Ungh....

So I am sure you have already looked at my page and noticed that it is missing the final project. It is unfinished at the moment. So far, I have put in 37 hours into its completion, but it hasn't been anywhere near enough. I will work more on it today, but it is very likely that it will be left unfinished. I understand if this causes a failing grade, if attendance hasn't already knocked me for that.

It pains me to leave this unfinished, and I will post what I can by class time Tues.
Thank you.

My First Background

So this is the first background I have completed, for my final project. I have to say, I am really happy with how it turned out, and surprised at how much fun I have had making it. I know it isn't PROFESSIONAL grade or anything, but I like the style, and really enjoyed using flash. The program doesn't have as extensive brush options as photoshop, which kind of sucks, but I really like the standard brush effect as it is. And I could always import it into photoshop, but I think if I do I will be opening a whole can of worms I don't really feel like getting into.

The canvas I was working with in Flash was much smaller than the exported image. I think it was in the 800's with a dpi of 72. When I exported, I chose 1280/720, 113 dpi. That explains the edges being SO rough. Not sure though. I'm excited by the fact that I have more space to work with. I felt like the image was really cramped as it was, so opening it up would allow the visuals to breath. On the other hand, I really like the affect it has. First of all, the image really pops. It's like a story book where the picture is jumping off the page. Also, it references the fact that this isn't the real world, and leads to an intriguing visual style.... Not sure what to do. Any suggestions, please leave a comment.

At any rate, I think it turned out really well, and I can't wait to get started on the next one!

Music for the animation

Love this song. Listened to an old CD I had on a car trip recently. This was on it, and I was like THAT"S IT!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCjG95sNoP8

story boards - sorry. For most of them you either have to turn your head, or find a way to rotate. probably by double clicking, then it opens in an image viewer where you can rotate it.

probably won't really use troll face, unless you all think that the joke is as funny as I do.....  trolling audience with teddy bear as treasure.. etc....

Timeline

1- animatic
2- first half of backgrounds done
3- 2nd half backgrounds done
4- first half characters and layers
5-6 second half characters and layers
6-7  audio all mixed in

General Idea

I've decided to make a post-apocalyptic film for our final project. It's a simple story, with simple aesthetics. Basically, it opens on a man, older gentleman, who is standing on a cliff in the deserts of Nevada that overlooks some kind of a camp. He's clearly fatigued, and takes a moment to prepare himself mentally for what he is about to do. He makes his way down to the outer fence, and hides behind some tundra brush. He checks his watch, which is cracked and missing part of the glass, and hunkers down for a moment. As a truck passes by, with a gunner in the back, he sprints up to it quietly, hops over the side, slits the gunners throat, and kicks him off the back, but not before taking the mask the gunner was wearing. The truck pulls up to a gate, and passes through to the garage. Once parked, the gentleman hops out driver side and as the driver gets out he smashes his head into the door a couple of times. After the body drops to the floor, the gentleman rolls it underneath the truck, stands up, brushes himself off, shuts the door and walks off. As he comes to the entrance to a bunker, he stops and leans against the wall. He takes off the mask, and breathes heavily.After calming himself down, he gets a very steely-eyed look. Busting into the bunker, guns blazing he catches bandits off-guard. I'd like to switch from very still shots to a very frenetic first person view and back. After brutally murdering the "bandit" guards, he makes his way to the end of the room, where a large box sits on a shelf against the wall. There is a close up of his face as he opens it. There's a close up on the treasure... it's a teddy bear. Show the closeup of his face, now with smiling eyes, (new place and time) cut to his granddaughter, smiling as she hugs her teddy bear. End with a fade to black, and the gentleman saying "Happy Birthday, Sweetheart"


Aesthetically, I want to have really clean lines, thick outlines, flat colors, with moments of 3-dimensionality. There is a game called Shank that pulls this look off well:

Take a lot of the color pallet and heavy outline from shank and mix it with the even more 2-dimensionality of Samurai Jack

The main character actually came to me as I was watching Breaking Bad. These are the wearied eyes that I want to focus on with the main character:

Visually

here's my section of the exquisite corpse

Motion Graphic

This short was inspired by (or rather, tries to put visuals to) a line from the play Angels in America.

It's 1985, almost the third millennium. Maybe Christ will rise up, or maybe the end will come... or maybe I'm just okay...

Plan for the Rotoscope

The idea behind my rotoscope is to try to make the image appear as close to a charcoal drawing as possible. Since my sequence consists of only two camera shots, both stills, I should be able to create the effect using layers, and make minor adjustments to the apple as it moves through the scene.

