In this article, the author goes over different aspects of both of these programs. The categories are Rendering, Modeling, Animation, and Rigging. The author gives arguments on both sides and gives an unbiased opinion after using both programs. I think that is the strength of this argument, The unbiased opinion. I author also gives reason why one is better than the other in different aspects, but that is just to inform you incase if you would work better with one of the two programs. The arguments do support the main claim, but there is no real clear cut answer about which is better. It basically comes down to what kind of animator you are.
https://www.pluralsight.com/blog/film-games/3ds-max-vs-maya-is-one-better-than-the-other
Thursday, May 25, 2017
"SpellBound" by Ying Wu & Lizzia Xu
In this animated short, a girl named Rene is jealous of her sister Sunny because she always wins everything and gets a lot of rewards. While Sunny is at school, Rene writes hateful comments about Sunny in her diary. After she is done writing, black ink blobs pop out of her diary and start destroying Sunny's trophies. Sunny is just coming back from school when all of the black ink blobs combine together and form a giant monster. Right as Sunny is about to enter the house and be killed by the monster, Rene writes good comments about Sunny in her Diary. This kills the monster and Rene and Sunny hug when Sunny opens the door.
I liked this story and I thought it was very well executed. All of the animations look very detailed and you can tell this short took some time. If I could take one element of this story and apply it to my work, it would have to be the lighting. Everything was well lit and the shadows are great, too. One element we have already learned that is used in this short is squash and stretch. When the black ink blobs are jumping around, they are squashing down and stretching when they jump. One improvement I think would make this story better is adding an ending where Sunny sees her room destroyed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuNdTpjXkJ0
I liked this story and I thought it was very well executed. All of the animations look very detailed and you can tell this short took some time. If I could take one element of this story and apply it to my work, it would have to be the lighting. Everything was well lit and the shadows are great, too. One element we have already learned that is used in this short is squash and stretch. When the black ink blobs are jumping around, they are squashing down and stretching when they jump. One improvement I think would make this story better is adding an ending where Sunny sees her room destroyed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuNdTpjXkJ0
EOY Video Review
This Year in Video, We made many projects and learned many new things. In the first semester we covered convergence and journalism. In the second semester we focused on entertainment. Technically, we learned about different types of camera shots, how to use the cameras, how to edit audio, and much more. Other than learning about the cameras, we learned how to collaborate, how to communicate, how to manage projects, and how to be a leader.
Technology
In the beginning of the year, we learned the most about technology. This was information that was given to us so that we could make good quality work and make our projects more professional. This year was also my first year using Adobe Premiere. I think Premiere was a good program to use and I think it made a lot of my projects better. Although I worked well with Premiere, I had some troubles with the cameras. i didn't really know how to use them that well and it took me a long time to get things set up. Whenever we recorded in groups, I usually let someone else set up the camera so I wouldn't mess it up. If I stayed in eComm, that is definitely what I would have to work on.
Collaboration
To create good work, there had to be collaboration. I think we collaborated a lot more here in video than in animation, and for a good reason. I think animation is more independent while video has more group critiques and group work. At the beginning of every project, we had to collaborate as a group to create the best idea possible. along the way, we had to collaborate to point out mistakes that only you may not have seen. And in the end, collaboration was used to critique like I said earlier. Collaboration is not to put you down, it is meant to open your eyes a little more and better your work in the future. As the year went on, I could definitely see my collaboration skills improving through more thourough critiques and seeing what is wrong in other peoples' videos.
Communication
With most of our projects being group projects, communication had to be present. While working with others, you had to make sure everybody knew what they were doing and when you would record and so on, Whether that meant group talks before a project or making a group chat over text. Communication is not just with other peers but the instructor, too. I had to communicate with Mrs. Morris about my struggles in video and when I could come in after school to work. I think this is one of my weaknesses because I kind of like to do things as we go and communicate along the way. This needs to be worked on if I want to better myself in the future and be more organized.
