Portfolio Reflection

Worm

I think this was our first or second project, and it was so long ago that I barely remember what we did. However, I do know that this was our first project involving the puppet pin tool. Using it, we learned how to make an otherwise immobile object move around without having to make any more versions of that character (if that makes sense??).

We learned it through the directions, of course, but I still had a bit of difficulty when it came to actually animating it.
My worm moves faster that it actually inches and it looks really weird, but it was one of my first animations so I'm sure it's fine.
I love the worm I made (it's the one that destroyed Bikini Bottom), but for some reason this was a really hard project for me.

Walk Cycle

When we were all working on our walk cycle animations (for me, it was my sexy astronaut), I learned that you can animate characters that you draw [in separate parts] using programs like AfterEffects and how to make a character walk.

I AM SO PROUD OF THIS!!! I love almost everything about it!! The only thing I'm not proud of is the fact that I couldn't figure out how to use the pinpoint tool, so it looks like the astronaut is just marching across the screen instead of actually walking like a normal person.

I assure you that I will be proud of this project even after I've been dead for millions of years. I know this is so stupid, but this was my favorite project from this semester.

Scenery Animation

I had never known that there were several layers of scenery used in old animated movies and cartoons to make the setting seem more realistic. We learned how to do just this: how to create a moving landscape.

The bad thing about working in Photoshop (for me) is that I always forget to switch layers if I want to draw on one of them, and of course that happened here. I don't remember where this happened, though, since it was such a long time ago, but I can assure you it happened. I don't really like the stuff that moves across the background, but at least the clouds look nice.

So far, this has been my second favorite project, only surpassed by the sexy astronaut, since it involved a lot of drawing and actually looks pretty nice compared to my other projects.

Ice Cream

When we made our ice cream, I wasn't really looking at the directions to figure out how to get the ice cream texture on my ice cream (I just went to Google Images instead), so that was kind of a lost opportunity. However, I did learn how to use the timeline in Maya and how to rotate objects for the timeline.
I learned this by constantly asking for help with things I should have been able to figure out on my own, but I'm stupid lol. I also got some of the directions...from the directions (surprise!).

We did not pick this project, it was assigned to the class. However, we did get to put a bit of creativity into the project by coloring our ice cream however we wanted, and by making our own ice cream "shops" (they were more like rooms than shops).

Sadly, I'm one of those people who has a lot of trouble finding things that are right in front of them, so I kept having to ask people where certain tools would be found and I'm sorry to them. I also couldn't figure out how to get the shadows to show up, even though I know how to now. BUT I did do a good job with color scheme and making things look nice, I think.

Literally the only thing I would change about this would be to add shadows.

This was kind of an in between project for me; it wasn't really hard, but it wasn't really easy.

Pen

For this project, we had to create a pen that we owned in Maya, so we had to do a lot by scale. I constantly had to hold the pen up to my screen to make sure it was the right size. From this, I learned how to scale things properly and, additionally, how to create new vertices using the "Insert Edge Loop" tool.

I learned how to use the edge loop tool thanks to someone else who was having trouble in class; if he hadn't spoken up, I don't know if I would have ever learned how to do it. As for scaling properly, that just seems like common sense to me. It wouldn't make very much sense to make a pen that looks just like the actual pen, but shorter...or something like that.

I didn't really have a choice in choosing this project or the pen that I ended up modeling. I mean, I'm really happy that it was a fairly simple pen, otherwise I'm sure I would have had wayyyy more trouble making it than I already did.

I'm pretty proud of myself in the sense that if I didn't know what to do, I would either do it my own way or look it up instead of just complaining about it like I usually do. Although, I kept getting kind of angry when I couldn't even do that and asked people around me for help and they couldn't help me. Even though it wasn't their fault, I just couldn't help but get irritated when they could help someone else but not me. :<

Maya, unsurprisingly, is a lot easier for me to use now than it was when I first started using it. I've learned a lot from it [and don't cry as much about it as I used to haha].

Hopefully, if I every get Maya on my home computer, I will be inclined to make more objects like this and keep improving. Well...not really like this, but better things like dogs or something.

I am very much a perfectionist, so it really bothered me when I had already made the thing on the end of the pen (where you push it and the point comes out at the top) because it was slightly larger than the actual one, and it still really bothers me. I would definitely change it if I could.

This was probably one of the projects that I'm most proud of in this class, even if it was just making a pen. I think it looks a lot better than a lot of the other things I've made in this class! :>

- Brenna (っ• ◡•)っ

Story Animation

Our Job
For this project, we had to create a short animated story [that I didn't finish]. We had to incorporate what we learned in both Photoshop and After Effects into it.

Making It
The first objective we had for this project was to make a storyboard, then edit it along the way according to our needs.
Making characters and sceneries was our next priority, whether we created them by a program or by sketch (both for me). Certain parts of its body had to be separate from the other parts in order for it to move smoothly in After Effects. For our background, we once again had to make multiple layers for a better feel of movement.
After finishing those, we had to add everything into After Effects, finally making our story.

Improvements
Along the way, I finally learned how to use the puppet tool (to move the ant's legs), which I couldn't figure out before and was too stuck up to ask about.
In my work environment, I learned that if I want to get things done, I have to ignore my friends' conversations as much as possible, unless of course it had to do with making my animation better.

Doing Things Differently
If I had the chance to do this again, I would probably do it somewhere where I could easily focus on what I was working on, someplace quiet. I also would have tried to divide my time up equally so I could focus on one aspect of the project at a time.

I Wouldn't Change...
My story. Ants are really cute and I kind of think the story I made for this was cute too...

Learn From the Past
For the next project that I work on, I will try to talk to my friends less and make more time for myself after school if I'm having trouble managing my project.

Lastly...
I'm sorry that I didn't finish this. It may sound like an excuse, but I really am a very slow worker and I didn't have the resources or very much time after and outside of school to really work on it. I will try my best to finish it outside of class! ◔̯◔

- Brenna (っ• ◡•)っ

Walk Cycle

Drawing It Out
In early September, we started with our walk cycle project. Our first task for it was to draw out body parts for a particular character and then outline them in Sharpie (I made a sexy astronaut :>). Afterwards, we had to scan in the sheet of paper to single out the body parts and give them color if we wanted to.

It's Alive!
When we had our character(s) and background ready, we then uploaded the files into After Effects where we had the character move across the screen. Although we were supposed to use the puppet tool to make the movements more realistic, I couldn't figure it out, so I just made my astronaut march instead (special guest star: extraterrestrial).

- Brenna (っ• ◡•)っ