 I know it is hard to see at the moment, but I have begun painting over the tree trunk using variations of white, grey, and black, to create depth and texture.

I may overhaul how I am doing this, after having delved deeper into the capabilities of photoshop today in class.

Please feel free to comment, if you have any insight or opinions on my frame.

FST 333

Notice to all that care, I am turning this into the blog for my FST 333 class.

And that's the way it is....

TEDtalks

That's freakin' awesome! I've never seen  a TEDtalks video before, though I have seen them advertised around the internet. It was interesting hearing about the stats from a guy who studies them every day. They were entertaining, and educational.

I've never really broken down videos like that. I've never thought about why my favorite videos are my favorites, or why viral videos go viral.

It's true that tastemakers can have a profound impact on society (i guess that's why they are the tastemakers). But isn't that really a community in itself. Who is it that the tastemaker is talking to... their community of followers, of viewers, of people who care what they have to say. It's a collection of like-minded people.

But really I guess it's just semantics. Communities such as 9gag, roosterteeth, neogaf, gizmodo; these are the sites that creat virals. Forums allow for the free exchange of ideas with the only form of punishment is being flamed by your peers. Everyone feels a great sense of acceptance, and they therefore want to contribute. really, I think viral videos only go viral because people want to be accepted.

The rough theater

I'm not entirely sure what kind of a response you are looking for, here.

I agree.                  Roughness doesn't translate to good, but it certainly has it's own eloquence that, if used properly, can actually add to the richness of the "theatre"

The Long Shot

I was actually looking forward to the whole "long shot" experience. I suppose it isn't really that long of a shot, but the idea behind it is pretty cool. Try to tell a story in one take without any editing or cutting.

Our plan of attack was to try and break the rules. We wanted to simulate cutting by closing the shutter, having the camera move to a new location, then opening the shutter back up.

After a few rehearsals, our camera man had his movements down, and we shot. breezing through without much trouble, the 56 seconds flew by.

It was a fun experiment, and I look forward to seeing how it turns out.

Post 3

Animation has always been near and dear to my heart. Probably because the conventions of animation and the conventions of video games are so closely linked. Regardless, growing up in America, I think it's pretty hard to be a kid without watching cartoons.

I never really got into the experimental scene, though. I never understood it. Sure the designs look cool, but what's the purpose. I think I get it now, though. It's not really about the why, it's just about the result. It's dada.

I'm trying to incorporate this in my Assignment 1 film, actually. In my animation, I have various planes of color fighting one another for the right to exist. At one point an absence of color becomes infected with green. As the infection spreads, the frame becomes filled with larger and larger globs of green ink. I started out by brushing the clearleader with oil. Using the brush with oil still in it, I dipped the tip in the green ink and began lightly shaking it to get the ink to spread out in a tiny, gross pattern. As I move down the strip, I tried joining multiple globs of ink to form larger pools, until I reached the part of the strip without oil, where I could have the ink consume the frame.

In the end, it was experimental. I didn't know how it would turn out, and everything was pretty well left to the laws of chance. Dada. Then again, it was all narratively driven, so is it really experimental? At that point, doesn't it become orthadox?

Post 2

It's hard to believe that this synesthesia thing has been around so long, yet I have never heard of it before. It was never brought up in my history classes, my art classes, or my art history classes, but it seems TOTALLY AWESOME! Man, I wish I had that. It's like bringing a whole new dimension to the world. 4D.

But it does make me wonder, if the number 3 appears in red to a person, what if that same number is colored blue. Does that make purple? I'm sure not, but can you write in a way that would change the color? What if I was to right the number 3 with very jagged lines and sharp points... Would that effectively change the perception of it?

I have experimented with the kind of thing before, and it actually is what I used to do with scripts in high school. I would color code my lines to evoke a certain feeling, so that I could be looser with how I spoke the lines, but memorized what emotion is supposed to be conveyed. It actually worked pretty well for me.

Post 1

It always amazes me to see just how creative people can be. to have been created at a time before computers, or even after, this film is fluid art.

There are a few instances where I could determine what was on the footage (I think). A bird flying, trees passing by, the lanes of a road while driving. Outside of that, I have no clue.

The experimentation of the exposure was absolutely visionary. Even though the film consisted of colors flashing on the screen with no real meaning, I felt like I was watching a dance. It was clearly well thought-out, and none of it happened by accident. It was all artfully used with purpose.