A Review of the Semester

Hey everyone! Are you ready for the final blog post of the semester? Overall, I have learned a lot about what to do and what not to do with animation. I started off the year with a 3-D class project, then dove into the 2-D world with rotoscoping, which took up almost half the semester. (I may not try rotoscoping again since it took too long to animate.) After that, I decided to make something quick and animate a Christmas card. (If you look at my previous post, there is more information about it.) Let's review what I've learned, shall we?

3-D Class Project- Animating a Fish

I liked animating the fish, but I had a few problems with it. From painting skin weights to forming it into a polygon to creating bones to make certain parts move to rigging, it had been a while since I modeled in Maya. I have not animated in Maya since Sophomore year, so it took me a while to figure out what I had to do to make it the way I wanted it to look. (I drew a picture of a fish before animating for reference) One of the troubles I had was trying to make the tail move back and forth and make the fish look like it was actually swimming. I also had to UV map the fish, which means I had to color it in Photoshop and import it to Maya to place on the fish. Sometimes when I imported it, the map would not appear on the fish or it would completely disappear. I had to ask the teacher for help a lot of the time, but I ended up figuring it out. Then, after the UV mapping step was done, I had to rig it, which allows you to move your character. That also took me a while to figure out how to move both of its fins and tail. If I had to redo it over again, I would take more time to animate the fish. I felt like I rushed through it, but that was because we had to start a new project of our own soon.

Before the color of the fish. (Pic found on Google)

Completed UV map of fish, which was then
textured to animate.

Before the UV map of the fish
(Colored in Photoshop)

Fish complete with skin and bones to rig.

This is the completed fish. You can see from the pictures

above that the UV map was textured to look like the fish

I made in Photoshop. 

Individual Project- The Rotoscoped Music Video

Oh boy, do I have a lot to say about this one. Lots of repetitive work, but so much fun. As stated in my previous blog posts about this animation, I filmed it like an actual music video and then drew over the clips frame by frame in Photoshop. I used the song "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead" by the Crash Test Dummies and Ellen Reid. I had my cinematographer, Jason McFarland, my main actor, Drew McCall, and various extras. My teacher also told me that since my idea was original, I could draw a pumpkin on his head. I had found that the original video already had a character with a pumpkin for a head, but he told me to go ahead and create the rotoscoped pumpkin head anyway.

It took me about two months worth of work.

I outlined each object in black and colored in various details. (I realized later on in the project you can use the Paint Bucket Tool as a shortcut to color an object in. It saved me about a couple days of work.) I also learned an object with minimal movement, like a wall, can be positioned or scaled to where you want it in your scene. You don't have to rotoscope too many details, which saved me a bit of time. But an object, like me for example, had to be drawn over every single time I moved. Yep, it was a crud load of work. I was going to try and finish 2 verses of the song, but I realized later on I wouldn't have time for it. My goal was to finish the first verse, but I wouldn't have time for that either. I had to skip a couple shots, but it the other shots I completed went with my story. There were a few problems, but nothing major, but since I was new to rotoscoping, I asked my teacher for help several times to see what I can do to make it look a little bit better. I remember in my third shot I had to copy and paste my main actors' arm and put it on the other side of his body to follow his original arm. (While filming, the mask kept breaking off, so I told him to cover the mask with his other hand so one arm could be free for various gestures.) I also had help with my fourth shot where my main actor is moving around in a circle. That was where it got a bit tricky with the pumpkin head. My teacher told me to make it look like a 3-D layer and move his eyes and lines from the pumpkin head to different positions frame by frame. I moved the lines with each new frame.

In all, the project lasted barely a minute. That's what rotoscoping can do to you. I edited it in iMovie and some of the shots got cut off because of transitions, but that's okay. The point is this- I worked hard on this project and I am happy with the results.

Speaking of which, here is a before and after of a scene. See the differences in filming and the 2-D world? The background characters were not moving very much, which led me to draw over them with a regular layer and position them anywhere in the scene. But with Drew, I used a video layer which allows you to draw over all the frames and make your character come alive.

                                                                   Before

Since I wanted to give enough time for my character, we filmed the video for 16 seconds. That would determine what gestures would work with the line in the song when I edited it. The line was "spreading wisdom and..." The next shot cuts to "cash around." Look to find my final video in my other blogs.


