sydneyganimation

[sydneyganimation]

I FINISHED MY FINAL!!! I am surprised that it isn’t too large to put onto tumblr, but either way, here it is! All of my super hard work from the semester! I can’t believe that it is the end of this class, I really loved this class and want to take another like it. I’m not sure if I am going to be an animation major or illustration major yet, but I am definitely going to take another animation course while I’m here. Thanks for being a great teacher and huge inspiration! 

[sydneyganimation]

Final Work

12/9/17 11:30am-3:00pm

12/10/17 11:35am-1:40pm

I realized this weekend that I didn’t have to work night and day to finish! It only took another few hours for my animation to be completed, and I think that overall it looks really great. I am super proud of myself because after all of this, I finished. For never have made an animation or used a digital drawing tablet or making digital art before this course, I have done really well and improved a lot. I tried really hard working on this project and am still upset that it is so short, but honestly for it's only 42 seconds in length, I think that it looks really good. I wish that we had more time to work on this because I think that this idea is really interesting to me and I could’ve had a lot more fun with it adding more. I accomplished everything that I wanted to, but still, I would’ve liked to do more and even rotoscope more. I’d say that most of the work that I did on this project was in the rotoscope, I tried very hard on that. I am also proud of the music syncing up with the animation and am glad that I was able to choose that song and put it with the final. Putting everything in premiere was a lot easier than I thought it would be and only took around a half an hour. I am excited to show everyone in class tomorrow and also see what they made. I think the hardest part of this animation was doing all of the motion tweens. That was just as equally as time consuming as the rotoscope now that I think about it. Especially because the entire title sequence gave me a lot of trouble and the symbols disappeared. I am happy to say that I am proud of what I’ve created because I usually don’t like my work! I’m sure there are mistakes that I’ve missed, but in class tomorrow I’ll be able to find them out and get some good feedback.

[sydneyganimation]

25th Class Reflection

12/6/17 8:30am-11:00am

I can feel everything coming to an end, after completing the rotoscope, the only thing I had to do was the 2-D animation and change colors. I say this though like it isn’t a lot of work, but trust me it is and was. I was able to begin to put smoke into the title sequence I tried doing this multiple ways. I first started by altering my rocket ship symbol to have a white space around the front and sides and have an open space to reveal the background coming out of the engine, but this ended up just looking messy and not at all how I envisioned it. I ended up just animating it every frame and drew around 80 frames every time it inched forewords or rotated. To do this, I put a layer of a white rectangle on the screen and just animated smoke behind the rocket. I think this came out really great and was ultimately what I wanted in the first place. A lot of this project was trying out new things and doing a test then figuring out what would work. I put a lot of work into the title and end sequences, I think it’s important to make those a part of your animation which is why I like doing that. I am still worried about how long it will be, and I have a lot more work to go, but I’m going to work this weekend non stop to finish it and make it as best as I can!

[sydneyganimation]

Final Work

12/4/17 3:10pm-5:40pm

I had finished the entire animation of the title sequence, began to add a background and color my rotoscope, then everything went wrong! As if these past few weeks have not been very stressful, for some reason all of the symbols for the motion tween got deleted and my 5 hours of work I had put into that just disappeared. I checked the recover file and the regular file that is saved to my flashdrive and neither had the work I had done because the symbols had gotten deleted on both unfortunately. I was able to email you and luckily the motion tween is still there for all of the symbols, but I have to place them all back exactly as they are. I really hope it works because I spent a lot of time on it and don’t have the time to re-do it all.

12/5/17 3:30pm-6:15pm

Everything is bad. Over exaggeration but I’m just beyond frustrated with everything right now. I don’t even know it happened but apparently more than half of my symbols have been deleted as well, and they’re just blank. This is the strangest thing ever I don’t know how it happened. I’m so upset because it looks like I’m going to have to re-do everything and time is running out. I have no idea how to tackle this, I'm going to wait until class tomorrow to try and resolve all of this because I don’t have the strength to at this point in time. I’ll just try to work on the other parts of the animation. Okay, so after I wrote that response I did not just work on other parts of the animation, I ended up toying around with it some more. I went in the depths of my flashdrive and found a file with the symbols on them and used that to put them back into the layer with the motion tween. Everything seems to be perfect with the word ”cosmic” but for some reason the word radiation is all messed up. I figure this is as good as it’s going to get so I’ll just tweak the tween and do it today rather than wait for tomorrow. If you read these blog posts and have seen my dramatic breakdown from the past few days, my apologies...finals, am I right?

