Be sure to check out the latest episode of 7th Row Center. I was too busy to attend this show, but I will be back for the next one (of course that means I'll be doing it in the middle of finals... lucky me!)
Ta Ta!
Showing posts with label 2d. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2d. Show all posts
Monday, November 7, 2011
Watch your head!
Well it's that time... crunch time! 2 weeks left of classes, that's only 4 classes left till this quarter is finished! No time left to think, just time to enough to work. I've been up late all weekend working on a term paper and now I'm down to the final tests and projects! So before I vanish into the world of even more sleepless nights, cramped hands, and bloodshot eyes, I wanted to share my latest animation from last week. This one is of Adam reacting to a pie being thrown at his head. Enjoy!
Be sure to check out the latest episode of 7th Row Center. I was too busy to attend this show, but I will be back for the next one (of course that means I'll be doing it in the middle of finals... lucky me!)
Ta Ta!
Be sure to check out the latest episode of 7th Row Center. I was too busy to attend this show, but I will be back for the next one (of course that means I'll be doing it in the middle of finals... lucky me!)
Ta Ta!
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Great Metallic Balls
The cool thing is there are now 3 new excellent animations finished for my classes, all of which look better than I thought they'd turn out.
Also, I figured out why the bob-omb animation looked so bad. Apparently I uploaded the wrong file, although the final one still has compression issues, but it looks a zillion times better.
Besides the bob-omb animation, I have the others to show as well. Here is the flag waving pencil test:
This is the flag wave animation. It took me several hours to complete, and I had to essentially start over at one point when I suddenly realized what I was doing wrong. I kept drawing the various keys and inbetweens wrong, and it suddenly clicked, and I figured out how to make it work. This is the result. It is short, but fluid.
Next up is the Screen Design Z-Dept project, or as I all it... Marble Maze:
This animation is intended to loop. The point of the exercise is to show depth in a 2D screen. There are several ways to do this including scale, overlap, perspective, and more. I originally intended to draw this out in Photoshop and then bring it into After Effects and animate it there. However, after struggling to make it look the way I wanted to, I started modeling it in Maya, and decided it turned out so well, I'd just do the entire thing in Maya, and proceeded to do just that. I used Maya 2008 (and 2012 for rendering on campus), and only used basic shapes and methods, but with very effective rendering techniques. All the lights use Ray Tracing and shadows, the wood surfaces use many layers of textures to make it work, the rendering used mental ray, and Final Gathering, in order to get such effective colors and lighting etc. It took me about 12 hours or so to render the final version (and I had to render it twice... one scene once... cause they earlier ones didn't look good), but luckily I could use multiple computers on campus, and managed the entire thing in about 4 hours.
In other news, keep your ears open for the latest episode of 7thRowCenter, where we talk about the power of cheese. These movies are so bad, they are Gouda!
Till next time,
GUTEN TAG!
Sunday, October 2, 2011
GENERATE CHALLENGE
All day Friday and into Saturday Morning, SCAD Atlanta hosted the GENERATE 24 hour challenge. This is a sort of contest where they take each department (animation, sequential art, etc.) and split them into small groups of 3-5 people. Each department has a company come in and host a challenge that has to be completed within 24 hours. Each group is usually assigned a unique topic. My group was the Patchwork Pirates (so named because of our hodgepodge of members), part of the animation department. This year, Turner hosted our challenge, and the challenge was to create a series pitch within 24 hours. The pitch had to consist of:
A 15-30 second animatic of the opening
A 15-30 second animatic of the opening
A Treatment
A 15 second Elevator Pitch
3-5 Character design style sheets
A full color style frame
3 Merchandise ideas in 3D
And an outline for an entire season
All this had to be completed within 24 hours of the start, which meant 10am Friday to 10am Saturday. Each group within the department was assigned a different network to pitch the idea to, which meant we had to research demographics, etc. We were the group everyone wish they could have been, because we had Adult Swim as our focus.
