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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Project One Final Submission

So for the final submission, I chose not to revise it. 

Everything from the first viewing has remained the same.

Click Here to View

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.