The Incredibles Review

The Incredibles

In The Incredibles, Pixar creates characters that have a personality that corresponds to their abilities as a super hero. The animators do a great job establishing the protagonist and the antagonist, and the story is easy to follow. Since it has a fun, family feel, the animation can be enjoyed by everyone. The story of the Incredibles opens up the imagination of the viewer by introducing super powers and advanced technology that are not realistic. I noticed that all of the characters are swift, nimble, and in some ways, "stretchy". This has taught me how important it is to try and fit the characteristics of a person or thing with their first and secondary movements.

The official description of the movie, written by Disney/Pixar:
Known to the world as superheroes Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl, Bob Parr and his wife Helen were among the world's greatest crime fighters, saving lives and battling evil on a daily basis. Fifteen years later, they have been forced to adopt civilian identities and retreat to the suburbs to live "normal" lives with their three kids, Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack. Itching to get back into action, Bob gets his chance when a mysterious communication summons him to a remote island for a top secret assignment.

http://movies.disney.com/the-incredibles

Doughnut Land

Doughnut Land

For about a month and a half I've been working on my project that required a beginning, middle, and end. The goal was to make a story with characters in a walking cycle and at least 3 camera angles throughout the animation. I had an idea to create multiple doughnut characters and put them in "Doughnut Land", a fictional sugar landscape. The first few days were spent making all of the visual aspects, which included backgrounds, characters, and effects. I tried to make sure that the characters looked and moved in a similar way, and didn't clash with the background colors.

Sound Effects

In my animation I incorporated about 18 different sounds, but they weren't the easiest to import. I got my music and sounds from ISM Films which we used some last year. I wanted the music to support whatever was going on in the story and sound effects that generated effect, but at the same time were fun and comical, since the whole animation was about walking and talking doughnuts.

Compositions

In order to create a story out of my animation, I had to create and synthesize 13 separated compositions with transitions between each of them. I needed to remember what order to put them in so my story made sense.

Timeline

The timing for my animation was crucial to the story so the viewer could understand the story. I spent more time on scenes with less action than at the very end in the final battle.

Walking Cycle

My First Character: The Doughnut!

Working with Adobe has taught me many things while working on my walking doughnut, like how I got to work with the scaling and rotation of the different parts of my doughnut. I worked on the secondary motion after I completed the cycle. This included head/body motion and the arms that swayed back and forth to make a more natural walking motion. The sprinkles took a while because I had to alternate colors for every sprinkle, so I used the magic wand to select every little rectangle and tried to use various colors, but it wasn't perfect. Putting the anchor points on my doughnut was very important because that allowed the body parts to move, while still being connected to the main body. I feel that I could have added a little more detail, but I am not extremely artistic.

Color Codes Tutorial

There are many ways to add color to a web page, but how do you know what type to use? 

It is important to use color in websites to complement the information on the page. There are four codes that can be used. Using color will support whatever mood you want the viewer to feel. Color can be the difference between a good website and a bad one.

Color Names

It is possible to simply type what color the specified text will be. To do this, create a color style for whatever contains the text (h1, body, etc.). Then, type a color such as blue or darkred in the color style to change the color of the text.

Hexadecimal

In Hexadecimal code, there are 16 variables that affect how much red, green, and blue are in a color. These variables are 0-9,  and A-F. To set this up, add a div tag and add a color style to it. To specify the color, type in a combination of the 16 variables. 0 represents no color, while F represents full color. There are 6 numbers in the Hexadecimal color code. The first two numbers represent red, the second two, green, and the last two affect blue. The color code is set up like this: #FFFFFF. 

RGB and RGBA

RGB color codes are set up differently than Hexadecimal codes. The format is made up of three numbers within parentheses and separated with commas. The RGB color strength is represented through the numbers 0-255. RGBA color codes are the same as RGB color codes, but RGBA code adds another variable onto the end. The last number has a scale from 0-1 and controls the text/background opacity.

TBL and Hexadecimal Color Sampler

 Tim Berners-Lee is the inventor of the World Wide Web and HTML. The making of this page allowed me to learn how to insert a picture into HTML code, and I found that Berners-Lee is still very involved in creating software that uses the Web to its fullest. He works with the World Wide Consortium to create new uses for HTTP and HTML.

 To create the Hexadecimal Color Codes, I used a combination of the 16 numbers and letters to  represent the range of colors that are possible with the Hexadecimal Color Codes. I experimented with colors to see how different levels of Red, Green, and Blue colors would effect the overall color tone. With F being the maximum amount of color that can be added, and 0 being the lowest, changing all of these variables can make some very distinct shades that can compliment a website.

Bounce

Bounce Animation

In Animation, we created a textured ball in a realistic field that bounced across the screen. During this project I got to work with new programs I was not familiar with like Adobe After Effects, and I remastered Adobe Photoshop. After creating the clouds, sky, and grass with different brushes, I modeled the ball and positioned it to look as if it was sitting in the grass. I then moved on to Adobe After Effects to animate the ball. By using the timeline to position the key frames of the ball, I had the ball bounce from one side of the screen to the other, while it collided with the ground multiple times. I was able to create really nice looking clouds with brush variation and made them move in the final animation to accompany my bouncing ball. I hope to use these same techniques to make more complex movements once I learn more about Adobe After Effects.

3 Sites, Then and Now

The CIA

www.cia.gov has changed drastically over the years since 2001. Instead of basic information about the CIA, the website today now shows current events the CIA is involved in, highlighting people and places being focused. The old code uses a lot of table-related commands, while the new code features div commands.

CNN

www.cnn.com used to constantly be updated whenever news stories developed. This is still true with the current CNN website. The old code used many table commands and links, whereas the new code has more "href" commands so the viewer can get to different stories faster.

Youtube

www.youtube.com has always made various videos around the world  accessible to all, but the Youtube website has changed greatly. The information including view count, time of upload, and video description are formatted differently than the new youtube. The featured videos are now based on what you've watched in the past, unlike how the old youtube featured popular videos.

The Wayback Machine

The Wayback Machine/Internet Archive has been created to preserve internet history, specifically popular websites today, like Google, Amazon, or Youtube. The archive holds text, video, audio, and software that had previously been on the web. It also categorizes information by location, type, and time period!