We did have some trouble though. First, our original idea was poopooed by one of the professors who was leading the event. The problem was the story idea had (unknowingly to the rest of our group) been used before by one of our members for various projects/classes. So we had to rework the idea, change some of the character designs, and make things more edgy. When we had finished that, we pitched the idea to the head of Adult Swim (or was it Turner Animation?) who loved it! The second problem was that the member with the most experience in 3D and animation left for a previous engagement. Unfortunately, another member also had to leave due to medical reasons. That left 3 of us to do a huge task, and none of us were very experienced.
Somehow we managed to pull though. With the help from a friend, we managed to complete everything with an hour to spare. Personally, I still think the look was too "cutesy", but since I was dedicated to doing the animatic by myself, I couldn't keep rejecting images so I just worked with what I got and tried to make it work. Adult Swim usually does cheap, simple, exaggerated, and over-the-top animations, which are edgy and stylized. I think we should have really pushed this more, but we would have needed more members involved through the entire project to assure the look we wanted. However, I think we still managed to pull out a very good project with the limitations and complications that arose. Since we did all that work, I won't go into presenting all of it again from scratch. However, I will post the final PDF of the project as well as the animatic here, so you can see what we did. Enjoy!
The Patchwork Pirates are:
Karen Chesney
David Hixon
Alston Jones
Colin Wheeler
Whitney Wheeler (no relation)
Special Thanks to Jenna Zona
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Hiatus halted
Greetings to everyone who has landed on my humble blog.
Recently, I have been busy with cleaning up my apartment, taking classes in Photography and Drawing, and spending time with family and friends as much as I can. That isn't to say that I am making an excuse. I really should just update my blog more often, and therefor I will be making no more excuses, and I will just update my blog.
From here on out, my posts will overall be shorter, but I plan to continue to do movie reviews at least once a week. I have a lot of things to talk about, and am anxious to get started again!
First I would like to get people used to who I am, and what I think about.
For one, I have a BA in Digital Art at George Mason University, I have a passion for animation and film, and I am currently attending SCAD for animation, and I hope to get an MA. I like to have and share my opinions with others, and I respect everyone's opinions as long as they are logically sound. I believe in skepticism and you should investigate things on your own, and not just listen to rumors. I am often proven wrong about things, and so I admit I am not always right, but I take these opportunities to learn and adapt my opinions.
Animation for me is a pure form of film as art. Of course I love traditional film, with sequential photographs synchronized to sound, but animation is taking the limitations of photography out of the picture. With animation, you are only limited by your skill and your imagination. Granted, budgets are a major part of this as well. Animation is all about being visually stunning, each and every element of the image being painstakingly crafted, so the overall visual field is a work of pure imagination and talent.
Animation is old, older than photography. The original attempt at animation date back thousands of years to cave drawings which depicted movement through multiple limbs in different positions. There has even recently been discovered a bowl in Iran that dates back 5,200 years that uses a form of animation called a zoetrope. Throughout the ages, people have tried to mimic movement in art, from Phantasmagoria to the Thaumatrope to the Phenakistoscope. Animation made it's mark in film 1900 with "The Enchanted Drawing", which depicted a man drawing a face, and then interacting with the face and other drawn objects. 6 years later, the same man, J. Stuart Blackton, created the first fully animated film with "Humorous Phases of Funny Faces". The oldest films date back to the 1880s, meaning that animation has been a part of cinema since the very beginning.
Today, animation is seen as something more for children than adults. True, there are the few adult animations like Heavy Metal and Fritz the Cat (among others), but the biggest industry for animation not solely aimed for children or families has been the Japanese Anime industry. Today, you are as likely to find an anime intended for an adult audience with an 18+ rating as you are to find one for a small child. Despite this, animation still suffers from an identification crisis. Adults don't watch "cartoons", and anime is for "fanboys" and "perverts". Luckily, this has not held back the animation industry, although it has had many rough times. Even Walt Disney himself grew tired of making animations, and focused on live-action films such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Mary Poppins, and Davy Crockett.
