Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Demo Reel Breakdown


Aminah deVere
Demo Breakdown Sheet

1. Don't you Gnomey?

ToonBoom 
Hand drawn Animation
Animated the morph between main character and gnome along with end transition.

2. JellyFish

Adobe Photoshop 
Hand drawn Animation
Drew and Textured the jellyfish. Also drew each stage of the jellyfish's movement.

3. Square Zone

Adobe Photoshop
Hand drawn Animation

4. Watercolour

Adobe AfterEffects + Photoshop
Composed Paths for shapes.
Animated Morphing.

5. PaperLand

Adobe AfterEffects + Photoshop + Illustrator

Hand drew background composed in Adobe Illustrator
Created rough edges for the reveal in Adobe Illustrator
Layered background together in Adobe Photoshop
Animated reveal in Adobe AfterEffects

Monday, April 16, 2012

Schedule: Type Out

17 Tuesday:
            All shots properly assembled.
            All strokes finished to be synced.


19 Thursday:
          Changes made from critique of 17.4.2012.
          All strokes synced.
          All imagery composed to be synced.



23 Tuesday:
        Changes made from critique of 19.4.2012.
        All strokes synced.
        All imagery composed to be synced.


26 Thursday:
        Changes are made from previous critique.
        Everything is locked down.
        Strokes are synced.
        Imagery is synced and in place. Along with having a unified and established style that compliments     the piece as a whole.


Wednesday, April 11, 2012

SELF CRITIQUE - AMINAH dEVERE




This self-critique is an important part of your project (and grade) and reflects the learning process you went through. You self-critique narrative should include these four main areas of discussion:

A) Impact and Intent- how did you want to affect your audience?
1. On a scale of 1-10, what was the story's overall impact?
  
 I think the stories overall impact is an 8, you do not connect emotionally with the view, but you do relate to her circumstance. This is a better outcome for me.

2. What did the story leave you thinking?

 What is going to do next with her "picketing time"?

3. What did it leave you feeling? 
  
It left me feeling satisfied with the character at the end, a semi-happy feeling. She ends the film more confident. 

4. Discuss the source of the main idea that you started with and its importance to you. 

What I started was the effects of judging a person before you know them, and that a similar situation like that comes back around to you to teach you a lesson.

5.Discuss the Theme or premise of the piece as you discovered it after finishing the film.

 After the film, I came with a new theme about being satisfied with yourself regardless of others.   

B) Clarity of Tension/Main Conflict

1. How clear was the story? Could you see all the scenes equally clearly in my mind's eye, or were some hazy?

 The story comes together as its own solid piece. The scenes relate, to each other.

2. What parts could you easily and pleasurably retell, and what parts are difficult to recall?

I think whatever does not have dialog stands out, pretty strong. 

C) Potential

1. Does the story feel complete?

 The story feels complete but could probably use a few details that could aid the message. This might be a result of what was actually captured but with what we do have, I feel strong in my shot choices, though I feel maybe a few more would do.

2. On a scale of 1-10, rate each scene. Are they all functioning to full potential?

Scene I Morning
8
Scene II Picket
Scene III New Day
9
Scene IV Home with Jeff
8
Scene V Resolution
10 
3. Which elements were strong, which were weak?
 The in-between conversations tend to lag a little bit at the beginning, but it later pulls itself together. 

D) Feedback-- Discuss “What you want to learn to do better.”
1. Report what is working well, and what is not.

I feel my audio is working well and well as my shots in the beginning.  I think that middle gets a little funky, but it picks itself back up in the beginning. Honestly, I feel that the story is becomes more about the everyday life of this girl until she argues with a group member. This I like, it is not the original script, but it is interesting.

2. Suggest what might clarify and strengthen whatever is weak.

I want to improve more on relating shots together, and also I feel like I can grow more in the audio department. Im pretty confident in my sound transitions and how I managed to pull if off, but I found areas that could use improvement and would maybe require a secondary program. A goal of mine, probably for the summer, to learn about some audio programs and go past the basics.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Printed Imaged

Elevator Pitch -
Theme - Man vs Self
Explanation of Theme -
Central Point - When a persons becomes focused on making other people happy, he comes a silhouetted shadowed figure on a quest to find what makes him happy in life.
Central Goal -
Abstract Terms - The film is about becoming so caught up in keeping other people happy that you loose what is important to you. When this happens the character turns into his shadow
Care -
About -

Synopsis: This is a story about losing who you actual are to the world
Place - Attic / Basement / In the City At Night
Time - Evening and Night
Atmosphere - Dingy, Lots of Atmospheric Perspective.

Introduction of the Main Character:
All of the characters in this piece contain a common goal; to find self happiness in their world of chaos. The main character, like the others, has lost his human form and cannot connect with it until he finds his purpose in life. This is a piece about becoming self

Conflict:
As this shadow man goes around discovering what he enjoys in this life he continues to

It is

Animation Link

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

When two cultures collapse they discover a common thread that brings them together.