[sydneyganimation]

This is kind of an off topic/random blog post, but I really think it’s worth taking the time to even watch a little bit of it! This is the song I will be using for my animation final, it’s so perfect, but also the music video is the coolest animation! I’m not sure if it was digitally edited or all drawn in chalk but it is just the coolest thing to watch. It’s also very inspiring and what inspired my animation final. I was just listening this to try and sync it with my final project even though it isn’t done and got really excited about it because for a moment I forgot the video existed. If you happen to have the time I think it’s definitely something to look at! I wish I could’ve done something like this for my final, its so beautiful.

[sydneyganimation]

24th Class Reflection

12/4/17 8:30am-11:30am

Since the rotoscope is complete, I’m now able to start finishing it as a whole. I worked on animating the title card all class. I feel like it seems really extra for just being a title card, but I really think that including the title card as part of your animation, like I did with my RCF project, is a great use of skill. I like to relate everything together and make all of it really fun and creative. So in that way, that’s the reason I’m spending so much time on my title card. I still haven’t finished even after working on it all class, but I think that once it’s done it’ll look really great. In all honesty though, I am worried about it being too short, I don’t want people to think I didn’t work hard on this because it's so short. I wanted it to be around a minute long, but it’s looking like it's going to be maybe a bit over 30 seconds at the moment. Otherwise, I think that I’ll be able to finish the video and it’ll look pretty great. I have a lot to do with my other finals and am struggling to find time to do everything, so I think I’ll just work my hardest to get this project out of the way and then I’ll be all set and a bit less worried.

[sydneyganimation]

I have more this in my animation but Tumblr would only allow me to post a file so big. I decided to choose the transformation from stop motion to rotoscope and the rotoscope to show what I’ve accomplished so far. This is really exciting to see exported even though theres still so much to do, like adding the background and rocket ship and changing the line colors. I have a lot to do, but as of December 3rd at 4:28PM this is my accomplishment

[sydneyganimation]

Final Work

11/27/17 5:30pm-6:30pm

11/28/17 11:20am-12:25am

11/28/17 4:45pm-6:10pm

11/30/17 11:40am-12:20pm

11/30/17 3:15pm-6:25pm

12/1/17 9:45pm-10:30pm

12/2/17 11:50am-5:00pm

12/3/17 4:00pm-5:00pm

THE ROTOSCOPE IS COMPLETED!!! That was honestly the biggest struggle hanging over my head with the whole starting process, and I’m really glad to finally have it completed. I worked really really hard on this, and am sad because it’s only about 7 seconds long but it took me many many hours to complete because I like to put a lot of detail in my work. I’m overly happy with how it turned out though because it looks extremely smooth and just like me! I can't stress how much time this took me; I had to split it up over a course of days because I have so much to do for my other finals. I also divided up what parts I would animate on certain days, my first step was to draw the hair on every frame, then the hands, then the body outline, then the face. It was best to do it this way because then I didn’t have to constantly zoom in and out and I could really just focus on one part of my body. I can really feel my control getting better with using the pen and tablet though! In these work sessions I was also able to have the stop motioned version of me transform into the rotoscope. I did this by having the stop motion on a different layer than the rotoscope but the stop motion was layered over the rotoscope, so every frame I would use the lasso tool to delete some of the stop motion. The way it turned out was perfect and exactly how I pictured it in my head, and I didn’t even plan on executing it this way at first. I have so much more work to do, but I’ll just keep working as hard as I have been to finish it.

[sydneyganimation]

23rd Class Reflection

I’m glad we got some time to work and class and also see the visiting artist. To be honest, I really didn’t care about going to see his presentation at first. I know I should be more willing to see other artists but I just wanted to work this period. However, I am really happy I went because he was very intriguing and attention capturing. I was amazed at the different types of work he was able to create in so many forms, and they came out so well, so much better considering he wasn’t necessarily an animator or film maker. His work really inspired me to try out different forms of art and go out of my comfort zone and make more independent art. I have found that I haven’t made any personal art in months and it’s really upsetting because I want to be able to, I have been so busy I haven’t found the time. I honestly don’t remember the name of the guy, I know there were three of them and one of the other artists from the show ended up joining us. The guy even brought cookies for everyone and introduced himself using the Fresh Prince of Bel Air intro which was pretty cool. Nevertheless, I don’t think I would’ve made the time to go down the the gallery if we didn’t have to, but I’m really glad that I did. I also saw, upon leaving, a TV screen projecting different types of animations that I assume some of the students here have made and it was really cool! That was a bit more exciting to me because I didn’t know it was there, and I saw what some of the students made and what I may make if I decide to choose animation as my major. Overall, even though you weren't there it was a pretty productive and good day.

