Year-Long Analysis...sort of

Personally, I feel like this class has been alright. I think this class is special in that it has little to no structure, but I think we could have done with a little more...despite what a feel, though, I have learned a different style of animating that I will most likely be using for all my animations in the future. I've learned how to create an animation through a partnership and have experienced the ups and downs resulting from that partnership. I guess in the long run, I have taken quite a bit out of this class, whether or not it was intentional.
     In addition to having learned more about the arts of animations, I've learned some people skills, as well. I learned how to work with people even if I have absolutely nothing in common with them and I've discovered that even if it might not seem like I'm able to handle the presence of certain people, as time goes on, I might get to know them better and eventually we might become a really strong team.
     As for my future plans, I will be taking and Intro to Engineering next year as a part of Project Lead the way to broaden my interactions with digital engineering and just engineering in general. I suppose I could continue to post my animations on this blog, but that will depend on whether or not I can master my time management skills.

Family Aspect Animation

Here it is!

Family Project

For this part of my blog, I have to say, I honestly had no idea what to do.
In the end, I figured  that I'd just make an animation about a part of my family's life. And so i did. please see the next post for the Family Aspect Animation.

...and as stated on the second frame, the members of my family have not been captured very well, so please don't judge!

Murder Movie Full

Here is the FULL and FINAL Murder Movie...but each of the frames have been shortened into 1 second each, so I'm sorry, but you probably will not be able to read the dialogue...

Step Two

I then crop away the rest of the box to be able to move my character around more easily with this crop function in the upper right corner of the picture tools format tab:

...Now I position the character the way I want him to appear against the background:

Here comes the animating! I right click the slide I want to duplicate (on the bar on the left), and click the duplicate slide button under the new slide button and there!:

I move onto the duplicated slide and move the character a little and BAM! I've animated him!

These steps are done over and over and over until I've created the entire movie (which is why there are hundreds of slides!

Thanks for sticking around and goodbye!

If you have a question or some clarification, please leave a comment below and i'll reply! Thank you!

Step one

So, first I correspond with Shannon and she sends me an email that looks something like this:

I will then save each and every picture to a designated file on my flashdrive (so that they're all together):

Then I go onto Microsoft PowerPoint and pull it up.

When on Powerpoint, I first pull up the background for that scene:

After I've pulled up the background, I pull up the character that Shannon sent me:

...and I remove the white background with this button in the upper left corner of the picture tools format tab:

I enlarge the box so that the character is engulfed by the flood of pink/purple like so:

...and then I click away, out of the pink/purple blob and this is how the character looks on the background:

Please see step two for further instructions ↑

Shannon's Input and Opinions

I don't think that I have much to say about Bendita's plans for animation. I personally agree that her approach for animating will be the easiest way to go about it.
My first and only concern was that her sample didn't move very quickly, but it's possible to speeding up so I'm on board.
I'll be posting an update to my blog about this soon.
We'll be using this "flip book animation" style for the whole movie instead of flip book and digital separately.
This idea has my blessing.

From PowerPoint to ViDeo

Converting PowerPoint into Video
*I will include this little snippet on how to convert a PowerPoint presentation into a video*
Pre 1. Now, I do this for every PowerPoint animation that I want to change into video format, not just this one...
1. I highlight all the slides in the presentation and save them all as individual pictures into a file.
2. I pull up Windows Live Movie Maker and drag all the pictures of the slides I just saved from that file into the box that will allow me to upload pictures or video clips.
3. I use formatting on Windows Live Movie Maker to change the durations of the pictures into the desirable lengths. (This way, parts with dialogue between characters will stay onscreen for a longer time than scenes where it's all just movements.)
4. I then add the necessary title slides (in the case of the most recent video, the last black part where it says "to be continued..."
5. The project is pretty much finished at this point, but to save it, I use the save as and click what's recommended because usually this format makes it pretty compatible for when it needs to be uploaded or saved

Steps for New Animation

As might already have noticed, in my last video, the background and the characters were all hand-drawn (by yours truly). But the drawings were all put together on Microsoft PowerPoint and Windows Live Movie Maker (it's not shown, but I assure you that you can take my word for it).

