Portfolio Reflection

Pen

This pen was made in the program Maya, and was created in 3-D. When creating this pen I learned how to use soft scaling, which is how I made the grippy and the clip. I picked this project because I spent quite a bit of time on it and it summed up my whole semester on what I learned, and I got better throughout the semester. My strengths for this project are that I got a lot of the small details in the pen and tried to get the colors the same. I have improved on using the right material for making the colors on it, like how phong is more shiny, and Blinn is more dim but has a small shine to it, which is what I made my pen color out of. Next year, I will probably be using the soft scaling and the materials a lot for different kinds of projects. I  could improve one thing it would be the tip of the pen, after finishing it I saw that I forgot to add the ink on the tip of it. I am very proud of this project because I spent a lot of time getting the small details.

Character Story

This animation probably took the longest out of all of the projects, because I was still learning how to use After Effects. When making this project I learned how to move a character and the background at the same time, and also how to parent a shape to another shape. I picked this project because this was my biggest project throughout the whole year and took me a few weeks to make. My greatest strength through this project was that I did a lot of trial and error to try and make the animation run smoothly. There was a few mistakes in it still, because I was still learning. Like when the screen was scrolling the character was moving slower than the background and the robot steps onto the other robot, but it was mostly because I was running out of time to fix it. I probably wont be using After Effects a whole bunch now that I am learning how to use Maya, but if I do, I will use what I learned on how to make a walking cycle or how I scrolled the background on my next project. If I could change something, i would fix the small mistakes and put more detail in the background of the animation to make it more appealing.

Ice Cream

This was my first animation, before I was just learning how to model in Maya, and I still am learning how to model. I had to ask for help quite a bit for the animation but now I get it better, it was my first time so it was a little confusing to learn at first. I picked this project because it was my first 3-D animation in Maya and I spent a long time created the ice cream and the other models. My strengths in this project are that I tried to get the right material on the ice cream to make it look like a real scoop of ice cream. I will be using what I learned on how to animate it in the future, like how I put objects into the same group so that they all spun together at the same time. If I could change something I would fix the material in my animation, in the animation the cloud texture spins with the table and it looks like the scoops are spinning, but i didn't have time to fix it.

Multiplane 

In this animation, I was learning a new skill, which was how to make a background with different layers to scroll and move at different speeds. I picked this project because I spent a long time created the backgrounds and it turned out good in the end. This animation was also created in After Effects, but the backgrounds were made in Photoshop. My greatest strengths in this project was the detail I put into making the backgrounds, and I don't see any mistakes in the animation. I already used what I learned during this animation in my character story, this helped me a lot.

Walking Animation

This animation was my 3rd animation made in After Effects, and I learned how to make a walk cycle. I picked this project because I did pretty good on the animation and I spent a lot of time making the robot, it was first hand-drawn. My strengths in this project was that I had to do a lot of trial and error on this one too, to make the walk look real and run smoothly. I have used what I learned on this project for the character story, and I probably use it again if I use After Effects. If I could change anything in this animation it would be that I fix the two specks that are moving with the head by the robot, I don't think I noticed them until I rendered it out, but again I didn't have enough time to go back into it to fix it.

Professional Project Review 2

Wallace and Gromit

Animation

Wallace and Gromit is a British, clay animation that was started out by a comic in 1982. The first short movie was made in 1989, and it was a stop-motion animation film, called A Grand Day Out. Stop-Motion takes a really long time to make, Wallace and Gromit are made out of clay, and they move the clay a tiny bit, then take a picture, they do that over and over again until they have the full animation. That is why the animation is only 24 minutes, each character moves 12 times a second. The company said that when Gromit is wagging his tail for 30 seconds, that it is 360 movements they have to do. One of their newest animation called "A matter of Loaf and Death", it took 18 months to complete. 

Apply

Wallace and Gromit does a really good job at making a stop-motion animation smooth and getting enough frames per second. Stop-motion takes lots of patience, their first film took nearly 7 years to complete. If I was to ever create a stop-motion film, I would try to follow the rules that Wallace and Gromit went through, to have up to 12 frames per second.

Professional Project Review 1

Star Wars The Old Republic: Sacrifice

Animation

These animations that are made by BioWare (the company that makes the game), are really well done. This is from an online RPG, that is based on the Star Wars trilogies, but a few hundred years before. The story was told from when the two guys were young, to how the story was so far in the game. The two guys are neither Sith nor Jedi, but by the end they choose. The story was told quickly, but I still got the whole point of it, it was told really well with the voice over. 

Apply 

It is hard to tell a whole story in a short amount of time and this animation helped me figure out a better way of telling a story in that amount of time. The company spent a lot of time on their animation, so I don't see any flaws that stick out to me, plus they probably had thousands of people few it before they posted it. They have had many animations that they made that is implemented into the games storyline. I enjoy watching these animations because of the good story that they tell in the short amount of time. They used a lot of special effects like explosions that I will hopefully learn how to do someday.

Maya Castle

Castle Program

This castle was made in Maya, I just started to learn how to do 3-D animation and how to design and model in Maya. Before making this castle I had no prior knowledge of this software. The first picture is the final product and the second one is in the making inside of Maya.

What I learned

Last year I learned the basics on how to use Sketchup, which is a way simpler version of Maya, and I used some of that knowledge to create this but I did learn quite a few things that were different in Maya. I learned how to use the extrude tool, which is the parts that come up on the wall and the top of the tower. I also learned how to add more divisions onto the shapes to add more polygons onto a shape. I learned how to import a texture from the Internet into Maya, it took me a while to figure it out and how to make the texture repeat more on the castle so that it wasn't really big.

Next Project

Each time I do something in this program I learn something new and maybe, later on, I will be modifying it and make it look better. I am learning how to use lighting in Maya and will probably add some lighting to it. There are a few things in the castle that don't look to well, like the texture on the tower does not seam up very well.

Halloween Web Project

Process 

This web page was made in Dreamweaver in favor of Halloween in 2016. The banner at the top is animated, which I made the animation in Photoshop. And the websites that are linked in the web page have an iFrame on them, so that you can view them within the web page. The animated pumpkin next to the banner was also made in Photoshop. I changed all the colors of the heading and the colors of the links so that the background doesn't make the links invisible.

New Things

When in the process of making this project, I did learn more about how to animate, but not only that I  learned how to use Iframe and how it works. This is also the first page the is linked to my index page and is online (Click Web Page in the First Paragraph). I had to go and download the font I used for the title, it was pretty easy to put it into Photoshop. 

Character Story

Character Story Animation:

The Process:

In this project, I had to make an animation with a beginning, middle, and end with a plot. I created the characters in PhotoShop and I created the animation in After Effects. This took me about 1 and a half weeks to create, and not knowing a lot on how to animate I think I did pretty good. Before I even touched the computer to start making the animation, I first made a storyboard over what the animation was going to be about, just that part took about two days. It was a technical animation for me because I had to animate a lot of the parts of the robot, all the body parts were separate, and it got confusing after a while which body parts belonged to each of the robots. I did learn how to do a few things when on After Effects, I learned how to use opacity keyframes and rotation keyframes, like with the laser, it was there the whole time but the opacity was turned down all the way. I could have put more effort into the background, but I just didn't have enough time. In the storyboards, I crossed out a lot of the scenes because I either modified it or did not like the scene when trying to do the animation. The story boards is what I made before making it and I followed it out like a template when making the animation in After Effects.

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