                                                                         After

As you can see in this video, this particular shot was only 6 seconds long. I felt that my main actor's personality would fit with the line in the song during post-production.

Individual Project- A Christmas Card

This is the last mini project I made for the semester. Since I would not have time to animate a big project, I decided to get into the Christmas spirit and make a greeting card. I made it in Photoshop, colored it in the usual Christmas colors, and converted it into a PDF to print out. (I had to ask my teacher for help to get a quarter inch crop around the page.) Later, I animated the snowflakes and the lettering on the banner to make it look a little festive. You can take a look at my previous blog post about my card and see the video there. It only took me a few days and it was meant to be quick since we had finals coming up and I wanted to take it easy. Here is the final video again.

I'll start with some new animations next semester.

Happy Holidays!

Hey everybody! I was in the process of thinking of a new project, but I realized I would not have time to animate it before the end of the semester. Originally, I was going to animate for a scholarship based on a Don't Text and Drive PSA. Because of the time constraint, I decided to make something quick and animate a Christmas card. (I will be completing the PSA next semester.) There weren't any problems that I know of, but I did have a bit of difficulty trying to get the right width and height so it would print out like an actual card.


It's just the right time for the season! Hope you all have a good Christmas!

FINAL VIDEO!

I know I haven't posted a lot about my project lately, but I'm finally done with it! There were a few shots I had to redo due to color reasons. I took me a while to edit the sound with the video and I had to cut some of the sound, including parts of the shots, because the timing was not correct, so you can probably notice and hear a few cuts. Think of it like this-it's almost like a teaser trailer to a movie! You cannot even begin to imagine how long the whole process took, but hey, a lot of hard work goes a long way.

I hope you enjoy the video! The video is based on the song by the Crash Test Dummies and Ellen Reid called "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead". I filmed it like an actual music video and then I imported the clips into Photoshop to draw over.

My Project So Far (UPDATE: SHOT 4 COMPLETE)

Hey everyone! My project is going along swimmingly, although it's taking quite a bit of work to get there. I am still consistent with my goal of one shot per week, although I'm taking about getting he first verse done by November. As you can see by my previous posts about this project, I have given a description of my project and uploaded storyboards. The video is a bit different than the storyboards, and that's okay. It does not have to follow them exactly.

Here's how it goes down it Photoshop-I open up the video, make a layer copy, then I make individual layers for the outlines and colors. It's not easy work, and it is taking a while to get the shot how I want it to be. With camera movement, I have to keyframe each outline to stay in place.

In the third shot, I learned how to make a mask layer and copy and paste it to my main actor. (During shooting, the elastic kept ripping from the mask so I told my actor to hold the whole mask with one hand. I drew over his free hand and that's why I had to copy and paste it later.) I also learned that you don't have to worry about minimal movement. If something is not moving as much, just use one layer. Use video layers to actually rotoscope maximum movement. It's much easier and you don't have to go through all the pain of drawing every single detail. (Well, I like to pay attention to detail, anyway. Nothing wrong with that.)

I also learned to work as a team for this project. You can't get everything done in one day, but I filmed my actors' and extras' scenes during my Seminar time at school. (I also used up another time after school for different extras and my actor for only a few scenes.) I learned how to be a director and work with a cameraman.

I would not do anything the same since my shots are all different. What I could do differently, though, is try and not make it as hard on myself. I pay way too much attention to little details, and it always takes me a long time to fix them. I could also find a shortcut for drawing back and forth on each frame. (Hopefully there's a way!)

And this is just the start of it. For now, enjoy these 3 shots I have to share. After all my shots are rotoscoped, I will edit with music in After Effects. I have loved making this project and it challenges my animation skills really well. Let me know what you think of the shots! Watch these videos without sound. Music will be added soon.

The very first shot. In this one, I used one regular layer for the buildings and positioned/keyframed it. 

I used a video layer to rotoscope myself since the camera zooms in. MUTE THE SOUND.

In this shot, there is little movement at the beginning, but the camera pans at the very end. Since my body is not moving, I rotoscoped myself lip-syncing the words. My head moves too, so I had to focus on that movement. MUTE THE SOUND.