Preparation Steps
1. First, I drew the background on an app called Sketchbook Xpress. Then I saved it to my camera roll and emailed it to myself. I then went onto a desktop computer and saved that picture to said computer. I opened up a new page on Microsoft PowerPoint and pulled the picture up on a slide.
2. I went back to the sketchbook app and drew up all the characters. I made sure they were all drawn on a white background so that when I put it back on the PowerPoint slides, I will be able to clear the entire white, leaving only the subject. I did the same thing with the characters as I did with the background (I drew it on the app, saved it to my camera roll, emailed it to myself, saved it to the computer, opened it back up on a slide in PowerPoint, and then cropped and took out the background.
3. For every scene, I went back into the app and altered the characters just slightly to make them appear to have moved a bit. Then I sent the picture to myself and put it on the PowerPoint.
4. As a result, I used PowerPoint to animate the way I always have, but I actually drew all of the scenes.

An Example Film

Here I have embedded a video that I created that will give an example of how our movie will appear.
But please keep in mind that the real movie...
-Will be done more cleanly (because this is a preview, I did not do my best on it. As long as I felt it fit its purpose, I decided that it would be enough)
-Will have better graphics (there is a VERY GOOD reason why I am not the one who will be drawing all the artwork in the film...)
-Will be longer...(by hopefully a lot...)
-Will have a better plot. This is stupid, somewhat cheesy, and bad...but I thought it up on the spot and that is NOT going to be what our really movie plot will be (...hopefully...)
-And we might use real audio dialogue instead of word bubbles (if we have time)

Advance in Decisions on Mode of Animating (Cont.)

The way that I saw the Bananaphone animation was that the characters themselves didn't look like organized shapes, but more like someone drew them by hand either on a device or by hand. But then these drawings were then plugged into some sort of program that organized them into an animation (like Windows MovieMaker).


Now I will proceed to explain (to the best of my ability) how I will bring Shannon's drawings to life... I will COMBINE the art of flip books WITH the art of digital animations!
I haven't yet proposed this idea to Shannon (seeing as I can be a bit scatterbrained and forgetful sometimes), but I will ask her for her opinion as soon as she gets back.
Shannon will email me the pictures of the characters on a white background so that I can eliminate the background entirely on PowerPoint. Then I will arrange the characters the way that they should be on the slide of the PowerPoint and email her back with a request for another view or position of that character. Shannon can use a sketching app and alter that character just a little for me and send the second picture back to me and so on.
So in other words, Shannon will be drawing everything in the movie (but the task will not be way too taxing with the help of the Sketchbook X app and others) and I will be arranging the pictures and putting them on slides of Microsoft PowerPoint to make the animation factor of it.
Sorry, if this is still a bit confusing, but hopefully, things can be clarified more after I've begun and there are examples of it.

Advance in Decisions on Mode of Animating

So, lately I have been trying to figure out how to convert Shannon's artistically talented drawings into animated pictures. We thought about flip books with post it notes, but it would then be too small. One day, as I was walking to eighth period with Lily, we were talking about YouTube videos and the Potter Puppet Pals (if you haven't yet watched "The Mysterious Ticking Noise," then you've most definitely been missing out...). She told me to watch "Bananaphone," so when I got home from school that day, I did.
Here's the link:
• www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELhtdUNlafM
After I watched it, I put two and two together and realized how we would be able to animated Shannon's sketches!

TED Talk Opinions

Ok, I realize that I have sort of been ranting throughout this entire post, but...yeah...I also realize that it may not make sense or be kind of cheesy...I apologize in advance.



