Weekly Comments #10: bleh

    Pretty uneventful, this week in boces. Monday I was absent due to a sore throat and cough, I felt terrible. :( I blew my nose so much that it bled at least a dozen times... so frustrating. Though, I got better as the week went on, and now it's just my nose that's bothering me. The good news is, I didn't really miss anything on Monday anyways, since it was just a work day.

    After that, the week proceeded with 3 days of shadowing. It was funny when the Niagara Falls kids came in, and one of the guys in the second group looked so incredibly uninterested. He reminded me of Donnie Darko, with his hood up the entire time, and a bored expression, like nothing could make him smile. Then as he was walking away, I noticed he was wearing socks with purple weed leaves printed on them, oh godddd. Seemed like a cool dude. (Sarcasm)

    On Thursday, after shadowing, we learned a but about creating explosions like Michael Bay. I liked seeing those gif examples of people doing something stupid and then exploding, haha. Really looking forward to working on that project, my boyfriend will totally be into it, he loves stuff like that. You'll most likely see him in one of the clips. :P

    Also !!! Ryan and I are working on the documentary video together, and we're doing something involving animals. We're planning on going to the Asha Animal Sanctuary in Newfane, and I CAN'T WAIT. This involves two of my favorite things: animals and filming. I'M GONNA MEET A COW NAMED ALBERT !!!

    That pretty much wraps it up for this week, so, link of interest:

    Just because, foxes are cute. :3 It's that time of year when they grow out their fur, so they're all floofy! I wish I could have a pet fox, they're literally a cat and a dog combined, as you can see.

Article Response: "You May Never Be as Good at Filmmaking as You Want to Be, & That's OK"

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    Something everyone deals with at some point in their life, no matter what you believe you may be good at. As humans, we tend to compare ourselves to others and the things they've done, and we wonder why we might not be as good as them. Personally, I do this all the time when it comes to my videos. However, you can't always focus on trying to make yourself like someone else, because you'll drive yourself crazy trying to perfect everything you do. You can admire someone else's work, but don't be a copy. This article talks about this - about self-doubt when it comes to creating films. How can we get past it?

    It's not easy to just "get past" our own thoughts and feelings towards certain things, specifically our own work. You can't just be given 5 steps to follow, and then magically you're over your doubts. Although, in the video created by DSLRguide, he explains that instead of focusing on how the film effects you and your career, think of how it effects others. For example, if you're making a heart-warming video for a family member, you're not thinking about how much time and work should be put into it, you're only thinking about how they will feel when they see it.

    Another tip from a video made by Ira Glass explains that in order to get past it, keep on creating! You'll only get better with time, patience, and hard work. Put yourself on a deadline, so that every week or month you'll have created something new. Fight your way through it. If you're constantly procrastinating, you have to force yourself to get up and work. You'll never get better if you don't try.

     It's something I struggle with daily. I procrastinate everything I do, however, I know it'll have to get done at some point. I really enjoyed reading this article, because it reminded me to keep creating. Even when I was at my lowest and feeling like I'd never be good enough, I still continue to fight through it, because I know it'll be worth it in the end.

Article Response: "Lessons I Learned as a Traditional 2D Animator: Thumbnails and Planning"

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    In this article, The Animation Mentor Crew shares lessons from one of their mentors, Jay Jackson. Jay was taught by Eric Larson, one of Disney's Nine Old Men, who has brought to life some of the most well-known Disney characters of all time. With this knowledge, Jay passes on Eric's lessons to every student he mentors, and here he talks about planning animations and thumbnails.

    Jay explains that when he first started the training program at Walt Disney Feature Animation, he was overwhelmed and inspired by the famous drawings surrounding him, and was determined to create animations just as good as the experts. He tried his best to perfect everything in his drawings, every detail. Yet, once he brought his plans to Eric's office, Eric taught him that you don't need to be detailed in order to bring your animations to life. Simple scribbles and stick figures during the planning stage will suffice, and they'll show so much more life, personality, and weight.

    Thumbnail sketches are also quite important during the planning stage. On Eric's desk, Jay noticed drawings of Robin Hood made by Milt Kahl. Robin Hood was posed as laying on the ground with his legs crossed, stirring a pot of stew with a spoon, staring off into space thinking about Mariam. Milt had apparently drawn every possible pose he could think of for this scene so he could pick out the best one. "The importance of making thumbnail sketches to explore variations on a pose, while always looking for a clear silhouette, was the next big lesson I learned at Disney." says Jay.

