Animation Final

            Guarantees: For the technology guarantee I learned how to use software such as Maya and After Effects, and learned how to make models and render them. It was important to help me get things done, and is obviously important to learn. Maya was my favorite program to use, but it is extremely complex. I think it took a little too long to learn. For collaboration I worked on the final project with my group. I played one of the characters in the video. it was important that we worked together well as a team, and had chemistry. We had to collaborate to come up with the plot of our video, and we definitely had conflicting and ambitious ideas. The communication guarantee goes hand in hand with the collaboration guarantee. For both it was important to communicate as a team, and get things done as efficiently as possible. We had few challenges with communication; although the first day we couldn't figure out where to film. this was because the green screen was being used by other students. We ended up having to go in the flex theatre, where there was a flat black curtain. The next day we lost our footage though so It didn't even matter. We were then able to redo it with the green screen though. The project management guarantee was the toughest one for me. I had a major problem, because I am a slow worker. I wouldn't fully finish a project by the time we got to the next one. So I would just move on, without finishing the previous project. As a result I had a ton of late assignments, and they built up over time. I wish I would've worked quicker with the time I had. Maybe used time more efficiently is the better term. Overall this term was the hardest for me to grasp. However on the final project our team managed it's time very well despite a few setbacks, like the green screen situation. Thankfully our video wasn't very long and we were able to get everything done, (Special Effects included) on time. So basically it went very well in many ways.

Leadership is the final guarantee. This is the one I felt the least throughout the semester. We all worked cohesively on the final project, and I feel like there wasn't really a standout leader in the group. We all bounced off each other's ideas.

Nathan: Actor and Lightning Effects

Noah: Actor and Fire Effects

Me: Actor and Laser Effects

Collin: Actor and Model Creator

Thomas: Green Screen Edits and Filming

                                                                Cup and Salt Shaker Blog

                 For the cup I began by creating the polygon blueprint in the side-view mode. This took several times to get right, and was a lot harder than it looked. After I finished this I circled the shape around creating the full cup. There wasn't much more I had to do, I revolved the cup and textured it. I made the cup a Phong, and then made the color gold. Then for the salt shaker I beveled out the basic shape which was similar to an hourglass. I made sure to clearly finish it before I moved on to the next shape. Then I began to make the top of the salt shaker. I put all the individual holes in by doing booleans- and then union. Then I deleted the selected circles. I shaded the top with another Phong E and colored it silver. I gave the center a glass shader so it was see through for the next step; the salt. The salt was pretty easy and I just duplicated it. I then rendered the picture and turned it in.

Hammer Blog.

      The very first thing I did was create the handle of the hammer, which I started with a cube to form. I elongated the cube to form it into a rectangle. I then beveled the cube to make it more natural looking and less blocky. After finishing the handle of the hammer I extruded the top of it, to create the head and the claw. The hammer was obviously very primitive at this point. I then elongated the claw and gave it a curve. This was pretty difficult, and it took a few times. I got the hang of it eventually though. I then extruded the head of the hammer and flattened it in several places. After that I beveled the head to give it a more rugged, natural look. When the head was complete I began to get the textures. I gave a lambert texture to the handle and the claw of the hammer. I then added a Phong E texture to the head of the hammer.

Challenge #3 Blog

        First of all a strong feature needs to have a compelling story, that is easy to follow at the same time. The reader or audience must be hooked with a line in order to be drawn in to the story. Brett had one of the top submissions and it's obvious why. The story is compelling and well written, but most of all the voiceovers, editing, and camera work is all very high quality. You can tell he spent a lot of time working on the video. That's why the winning videos are the winning videos. You get out what you put in.

        There are many important things that are critical in having a good flowing and interesting news story. Interesting shots must be taken that use the six shot system. This engages the audience, because boring shots can draw away viewers. Audio is very important to give insight on the situation being broadcasted about. Audio can make the shot scenes mentioned above more interesting. Good audio also invokes what the newscaster is saying in a clearer manner. A strong concept is the most important feature needed to produce a successful story. People want to hear about crazy, or even tragic things happening around the world. That's a big reason why news stories are often about unpleasant things. This draws in a larger audience. Voiceover work is what gives personality to the story. Good voiceovers that get to the point sooner rather than later, are a great way to keep the viewer's attention. A strong beginning gets the viewer engaged automatically. The middle is to convey this original starting point. The end is to wrap up the story and leave a final note. 

         These are the most important objectives one must follow when attempting to create an interesting, flowing story. Following these steps will leave no room for wrongdoing in the long run. Keep in mind also that the story should not be too long, as the reader and/or audience will get bored and look at another article or change the channel. 

         Our first video project was to film a short 30 second video about safety. The concept that we came up with was elevator safety and how to get down stairs if you have an injury, or something like that. We began with our storyboard which I'll admit we could've worked harder on. We also didn't stay very true to the original storyboard in the final video.

1 in 2000 blog:
       Our main focus on this project was to interview Noah about his achievements, and what its like to be a part of cross country. We asked him all sorts of questions regarding the subject. We were originally going to interview Gaige about soccer but due to some "setbacks", we switched to Noah instead. We decided to film in the events entrance area, because we were running out of time, and all the other optimal locations had been taken. Our previous location was at a table in the commons but there were people filling up the table. We new from the beginning that we wanted to do an interview about, which was what sports we were involved in.
                   My role was to ask the questions in the interview. I don't really like hearing my own voice but I took up the job anyway. Alex R thought of the questions, and Noah was the one being interviewed obviously. Gaige was gone a few days so he didn't help on the Noah interview part. A very big problem we had was noise in the background. There were janitors setting up something behind us, and our video quality was greatly hindered by this. Next time I would work on getting our video done faster, and letting teammates know to mention beforehand if they'll be gone. I think we did ask a good variety of questions which is something we will definitely do next time.

  Why Animation?
  Because I don't like graphic design.