I agree with what Will Richardson is saying because I truly think that these test prep classes (that haven't been changed for the longest time) are going to be preparing us for, as he put it, a world that will no longer exist. Because in our generation and the generation of our kids, there will be more problems to solve that the people of the older generation (the ones who wrote these tests) would never have thought of. Basically, it would be like teaching someone how to use a hammer to nail nails...and find out that there is a wall that needs to be painted. One wouldn't succeed, no matter how talented they are with a hammer; they need a paintbrush. A real life example right now is that many bright, young, as extremely smart students are graduating from colleges...just go home and have to live with their parents because they can't find jobs that put the subject that they've studied and majored in to good use. Mr. Richardson is right that nowadays, we can learn so much with the help of the Internet and technology; with YouTube videos and personal blogs. But if this is the case, then why do students even still need to come to school? They can just stay home and learn whatever they want to... It's true, I think, that the test scores of a district or school don't truly capture the abilities of its students because, as our teachers and parents have sort of been trying to tell us all this time, someone will never (or at least, very rarely) be good at EVERYTHING. If they're telling us this (along with all the cliché "oh, just be who you are!" "Your appearance doesn't matter, it's what's on the inside that counts!" "It doesn't matter what you got or how you did, it's the effort that counts!") then why are they still judging us by our test scores and grades? If I'm just not good at math and it doesn't click for me, and if what I want to do with my life needs only for me to know the basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, then why in the world do I need to know Calculus? I don't think they understand that kids can have interests that don't require all of what they're teaching in school.
I guess teachers aren't literally restraining our creativity, but I think it is still decreasing, at least to an extent. For example, that stop motion film I posted last month? We really did present it as a grade to the teacher for the class. When we finished, I felt like we did pretty good. Boy was I surprised and disappointed when I found out that we had gotten a B on it. So, what I'm learning here is that the rubric is the most important factor of the project? I understand that the point of the rubric is to present to us the requirements for getting certain scores on this project, but no where on there was there anything about time/effort/or creativity. I think that we should be encouraged to search for different ways to present material that is interesting and worthwhile. What good is reading words off of slides and forgetting all the information the minute after the test has been taken? Exactly, there's no real point. But if we can explore these ways of doing something with the material, then there are higher chances that we'll remember more of it while we're assembling it. Creativity should be expected to spring to life during projects in which you're given free reign, but not to just slap it all onto some PowerPoint and read it all off when the time comes for you to present.

Email

I have written an email that I will send out to one of the CADD teachers this week.
With this email I will try to find out what sort of program they use here to create animations.

Step Four

4) We used the program, Windows MovieMaker Live to math up the pictures with the sound recordings
-First, we uploaded all the pictures from the camera onto the Windows MovieMaker Live
-Then we began to drag on the recordings one by one
-Based on how long each of the recordings were, we changed the length of the picture to match it
-We only took a picture of each mouth because we can copy and paste pictures on MovieMaker
•This saved us a lot of time because we could then just put the two mouths in a random order for when the food is "speaking" (this is also why the mouth movements don't quite match up to whatever is being said...but we didn't have too much time)
-In making the pictures the same length as the sound recordings, we were able to create the effect that allowed people to think that the foods were actually the ones speaking
-This was the longest and most time-consuming step because there were so many sound recording snippets that were all of different time lengths.

Step Three

3) We took all the pictures
-We stacked a pile of books and set the camera on top for a view that took in the whole stage
-We positioned the lights so that we would have an adequate amount of lighting
-We "filmed"
•My friend Bojana was in charge of the camera and I was responsible for the movements of the "cast"
•She would take a picture of the stage and then I would shift the food over just a little bit and check with her to see whether or not it was in the shot or not
•We only took shots of the foods moving on and off the scree and two shots of two different mouths on the food (this will be explained later)
-After we took enough pictures, we returned to the computer to combine the pictures back with the recordings

Step One

1) Fist, we wrote and recorded our script.
-We used the information we found and put it into script form
-Then we used the sound recorder program and recorded all of our scripts
•We saved these snippets of sound into a folder on the computer so that we could access them again later
2) Then we set up the stage for our filming.

Materials

Here are the "things" we used to make the animation:

Programs:
-Windows MovieMaker Live
-Sound Recorder

Props:
-An Ear of Corn
-A Pile of Soybeans
-A Tomato
-A Banana

Equipment:
-Camera
-Computer (with above listed programs)
-Five-Headed Lights to provide good lighting

Veggie Tales Stop Motion Animation

So, here it is! The stop motion animation video I helped create for our biology project. It's mostly informational, but if you look watch closely, you will be able to watch the mouths of the foods move and also their walking on and off the "stage". Over the next few posts, I will explain how we created this presentation.

