In my case, I made things even harder on myself because I chose to do a stop motion animation outside dealing with things like the melting sun and miniature whirlwinds. It was only a plastic bottle who wanted to be recycled, but by the end of shooting, doing the ending of the film was my favorite part. When I finish the film, you will understand. I have shot the film twice now and I hope to never do it again. That's another hard thing about doing stop motion is that if a scene isn't done right, the whole scene has to be redone because there's no way to go back. That's miserable.
Moving along, there are things that are easier in animation. For instance, creating an idea is easy. Anybody can have a good idea. The hard part is making the idea interesting to watch, but that's another story. The programs for animation now a days make creating an animation easy as long as a person knows and understands how to use the program. Once again, it requires practice to learn the programs, but the general idea for the programs are all the same which makes transitioning between programs and different types of animation much easier. For example, now a days it's much easier to make 3D animation blend with 2D animation or putting live action movement in an animation. I say now a days as if I was actually there, but from what I've heard about how it use to be done, I prefer the method these days.
Animation isn't as easy as a lot of people think it is. Most people just think that "oh, well you just draw a bunch of things multiple times and it makes it move. If I could draw, I'm sure I could do that." To those people, I just wanna say, "Can you draw a stick figure? Then make it move. And make it move well." Then, maybe, they would have a better appreciate for the movies they go see.
There are always things that are easier than others, but most things that seem easy either a.) weren't really done right the first time or b.) got easier with practice. As for right now, for me, it's not really that animation is crazy hard or difficult to understand, it's that it takes a lot of patience, thought, and time in order to complete a fun-to-watch well-crafted animation. I am slightly lacking in the patience category and completely broken in the time category which also affects my thought process. So if you were to ask me, animation is not hard. Learning animation is hard.
I have just finished shooting for my second animation film in which the only requirement was to create an object based film using stop motion. Stop motion is a time consuming process like all animation, but not only does it take a long time to create, most likely all the work has to be shot at one time. In my case, I made things even harder on myself because I chose to do a stop motion animation outside dealing with things like the melting sun and miniature whirlwinds. It was only a plastic bottle who wanted to be recycled, but by the end of shooting, doing the ending of the film was my favorite part. When I finish the film, you will understand. I have shot the film twice now and I hope to never do it again. That's another hard thing about doing stop motion is that if a scene isn't done right, the whole scene has to be redone because there's no way to go back. That's miserable.
Moving along, there are things that are easier in animation. For instance, creating an idea is easy. Anybody can have a good idea. The hard part is making the idea interesting to watch, but that's another story. The programs for animation now a days make creating an animation easy as long as a person knows and understands how to use the program. Once again, it requires practice to learn the programs, but the general idea for the programs are all the same which makes transitioning between programs and different types of animation much easier. For example, now a days it's much easier to make 3D animation blend with 2D animation or putting live action movement in an animation. I say now a days as if I was actually there, but from what I've heard about how it use to be done, I prefer the method these days.
Animation isn't as easy as a lot of people think it is. Most people just think that "oh, well you just draw a bunch of things multiple times and it makes it move. If I could draw, I'm sure I could do that." To those people, I just wanna say, "Can you draw a stick figure? Then make it move. And make it move well." Then, maybe, they would have a better appreciate for the movies they go see.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Progress Report on Recycle
This is the progress report for my second animation film. It is not complete. I still need to finish out the story, do my recording for the ending, figure out some sound, and adjust the pacing. Hopefully I'll have this all done by next tuesday. D:
This is the link to my progress. Just Recycle Me
This is the link to my progress. Just Recycle Me
Thursday, March 15, 2012
The Learning Process
Learning animation is a process. A very long, time-consuming process that makes you hate yourself and your life until you produce a final product that you like. For my blog this week, I've been asked to describe the things that help me learn animation in my animation class and the things that might be hindering me. First, lets talk about the positive.
One of the main things we do in class that helps my animation learning is watching several different types of animations. Not only does this help me analyze what works and what doesn't work when working with animation, but it also shows me several techniques. It's through these animations that I have come to realize that it's not how complicated the animation is that makes a good animation, but it's the story and the intention. Now sometimes a movie can receive a lot of attention because of the technology or complex process used to make the animation, but in the end, it doesn't define whether the actual movie will be good. For example, Avatar received huge amounts of attention because if it's "breakthrough cinematic technology" but all in all, it's a pretty lame movie about Pocahontas. There was no real depth or emotional breakthrough in the film and it just seemed typical. In conclusion, the main thing to learn is that a good animation starts with a good story.
I've also learned more about using animation programs. While we don't actually go step by step into the programs in class, the videos uploaded online and the exercises required for class force me to learn these programs. While I have opted out of learning toon boom and I seriously dislike any 3D program, I have become very familiar with After Effects and how the program works learning about keyframing and timing, etc. The great thing is these ideas don't only work for animation and thus, I've also become a lot faster and more efficient in my video editing in non-animation projects.