This shot was where I had to use a mask layer to get my actor's arm to be exactly like the actor. I had to ask for help from my teacher at this point, and he scaled the arm to the other side of the body. I have to admit that this shot took longer than my previous ones. MUTE THE SOUND.

Shot 4 is complete! This one took me a while. When my main actor's body turns, I had to make the pumpkin look 3-D. I had to make it look like it was actually moving around his head, which I was successful at. I think this one is my favorite so far. MUTE THE SOUND.

Starting to Rotoscope and My Plan

UPDATE: We are done filming! I will proceed to focus on rotoscoping various environments and how I can manipulate them in Photoshop. It's gonna look pretty cool.

My plan is to finish one shot per week. I have already finished the first shot which I started a week ago from September 14 to September 22nd. I am in the process of completing the second shot. Wish me luck!

Peter Pumpkinhead (Rough Cut)

Hey everybody! Here is my edited rough cut of my storyboarded version of Peter Pumpkinhead. I have already started filming a couple days ago, and I hope to finish filming sometime this week. This is just a rough translation of how I want the video to look like. It does not have to be the exact same as the storyboards. Let me know what you think!

How To Make a Kinetic Typography

Hey everybody! I don't have a video to show yet, but here is a typed tutorial on how to make a kinetic  typography. I believe it is a skill all animators need because it gives you a chance to express yourself through film or song. It is your interpretation of said film or song. But who would ever use it? That's easy-anybody who wants to learn After Effects, loves movies and/or music, and computers!

Here's what you'll need-

• After Effects
• A song or part of a movie to animate to
• Creativity
• Patience-Lots and lots of patience!

Step 1: Do you have After Effects on your computer? Great! Go into After Effects and click on-Composition-New Composition. (You should have a black screen.) Then hover on Layer-New-Solid. You may pick whichever color you choose, but I am personally going to choose red. (It's a pretty bright color!) Here is what it looks like.

Step 2: Now for the fun part! If you add a sound file to animate with, go to File-Import-File, and click on wherever your sound file is. (Desktop, Documents, etc.) You should see it come up in the Project area on the left side of the colored screen. Drag it down to the left side of your composition.

Step 3: Wanna know how to add lettering? Wonder no more! Scroll the mouse to your tool bar. There should be a T icon that is a text button. Click that and type anything on your colored screen. (Since I do not have a song for mine, I will just be adding random words.) I am going to type "Hello." On the right side of your screen, you should see the character screen for your type. You can make it bigger or smaller, spread out or close together. Here are my presets.

Step 4: Now for the greatest part-animating! Go down to wherever your type layer is and click on the arrow facing right. It will give you type and transform options. Click on the transform option. Click on position, which there should be a keyframe already set for you. If you want your type to come from the left side of the screen, hover over your starting keyframe. Move the Current Time Indicator to wherever you want your animation to end. In my case, I will end at 10 frames per second. Then move your type to the center of the screen. It should look like this. (There are also composition settings to where you can shorten your time. Click Composition-Composition Settings, and set your time. It goes from hours to minutes to seconds to frames.

There is also another way you could animate it. Stay on your type layer (mine is "Hello") and go to the icon that looks like a pen. That is your Mask tool, which you can move your type across if you wish. Here is how I have it. You can adjust it to your liking.

When you have it all set, click on the Text option in your type layer, choose Path Options-Path-Mask 1. Your type should be on the left side of the screen. (That is how I have it.) You can also choose Reverse Path to put the type on the other side of the screen. But if you would like to move your type, hover over First Margin, which will make the type go along with the mask. If you want to animate it, go to your 0 frame and click on the First Margin position key. (If you have your Position option still on, delete it.) Bring your type all the way to the right side of the screen on your mask. Then set a keyframe. Here is mine.

Or, as one more example, if you want to add swinging text, here's how to do it. Let's start over and delete our mask. Select Path-None. (You can delete the whole mask then.) Delete your keyframes and bring the Current Time Indicator to 0 frames. I'm going to go ahead and enlarge my type. Turn on your text's 3-D layer. Go to X Rotation, hover/click it, and it should drag down or up. Drag until you can't see it on the horizon line. 

X Rotation is seen here.

This is X Rotation activated. You should barely see it on the horizon line.

