Junior Year Reflection

Overview 

Throughout this year I have improved significantly and learned not only how to make models that look better but models that are cleaner overall with clean UVS and geometry. Coming in to this year I thought I had a good grasp on basic modeling but I quickly learned that my models were full of messy geometry that would make things more difficult in the long run. The seniors in the class pushed me to et better and helped teach me about new tools and other ways to keep my models simple and still be able get them looking how I want. The year has been full of exploration and has helped set me up for success next year. 

Technical Skills 

My technical skills have vasty improved this year starting with just a basic knowledge from the what we learned last year. As i progressed through the year I picked up new skills with every project ending with learning a brand new program. I began to look into learning Mudbox when I noticed the limitations that Maya had on getting good textures and sculpted details on my models. My first project I have started using Mudbox on is my dragon model. I started by modeling a base in Maya and then converting it to Mudbox to begin sculpting it. I learned how to create layers in Mudbox to give more control over sculpted areas and how pronounced they show up on the model along with how to add basic textures and stamps to the model. I also used what I learned about modeling to create the basic model for this project. One of the major skills I learned was how to merge 2 pieces of a mesh together. By creating parts separate from each other they are easier to model but then the problem is putting them together. Using the merge tool on separate vertexes and pulling them together I merge the meshes together. Finally the major tool that I used was the smooth tool. This tool takes the existing geometry of the mesh and split it up into four parts each. This smooths out the mesh giving it a more life like look. This is needed for the project because the dragon must look realistic unlike the mechanical models I made earlier in the year like my T rex project. 

Collaboration 

This year we only had one project where we were working in groups so my main lessons in collaboration were how to work with others to improve my own projects, get help on how to do something, or get inspired on what to do next. The seniors in our class were able to help me learn more of the tools in Maya and improve upon my projects. Through collaboration my projects were able to go beyond the original concepts and become more than i thought they would be but more importantly through critics from other students I learned how to improve my projects in the future.  This is important because being able to talk to others about how to get better and improve projects. We did have one group project where we had to collaborate with other students to create a coherent project. With this project we were trying to create a children's educational video that would teach counting and simple fractions. When collaborating on the project we had to try to match each others style so that the end result would look like it went together and not like it was hastily pieced together.

Communication 

Communication this year has mostly consisted about being able to give and take constructive feedback. We presented our projects to the class for our first major project and gave each other feedback, this was very helpful because we could see what other people's views were and what they thought we were doing well and what we were struggling with. the communications aspect of the class also prepares us for a career in the filed because good communication between people is essential to creating a coherent result on projects. On our group project our group communication feel apart part way through the project which made it difficult for everyone to know what they needed to get done and by when.  This resulted in the project never getting finished. With better communication the project would have gone a lot smoother and most likely gotten done.   

Project management 

This year my project management skills have gone up in leaps and bounds from where they started. Coming into this class I thought my project management was pretty good but I had never done projects to the scale I did this year. Our first big project took a lot longer than I though it would partially due to bad planning on my part. I had a rough plan from the start with some basic sketches of the T rex I was going to model but had not planned for the change in style from drawing to model. Going into the project I knew very little about how to do what I wanted leading to large amounts of time spent correcting things or looking up videos on how to do them. This was not included into my initial estimates for how long it would take. I had to adjust by spending time outside of class on my project making sure it was done by the deadline. In the future I will plan things out better and set benchmarks to hit so I stay on task and know I am progressing at the rate I need too. This allows me to correct things early on and not wait tell the end to make up for lost time.

Leadership 

Leadership is one of the guarantees that is going to come into play a a lot next year as a senior being expected to lead and help teach the juniors. This year I have learned about leadership from the current seniors how have done a good job taking me under their wing and helping to pass on what they have learned. Since I am the only one who knows how to use Mudbox I will have to take leadership on teaching that to the new juniors or the seniors who don't know it. 

Conclusion 

To conclude, this year has been full of learning and new challenges that were tackled with help from those more knowledgable than me and through youtube. I have learned immense amounts this year and my work level has risen significantly throughout the year. My starting projects for next year have been set up and I will be able to hit next year with a running start.  