Project Management
Managing projects is another needed skill to produce quality work. When working with others, I learned that everybody must do their own part or the whole project can come crashing down. This can a strength for everybody if they follow schedules and keep their stuff organized. I did have a couple problems with this during our second semester final. While making the schedule during the first couple of days, we wrote down when we were going to record our out of school scenes. We forgot to check out equipment on the weekend that we were supposed to record and that messed up our whole project. Everybody was busy for the next two weeks and we ended up recording with one week left before the deadline. If we would've managed the project better, we would've had less problems. I think this is another weakness of mine because I tend to not look at whether I'm busy and that can mess up recording plans.
Leadership
The last thing needed to be succesful in video is leadership. We did' learn how to be leaders during class, we learned it on our own while working together. I learned how to be a leader during our second semester final. I was the director of our video so that meant that I was the leader and basically telling people what to do and how to do it. I made the schedule and wrote the story. I thought I did a good job of being a leader at the beginning of the project, but after not recording that one weekend, I started slacking a little bit. I think I need to work on this for sure before I get myself in too big of a problem.
This year of video was very fun and productive at the same time. I learned many new skills about equipment as well as working with others. Since I am not doing eComm next year, I will have to improve these skills on my own, but this was a great place to start. I would not change anything about this year because it really opened up my eyes about how important it is to collaborate and communicate with others as well as being organized yourself.
Technology
In the beginning of the year, we learned the most about technology. This was information that was given to us so that we could make good quality work and make our projects more professional. This year was also my first year using Adobe Premiere. I think Premiere was a good program to use and I think it made a lot of my projects better. Although I worked well with Premiere, I had some troubles with the cameras. i didn't really know how to use them that well and it took me a long time to get things set up. Whenever we recorded in groups, I usually let someone else set up the camera so I wouldn't mess it up. If I stayed in eComm, that is definitely what I would have to work on.
Collaboration
To create good work, there had to be collaboration. I think we collaborated a lot more here in video than in animation, and for a good reason. I think animation is more independent while video has more group critiques and group work. At the beginning of every project, we had to collaborate as a group to create the best idea possible. along the way, we had to collaborate to point out mistakes that only you may not have seen. And in the end, collaboration was used to critique like I said earlier. Collaboration is not to put you down, it is meant to open your eyes a little more and better your work in the future. As the year went on, I could definitely see my collaboration skills improving through more thourough critiques and seeing what is wrong in other peoples' videos.
Communication
With most of our projects being group projects, communication had to be present. While working with others, you had to make sure everybody knew what they were doing and when you would record and so on, Whether that meant group talks before a project or making a group chat over text. Communication is not just with other peers but the instructor, too. I had to communicate with Mrs. Morris about my struggles in video and when I could come in after school to work. I think this is one of my weaknesses because I kind of like to do things as we go and communicate along the way. This needs to be worked on if I want to better myself in the future and be more organized.
Project Management
Managing projects is another needed skill to produce quality work. When working with others, I learned that everybody must do their own part or the whole project can come crashing down. This can a strength for everybody if they follow schedules and keep their stuff organized. I did have a couple problems with this during our second semester final. While making the schedule during the first couple of days, we wrote down when we were going to record our out of school scenes. We forgot to check out equipment on the weekend that we were supposed to record and that messed up our whole project. Everybody was busy for the next two weeks and we ended up recording with one week left before the deadline. If we would've managed the project better, we would've had less problems. I think this is another weakness of mine because I tend to not look at whether I'm busy and that can mess up recording plans.
Leadership
The last thing needed to be succesful in video is leadership. We did' learn how to be leaders during class, we learned it on our own while working together. I learned how to be a leader during our second semester final. I was the director of our video so that meant that I was the leader and basically telling people what to do and how to do it. I made the schedule and wrote the story. I thought I did a good job of being a leader at the beginning of the project, but after not recording that one weekend, I started slacking a little bit. I think I need to work on this for sure before I get myself in too big of a problem.