    Even though I'm most likely not going to get into animation in the future, I do believe these are important assets to the planning of any animation. You shouldn't have to make perfect sketches and drawings during the planning stage, otherwise you'll just be wasting time and probably won't feel as motivated to make the final drawings in the end. But who knows, if I ever do need to create an animation for some reason, I will definitely use these methods! 

Article Response: "Keys to Creating Complex Transitions"

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    Everything that goes into the production of a movie or short film is important if you want to make it a success. Even something as small and simple as an interesting transition between clips is crucial. "A great transition can be just as powerful as a beautifully composed shot." writes V Renee in this article about creating complex transitions. Most of the time, film editors tend to look past transitions and just use simple cuts to split a scene, however, you can use dynamic transitions to easily add energy and meaning to your story.

    The short film "Playground, Italy", created by Matty Brown, features many different kinds of transitions and quick camera movements in order to add to the adventure scenes and convey powerful emotions with each nature clip. Matty explains that transitions connect two parts of a story, the similar sequences, and the not so similar. The challenge is connecting the not so similar clips together, and when that's accomplished, it adds whole other experience for the viewer.

    So, how can you construct these types of transitions? You need to make sure the subjects in the two shots you planned are lined up perfectly, or the lighting is the same. That way, you won't go from one clip, to another that is far different and could confuse people. It will also help with continuity and help make this appear as seamless as possible. Sound is also an important element during transitions. You can have one clip that doesn't quite fit, but with the use of sound effects, it can turn into something that tugs at viewers hearts.

    With Matty's advice and watching his Italy video can really inspire new ideas for creating transitions in the future. By reading this article and watch the videos provided, it's really helped me see the importance of transitions, and I hope someday I can create transitions as visually interesting as his!

Weekly Comments #9: SHADOWING

    This week we got to tell little 10th graders about our class and the programs we use, and we're not done yet! We have more next week too... Great... Not that I don't like telling people about our class, it's just the whole talking thing I dislike, because, well, social anxiety. :/ But so far they've all been very nice to us, and I hope they like the class as much as I do !!

    We're also working on our kinetic typography projects, and it's been SO MUCH FUN !! Gosh, I just love editing videos, and going to boces for 5 hours just to work on it is really the highlight of my day. :) I even subscribed to Creative Cloud and downloaded After Effects this week so I can work on it at home. AE is so great, gah, I could go on and on about how much I love it, but I'll save that for another time. But, back to my project, I've gotten the hang of adding keyframes and moving the text around and stuff, and now I know every line from the audio clip I've picked out. I've recited it to practically everyone I know.

    Also, Christmas is coming up and I'm very excited because I'm going to be getting the Canon T5i! I can't wait to try it out. For the past few weeks, I've been busy debating between the T3i, T5, and T5i, and so far I'm pretty hooked on the T5i.

    Anyway, I'm going to keep this blog short today, since not much really happened this week that I can talk about. So, link of interest: How to Get Instant-Snow Power. Not sure if I would recommend this method if you really want to make fake snow (you can simply use baking soda and water) but this was a strange video to watch, the commentators themselves are kinda weird, but it's a really interesting experiment! It's cool how real it looks, and if you keep adding more water it just keeps growing!

    That's all for this week, byeee!

Article Response: "5 Ways Mythic Structure Will Help Your Writing"

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    Creating imaginary worlds and powerful characters in films and literature comes from the use of specific themes called myths. These themes have been used for many years, entertaining audiences for ages. An example of this would be Homer's The Odyssey, as it includes both dramatic and adventurous themes that could never happen in real life, but are interesting to read about. This article, written by Karlanna Lewis, explains how mythic structure can improve your films. 

    One way to use this structure is by using patterns. Usually, the opening to a mythic film is a two minute introduction with different shots of the world they live in and the life they lead. This helps the audience better understand new situations, and gives us a clue about the hero's background.

    However, in any myth-based movie, adventure usually occurs early on, so it's crucial to involve the audience in a hero's journey. Based on the circumstances the hero is put into, they should be interesting enough for the audience to be curious as to how this character will deal with them and go throughout life with them. One famous movie trope is including another character who wants something that the hero has, or the hero wanting something in general - to live a better life, to have something valuable, to get out of a life of struggling, to defeat an enemy, or to find themselves. With the hero's search, it reminds the audience of something they too seek, and will feel a sense of empathy for that character.

    Other ways of making the hero's story more interesting is including the fact that we can't always win. Sometimes we fail, and heroes should too. Heroes should question themselves and have their lives often endangered. This makes a character seem more realistic, instead of always winning and always getting their way, like some kind of robot.