1st Semester Reflection

Overview

This semester has been full of challenges, victories and above all huge leaps and bounds in ability and learning. The main focus of this semester has been experimenting with both 2d and 3d and finding the pros and cons of both to further narrow down what I would like to do. The 2 hour class period has done wonders to productivity and the sheer amount of work I have been able to get dome is amazing and it dosen't feel like work. As class goes on i notice my work growing in complexity and my drive to make things better grows stronger and stronger to see what is the best my work can be. 

Quarter 1

1st quarter my projects were focused on 3d and mainly on the modeling aspect of that. I learned how to rig my models and started trying out walk cycles and creating and environment for my model also.  The quarter was also good for getting used to how to plan out my projects and for getting familiar with how much time goes into the projects so I can more accurately estimate the time a project will take.

Scrap

The quarter was dominated by my robot walk cycle project that then crossed over into 2nd quarter but the final project was much better than I had originally hoped for. With this project I learned new techniques for splitting up my workspace in Maya that i can now apply to all my future projects. I also became more familiar with the creation of textures for my models and how much a good coloring can set the model apart and help bring it to life. The final project was called Scrap due to the junkyard feeling I was trying to get from the project. I took inspiration from the Pixar movie Wall-e for my environment and then put my own spin off it by creating watch towers and other touches. While First Quarter of this project was dominated by the walk cycle and model of itself the start of second quarter was used to focus on the environment and lighting that help bring the scene to life. This project helped show me how much an environment can add to a project. The intro and finishing scenes on my project helped me give it a completed look and have a little fun experimenting with how to make these normally dull scenes more interesting. One of the things I loved about this project was that now that I have he models of the moon and watchtower I can use them in the future when needed and do not need to remake them. The final product turned out great and was able to help set the pace for 2nd quarter and the rest of the year. 

2nd Quarter

The start of my 2nd quarter was sent on finishing up my scrap project and then we moved on to a rotoscoping project. Rotoscoping is the process of tracing over video frames to create a frame by frame animation. This project was out of my comfort zone because I usually work with 3D and not 2D animation and because I used a Wacom drawing pad to create and draw my frames. This is the 2nd time I have used the pad on a project and the first time I have used it for a major portion of a project, but overall the experience was rewarding and fun. This quarter was spent mostly on the rotoscope project after starting to plan out a new modeling project.

Robo Rex Project 

As I was in between projects I began preliminary sketches for my project that would come after rotoscoping. While working on scrap  one of the problems I ran into was that my base sketches were not detailed enough and to scale with each other making work on the project more difficult. Since this model will be a full robotic T-Rex and is much more complicated then the simplistic robot I decided planning it out more throughly would be helpful. I started laying out the whole body and individual parts so that modeling from the drawings would be easier.

Rotoscope

My major project for 2nd quarter was to create a rotoscope that is loop-able with the option to add on a little before the loop to create more of a story. My original idea was to create a story of someone running away from a raptor through the jungle to eventually come across a locked door and pounding on the door to try and get in. The loop would be of them pounding on the door. due to time the final product is just the character running up to the door and then banging on it trying to get in. While working on this project I learned how time consuming drawing each frae can be and that the drawing tablet make things much easier. One of the major struggles was the original footage was blurry in parts making it difficult to draw over especiallythe hands of the character. I really enjoyed drawing out the background and getting familiar with the tablet was cool. I can apply my use of the tablet to later projects when making textures for my 3D models. This project was fun but I would prefer 3D animation and will most likely not continue to build on it and finish the story. My finished product is a little choppy with the cycle and I think it can be fixed with more work and time committed to it. 

Conclusion

As the semester comes to a close I feel that I have made leaps and bounds from where I was at the start of the year. Many of the things that I have learned this semester are generalized and can help in almost all my projects in the future. My foundation is growing and I have hope of starting to model the T-Rex project next semester and will need the foundational skills i've learned this year in order to be successful with this project and many more to come.

Quater 1 Animation

Fish Project

Overview 

Our second project was to model and rig a fish and then animate it swimming. This project was intended to teach us how to rig a model and how to paint weights. The basic rigging of the fish was easy but painting all the weights so that the limbs moved correctly was difficult and rather tedious. 