[sydneyganimation]

22nd Class Reflection

11/27/17 9:00am-11:00am

After working more on this in class, I’m a bit worried about the length of the video and fear that it won’t be very long. I know that I shouldn’t worry about this so much, because what I do end up working on should look really great. Also, everything that I will have completed will be a lot of work, and it’s more about quality than quantity I suppose. If there's anything this course has taught me, it’s that animating is a lot of hard work, all for only a few seconds. I decided to rotoscope the video, which is only 6 seconds long, on the threes, so it should be 62 drawn frames, and I include a lot of detail in my rotoscope, so this should take me forever. I also plan on having really interesting color tweens happen in the rotoscope, I’ll see how it all goes. These Apple computers are also great and work, unlike my computer, (I will constantly degrade it until I get the new one in a month), so I was able to get a lot of work done. I worked more on the title card and was able to see if it was moving too fast or too slow, and clean up some of the edges on the lettering. I’ve gotten into the swing of animating a big project again and am in completion mode so I’ll be working on it a lot until it’s as good as it can be! I only came to trouble with two issues. One issue is that the video’s viewing of my body when switched over from stop motion pictures to video cropped some of my lower body, and I think that I’ll have to move everything down in order to make up for it and not just guess what the lower half of my body would be like I planned. The other issue, which I have not found a solution for yet but can work around, is that I can’t edit the video in animate. In the beginning there is a part that lags on the same image and then I start to move, and I’ve tried to get rid of it but I can’t because everything I’ve tried just pushed the video back. While this is really annoying and I won’t be able to get my animation smooth and fluid until I’ve finished rotoscoping, I can tolerate it.

[sydneyganimation]

Final Work

11/23/17 9:00pm-10:45pm

I only had a small amount of time to work on my animation over the break, but I wanted to get at least something done. In the short amount of time I was able to animate squigglevision on the title card, crop out background to the stop motion, and draw two rotoscoped frames. The laptop that I do have is ancient and very slow and broken because it was a hand-me-down my aunt was going to throw away. This was all I had to work with over break which is mostly why I didn’t get much done. It takes a long time to process every stroke and the touchpad doesn't work so I only had to use the wacom pen and tablet from CTS, which I am very bad at navigating with. This, aside from being busy with other homework and family, was the primary reason for my lack of work over break. But, I anticipated this in my planning document and will just work extra hard at open labs at night and on the weekends. I have a lot of work to do, but knowing how I work, I think that I will be able to work everything out alright. I was having a bit of trouble cropping and deleting some parts of the video, but I didn’t want to worry about it too much because it would just take up time and I could work around it pretty well. I wasn’t able to maneuver around the program as I normally do because my laptop is broken, but at least I was able to get something done.

[sydneyganimation]

21st Class Reflection

11/20/17 9:30am-11:10am

I was really worried about this class because I knew that I would be importing videos and images into animate and with my luck and lack of computer knowledge, I knew there would be problems. Luckily though, everything seemed to get solved, even if it wasn't necessarily what I wanted. I had to end up importing it into premiere and then export that into animate because animate couldn't read the format the video was in. This resulted in the video being in a lower quality, but it should still work when I am rotoscoping it. I really hope that when I export everything as a video from animate, the pictures and animation will show up and work together. After just starting to work on the final a bit during this class, I realize how much work I have to do, and though I won’t have much time over the break to work, I will be dedicating my weekends to work on this. I hope that I’m able to accomplish everything I want to and it looks as great as I envisioned it in my mind. I have a lot of high hopes for this project, and without a working laptop it will be difficult as always, but I think it should work out okay. This was really the first work session, so I’m at just an overwhelmed stage right now, once I get into the hang of it though it’ll go by a lot quicker.

[sydneyganimation]

Final Work

11/19/2017 6:30pm-7:30pm

This work session was everything I needed to get started, because it gave me the stop motion for my 2D animation to interact with and the video for me to rotoscope. I had to try this session two different times because my outfit would have been a lot of work to animate but I ended up doing everything in that outfit and using it as a reference for when I would take the video I actually wanted. I had my boyfriend help me and he used his camera and tripod to assist me, perks of dating a photography major, because I really don’t know much about technology. I was going to rotoscope him and tried recording him and taking the stop motion pictures but I was able to perform the expressions and movements better and how I envisioned them. We had to take multiple videos and pictures because my expression was off or my movements were elaborate. Luckily, there was no rush, and no one bothered us in the middle of it. I ended up going down to the Bank Building basement and sat in a chair against the white wall, figuring this would be an easy background to crop out and the attention would easily be on me. After looking at the pictures and video, I think it came out great and can’t wait to start animating it!