There are two things that I find hinder learning in class. The first one is time. It's not anybody's fault, but I just feel there isn't enough time to fully grasp animation at the level I would like to achieve in just one semester. So it's a little disappointing that there is only one class offered at USC. Instead, I think there should be atleast three different animation classes, one covering theory, one covering 2D animation, and the last covering 3D animation. While 3 semesters is still not a lot to cover everything about animation, I think there would be a stronger development of skills if this would be possible. If only people would pay more attention to the art department. We have needs too. In addition, it's also a matter of personal time. Because of other classes and just not needing to spend my life in the labs ALL THE TIME, I don't have as much time as I would like to spend on animation. Yes, I know, that's a personal problem.
Secondly, I think it's just a matter of technical aspects. I have a basic understanding of the programs we use, but I know there are limitless possibilities of things that can be accomplished with these programs. I just don't know how to do it or where to start. I see a lot of great animations in class, but sometimes I don't understand how they were made exactly. A lot of this will have to come with time and doing research outside of class, but once again time is against me, and also procrastination with a hint of laziness.
All in all, I do really enjoy my animation class and its probably one of the only classes I'm taking this semester that I actually take seriously.
One of the main things we do in class that helps my animation learning is watching several different types of animations. Not only does this help me analyze what works and what doesn't work when working with animation, but it also shows me several techniques. It's through these animations that I have come to realize that it's not how complicated the animation is that makes a good animation, but it's the story and the intention. Now sometimes a movie can receive a lot of attention because of the technology or complex process used to make the animation, but in the end, it doesn't define whether the actual movie will be good. For example, Avatar received huge amounts of attention because if it's "breakthrough cinematic technology" but all in all, it's a pretty lame movie about Pocahontas. There was no real depth or emotional breakthrough in the film and it just seemed typical. In conclusion, the main thing to learn is that a good animation starts with a good story.
I've also learned more about using animation programs. While we don't actually go step by step into the programs in class, the videos uploaded online and the exercises required for class force me to learn these programs. While I have opted out of learning toon boom and I seriously dislike any 3D program, I have become very familiar with After Effects and how the program works learning about keyframing and timing, etc. The great thing is these ideas don't only work for animation and thus, I've also become a lot faster and more efficient in my video editing in non-animation projects.
There are two things that I find hinder learning in class. The first one is time. It's not anybody's fault, but I just feel there isn't enough time to fully grasp animation at the level I would like to achieve in just one semester. So it's a little disappointing that there is only one class offered at USC. Instead, I think there should be atleast three different animation classes, one covering theory, one covering 2D animation, and the last covering 3D animation. While 3 semesters is still not a lot to cover everything about animation, I think there would be a stronger development of skills if this would be possible. If only people would pay more attention to the art department. We have needs too. In addition, it's also a matter of personal time. Because of other classes and just not needing to spend my life in the labs ALL THE TIME, I don't have as much time as I would like to spend on animation. Yes, I know, that's a personal problem.
Secondly, I think it's just a matter of technical aspects. I have a basic understanding of the programs we use, but I know there are limitless possibilities of things that can be accomplished with these programs. I just don't know how to do it or where to start. I see a lot of great animations in class, but sometimes I don't understand how they were made exactly. A lot of this will have to come with time and doing research outside of class, but once again time is against me, and also procrastination with a hint of laziness.
All in all, I do really enjoy my animation class and its probably one of the only classes I'm taking this semester that I actually take seriously.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Reception
The official viewing for my first animation film happened this past Tuesday. I must say it was pretty terrifying waiting for my turn. My professor can be quite intimidating, not because what he says isn't true, but because what he says is like a slap in the face. But in a good way. Like a slap-in-the-face that wakes you up and gets your head on straight. Nevertheless, I am so glad I wasn't first. I'm one of those people that likes to see other people's work first so that I can kind of see where my work places. Knowing where my work is helps to prepare myself for what kind of reaction my work will have. Should I beg and plead others not to destroy it? Should I give a warning of terribleness before it begins? Should I play it cool? Those sorts of things.
Overall, I don't think my work was bad. Compared to some, I can definitely feel better about the effort I put into the work and the time I spent on it. I don't think the piece got very much reaction in class for a couple reasons. One, many of them had already seen most of the animation during progress day since I was already halfway through the piece by then. Two, I didn't have sound in my piece. I'll discuss this a bit more in a bit. And third, the pacing on my piece was a bit off. There were some unnecessary scenes and some scenes ran a bit long so the joke got a little distracted. By the end of the class period, my professor was not happy with the results of the animations. He did say that "most" had potential [I will not discuss the epic fail of the bat and the scarecrow, but my mind = blown. Not in a good way.], but there was still work to be done for these animations to be portfolio worthy. I agree with him. He decided to give us the opportunity to redo our first animation to not only receive a better grade, but also I think to give us the opportunity to show him what we've really got.