For me, I like to explore animation not only for the innocence and whimsy they often portray, but also the art, the technical aspects, and the various themes. I embrace animations for older audiences, and find joy in truly family films.
I will talk more about all aspects of animation, while I continue on my quest to earn an MA and find my way into the animation industry.
Other topics I will cover include video games (or interactive media/interactive animation), 3d (or stereoscopic), theaters, film, and even IMAX. If you haven't read it yet, check out my explanation of IMAX using the search bar.
Briefly, I will mention 3D and IMAX, as per requested. I feel 3D (stereoscopy) has a place in the future. It has been around since the 1800's as many early photographers wanted to explore depth in their work. I both like it and dislike it as it stands now. There are times when 3D is used correctly, and actually can add another element to the visual field, however it has been abused too much and turned into a gimmick. This of course hurts the reputation of 3D. When a film is made with a 3D camera, you usually get a decent 3D effect, however it seems that today there are more "3D" movies coming out that are only made 3D in post-production, which is an atrocity and usually is a gimmick to add $5 to your ticket. 3D can cause headaches, eye strain, and can even be bad for children's eyes. And yet, people still go to movies to see 3D films, and 3D has started to invade homes more than ever. I suspect it will be here to stay, even if it starts to lose money. I can only hope they perfect the technology, and stop making 2D films and then converting them into 3D! Either make your film 2D, or 3D, don't fake it! I can't blame anyone for getting turned off by 3D, with the massive price tag and gimmick factor it has lately been sporting.
As for IMAX, there is true IMAX format, and then there is IMAX brand name (also known as Digital IMAX). Now usually the IMAX brand name is at least good quality, large screen, etc. However, the films that come out in "IMAX" are for the most part not using the IMAX format film, which is a 70mm film format. Instead, they just show 4k or 2k (equivalent to 35mm) digital film on a large screen, like any other theater will do, and charge you more for it. While sometimes this is fine, and seeing things on a big screen is always impressive, often it is a waste of money. If you want to truly see IMAX, then the screen better be a square, not a rectangle. The IMAX format uses a 1.44:1 ratio, while typical films use 1.85:1 or 2.39:1 ratios. This means that IMAX format with a true IMAX quality image will be close to the standard television aspect ratio of 4:3 (1.33:1) and not widescreen at all. To top it off, the size difference of the screens are drastic. An IMAX brand screen can be any size at all, but they are typically not much larger than a large standard movie theater screen, while a true IMAX format screen can be from 52 feet tall and 72 feet wide to almost 120 feet wide and 100 feet tall!
"But wait, I saw Harry Potter/Batman/Transformers/Superman/Spiderman/etc. in IMAX and heard it was filmed in IMAX." Sure you did, and the pope wears a thong. Seriously though, what you usually run into with major films are either IMAX DMR (or "upconverted") films, or partially filmed in IMAX films. The first is a way to take movies like Apollo 13 and make it look better on a large IMAX screen through a complex upconverting process. This actually cannot add any more detail to the image when it is on a large IMAX screen, it only makes it not look as bad as it would had it not gone through that process. As for partially filmed in IMAX movies, usually only 1 or 2 scenes in a film will be made with an IMAX camera, in the IMAX format. The rest of the movie (about 95% of it) will be with a regular camera and probably upconverted as well. Any film that is made with only IMAX film will look far more crisp and detailed than the upconverted films, and will always fill an IMAX screen, while the others will not.
So it is my hope that the IMAX format starts to become more prevalent, and more IMAX format theaters open, rather than Digital IMAX. I enjoy seeing the big screens and seeing big movies on them, and I have never run into a Digital IMAX theater I didn't like, but is it worth the extra money? Probably not. It is not as gimmicky as 3D, unless you see a 3D IMAX movie. However, when it comes to home theaters, which is where most people end up watching movies anyways, IMAX filmed movies will look no better than any other HD movie.