This year of video was very fun and productive at the same time. I learned many new skills about equipment as well as working with others. Since I am not doing eComm next year, I will have to improve these skills on my own, but this was a great place to start. I would not change anything about this year because it really opened up my eyes about how important it is to collaborate and communicate with others as well as being organized yourself.
Tuesday, May 23, 2017
EOY Animation Review
This year in animation we learned many new skills. We used programs like After Effects, Maya, and Photoshop. We learned how to create two and three dimensional objects, how to use the green screen, how to use special effects, and much more. Other than using computers, we learned many skills while working together. We learned about the technology, how to collaborate with others, how to communicate, how to manage projects, and how to be a leader.
Throughout the year, we used three different programs: After Effects, Maya, and Photoshop. We started off with Photoshop and After Effects. One of our first projects was making a simple worm in Photoshop and using the puppet pin tool in After Effects to make it look like it was moving. This project took us a couple of days, but now it would only take us 15 minutes. Next we moved onto Maya. We started off by making a castle out of a couple polygons. like the worm project, this took us a couple of days, but would take us a few minutes today. As the year went on, I could definitely see my improvement.
Although many of our projects were independent, collaboration was needed. If you needed help with something, many classmates were glad to help. If somebody else needed help I would help them, as well. I think collaboration was mostly needed during our final. We were put into groups of five or six and were supposed to make a video with the use of sound effects, green screen, and a moving 3-D object. Everybody worked on their own projects and added them into the server to then go on to put it into After Effects. We bounced ideas off each other and helped each other along the way to get the best grade possible and make the best project possible.
Collaboration was a large part of working together, but it could not be done without communication. During the final project we communicated at the beginning of the project to create our idea, and communicated in the end to assign different tasks to each other. I didn't only communicate with classmates, I also communicated with Mr. Netterville. Whenever I needed to know if I was doing something wrong, I asked Mr. Netterville. Whenever I needed help and couldn't get it from classmates, I communicated with Mr. Netterville. I think communication is very important to this program and can really be the difference between good projects and great projects.
During the year, we were assigned many projects and needed to be on top of them. If you didn't turn in a project on time, points would be taken off, and being late means less time for the newer projects to come. If you do not use your time wisely or efficiently, you will be in a hole for the rest of the year. In the first semester, I did not use my time wisely, I turned in a couple projects late and our final for that semester was late by a couple weeks. This poor time management resulted me getting a B. I have corrected this problem and turned in all my projects on time and used time wisely, and now I have an A.
The last guarantee is Leadership. In order to be a good group member, you have to be a leader. In the final project, leadership was needed to carry out your tasks as well as other group members' tasks. Making sure to communicate and critique others work is a good form of leadership and really helps out the project in the end.
I have learned and improved all of these skills as the year went on. Although eComm is fun, Iam dropping it next year. I thought it over and I don't think I have the time or passion to continue on. I will use these skills in other things in life to improve myself in everything I do. last summer I wanted to change animation to graphic design, but i missed the dead line. I think this happened for the better. I have really enjoyed this class and I am glad I stayed in it. I would not change a thing over the year.
Youtube Link
Monday, May 22, 2017
How to key out green screens in After Effects
Keying with key light (1.2) in After Effects is very simple. It takes a few minutes and has a really good outcome. I will be using key light (1.2) to make a picture of me in some mountains.
1) Start off by taking a picture with the green screen in the back and finding a background picture.
2) Select the green screen picture then click effect, keying, key light (1.2).
3) click the dropper
next to screen color and click the green screen. this should take out almost all of the green.
4) mess with the screen gain to lose the shadow around the original picture.
5) Once you finish with the screen gain, you are finished.
Monday, April 17, 2017
Street Explosion Animation
In Animation, We used After Effects to create an explosion. We used a video of a city and we had layers of fire, explosions, glass breaking, etc. to create a realistic explosion. This was our first time using animations over video so we followed a tutorial closely.