This project was extremely helpful because rigging and painting weights is vital to character animation and is needed to move and animate all 3D modeled characters.

The Plan

To start the process I brainstormed fish ideas and decided on one and then sketched it out (seen right). I also started looking for videos o fish swimming so that I could see the type of movement involved for when I began to animate. 

The Model

To create my fish model I started with a rectangle and then moved around the actor points to create a rough shape of the fish. Next I cut my model in half so that I could work on only one side at a time and mirror it later. I then extruded out the fins and the tail. Next I created an eye socket and placed the eye into the socket by making a sphere. I then mirrored my fish over so that the two sides were identical. My next step was creating the bones (or rigging) of   my fish and painting the weights so that everything moved and pulled right.

The Animation

To start animating my fish I created key frames on the fins and tail to make them move back and forth as the fish would swim. I then created a motion path that I would make the fish follow. Finally I parented the fish to a null (invisible object) and then made it follow the motion path. 

Robot Model and Rig

Overview 

The focus of my robot model project is to practice my rigging and weight painting for more complicated movement. This project will help me learn how to model with animation in mind and making the model rig friendly. The end goal is to create a walk cycle for the robot and learn more about animation in Maya through the use of rigging.

   The Plan

I started by looking at many different models of robots that other people had done and finding a design I liked. I then used this idea to start making basic sketches (seen left) of what my robot was going to look like. I also started looking at what coloring I could put on the robot and how I was going to make the coloring. (pictured above) the original idea I found was for a very basic robot model but had the potential to have lots of character based upon the coloring. This was perfect because it would allow me to focus mainly on the walking and rigging and then coloring instead of spending a lot of time on the basic model. 

Modeling 

To start modeling my robot I put my reference images into Maya so that I could look off them while starting to model. I then began modeling my robot by using basic shapes and altering them slightly. I only modeled one arm, leg, and antennae because I could then mirror them over creating an identical copy on the other side.  I then started to put in a basic skeleton for my robot (seen left) keeping in mind how I was going to want it to move. 

 Coloring

To begin coloring my robot I took screen shots of the two surfaces I was going to create colors for, the face and chest. I then took these screenshots into photoshop and began testing out colors. I settled on a brown base with blue for the accents and then a variety of grey for plating and screws. Next I started to layer shapes getting gradually lighter to create the illusion of depth on the eyes and chest. I finished by adding the plating and screws onto them giving it a robotic look. Finally I imported the images into Maya and used the uv editor to line up the coloring onto my model and then used the coloring tools in Maya for the simpler coloring in the rest of the model. 

Animating

To start the process of animating I painted the weights on all the rigging so that the parts f my model moved right. Then I used this video to start creating the walk cycle on the legs of my robot. once I had the basics of the walk cycle I moved on the make the arms swing with the legs and also added a head turn at the end. I am currently working on sharpening the walk cycle and creating a bob as the robot walks so that it is more realistic.

End of Year Reflection- Animation

Leadership 

One valuable take away from this year in the leadership guarantee is learning how to work with difficult people when in a leadership role of a group. While working on the final project I was the main one in my group telling people which parts they needed to get done and planing what we would do an when. Some people in my group were difficult to work with and I knew that I couldn't assign them as much because it wouldn't get done. these people also made getting filming and adding our special effects more difficult but it helped me learn how to be patient and how to assign work as a leader. We needed up finishing our project and even though there were difficulties the overall learning experience was worth it. 

Technical Skills

One valuable thing I have learned in the technical guarantee is learning how to use Maya. Last year for 3D modeling we used Google Sketch Up which is very different from Maya, which we used this year. Learning how to use Maya was a fun part of the class and it was cool to see how many different things you can do with the program and being able to make something from nothing is also vey cool to see. There were many struggles while learning Maya because the program can be very confusing and may start acting up for weird reasons so it was very frustrating. I had to learn it takes patience and also good organization but sometimes the program still would act up. This program was great to learn and the 3D modeling was one of my favorite parts of the year.