From Rhymes to Signs
  •  taking a visual language and the written word
  •  communicate the differences deaf and hearing through laughter
  • educational
 This will be a typography piece.
 The text will consist of cheesy jokes and pick up lines for both hearing and deaf.
Begins in an open space - small ball appears - takes the shape of a hands arms making a simplified house, simplified house appears. One house manual alphabet typography. Links to other house, Letter alphabet.

Location is in an open space. background plain, allows text and images to stand out.
Looking into incorporating characters (2) Simply plush cute little guys. One deaf one hearing. communication barriers >> connection through laughter >> explore the essence of the joke, how it is understood as funny


General Ideas for text:





Character Stereotypes:



Friday, March 23, 2012

Final thought

Im considering doing a typography piece and the text will be cheesy jokes and pick up lines.


Cheesy Jokes and Pick up lines.


  • wanna coffee with me?
  • what do you call it when people put names on the backs of sports shirts? clothes captioning

Thursday, March 22, 2012

INTERNSHIP INTERVIEWS


JEFF MUNCY - The Brooks Museum

What type of internship are you currently involved in?

- It is a photo internship that covers special events.

What should I expect from a typical internship based off of your experiences so far?

- The don't expect much from me because I go to school at MCA, but I don't know how to answer. I guess, nothing in particular. I photo'd for them once, they liked it, and kept me around.

How do the people there treat you, do they value your contribution?

- They hear me out. Nothing has really come up, but I'm sure they would hear me out with my decision and respect it.

Do they consider you as a employee or as a student?

- They view me more as a volunteer, I do a lot of volunteer for them, but it is all respect.

BIDDY SEVINO - Harvest

Do you think you will pursue that job as a career?

- If they offered? No. I feel like I do not know enough of After Effects or web designing. I don't think I would fulfill their requirements, just by being an Illustrator.

Have you met/come into contact with people you can network with?

- I do not get out except for big events, but they introduce me as the intern. I'm not shoved in a closet, I get some networking opportunities, but not a lot.

Have you learned anything new since you have been there?

- They teach me some web design and After Effects. I'm becoming familiar with print to pdf and larger scale printing along with professional printing systems in sync with Illustrator.

- The people are very sociable, not like hoodies and jeans, but business casual. They all went to MCA, and it does not feel like a business environment. They take me out to lunch with them, it just seems like a group gather working on projects, like with school.

JUSTIN SMITH - The Metal Museum

How many internships have you had so far?

- Just the one.

Is this a place you would consider for a career or just a stepping stone?

- Hmm, it would be a place I would... (hesitation)..consider, yea.

How has this internship benefitted you/ enhance your previous skills?

- I'm learning some technical skills I guess, other than that, not too much of anything else.

Are you well respected with the people you work with? Do they value your importance/contribution?

- No, well maybe a few of them do.

Would you say this i a good experience?

- Yea, I would say so.

Are you able to network often?

- I guess, other artists don't seem to visit often, but people do come in and I usually greet them, say hi, introduce myself. This weekend is the big forging on the river. I'll be working on that so I suppose that would be my oppurtunity to visit and network with other artists.

Do you only do jobs related to your specific department or are you able to branch out?

- I am assigned to work in the shop smithing, but the first few weeks I just cleaned the bathrooms and swept. Lately, I've been doing sculpture related work, drilling holes in the walls, general repair. If what you're asking is do I get to visit the museum, then no, I don't really have a chance to visit the library there either.

If they were to offer you a job would you take it?

- I guess, if they did.

At the end of the internship, or whenever your time with them is done, do you think you would have reached any personal goals you've had?

Just doing the internship alone was a goal I wanted, so yes that went well.

How do you balance school with work?

It's not bad, I spend as much time there working as if it were a studio class, and actually I spend less time in class. They let me work on my projects there, and I don't have as much stress involved here either.

GOOGLE DOCS LINKS
WHY I CHOSE MY INTERNSHIPS

Final Concept Revised

Journey of a man, who went from pleasing the world to understanding himself.

hearing - exposure to american sign language with representational images

Sign language / typography piece.
Poem in ASL
2 Characters
Purpose: To create a piece both enjoyable to both the Hearing and Deaf community.

Tone: The background consists of a face that changes with the signs on a simple dark gradient. The hands signing will look like jointed gloves, and coming from these gloves are aided imagery relating to the signs.

The imagery also interacts with a small bug-eyed character to give a clearer understanding to the ASL poem.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Effects, All Special!

Well, I finished the first part of this tutorial assignment. Now I just have to give it a practical use. Seems simple, right?
All I know is that I need to continue preparing for my demo on tomorrow because it's gonna be a long presentation.
What I do know is that I will use the different effects in the tutorial for my own use. Way cool!
Click here for the step by step tutorials i saw online.
Click here for the final product from the tutorial.
Click here for my version.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Work in Progress

So far this assignment is making it's way, I've estimated the time length to be 2minutes upon completion so far i have 7. This 7 seconds is the walk cycle for one of the characters. It still has adjustments to be made, but so far he is a hoppy little fellow!

Here he IS

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Midterm. for 2/16

Elevator Line:
      When a man's subconscious dominates his reality he becomes trapped in a world battling for control of his sanity

Explanation of Theme:
      Good vs Evil
      Man vs Mind - Man is having trouble separating his reality from his imagination.
            
