My Reflection of the Year

I can't believe it has been a year already! I guess time flies when you're having fun(:

I have learned so much this year- mostly in 2D animation. This year I have been working in After Effects and Photoshop creating 2D styled short films. Lately, I have been working in Photoshop and practicing how to draw each shot frame by frame. Although it takes forever, I really enjoy that style of that type of animation. I find it beautiful and believe every frame is a piece of artwork.

I have learned about time management- you kind of have to know how to do that since animating is a very time consuming thing. I have noticed that it is important to stay focused and to be on task. By following this step, I am able to get my work done faster. However, in animation, it can get challenging working on one project for so long. A tip I use is when I get bored is I transfer to a different project I'm working on and switch back and forth every now and then. This helps me keep high energy and excitement for my animations.

I have learned about story making and how to express emotion into your animation. I have learned that animations do not have to be fancy with detailed drawings in order for it to tell a story. In my animation Crooked, I used stick figures because I wanted the audience to focus more on the story itself instead of the characters in it. To make the audience feel what the character feels you have to make them connect to the character. You must put emotion into the character in order for the viewers to show emotion for that character. In my short film, I made my main character- Skully -have a feature that makes him stand out from the others. Everyone at some point in their lives have felt different from others. This allows the viewers to connect with Skully. My story is about embracing your differences and believing you are special in your own way. I believe I was successful at creating a simple but heartwarming animation.

I have learned how to work with others as a team. For example, in my group and I's animation Montage, we had to compromise on what type of animation it would be, what the story was, who would be doing what job, and so much more. By keeping open minds and positive attitudes, my team was able to band together to finish that animation.

I have learned about how to draw from perspective. For example, I animated a ballerina dancer spinning. While she is spinning, the viewpoint of her is kept stationary so I had to draw each frame from that perspective. It was challenging. As her leg came closer to the "camera", I had to draw it as if it was getting bigger and rounder. It looked unnatural at the time but when I pressed play, her spin looked more natural and graceful.

One thing I would change about this year is to make time to learn more about 3D animation. This style of animation is essential to leaner if I want to pursue my dream of becoming an animator.

I am going to take what I have learned from this year and apply it to my summer. I  plan to take four hours out of my day to draw and or animate. This will help me develop my portfolio for college.

I am excited to come back to eComm next year and see what senior year has for me!

Sunset

For this assignment, we had to show time passing through an animation. Examples such as: A character aging, an object rusting or decaying, or seasons changing. 

I decided to animated a 2-Dimentional sun setting. I originally came up with this idea when in the process of developing a story for a different animation I'm working on- The Artist, coming soon. 

I made this animation using the two programs Photoshop and After Effects. I first drew the landscape of my sun set. I made every level of the land a new layer. I wanted to make my animation with a variety of colors and nature. The image shows purple mountains, glistening waters, pink flowers, and a mixture of orange, pink, and purple clouds. 

One feature that was important to me was the sky. I personally love the sky and wanted to show its beauty through this animation. When I look up at the sky, I see a painting full of rich warm colors that blend with one-another. One minute the sky is orange and purple; the next it's cotton candy colors. I wanted to capture these transformations in my animation. As the sun sets, the sky color changes colors in the background. When working in Affect Effects, I had to manipulate the opacity of each sky layer to blend them together and create a beautiful transformation from day to night. 

To make the scene look as if time of passing, I had to animate the clouds to move across the sky. If you watched the sky closely, you would find that the clouds move across in slow motion. Another trick I used to show time in my video is ridging the sun's rays to fade away as it continues to set. As soon as the sun is hidden behind the mountains, the stars come out and the picture slowly fades to black.  

I had a lot of fun creating this animation and bringing this drawing to life. Hopefully you will see it again in my new animation The Artist that I am currently working on. 

Just a heads up! This animation is supposed to look as if it was a recording of a sunset sped up. It is only 10 seconds long.