Stop Motion Film

So, last Saturday I went over to my friend Bojana's house to work on a biology project. Our topic was genetically modified foods so I proposed that we make a film featuring fruits, vegetables, and other foods. We decided to make it a stop motion animation that would be like a talk show in which an interviewer interviews one of four foods. The video is liked to the previous post and I will now proceed by explaining how we made it.

Character Design

Here is the picture of The Chief that I have designed for the movie. (It is also available for viewing, in addition to Shannon's picture of him, on our group blog)...

March Goals

For my March goals I will continue reading and posting about the book I'm reading. Also, I will try to meet up with one of the teachers from the engineering department (most likely one of the CAD teachers) to see what kinds of programs they use for making animations.

Random-ish (But still Related) Oscar Clip

     Hey, so on Sunday I was watching the 85th Academy Awards (Oscars) and there was a part in it that I felt like was a bit relevant to my topic so I decided to post about it. I tried to find it on YouTube, but I was unsuccessful. So then I decided to just use my iPad and record the part. Here it is! The sound is pretty soft but there are subtitles that you might be able to read (...or you could just turn the volume up really high...and also, don't worry: it's really short).
     I think it is relevant to my topic because it shows a few of the technological advancements that have been made this year to film making (which includes animations). But even if it isn't entirely an animated film, it can still have animated creatures in it (for example, the apes in "Planet of the Apes," the Na'vi in "Avatar" (not the last airbender but the tall blue creatures with long hair and long tails).
     Oh, and one last thing...I own none of this, I am merely posting it as a part of my research; I am making no profits off of this, unless you count pageviews... and I am in no way, shape, or form, doing this to mar the images of these people...I just have a very low-quality video camera.
     ...and to all the fans of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, I'm sorry I didn't include the clip of him dancing with Harry Potter.

Attention! Label Clarification!

RESEARCH (6):
-A Collection of Data Gathered (3)
—Includes what research and what analysis I have made from A Century of Stop Motion Animations
-Animated Educational Shows (1)
—My brush with PBS kids (Arthur)
-Movie Sound Effects
—Research on the impact of sounds and music on a viewer's feelings when watching a movie/ show

BOOK (2)
—What books I read and/ or use for research

CHECK-IN (1)
—If and when I am required to turn in an individual blog check-in, I will also post it here

CONTACT(1)
—Any attempts I have of trying to contact professionals

CREATING SHAPES: THE BASICS (2)
—A series teaching readers how to create their own PowerPoint animated movies that I will be SLOWLY adding to in addition to my research

GOALS (3)
—Any goals I have regarding my individual pursuit as well as our group project

IN-CLASS TEXTS (3)
—Any thoughts I have on the books we're reading in class (Outliers and Isaac's Storm)

MISSION STATEMENT (1)
—My very first mission statement

NEW TASK (1)
—The School improvement project rubric

POWERPOINT (2)
—Any PowerPoints that I convert into videos will be posted under this label

YEAR-LONG PROJECT UPDATES (2)
—Any changes and/ or improvements to our year-long group project

**FACTS: Where I will be posting the information I learned
**ANALYSIS: Where I will post my personal thoughts on that specific fact
**BLOG UPDATES: Where I will be posting updates regarding the format and labels of my blog

The above three labels with the stars are going to be newly added labels (as of 02/05/13)! Please comment if you have any suggestions for improvements!

New Book: Chapter 1- Sight and Sound

I personally feel that the main point of having sound effects in movies is to help enhance the mood, the setting, and the characters to make the movie seem more and more like a reality for the viewers.
EXAMPLES:
-Scary movies, to give viewers the feeling of being scared or afraid, creepy or dark music is played.
-Thrillers/Horror movies, suspenseful music is played to keep viewers on the edge of their seats.
-Cartoons and kids shows, sometimes small children might not be able to understand a scene or part and that is when the sound effects come into play. Sad music makes them feel for the character and happy music suggests that the character is being playful.
-Advertisements use different types of music to play the feelings of every-day Americans watching TV. They play sad music when they want you to feel bad for puppies, depraved kids in poor countries, and global warming melting icebergs and stranding polar bears.
._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._.

