Final Review- First Semester

     This semester in e-Comm (and just in life) has been all over the place. I started out the year in animation thinking I might drop out senior year and now here I am sitting in the entertainment classroom happily poking away at a keyboard. Buckle in, because this is going to be a long one.   
     Since I joined late, I was only here for one full length project, but I did also do the 24 hour film challenge, so I will speak on that as well. This semester brought on a lot of learning about lighting and how to really use the cameras. I also spent less time editing than I did in the past. I was able to branch into different, bigger roles like script writing and directing.

    Semester Work

      I transferred into this class in the middle of  a project, which was extremely bad timing on my part. But, it gave me time to catch up on in class videos and work. 

Film Reel

     I siphoned through all my old work and videos I had to put together a film reel. I also went out and shot new content with my friends and family as actors. Filming and editing took probably about two or three weeks to see through to completion. It took me some time to get back into the swing of filming and editing. There wasn't much cinematically appealing footage from sophomore year, so I basically started from scratch. Reteaching myself Premiere was a lot of fun, especially from a new standpoint of making the final product something beautiful and not just the clips placed together in order. 

      I chose a song called 'Summer is Like a Dream' to set my reel to. I had some footage of Halloween decorations at the end that I had changed at the last minute. I was told that it was misleading, which I definitely understand. Summer and Halloween don't really coincide. I took that footage out and went back to my original plan, which I like much better. I don't have the new version with me, so you'll just have to take my word for it with the original. 

     A lot of my sophomore year was spent disliking my videos and being embarrassed to show them off. This is the first project I have been proud to show to the world. You didn't read that wrong. This project made me fall back in love with my craft, a love I lost last year to a poorly executed and overly ambitious short film. But, that's in the past and I am back to enjoying editing. 

24 Hour Film Challenge

     We'll go in chronological order. The process was a little different than a class project would be, but it was still fundamentally the same. The goal was simple, complete a short film with the required criteria in twenty-four hours. And so we did. We had to include specific shots, specific lines, and had to stick to a prompt. Once we split into teams, we immediately began to brainstorm. Our film was about a couple being followed during their anniversary date. I directed and wrote most of the script. Besides the time crunch, finding actors and locations proved to be a challenge. Luckily, some of my friends we willing to act and Sophia worked at AMC and they let us film in their dining area. 

     After our film was shown, we were told it could have been a little bit clearer and that some of the shots were grainy. There was a shot we couldn't get because of how late it was that would have made the plot a bit clearer. In the beginning, when they walk out to their car, we were going to have a car in the back to show someone was watching them, but no amount of lighting that made sense could pull the car into the viewfinder's shot. Also going along with the time, it had already gotten dark by the time we were shooting so the shots ended up grainy. We should have tried to film earlier or waited until the next morning, but our lead had to work so she couldn't be out too late. If I could go back and change anything, I would have filmed that scene early in the morning to get the illusion of sunset and show the car in the background.  Sound was also another complication we had. We couldn't seem to find the right noises we needed and none of us knew how to make eerie music. We were also switching back and forth between Premiere and Final Cut, but it all worked out in the end. 

     For the time we had to do it and with all given circumstances, I think it turned out alright. I had a lot of fun directing for the first time and getting to work with people I wouldn't have had the chance to otherwise. There's no way I'm not doing this again next year. 

Short Film

     This was my first actual entertainment project, and I was a little bit nervous. This was our final sophomore year and even with more time it still made me join animation instead. This time around was much different in a lot of ways. 

     To start the project, we all had to write a treatment. I was out of ideas and had been for awhile when I found this out. It took me until the last day of writing to figure out an idea that I actually liked. I wrote it, pitched it, and joined a group. I worked with my friends on this project. It was really interesting because I've never seen them in working environments. We ended up choosing my treatment so I directed. We all had to write our own scripts, so I did that and part of the story boards. This project taught me a lot about time management. Pitching took a really long time in our class and we ended up with about a week to do a majority of the project. 

     Our short film was enjoyed by the classes. They liked our choice in actors. We should have been more careful with our costuming though, because there was a scene where an actress who was supposed to be a kindergarten teacher was wearing a varsity jacket. We also could have spiced up our lighting. If I could go back and change anything I would have done more with the lighting and refined the script. 

     This project could have gone better, but I am relieved it turned out the way it did. It is still something I am proud of and am ready to show off. 

Time in Class

     When we aren't listening to a presentation or getting taught, time was spent planning and preparing for production of the current project. Gathering actors, getting props, finalizing locations. If I ever thought I was done with something early, I wasn't. I would go back and refine where I could and get other people's perspectives on how I could improve the work. In pre-production, I could go back and refine the script, look for locations, and find actors with flexible schedules. In production I could start editing and prepare for the next filming day. In post, I would go back and refine my final edit with color and sound and just final checks. I am lucky enough to have Premiere at home, so if I'm ever more crunched for time than I thought, I can take projects home. 

Strengths and Weaknesses

     As a cinematographer, I have an eye for natural, or, almost accidental, lighting and shots. When I'm brainstorming or script writing, I can see scenes play out in my head. That translates very well to story boarding and editing. Editing has always came pretty natural to me. I am good at keeping everything smooth on screen and getting the feel of the film where it wants to be. I am also a pretty good sound editor. Cutting together music or cutting parts of songs out to sound smooth is something I really enjoy doing. These make me really excited for next year's music video project, but I can't wait that long. I will definitely be working on projects this summer and during breaks. 

