New Typography Project Started

Hey everyone! I am in the middle of working on a new kinetic typography. I have not completed one in a while, so I thought now would be a good time to start a new one. I started it last week and I am making good progress! However, I still might need to change a few things once I get it finished. The song I am using is "Savages" by Marina and the Diamonds. I am a big fan of Marina, and I believe this song conveys a strong message for our world today.

Here are some Illustrator pics for the typography, storyboards, and a test render. These are just some of the criteria mentioned. I believe the final product is going to be great! The storyboards are what I have so far with the test render. I'll add more when I continue working on the animation.

First, here is a test render. I am liking how it's turning out, but I'll need to change a few things later on. Hope you like it!

  

Newspaper for line "You can see it on the news."

Angel Wings for line "As we can be good."

   Sun for line "At the end of the day."

  

Storyboard Page 1

Storyboard Page 2

Add caption

Storyboard Page 3

   

Storyboard Page 4

  

Storyboard Page 5

Storyboard Page 6

Off to College!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2i528N2yDc&feature=youtu.be

This was a project I made for my animation class and something I wanted to complete for a media festival. It is about a girl who is going off to college, but is nervous about what the journey will bring her. She then learns to take advantage of the opportunities and enjoy college.

I got to work with my character's expression and eyes for this project. Even though I got to work with that criteria, it was still a lot of hard work. My projects were very tedious this year and I did not want to make this one too hard on myself. I worked mainly in Photoshop and fixed my audio in After Effects. The backgrounds were based on color theory. (i.e.- Blue stands for sadness and orange stands for excitement). I really enjoyed this project and I hope you do too! It's nice to make a storyline that everyone can relate to. A still and storyboards are pictured below.

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!