So to sum up:
3D = bad, but with potential, but heading in the wrong direction to get any better anytime soon.
IMAX = be wary of what you are watching and where.
IMAX 3D = hole in your pocket.
Till next time! ADIOS!
Recently, I have been busy with cleaning up my apartment, taking classes in Photography and Drawing, and spending time with family and friends as much as I can. That isn't to say that I am making an excuse. I really should just update my blog more often, and therefor I will be making no more excuses, and I will just update my blog.
From here on out, my posts will overall be shorter, but I plan to continue to do movie reviews at least once a week. I have a lot of things to talk about, and am anxious to get started again!
First I would like to get people used to who I am, and what I think about.
For one, I have a BA in Digital Art at George Mason University, I have a passion for animation and film, and I am currently attending SCAD for animation, and I hope to get an MA. I like to have and share my opinions with others, and I respect everyone's opinions as long as they are logically sound. I believe in skepticism and you should investigate things on your own, and not just listen to rumors. I am often proven wrong about things, and so I admit I am not always right, but I take these opportunities to learn and adapt my opinions.
Animation for me is a pure form of film as art. Of course I love traditional film, with sequential photographs synchronized to sound, but animation is taking the limitations of photography out of the picture. With animation, you are only limited by your skill and your imagination. Granted, budgets are a major part of this as well. Animation is all about being visually stunning, each and every element of the image being painstakingly crafted, so the overall visual field is a work of pure imagination and talent.
Animation is old, older than photography. The original attempt at animation date back thousands of years to cave drawings which depicted movement through multiple limbs in different positions. There has even recently been discovered a bowl in Iran that dates back 5,200 years that uses a form of animation called a zoetrope. Throughout the ages, people have tried to mimic movement in art, from Phantasmagoria to the Thaumatrope to the Phenakistoscope. Animation made it's mark in film 1900 with "The Enchanted Drawing", which depicted a man drawing a face, and then interacting with the face and other drawn objects. 6 years later, the same man, J. Stuart Blackton, created the first fully animated film with "Humorous Phases of Funny Faces". The oldest films date back to the 1880s, meaning that animation has been a part of cinema since the very beginning.
Today, animation is seen as something more for children than adults. True, there are the few adult animations like Heavy Metal and Fritz the Cat (among others), but the biggest industry for animation not solely aimed for children or families has been the Japanese Anime industry. Today, you are as likely to find an anime intended for an adult audience with an 18+ rating as you are to find one for a small child. Despite this, animation still suffers from an identification crisis. Adults don't watch "cartoons", and anime is for "fanboys" and "perverts". Luckily, this has not held back the animation industry, although it has had many rough times. Even Walt Disney himself grew tired of making animations, and focused on live-action films such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Mary Poppins, and Davy Crockett.
For me, I like to explore animation not only for the innocence and whimsy they often portray, but also the art, the technical aspects, and the various themes. I embrace animations for older audiences, and find joy in truly family films.
I will talk more about all aspects of animation, while I continue on my quest to earn an MA and find my way into the animation industry.
Other topics I will cover include video games (or interactive media/interactive animation), 3d (or stereoscopic), theaters, film, and even IMAX. If you haven't read it yet, check out my explanation of IMAX using the search bar.
Briefly, I will mention 3D and IMAX, as per requested. I feel 3D (stereoscopy) has a place in the future. It has been around since the 1800's as many early photographers wanted to explore depth in their work. I both like it and dislike it as it stands now. There are times when 3D is used correctly, and actually can add another element to the visual field, however it has been abused too much and turned into a gimmick. This of course hurts the reputation of 3D. When a film is made with a 3D camera, you usually get a decent 3D effect, however it seems that today there are more "3D" movies coming out that are only made 3D in post-production, which is an atrocity and usually is a gimmick to add $5 to your ticket. 3D can cause headaches, eye strain, and can even be bad for children's eyes. And yet, people still go to movies to see 3D films, and 3D has started to invade homes more than ever. I suspect it will be here to stay, even if it starts to lose money. I can only hope they perfect the technology, and stop making 2D films and then converting them into 3D! Either make your film 2D, or 3D, don't fake it! I can't blame anyone for getting turned off by 3D, with the massive price tag and gimmick factor it has lately been sporting.