    Lastly, have you ever watched a movie, and afterwards you feel as if the message effected your own life and how you view things? That's the goal, to leave behind a memorable message that the audience really feels as they walk out of the movie theater. "Good movies change how we view our own lives. In this sense, we share the hero’s lesson. While the hero’s quest may be for a tangible reward, the real reward becomes the moral realisation." Using this myth structure in stories can easily improve any kind of artistic work, and I learned a lot about it from reading this article. I will definitely try to use these tips in future films and stories.

Video Response: "How to Record Great Sounding Natural & Ambient Audio In-Camera"

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    Imagine watching a film or video with, say, a scene with a person walking outside in the woods, lacking in background noise. The unnatural silence would make the scene a bit strange and uncomfortable, right? That's why having ambiance present in a film is crucial to making it sound more natural and realistic. But, what's a good way of recording ambiance in-camera so that it sounds professional-like, even when you don't have the expensive equipment needed to create it? This video, created by Story & Heart gives a tutorial on how to capture great audio for your films.

    Natural sounds, or more commonly known as "nat sounds", are the best way to add realism to your films. However, there are three different types of sounds that can be heard naturally: Transient Sounds, Evolving Sounds, and Speech Sounds. Transient Sounds are sounds that happen quickly, for example, footsteps, breaking glass, or a high five. Evolving Sounds are ones that are persistent, like the humming of a florescent light. Speech, however, does not actually involve dialogue. It's actually just background conversations, for instance, while sitting in a coffee shop, you can hear others around you talking.

    So, how to you go about recording these sounds? First, you'll need to figure out the distance at which you need to record them. Recording from farther away will make the audio sound more distant and less important. Also, combining sounds and layering them can also help a scene come alive. For example, if you're filming a pro-basketball game, you'll need to have sounds of the squeaking of sneakers on the gym floor, crowds cheering, the ball bouncing, and the ball going through the hoop. Blend all of the sounds together to in post to provide multiple perspectives.

    I really enjoyed watching this video! Anything that has to do with applying sounds to a video is really interesting to me, as it's one of my favorite things to do when creating my own films! I learned a lot from watching this, so I'm really glad it was one of our weekly responses!

Article Response: "The Tech of the Art of the Peanuts Movie"

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    The creators from Blue Sky Studios who recently made The Peanuts Movie, were determined to stay true to the original stories and comic strips created by Charles M. Schultz. However, their main goal was to make the Peanuts world in 3D, while still staying faithful to the 2D world in the comics. This could pose some difficulty while animating, but they were able to create a wave of artistic and technical solutions that made the film a success. 

    To keep the story and characters accurate to the comics, they first needed to research 50 years of Peanuts strips. They paid close attention to the "camera" angles Schultz used, and proportions that worked for particular frames that the characters were in. They also wanted to retain the characters facial expressions in a hand-drawn style. This required a new facial rig, so they created a way for the eyes, eyebrows, and surrounding expression lines to slide around on the characters faces during animation.

    The film also called for replication of the "extreme poses" that's often seen in the comic strips. The studio had to combine its hybrid character rig with a tool called "Suction Cup" in order to give animators additional degrees of freedom while editing different poses. Although, in the comic strips, usually motion lines were used to show fast character movement. Blue Sky didn't want to introduce motion blur into the Peanuts world, so instead, animators introduced 2D motion "pen lines" that seemed to draw across the screen as one of the characters moved.

    Reading about the different methods they used in this movie was quite interesting! It only made me even more excited to watch it myself, so I can look out for the animation techniques used. The Peanuts has always been one of my favorite cartoon series, ever since I started reading the comics when I was little, so I can't wait to see what this movie has in store! 

Weekly Comments #8: DEMOOOOSSSSS

    Demos and tutorials up the wazoo this week. Though, I can't complain, because they're for After Effects which I'm really enjoying working with so far. It's very advanced, and has all kinds of settings and professional editing thingys, it's somewhat intimidating. While I was following the tutorials we were given, I became afraid of accidentally pressing something during editing, because it could mess up your entire project, and you'll have to backtrack and fix it. Gosh, I really hope I'll be able to remember what all of the different tools do and specific settings. It's such a nice program, but so scary. :0

    Oh, we also had a field trip on Monday! We first got to visit the Tri-Main Center (which I was previously there last Saturday for the Super Smash Bros tournament :P) and their animation department. Daemen is such a nice college, oh my gosh. However, they really only offer animation, and not so much film production with cameras and such. That suuuuucks.