Now set a keyframe. Drag the X Rotation key to the left and bring your text 3/4ths of the way to the other side. Set a keyframe. Bring it back up just a little bit from the first keyframe and back down. Repeat this process until it comes all the way up. I rotated mine every 5 frames for consistency. Here is mine.

These are only a few examples on how to make your typography. If you don't want to do tons of work, there are presets already made for you. Just go to the Animation tab-Browse Presets, (which will take you to Adobe Bridge) and there should be tons of various animations to choose from. Remember to click on the text folder. You can choose to animate out or in, blur your type, and other fun options. Just remember to have fun with it! And here is a tip: Remember to animate to the exact time of your song. It can be off just by a fraction of a second. Yes, I know it can be hard the first time you complete it, but trust me- it's going to be fun. Happy Animating!

Thoughts of a New Project and Storyboards

Hey everyone, I'm back! Summer is already gone, but not projects I have in mind. This first quarter project will consist of videography and rotoscoping. I want to complete this project because it is something I am new to, and I love a challenge. As you can see, my project is very ambitious right now. The literature you see is a rough summary of how I want my project to look.

My plan is to make a video based on a song by the Crash Test Dummies' "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead". I hope to start filming on the week of September 8-11 and 14-18. It might not take long to film since I won't use the whole song yet. I will make a schedule based on these dates. I will have a cinematographer, extras, and a main actor to take the place of Peter Pumpkinhead.

After filming, I hope to edit my shots in Final Cut Pro or After Effects. It will be a rough cut. I will finalize everything once I am in Photoshop. When everything is done, I hope to complete the song later on in the year and enter my efforts in a Digital Media competition called E-Magine.

One idea I have for the video is that the main character wears a pumpkin mask. (Hence the song.) Because the original video already has the main character with a pumpkin for a head, I need to bring some originality to it.

This is a rough itinerary of how I want everything to go. I have already made a detailed list of shots for the first verse. I'll get everything rolling by the time September 8-11 or 14-18 comes around, which isn't long.

The storyboards are here if anyone would like to refer to them. Happy animating to me!

Final Blog Post (Green Screen)

SCOPE/GOAL: Our final project in my animation class was a green screen exercise. Since it was only about two weeks before school ended, I decided to make something simple. My project was me in a field and picking up a 2-D animated flower. My goal was to finish before the end of the year and have a better understanding of green screen skills.

PROCESS/LEARNING NEW TOOLS: My concept was simple-I had myself walk around in a field and run over and pick up a flower. I didn't want to make it too long since we were crunched for time. I looked at various movie clips on YouTube for inspiration, including Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Anchors Aweigh, starring Gene Kelly. (There was a specific scene I had in mind that I thought I could recreate. It was the scene where Kelly was dancing with Jerry the Mouse from Tom and Jerry.) I later thought that recreating some of the scenes in the film would take too long, so I stuck with my flower idea.

I storyboarded myself in a grassy field in a short amount of time. Then, when I was ready, I went downstairs to the Green Screen room to film myself, which did not take long at all. After that, I edited my shot in After Effects, complete with the hand drawn flower from Photoshop. Even though it turned out to be 12 seconds long, it took a lot of hard work to determine how I would complete this project. It looks easy, but it is definitely as hard as they say it is. I kept having trouble with making it look like I'm holding the flower. I had to mask the flower numerous times to make look like it is in my hands. (I had to ask for help from the teacher a few times. He was my guide and helped me with masking and keying.) From key framing to masking, I learned quite a bit about incorporating green screen with After Effects. We learned about Keylight, which helps you light your clip. We also learned out Color Key, which also lights and colorizes your clips. Another effect, Simple Choker, helps get rid of the Green Screen bits and pieces that should not be there.

WHAT I LEARNED: Professionally, I learned how to manage myself in a short amount of time. I used my time wisely to work on my project. I also learned how green screen can be used in other ways, like in movies. My teacher showed us various clips that use this criteria, including a how-to video, and I wanted to try and implement the same way that professionals would do.

If I had to do anything differently, I would take my time in thinking of a new idea. I could not help that I had to rush to think of something, but I need to go slow with this type of work. An idea is not going to come to you right then and there.

I would not have done anything the same. Animation always differentiates itself. Next time, I will think of new and creative ways to complete a project like this if I ever get the chance to do it again.