Pre-Production
We started off the project by loading in the background and the animations. We used one of the doors on the side to make the fire come out of. We also learned how to use layers over animations and how to use the pen tool.
Production
We Put a fire explosion layer over the door and used a layer and the pen tool to make it look like the fire was coming from inside the building. We used the pen tool right after to make the animation go behind a light pole to make it look more realistic, as well. More layers were used when creating the scene, too. We used smoke charges coming from the fire afterwards, dust falling from above the building, debris shooting out of the door, and glass breaking next to the explosion. We color-corrected multiple layers to make it feel more real. I turned the smoke charge black and made the fire have a glow effect.
Post-Production
We wrapped up the project by putting one more layer that glowed as the fire went off. This was the hardest step in my opinion. After that was done, we put in an explosion sound and rendered it out. Our first animation over a video was complete.
Review
During this project we learned how to use the pen tool anyhow to color-correct layers. This project was fairly easy because we used a tutorial video and made ours almost identical, but that was to get us familiar with the software. If I could change one thing, I would add more explosions o make it longer and more entertaining. I would continue using layers and the pen tool, though, to make it more realistic. I think this project was a good starting point in our after effects unit and it was fun creating your own realistic explosion.
Pre-Production
We started off the project by loading in the background and the animations. We used one of the doors on the side to make the fire come out of. We also learned how to use layers over animations and how to use the pen tool.
Production
We Put a fire explosion layer over the door and used a layer and the pen tool to make it look like the fire was coming from inside the building. We used the pen tool right after to make the animation go behind a light pole to make it look more realistic, as well. More layers were used when creating the scene, too. We used smoke charges coming from the fire afterwards, dust falling from above the building, debris shooting out of the door, and glass breaking next to the explosion. We color-corrected multiple layers to make it feel more real. I turned the smoke charge black and made the fire have a glow effect.
We wrapped up the project by putting one more layer that glowed as the fire went off. This was the hardest step in my opinion. After that was done, we put in an explosion sound and rendered it out. Our first animation over a video was complete.
Review
During this project we learned how to use the pen tool anyhow to color-correct layers. This project was fairly easy because we used a tutorial video and made ours almost identical, but that was to get us familiar with the software. If I could change one thing, I would add more explosions o make it longer and more entertaining. I would continue using layers and the pen tool, though, to make it more realistic. I think this project was a good starting point in our after effects unit and it was fun creating your own realistic explosion.
Thursday, March 30, 2017
The Plausible Impossible - Dwarves
In the cartoon, Dopey can get water out of his ears just from plugging his mouth and nose and blowing which sprays the water out of both his ears. This can't happen because your ears aren't connected to your lungs, but in the Dwarves, It seems like they are and Dopey easily gets the water out of his ears this way.
When Dopey lifts up one of the dwarfs to try and push Grumpy in the water, he drops him and the force of him falling pushes Dopey and Doc back a few feet and they even roll. In real life, if Dopey would've dropped him, he would have just fallen to the ground, but in the cartoon world, with squashes and stretches, since the dwarf squashes Dopey into the ground, he gets launched outwards and catches Doc with him.
After Dopey drops he Dwarf, he goes to grab soap. Because soap is slippery, when he jumps on it, it shoots out of his hands, hits Doc, and shoots back in his mouth and down his throat. This is impossible because soap can't be launched fast enough to hit off someone and come back and go down your throat. Not to mention, you can't swallow a whole bar of soap to begin with. This happens anyway because it shows Dopey messing up and it's not going to show Dopey choking when he could rather have hiccups with bubbles which isomer entertaining.
After Dopey swallows the soap, he starts hiccuping bubbles. This wouldn't happen because bubbles can't form just from soap and air from your lungs. This happens though because it goes along with Dopey's character always messing up and it is funny!
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