[sydneyganimation]

Final Storyboard & Pitch

Goodmorning ladies and gentleman, my name is Sydney Gauthier, and may you prepare...because I'm about to transport you to another universe. I present, “Cosmic Radiation”, a tasteful mixture of stop-motion, rotoscope, and 2-D animation that will blow your mind. This is no ordinary animation, it will be filled with vibrant colors, organic lines, movement everywhere, and a tasteful sound for you to hear as you're pleased by this once in a lifetime adventure. Imagine, the video opens with the title, moving between three drawn frames, on the screen. When all of a sudden, a small cartoon rocket will fly in from the right side, up towards the top of the screen, jumbling the letters and send them flying through space and time. The letters begin to float like a lost astronaut off of the screen, leaving a dark and blank background. This won't stay for long though, because stop motion images of myself will pop into frame, and then react with the small spaceship coming back into frame and flying to see me. As it comes into frame, it'll hit my hand, transforming me bit by bit into a rotoscoped animation. Thought that was exciting? Just wait, because the rotoscope at first will be outlined in white, but the rocket will keep bumping into me and turn me different colors, eventually turning me into a constant rainbow of flashing different colors. My rotoscope will then explode, the remaining lines will turn into lines of planets and stars, that then will be joined with the spaceship, and fly into another screen where my stop-motioned self will be again. The planets and stars and rocket will orbit around be, going behind the picture and then passing in front, creating a mystical and interesting image for the viewer. After orbiting around a few times, the image of stop motion me will sink down and the planets and rocket will continue to move upwards, cueing in the “end” slide. Amongst all of this, “Strawberry Swing”, by Coldplay, will be playing in the background. You may be sad it’s over, but it can be replayed as many times as one wants. At this time I'll gladly take any questions, comments, and concerns. Thank you!

[sydneyganimation]

Final Backup Plans

A.) If everything goes according to plan and the way that I want it to, I’ll complete everything that I want to and have everything done on time. This is obviously the best option for me because I already took the time to make everything and think out what I wanted to do. I’ve never been one not to finish my work though, even when things go wrong, so I’m not too worried.

B.) My plan B to cut time to doing things is in the part where the rotoscoped version of myself explodes and the lines turn into planets and stars, I think that I would just cut that out and have the stars and planets pop into frame and have the rotoscoped version of myself disappear. I think that this will save me a lot of time, and although my animation might not look as cool, it’ll still be what I envisioned.

C.) My plan C to cut time to doing things is to also remove the scene where the rockets go back to the stop motioned version of myself, this will just be more pictures and time I will have to animate. The video will be much shorter, and in my opinion not as good, but I will still have enough done for me to meet all of the requirements. 

[sydneyganimation]

19th Class Reflection

Today was a full critique day, and I’m really glad that we spent the time to go through each individual presentation and really look at it and give feedback. At first people were hesitant, but as class went on I was really glad to see people actually participating and giving good criticism. I once again really enjoyed seeing everybody’s animations and their different styles and ways of going about the projects. Seeing other students work gives me inspiration for my own and makes me excited about the final project because there’s so many ideas I have for it. I’m glad we didn’t rush through the final project storyboard critiques because I think we all got some great feedback that was necessary in order to continue with the final. People are so creative and have so many great ideas, I think that this class will produce some really great finals that are all very different and interesting. Having the RCF project under my belt and knowing how long it takes me to do things, I feel a lot better going into this than I did going into the RCF project. I almost can’t wait to begin! The only trouble I think I’ll come across is if we have to create an animatic, I kind of need a lot in order to make one because I would have to have already created my stop motioned and rotoscoped version of myself. I’ll have to see how it will all play out I suppose.

[sydneyganimation]

18th Class Reflection

Today was more of a workshop day, and I’m glad we got to have this day because I was introduced to different types of exporting and animation interaction. I never thought about exporting my animation as anything more than a video, but now I realize I can make GIF’s and change the background to be transparent. When we did the Aurasma exercise, it was definitely interesting, but I don’t think I would like to use it again. However, the fact that the app and idea exists is really interesting and I didn’t know it existed before this class. The exercise with having us interact with our animations was very interesting to me, and wasn’t increasingly difficult! I had my little character walk off of my arm and fall, and it was very fun to make! I think that having 2D animation and real life video is a great way to have real life and animation merge and interact with each other. I may use part of this new found skill in my final animation project. I have seen videos where people use this technique before, but never realized how simple it could be. I love learning all of these different skills because it broadens my horizons and makes me a more well rounded animation student. I’m really glad that I find myself leaving this class every day with work that I am proud of and want to display, opposed to some of the stuff in my other classes.