What Animation School should I go to?

When young animators get out of high school, they want to find a school that can teach them more about animation techniques so they can compete in the animating business. The only problem is that with thousands of animation schools in the United States, which one should you choose? Annie Gray wrote about how to choose the correct animation school for each person by asking yourself three questions.

Does the program teach all aspects of the art of animation?

When analyzing schools that you are considering going to, look at their curriculum carefully, because in many animation classes you don't even touch a computer for a whole year, while others jump right into animating on the computer. Some schools focus on 2D and 3D drawing, while others emphasize story boarding and color theory. Look at what foundation you would receive going to that particular school and go from there.

How much experience do the instructions have in the

animation industry?

Is the instructor actively animating, or have they stopped and haven't worked on any projects in 5 years? Are they employed elsewhere and what companies are they affiliated with? What credentials do they possess and how long have they been animating professionally? These are all important questions to ask yourself when determining what animation school to enroll in.

Where is the animation school located?

You need to understand that the perfect school for you may be hundreds of miles away from where you live, so you have to figure out a plan to either move closer to the school, or rule it out of your options. It is always better to move to more popular areas for animators so you have a better chance of being noticed and evaluated by others in the animation department.

http://www.animationarena.com/animation-school.html

How to Animate a Shape in Maya

Maya

Maya is a fun animating program that allows animators to work in 3D.  After creating a scene with objects in it, how do you animate those objects and take your still scene and make it a motion picture? It's a quick and easy process, but it can be a little hard to figure out at first.

Step 1: Choose a Shape to Animate

Step 2: Select the Animation Tab

Step 3: Choose the Keyframe Button 

Step 4: Move your Shape to the Initial Desired Position 

Step 5: Select a New Frame Number for the next Keyframe Position 

Step 6: Move your Shape to the next Key Position

Step 7: Continue adding Keyframes after you Move your Shape

Step 8: Press the Play Button to Watch your Animation 

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!

FaZe Sporting Goods Final

FaZe Sporting Goods is a business that sells sports and gym equipment for people of all ages. Personal Trainers and memberships are available for people who come regularly. We split up jobs for every person in our group to come up with an idea and complete our project. Being in charge of the Website, I ran in to problems with the CSS styles, and SD cards and cameras were not working correctly, but we finally filmed the shots we needed. Interviews were recorded to promote our product, and a voiceover was taken to tell about our project. In our video, we tried to tell enough information to make a short, but effective message to persuade people to come to FaZe Sporting Goods. To decide on which of our group’s final videos to use, we watched all three and evaluate what we liked and didn’t like to show the best commercial to everyone showing Shark Tank. I am ENTG, allowing me to be a good leader who can make decisions for our group.

Video

During the video, everybody was actively involved in the making the idea for it. Since our product was a food and drink to make you more active, we wanting to show how the product can help you lift weights, perform better in sports, and do everyday activities with ease. Allison was the main actor, but Tanner and I both contributed via interviews.

Website

When a website needed to be created, I volunteered immediately! By using Dreamweaver, I was able to incorporate color schemes, fonts, and products that would further promote our featured product, FaZe Fit Food. I wish I had transferred the css styles sheet correctly between computers, because that caused me to have to stay an hour after school to re-make the Website and add the required elements for my team.

Packaging/Animation

I was involved with the final packaging and animation of our product. I learned how to create 3D models and how to present them to an audience to showcase our product in the best way possible. It was difficult to finish the packaging and work on the website at the same time, while I was also having to edit the commercial.

Lego Activity

Lego Activity

Today we built lego sets by communicating with other people. Some people knew what needed to be built, but they couldn't talk, or one person had to tell everyone else how to build something. The challenge was somewhat difficult due to human error and non cooperation. We eventually finished all four of the sets after getting serious and staying on task.

It was hard to involve all of the four members for every lego set, because there was not enough room and some sets were very easy to solve. Cooperation and trust were required to be successful with the set. There were disagreements and problems throughout the activity, but all members were willing to problem-solve and work together. This activity was very engaging and interactive, but at the same time showed the importance of teamwork.

Website

Dreamweaver Website

The Website created with Dreamweaver has many parts to it. Dreamweaver makes it so much easier to synthesize and format information. Making 6 pages of info and adding links and videos was not difficult. The Website has complementary colors displayed, which is visually appealing to the viewer. There is a good difference between titles, sub-headings, and body information.

The pictures provided show great contrast and detail, and the descriptions of each species are formatted well. Picture and logo placement is well thought out. At first, links and videos did not work correctly, but the problem was soon fixed. The Website is simple, but effective, and gets the point to the viewer.

House Animation Project

Keynote Project

Keynote Project

During this project, I wanted to challenge myself by making a longer story with more animation and detail, even though I was not familiar with keynote.  I have already made a few stop-motion pictures in the past, so I have a little bit of experience with this type of project. I wish I had more time to make my animation because I felt rushed and thought I could do more if I was not on a set schedule. Overall the project was a fun experience and I learned a lot about how animation is so common and important and is used everywhere today. I will continue with animation to learn how make my animations better, more organized, and more fun for my audience.