Communication

One valuable thing I have learned in the communication guarantee is learning how to ask good questions and explain a situation. Because we had to learn two completely new programs in this class and had to learn a lot of new things in the programs there were lots of difficulties and sings could go wrong very easily. I had to learn how to ask my partners or teacher for help but knowing how to ask and phrase a question is important to getting the answer you need. Being able to clearly communicate the problem and ask a question phrased in the right way will save a lot of time in finding a solution. 

Project Management

One valuable thing I have learned in the project management guarantee is learning how to stay organized while working on a project and keeping everything orderly so that it is easy to find. While working on projects there were often so many elements that it would get confusing and often times if you weren't organized things would go wrong. By learning how to keep my projects more organized it made things easier to work with and helped make the  projects go quicker and with less complications. I also learned that keeping thing orderly in storage is important because I didn't have a very organized desktop which led to some problems finding files I needed. 

Collaboration 

One valuable thing I learned this year from the collaboration guarantee is that sometimes working with a group is better than working by myself I usually prefer to work by myself but some of the projects required working in groups or getting others input in order to finish. One example of this is the final project which was much larger than anything I could have done by myself in the required time frame. I had to collaborate with the rest of my team and make sure everything got done and was done well.

Strengths and Weaknesses 

My biggest strength this year would be that I picked up on the programs pretty quickly and didn't have a whole lot of trouble learning how to do the things we needed to learn. My biggest weakness was I was to ambitious on some of my projects and took on more than I could get done leading me to not finish everything and have lower quality work. 

Conclusion 

In conclusion this year was full of a lot of new things that brought many challenges but I learned a lot about how to finish thing and how to work with others. My favorite part of the class was the 3D modeling and I also liked the special effects. I wish there had been more freedom in the class and that we had more time on some of the projects. 

The Present review

What I watched

I watched the animated short The Present by Jacob Frey. this short is about a boy who receives a dog from his mom as a present but he docent like it because the dog only has 3 legs. The boys disappointment is obvious but as the dog runs around chasing a ball he starts to like the dog more. The short ends with him getting off the coach to go play outside with the dog reveling that the kid has only 1 leg and must use crutches to walk.

Animation Breakdown 

This animation does a very good job with its story line and keeping the interest of the viewer. ease in and out is also used in this animation. Arcs are used make the boy and dog look more realistic. Since both the dog and the kid are natural things they will have arcs in their movement which is needed to make them look realistic and the animator did a good job of adding arcs and making sure their movements are believable and not robotic. The animation exaggerate certain aspects especially with the dog to emphasize the face that it is missing a leg but still make it look cute. By exaggerating the dog tripping and falling when trying to run it helps the audience connect to the dog and make it likable which helps the viewer also connect with the kid as he slowly warms up to the dog. One example of this is when the dog is chasing the ball and trips, it does a complete roll after tripping which would not actually happen instead a real dog would most likely face plant by adding this it makes the dog tripping something cute and likable not something bad.

My Application 

One thing in this animation that I have already learned is story development. The story did a great job of developing and concluding it's story in a short amount of time which can be hard to do. While working on my 2D story animation I learned just how difficult it can be to develop a story in an animated short and story holes can ruin your animation. A good story needs to have a problem, rising action, a climax and falling action all of which this animation had. If I could take one thing from this animation and apply it to my work it would be the use of exaggeration. The animation did an amazing job of using exaggeration to convey the story and make everything work and it is something I don't do a lot in my animations,

Conclusion

In conclusion this animated short was very good and was able to tell a great story through a very short amount of time and was able to keep my interest. I can take away from this short how the uses of exaggeration and arcs can make my animations not only more realistic but also more interesting to watch and can help the audience connect with my animation. 

The Present from Jacob Frey on Vimeo.

End of Year Reflection- Video

Leadership 

One valuable take away from this year in the leadership guarantee is learning how to step up and lead a group to keep everyone one track. During our video trailer project I was the director and had to step up and lead our group to make sure our video got done in time. I normal don't like to lead the group and it can be difficult depending on who is in your group but this is an important skill. Sometimes in life you will have to step up and be the leader. While leading my group I learned that sometime as the leader you can't make everyone in your group happy you have to do what is best for the group and what will help get stuff done. 