As for my redo, there are a couple things I plan on changing. First and foremost, it needs sound. I know it needed sound, but honestly I don't know that much about sound design. I haven't had that much experience actually building a sound envelope and I wasn't sure where to start. I was afraid the piece wouldn't flow very well and so I just opted out of sound all together. For the redo, I'm definitely going to tackle sound. I have a couple ideas to drag the piece along, but there are some moments where I'm not sure what sound to use if any at all. I know what I'm working on for my spring break. -.- My next plan is I'm shortening the time sequence in the piece. I portrayed the time piece this way because we're not allowed to have text, but I think the piece just got a little long winded and annoying. So I plan on fixing this issue. Finally, I'm going to take another look at the beginning of the piece and try to clean up the animation, change the point of view, and remove unnecessary scenes. If I can pull all this off, I think this piece should clean up very well.
As for my next project, I'm still at a lost really. I know what I need to do and I've managed to collect all the props I need, but since this is my first stop motion, I know I'm going to have to redo this several times. I also plan on putting sound in this piece the first time I submit it, but I'm also at a lost as to what the sound design should be like. I have a lot of work to do. So while everyone else is taking a break and going to the beach on spring break, I'll be home. Making animations. Yay.
BTW, here's my Scarred For Life animation completed. I forgot to post the final piece earlier.
Scarred For Life from Brandi Palmer on Vimeo.
Overall, I don't think my work was bad. Compared to some, I can definitely feel better about the effort I put into the work and the time I spent on it. I don't think the piece got very much reaction in class for a couple reasons. One, many of them had already seen most of the animation during progress day since I was already halfway through the piece by then. Two, I didn't have sound in my piece. I'll discuss this a bit more in a bit. And third, the pacing on my piece was a bit off. There were some unnecessary scenes and some scenes ran a bit long so the joke got a little distracted. By the end of the class period, my professor was not happy with the results of the animations. He did say that "most" had potential [I will not discuss the epic fail of the bat and the scarecrow, but my mind = blown. Not in a good way.], but there was still work to be done for these animations to be portfolio worthy. I agree with him. He decided to give us the opportunity to redo our first animation to not only receive a better grade, but also I think to give us the opportunity to show him what we've really got.
As for my redo, there are a couple things I plan on changing. First and foremost, it needs sound. I know it needed sound, but honestly I don't know that much about sound design. I haven't had that much experience actually building a sound envelope and I wasn't sure where to start. I was afraid the piece wouldn't flow very well and so I just opted out of sound all together. For the redo, I'm definitely going to tackle sound. I have a couple ideas to drag the piece along, but there are some moments where I'm not sure what sound to use if any at all. I know what I'm working on for my spring break. -.- My next plan is I'm shortening the time sequence in the piece. I portrayed the time piece this way because we're not allowed to have text, but I think the piece just got a little long winded and annoying. So I plan on fixing this issue. Finally, I'm going to take another look at the beginning of the piece and try to clean up the animation, change the point of view, and remove unnecessary scenes. If I can pull all this off, I think this piece should clean up very well.
As for my next project, I'm still at a lost really. I know what I need to do and I've managed to collect all the props I need, but since this is my first stop motion, I know I'm going to have to redo this several times. I also plan on putting sound in this piece the first time I submit it, but I'm also at a lost as to what the sound design should be like. I have a lot of work to do. So while everyone else is taking a break and going to the beach on spring break, I'll be home. Making animations. Yay.
BTW, here's my Scarred For Life animation completed. I forgot to post the final piece earlier.
Scarred For Life from Brandi Palmer on Vimeo.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Butterfly Wish
STORYBOARD TIME. Again. -.-
So for the final film, there are no guidelines. Scary. Originally this story was suppose to be inspired by a poem by Pablo Neruda, but as I went along the idea kinda morphed into my own thing. This story is about unrequited love with a bittersweet end. My idea is to create the entire piece with paper stop motion, but we'll see if I come to hate myself later for it.
And just in case, Google Docs decides to be stupid, here's the link. https://docs.google.com/presentation/pub?id=18iUxRk_NBjMiNm_4jEOf_5syIVuZmSpRwRFhB4gy_QE&start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000
So for the final film, there are no guidelines. Scary. Originally this story was suppose to be inspired by a poem by Pablo Neruda, but as I went along the idea kinda morphed into my own thing. This story is about unrequited love with a bittersweet end. My idea is to create the entire piece with paper stop motion, but we'll see if I come to hate myself later for it.
And just in case, Google Docs decides to be stupid, here's the link. https://docs.google.com/presentation/pub?id=18iUxRk_NBjMiNm_4jEOf_5syIVuZmSpRwRFhB4gy_QE&start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000
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