In the absence of music, it is harder for directors and actors to fully convey the mood to the audience.
EXAMPLES:
-Disney Movies. The impact of sound effects and soundtracks can be found in Disney movies. If you we're to watch one without turning on the sound (or at least without the music, in other words, just the voices), then you probably wouldn't feel as sad as you do when a character who is loved by all is hurt or killed (death doesn't occur TOO often in Disney films...but then again, there are a few exceptions...that I can't seem to bring to mind right now...but still).

-Other Movies. Even if it is not a Disney film, if you were to watch a movie (hearing only the voices), it would still be an entirely different experience. A man would be clutching the (prone and dead) body of a woman who he loved so dearly that he was willing to risk his whole life to protect her son even though she went off an married his childhood bully and arch nemesis and you might be sitting there, indifferent to it all thinking "...ok. Soooo...she died...that's too bad...*pausing the movie at the credits*...hm, I'm hungry...I wonder what's new in the refrigerator? *goes off to make a sandwich*"...well, maybe not exactly like that, but you probably don't feel as much empathy for the man as you would with music. With music you would probably still be sitting there in fetal position with your knees to your chest and tears streaming down your face while the credits continued rolling down the screen. then you would probably go update your status telling everyone how you were so touched by this movie you just watched. (...Alright...so maybe Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 isn't exactly an exemplary example of a drama, but still...).

New Book: Chapter 1- Sight and Sound

Sound designer Randy Thom (The Incredibles, The Polar Express, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire...etc.) states that film sound can:
***-Suggest a mood
-Set a pace
-Clarify the plot
***-Define a character
-Connect otherwise unconnected ideas, characters, places, images, or moments
-Draw attention to or away from a detail
-Indicate changes in time
-Smooth otherwise abrupt changes between shots or scenes
-Startle or soothe

Sound Design: Sound design has three main elements:
                                                                                     -Music
                                                                                     -Noises
                                                                                     -Voices

In olden days, everything on the soundtrack had to be recorded at the same time. Today, everything (the music, noises, and voices) is recorded separately and then put together after the film has been shot. (The person who combines these sounds is called the "sound mixer"). The noises on the soundtrack are called sound effects and can be simple (the squeak of a door hinge) or complicated (a nuclear bomb blowing up). Most action movies depend greatly on sound effects (Star Wars, Die Hard, The Matrix).

New Book!

So last Sunday I finally checked out another book to help me on my way! It is "Making Movies- Movie Soundtracks and Sound Effects" by Geoffrey M. Horn. Now, while it is only 32 pages, I flipped through it quickly and it seems to have a lot of useful information. I will be formatting my research a bit differently from now on. In order to make sure I have both facts and analysis, I will create separate posts of information with corresponding posts of reflection.

Group Blog Site

Our new group blog site is:
TopHatFalls Productions
we are no longer using our "snazalicious snazzies" site

Creating Shapes: The Basics-Part 1

Alright. So, when making characters, I'd say the classic would be this:

Now, keep in mind that all their body parts and clothing can be interchangeable.

     If you have already figured out that these two characters consist of powerpoint-given shapes, then you've already indirectly learned this first lesson. If not, then please continue reading on:

1. First decide on a character to create. For example...a person from the roman times 
2. Now decide on the types of clothing that they might wear. They might have a rhombus against his clothes like this to create togas of some sort like: 

New Year-Long Group Project!

So have have just figured out a new year-long project idea that might actually be feasible. I am, in reality, quite excited about this one, because I will be able to put a stop motion animation in the SAME..."video" as digital animation. Now I don't remember seeing any films that have been done this way so far, but then again, I might've just forgotten. It seems really interesting to me because it would almost be like two perspectives of one film. I personally like to think of it as a movie kind of like "Oz the Great and Powerful". Now this movie hasn't come out yet, but in watching the trailer you can clearly see that in the beginning, the main character lives in a world of black and white. But he then travels to a totally remarkable land (probably Oz) that is filled with color. I am beginning to really, sincerely believe that we can do this.

Goals...:/

So, I am having very serious technical difficulties involving copying my frames/ pictures onto Windows Live Movie Makes (and even less, the computer) so my goal of uploading my stop motion animation will be delayed. Thank you very much, and I am working on it as I type. Sorry again for any inconveniences.