Short Synopsis: The main character of the story Nathaniel Peter Marshall wakes up into a world he cannot control where strange characters and elephants fight him and each other for control of his mind. Elephants - burdensome animals; White Elephants very special but requires special food and are a burden to take care of - transform into generally good creatures. Alligators transforms into naturally evil creatures. Animals do not fight each other, but the creatures they transform into do. In this mini battle scene the good and bad creature fight for Nathaniel, if the good side wins then Nathaniel learns and earns self respect and if the bad side wins he will be forever burned with the dissatisfaction of failure.
Place: Nathaniel's Bedroom
Time: Night time
Atmosphere: warm
Introduction of Main Character: Nathaniel is a lonely male who spends most of his time in his shared apt pitting himself, when one night his subconscious takes over and tries to help him understand his self worth
Conflict: Nathaniel realizes that the characters fighting him in his room are battling for control of his mind.

Tone and Execution:




Color Pallets: - muted colored characters
Character Design:


Objective:
What do they want to happen:
What is the goal of this project: The goal of this project is to show how a person can get so wrapped up with the mess that is in his/her mind or the crazy things that they see until it becomes a part of them and they cannot escape.

Ending: Man is consumed by his mind and transforms into on the characters that were just battling in front of him.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

For this assignment I never thought how tricky layer mattes could be. But I also gained a few ideas as to how they could he helpful. My assignment shows the difference between a layer mask and a layer matte. My layer mask used in the beginning seems to be a bit slow but the layer matte eases in well, looking back it would have been nice to create some sort of loop for the trees. But hey, I know how to make layer mattes!

Monday, February 13, 2012

Concept for Midterm

<p>It is commonly known that many children with no siblings (only children) have an easier time finding ways to entertain themselves. For this project, I will be exploring how the imagination of an only child can be more exciting than their reality. I will have a real life character going through the motions of life - living in a rut, and all of these animated characters come to life. Not only do 2d characters but whatever objects are there such as a chair bed etc. basically showing how our imagination plays on the way we see the world.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Here's What I'm Thinking

So here are a few aestheitc choices I am looking at for my midterm Imagination project. where animated characters are integrated with reality. I must say that my main character will be a real person and all of the main and colourful action will happen will be self created and animated.
Here is an image from the Gorillaz and they blend the two worlds really well. The main character, banana peel, thong whole banana and smoke rings are all digitally created and blended into this background. 


This image of Lady and the Tramp is more along the lines of what my characters will look like. Very flat, simple details however I just don't think these characters blend with its setting well enough.

This is a photo done by Zach Martinak found on Behance.net. This photo is more along the lines of what tone I want my piece to have. Whatever is realistic will have a brown or gray tint and the characters will be colorful just not 100% saturated. 
  

PreGame

So excited for this next project and midterm. I have already started my putting together my concept, i jsut need to finalize it by monday evening. So here is what I'm thinking. For my midterm assignment I will relate it to the imagination of an only child/teen and this piece will basically comment on how the imagination of an only child is more exciting than real life. Of course this does not apply to every single only child out there, but I have a lot of experience with this subject and I have researched to know that this is bigger than myself. So excited!! Consider this a prewrite up write up lol.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Masking and Looping

For this assignment, one thing i stumbled upon was that you cannot change the bg under the mask...Hopefully there is a way to do it.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Masking and Replacement Animation

So the more I use After Effects, the more comfortable I become. I think that I have worked out all my kinks, all but one, to create smoother transitions in between frames for replacement animation. This assignment was pretty interesting and quite fun. It did take some time for me to figure out how I was going to set up the animation in photoshop, but after that setting up keyframes, nesting, creating new comps seems almost second nature.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Project One Final Submission

So for the final submission, I chose not to revise it. 
Everything from the first viewing has remained the same.

There are some issues i am still considering to change, for example removing the stage and main character and replacing it with a hot air ballon pegged character.
Moving the sky to give a the allusion of a vertical pan, along with timing some of the clouds in the background.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Assignment Two

Boy oh boy!
Talk about an assignment, with only knowing the basics, I have managed to maneuver my character through space, changing scale as he comes closer and goes further. One thing I struggled with was getting realistic hops and bounces from my character. I'm sure I should have it figured out by next assignment, but it was a real bother for me, especially since I am used to drawing frame by frame. I am glad to have found out the pegging system along with some other nifty tricks in After Effects.

Let the real work begin.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Storyboard

For this project, My character is a professional hopscotcher performing for a crowd. Taken by his game he ends up hopsctoching in the clouds to challenge his skill and until he misses one leading to his possible death.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Assignment One

The assignment was to create a multiple layered environment and to have a pegged character as well. At first, I was not sure how I was going to approach the assignment, so I began by scanning in some drawings. I continued by masking and digitally painting on top of the top. My end result, I am quite pleased with, I was able to enhance the texture of the paper and stroke of the pencil to create something that makes digital appear totally analog. One of the difficulties I had with this assignment was scaling down my idea as well as developing concept. Daydreaming.
For this assignment I will have my character walk amongst the clouds, where he is then greeted by a creature very different than him, all apart of his imagination.