Semester Reflection

Through the first project we worked on, the emotion project, I was able to refresh my 3d skills and learn how to use a facial expression control board. In the future when I make 3d models, I will definitely take the time to make joints and vertexes that are easy to control as that project would have been infinitely more difficult if it hadn't had the controls. If I had more time I would have added more movement to the places that don't show the emotion such as the legs or body as realistically no part of the body is perfectly still. On top of that I would also sort my way through figuring out how to render it. If I could've changed something about it, I would have fixed some of the joints that didn't twist quite right. Over all it was a pretty painless project and worked out fairly well.

My 2d character project was a massive learning project. I experimented with a program I hadn't used before: Character animator. For the majority of the project I didn't realize I was working in the beta of the program so I was running into a lot of issues I couldn't figure out. As soon as I did figure that out, the project went smoothly. As I said in the video, I will only use this program to sync mouths in the future as I am not a huge fan of the process or output of the movement of the other body parts. For the most part I did reach my goal, If I were to redo this project, I would make more variation in the mouth shapes as some of the phonetic shapes were used for more than one sound so it looked like it wasn't moving when the program read that it was. over all I was happy with the final project.

The rotoscope was a nice way to end the semester as it wasn't too difficult but turned out decently, I learned again how to animate and export using photoshop. If I were to continue working I would add a background that i made but in the end this project turned out nice and I will definitely use this in the future.

end of year

As far as technology is concerned I have progressed further mostly in cell animation/ stop motion, at the beginning of this year, and as would be expected, I have furthered my efficiency in the adobe suite mostly after effects and Photoshop. With communication and collaboration, our main project was our stop motion animation. I think our project could have been a lot cleaner but we were able to accomplish as a group roughly what we were going through. Project management was probably my weak point this year and is going to be my main focus next year. I have begun to consider animation more as a career route and I want to put emphasis next year on building a portfolio and focusing on and improving my adobe skills. My leadership I feel is most present in team settings like the stop motion we made, which I felt like I was able to lead fairly well.

I focused a lot this year on 2d animation and cell animation; however, next year I would like to work on game design. I would like to, over the summer, try to learn the technical side or at least get a start on it so next year I can work on the animation portion. e-comm. If I could redo this year, I would probably sit where I could focus better which is my plan next year.

In the end I feel e-comm was a very positive experience and I have hopes to pursue an animation based career, I am not for sure yet but I would like to take it far more seriously next year and see if it truly is something I would enjoy.

Mickey and a Series of Impossible Events

We are accustomed to seeing elevators frequently in our everyday life; however, this situation is not so common as the elevator is actually a phone, Mickey pulls on the cord to simulate requesting a floor and the ring emulates the sound an elevator makes.

Aside from the obvious fact that cards are inanimate, and as cool as the spring move is, it is not possible. The cards look awfully thin and would not have the strength to move a mouse or the coordination to; however, this makes sense to us as the viewers because we are used to seeing accordion or spring effects.

A mouse would not be thin enough to be shuffled into a deck not to say that it couldn't be shuffled but it wouldn't be this smooth. They were still able to accurately portray Mickey giving him the qualities of the cards.

Owning a fountain pen myself, it is possible to have a leaky pin; however, weaponizing it and projectile squirting ink is not possible. The animators created a wartime scene making the basket look like a barricade  and giving Mickey a helmet making it plausible.

Finally, the cards are incapable of removing the markings printed onto them and throwing them. The animators make this seem plausible by continuing the wartime effect.