Technical Skills

One valuable thing I have learned in the technical guarantee is learning how video filters can enhance the overall look of your video. Without video filter the coloring and lighting can have a drastic effect in how your clips look making them not look like the go together and are part of a complete film. Te use of video filters not only helps the video clips look like they belong together but also helps set the mood for scenes and make the film more interesting. While first learning how to apply filters to my videos I struggled with chasing which filter to use and how to color correct it and I also thought it took to much time and wasn't worth it. After seeing one of my videos with filters on it I was able to see how much of a difference it makes and that the time is worth it and it will help the overall video.

Communication

One valuable thing I have learned in the communication guarantee is learning how important communication is to the overall success of a project. At the beginning of the year all the groups I was in struggled with communication and it lead to a lot of confusion in who was supposed to do what, this made the projects hard to finish on time and there were a lot of rushed parts. For our final project my group did a great job communicating and it made things a lot easier because everyone knew what was going on each day and we all knew what was expected of us. Or shortfall got finished on time and we got everything we wanted done finished due in part to our communication making things easier. 

Project Management

One valuable thing I have learned in the project management guarantee is learning how scheduling and having a project planed out before you start is very helpful and makes everything easier. When doing projects at the start of the year I wouldn't prepare for it as well as I should have and when doing my first entertainment video I didn't story board as much as I should have which made working on the project much harder and made it very difficult to complete the project on time. While working on the short film my group spent a lot of time on story boarding and planning out when we would shoot what making it very smooth from the start and helping us get everything done. Spending this extra time at the start made managing the project easy and helped us make our video higher quality.

Collaboration 

One valuable thing I learned this year from the collaboration guarantee is that although collaboration might not always something I want to do it does help get projects dine faster and get higher quality of work. Almost every project this year we worked with one or multiple partners and although it may not have been my favorite thing I would not have been able to do the projects by myself. When a group works well together it makes everything about the project go faster and smoother but the group working well is not a one person thing everyone has to put effort into it.

Strengths and Weaknesses 

My greatest strength would be that I can finish all my work in a timely manner and when I have things planned out I can get high quality work done in low amounts of time. I am efficient with my work and know how to manage my time well. My greatest strength would be sometime I am a perfectionist and will spend to much time on parts of the project and have unrealistic goals. This can cause frustration and often leads to having to rush at the end because I spent to much time on a single part. I have improved over the year because I have been able to keep a finished not perfect mindset allowing me to come back to things if I have extra time and not spend tons of time on them that I don't have.

Conclusion 

In conclusion I e-comm this year has overall been very fun and informative but I would change a few things. If I were in charge I would outline expectations and deadlines at the start of each project instead of halfway through, I would also show student examples that worked and didn't work for each project at the start of a project. There are many thing I did enjoy about this year including many film projects and how even when the class wasn't fun and we couldn't see why we were having to do something we knew everything would ultimately help us and had some purpose.

How to Prolong a Frame

Overview 

While working on videos sometimes it is necessary to freeze a frame and prolong it's time on the screen. This can be used in films to leave room for special effects, make things dramatic, or can add many other moods to the film. This relates to animation because when using special effects freezing the frame can be helpful and i recently used it while working with an explosive ending for one of my films.

Who

This technique is useful to both ametures and professional because of its simplicity but still being helpful for a variety of uses. Any one can follow this tutorial and find out how to use this simple technique to enhance their films.

How to

1. Left click in the project box to import your clip that you are going to use.

2. Left click the clip and chose make composition out of selected to get your project started. 

3. Drag the time bar to the part of the clip you want it to freeze at.

4. Left click the clip and chose time then choose freeze frame. 

5. Your scene should be frozen now and where ever on the time line you look it should stay as the frame you wanted. 

6. Now drag the clip you are using into your compostiton again so that you now have the same clip in there twice.

7. Now on the time line drag the top clip's (non frozen one)

timeline so that it stops where you want the frame to freeze.

8. the clip now should play up until the freeze point 

where t will then end and the frozen frame will continue for how ever long you would like.