    Thennn, we went to LCTV and learned about filming a TV show, and took turns being guests, hosts, camera operators, directors, etc. I've already done it before, though, since I took both summer classes this year, and also visit there after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I really like it there, it's always fun. :)

    Also !! What made me happy this week, well, I started playing Animal Crossing: New Leaf !! It's crazy adorable and every character is so nice and sweet, I wish real life was like this, hehe. And we also did elections in class, and I became Secretary! Following in Isabelle's footsteps :0

    Anywho, link of interest: a kinetic typography video, created by populaz. I was looking up tutorials and such for kinetic typography so I could gather ideas for my own video, and this one uses a variety of different fonts and effects, like putting words in circles and using bold fonts vs thin fonts. It's cool to see what other people can do just by using words and fancy effects. Obviously, we won't be able to create something as advanced in such a short amount of time, but it's still inspiring to watch and obtain ideas from! I can't wait to get started!

Weekly Comments #7: I'M ANIME TRASH !!!

    Hello hello! Not much really happened this week. We finished working on our scavenger hunt videos and did a peer review. I like how ours turned out, and I think we got a pretty good grade on it, however, I kind of wish we tried to make each shot a bit more creative. Eh, next time!

    We also had a field trip on Friday to Villa Maria college. I must say, they do have some nice programs, and it's cool that they're working on a new filming/editing class, however, the college itself didn't really feel like a college at all... it felt more like a high school. I dunno, that's just the kind of vibe I got from it.

    Also this week, I started watching an anime. Wait, whaaat, Elaine Stickney watching an ANIME?? Yes, well, the main reason for it was because I was checking out figures on the Good Smile Company website, because I currently have the Link figma + nendoroid. I created a figure photography account on Instagram, because I really love photography, just as much as I love editing videos.

    Anywho, I found one figure that looked pretty cool from an anime called Black Rock Shooter, and I ended up watching it because it was only eight episodes long. It was a strange series, honestly, but the characters were cute, so that made up for it. So, I bought a Black Rock Shooter figure off of eBay and I'm so excited to take pictures of it! :)

    After that, my boyfriend suggested I should check out an anime called Shirokuma Cafe (aka, Polar Bear Cafe) and it's ADORABLE!! :O So far, it's about a lazy Panda who has a part-time job at a zoo, and spends most of his time at the Polar Bear Cafe, where all of his animal friends hang out. It's silly, but I love it so far.

    Link of interest ~ Behind the scenes footage from Inside Out! I was sooo happy when I saw we had to write about Inside Out in an article response this week, because it reminded me of how absolutely amazing the film is (imo)! Here you can see people working on animating the characters, designing them, discussing certain things about the movie, etc. Basically what you would see if you were actually there!

    Hope you have a great week everyone~!

Article Response: "Going Inside “Inside Out” with Pixar Producer Jonas Rivera"

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    Ever wonder what's going on inside someone's head? Inside Out, an animated film created by Pixar, shows just that. Five different emotions, Joy, Disgust, Sadness, Anger, and Fear all live inside the mind of Riley, a young, human girl. The film shows each of the emotion's jobs, what they do for Riley as she grows up from an infant to an 11 year old, and how they each affect the way she perceives things. Recently, Toonzone News interviewed Jonas Rivera, the producer of Inside Out and other Pixar films, about the movie and its inspirations.

    Conveying emotions so that they're easy to understand for the viewers wasn't a simple task. In reality, human emotions tend to blend together, for example, you can be both angry and disgusted at the same time. However, Jonas explains that the complexity of emotions are a bit more one-to-one when you're a kid, because there are things you haven't experienced just yet, so they took advantage of this by having each emotion learn something throughout the story. In the end, all of the emotions learn that it's better to work together, which is how the creators were able to convey the blending of real life emotions. Because of this, each emotion goes through some kind of character development in the movie, especially Sadness and Joy. They're complete opposites, yet, in order for Riley to learn from her mistakes, they both needed to be present.

    In order to make the movie both cartoonish, yet, realistic, they had to do a huge amount of research on the human brain and how emotions actually work. Research is usually required for anyone working on a project - like filmmakers, animators, writers, artists, etc. You need to know a lot about a certain subject if you want to make your project realistic. Likewise, if your film is going to be released worldwide, you also need to know the cultures of different countries, and make sure you include them in it if at all possible. For instance, during the broccoli scene in Inside Out, baby Riley was disgusted by the thought of eating the green vegetable. This is understandable for kids living in the US, however, kids living in Japan don't think broccoli is disgusting, so the joke wouldn't work. Instead, the animators had to create another version of the scene where Riley is disgusted by bell peppers. 

    This article was really interesting to read, especially since Inside Out is one of my favorite Pixar movies. The amount of time, research, and work that went into this movie really shows, and it's what made it such a success. It's not easy to convey something as complicated as human emotions, but they were able to do it flawlessly and made it easy to understand, especially for the audience it was directed towards (mostly children, since it's a kid's movie).