I have learned so much from using the green screen. It was a fun experience with something I have never done before, especially using the camera with it. Maybe I'll use it for a typography or a character animation!'

In conclusion, even though I felt a bit rushed through the project, I had a fun time using the green screen. I did not have a lot of time to do it, but that didn't stop me from finishing it. I always kept track of deadlines and I never got behind. It was interesting to see what the top-notch professionals do with green screen. I learned new things about After Effects that I never knew it had before, like Chroma Keying and masking an object.

And now, my project. Here is the storyboard and final video! The storyboard and video aren't very long, but that's okay! I didn't want to make it too long that I couldn't finish it before the end of the year.

                                         

SEMESTER SUMMARY

For the year and the semester, I would say things turned out pretty well with all my projects. I never lost track of any of my projects or my deadlines. I mostly worked with After Effects all year, and I would say it is a very reliable program. Everything worked well, from typographies to book animations. With my book animation, the book I chose was just right for animating! (Bob and Larry's Silly Slides) Even though there wasn't a lot of movement, I still had tons of fun working on it! Illustrator is a nifty way of drawing over vector-based objects and looked great in After Effects. My group stop motion did a wonderful job and my very first typography hit it out of the park! I also made a typography. stop motion, and I entered my book animation for E-Magine! As luck would have it, my VeggieTales typography got nominated, so I must have done something pretty well to impress the judges! For my fourth quarter project, I feel like the green screen assignment was a bit rushed... At least I have a bit of knowledge on how to do it! I thought my idea worked well. Yes, it was definitely a fun year animation-wise, and I can't wait to see what senior year will bring!

VeggieTales Book Animation (FINAL)

Hello! Finally got my animation done! After a few weeks of figuring out what to do with this animation, I'm pretty satisfied with it! I think the most fun part was painting in Photoshop and drawing in Illustrator!

With After Effects, I utilized a new effect I found-the stroke effect. I scanned the book flaps, painted over them in Photoshop, (I drew them as if a child were drawing the pictures) and used the stroke effect to reveal it in After Effects. I thought it was a very nice touch to my project. I also scanned the book pages in and drew over them in Illustrator as well, then manipulated some objects to move. It only turned out to be a minute long, but that was because the book is pretty short. I also used various camera movements to enhance the animation and follow the characters across the screen. It got a bit frustrating at times with the camera movements, but I managed to get the shots in the correct place. It was a lot of fun to see what I could do with my Illustrator, After Effects and Photoshop skills! 

Enjoy my third quarter animation!

Book Project (Overview and Rough Animation)

Hello! My class is completing a book project for this quarter. We had to think of a book to animate. It has to be short and sweet. We will be later be giving the books we animated to Children's Mercy Hospital.

At first, I was planning on animating Jim Carrey's book How Roland Rolls. As I talked to my teacher about what I should do for the book I realized that, with the excessive details in the book and the complications of animating water, I decided to change my story. I changed to Bob and Larry's Silly Slides by Cindy Kenney! I have always loved VeggieTales, so I thought this would be the perfect animation! The programs I am using are After Effects and Illustrator.

VeggieTales logo for the animation

Here are my storyboards. They aren't exactly like the rough animation, but there are some aspects of it that are similar. These are drawings of how I want the animation to look. I did not add Bob and Larry bouncing on screen for the rough.

Page 1

Page 2

I also used Illustrator to color in the pages. It was fun to see what I could do with this program, since I have never used it before for a project. What you see below are before and after pictures of the book, like this example. I did not draw every single detail in each page. There are some bits and pieces of it that seem crooked, and I will fix those pieces for the final animation.

Before

After

And last but not least, here is the rough animation, fully recorded with sound. This animation is very fun to work on so far, and I can't wait to see what I can do for the final animation!      

I would say my rough animation is okay. It's not the best, but hey-what are rough animations for? It's simply just practice for how you want your final animation to look! As for what I will do for the final, I will make sure it will definitely be better than the rough, using creative camera movements and an effect that will make the flaps pop. I am done with the Illustrator pages, so completing everything and making the animation perfect will be my main plan of attack. I am currently in the process of how I want my new and improved animation to look. I am thinking of moving objects in After Effects and maybe making some typography.