"But wait, I saw Harry Potter/Batman/Transformers/Superman/Spiderman/etc. in IMAX and heard it was filmed in IMAX." Sure you did, and the pope wears a thong. Seriously though, what you usually run into with major films are either IMAX DMR (or "upconverted") films, or partially filmed in IMAX films. The first is a way to take movies like Apollo 13 and make it look better on a large IMAX screen through a complex upconverting process. This actually cannot add any more detail to the image when it is on a large IMAX screen, it only makes it not look as bad as it would had it not gone through that process. As for partially filmed in IMAX movies, usually only 1 or 2 scenes in a film will be made with an IMAX camera, in the IMAX format. The rest of the movie (about 95% of it) will be with a regular camera and probably upconverted as well. Any film that is made with only IMAX film will look far more crisp and detailed than the upconverted films, and will always fill an IMAX screen, while the others will not.
So it is my hope that the IMAX format starts to become more prevalent, and more IMAX format theaters open, rather than Digital IMAX. I enjoy seeing the big screens and seeing big movies on them, and I have never run into a Digital IMAX theater I didn't like, but is it worth the extra money? Probably not. It is not as gimmicky as 3D, unless you see a 3D IMAX movie. However, when it comes to home theaters, which is where most people end up watching movies anyways, IMAX filmed movies will look no better than any other HD movie.
So to sum up:
3D = bad, but with potential, but heading in the wrong direction to get any better anytime soon.
IMAX = be wary of what you are watching and where.
IMAX 3D = hole in your pocket.
Till next time! ADIOS!
Thursday, December 10, 2009
In the beginning...
In the beginning, there were ideas. Lots and lots of ideas. Too many ideas. So many, that it took 2 minds to hold them all. Thus, my brother and I were born as twins. Yes, we are identical twins, and we are planning to work together on collaborating these ideas into this project.
But all projects must begin somewhere, and at some time. As they say, every journey begins with a single step, or in this case, a blog post.
Well the time for this project to begin is close at hand, it has not yet started. I want to make sure I have an entire full week to begin my animation, and start officially at the beginning of the week, Monday, December 14th, 2009.
I have already decided what to do with this first project, which will be a 2D animation. I will say that this is an idea my brother came up with, and I have played with a little. Without going into details, I will say that this is going to be a mock-ad for the web comic site we both support and work with, Tangent Artists.
I will be posting more details about the project this weekend, and will begin the work on Monday.
This will be a stand alone animation, with no direct connection to any other, however it will belong in the "mock-ad" theme.
So stay tuned for more, and hopefully I will be able to keep this blog fun, and funny, as well as interesting for all.
But all projects must begin somewhere, and at some time. As they say, every journey begins with a single step, or in this case, a blog post.
Well the time for this project to begin is close at hand, it has not yet started. I want to make sure I have an entire full week to begin my animation, and start officially at the beginning of the week, Monday, December 14th, 2009.
I have already decided what to do with this first project, which will be a 2D animation. I will say that this is an idea my brother came up with, and I have played with a little. Without going into details, I will say that this is going to be a mock-ad for the web comic site we both support and work with, Tangent Artists.
I will be posting more details about the project this weekend, and will begin the work on Monday.
This will be a stand alone animation, with no direct connection to any other, however it will belong in the "mock-ad" theme.
So stay tuned for more, and hopefully I will be able to keep this blog fun, and funny, as well as interesting for all.
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