     I have never been good at time management. Long term projects are always hard for me to wrap my head around because the future always seems so far away. I am going to have to force myself to get better at that through scheduling and better planning. I could also stand to get better at communication and getting my point across when I explain things. I also need to practice reading out loud.

New Knowledge

    It's always fun to see old students come back and apply what they've learned in the real world to classroom settings. Looking back, I feel like I was always somewhere else in the school for a club or class when these presentations were happening. I do remember learning about characters with Drew and I loved his presentation. I don't remember what he called his character triangle, but I will definitely be using it in the future to create more complex characters. the Social Apex presentation was also really interesting. We don't get to see how our skills in this programs could be applied in the real world often. 

Feature Film

We're doing a feature! I am part of the post production crew as an editor. I am bringing my knowledge from my past projects and editing abilities to make this movie the best it can be. I will be working with the DP to learn the coloring software he wants us to use and working on other outside projects in the meantime to keep my skills sharp.

Let's Wrap it Up

     I have seven minutes to finish this. Let's go.

     The project I loved most this semester has to be my film reel. It was a wonderful reintroduction to the program and got me back into editing. I also got to edit my own music and cut down the song which was definitely my favorite part. If I could go back and do something differently, I wouldn't have gone into animation. I wish I could have been here to be a part of the commercial and music video projects. My overall takeaway from this semester is that you shouldn't let one project ruin how you feel about something. That does go back to last year, but I think it really applies to my e-Comm journey this year as a whole. My goal for next year is to put my best e-Comm foot forward and pour my heart and soul into every project. I want to be proud of everything I create and I will.

      That was a lot of typing. Cool. I hope you enjoyed writing this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Look forward to more exciting blogs like this one because they are coming with cool, new, exciting projects. Just not for awhile because now we are going full steam ahead into the feature film and I couldn't be more excited.

Life-Long Friend

This e-Comm year started off in a bit of a weird spot, as in an entirely different classroom. I started the year as an animation student but realized a couple weeks in that it isn't what I wanted to do. I transferred into entertainment late but excited. I missed a couple of projects and came in in time to start the short film. Everyone had to write a treatment and turn it into a script. From those treatments, we chose one to make into our hour's feature film. But, that's a different blog post. I wrote my treatment about a man who has to deal with and overcome the personification of all of his anxieties and worries. When we split up into groups, I worked with Abby, Tayah, and Sarah. We chose my script and I directed.

Pre-production was a little rough as we had very limited time to film and plan everything out. We were lucky enough to find enough actors that we didn't have to be in it, but filming time was very limited. I made the mistake of writing a very location heavy script so we had to have a lot of filming days to get everything done and still have time to do our homework. Ilming had to be done quickly and efficiently. One of my cast members and I had agreed to act in another group's short film, so we were both working on two film schedules. I was out of town for a lot of the editing process, so I didn't have a lot of say until right at the end, but I trusted the girl editing to make it good.

This wasn't my first time directing a project, but it was one of the more stressful projects. I learned a lot about time management and how to keep everyone on track and efficient on set so everything could get done on time. I hadn't really worked with entertainment's cameras before this project, so I did a lot of learning on the spot. Communication was really important during production and post, making sure all of the actors knew what they needed and what they were doing, and making sure the editors and I were on the same page about the final product. To me, leadership and collaboration go hand in hand, and I think those both worked together for the best on this project. I've worked on a lot of projects where no one could agree on anything and the final product was slapped together last minute because no one could agree on anything. This project wasn't like that at all. While Abby and I worked on it the most, everyone stepped up into their roles brilliantly and had a say on the final project. We both understood, though, because our two other group members worked a lot of the filming nights and couldn't edit at home. we scraped a pass in project management. While it wasn't done by the deadline, we wanted to make it the best it could be. We did finish filming in the time limit, though. It was just very hard to complete to the best of our ability with the very short timeline.

There were a lot of things I did enjoy about our project. I really enjoyed the group I got to work with and would love to work with any of them again in the future. Our actors were also really good and easy to work with. I was really happy with the jobs they did and their cooperation. If I could do this project over, I would like to have had a longer timeline to get it done. For the next project, I will try to free up as much time as possible, getting homework done during school and trying to get time off work if necessary. Having free time after school is essential to getting projects like this done on time, even without the close deadlines.

For my first project back in entertainment, I am pretty happy with the way it turned out. There are, of course, some things I would go back and change if I had the chance, but I am still proud of it. Sadly, we don't have any more short-term projects this school year. But, that means we are jumping into our feature film after this which I am very excited for. It's gonna be a good one.

It's the End of the Year As We Know It

     Well, it's the end of the year. It has gone by way too fast and I can't believe we've accomplished all we have in this class.

Technology

     Technology-wise, we learned a lot. We learned how to work in Photoshop, Aftereffects, and Maya. Maya was probably the most difficult for me. There were a lot of steps involved and it was very easy to slip up. I never quite grasped he concept of lighting in this program and that is evident in my work. 


I was really proud of how my ice cream shop animation came out, thouhg. A lot of work was put into the smaller details, and for our first animation in Maya, I think it looks pretty nice.


It is important because they are skills we can continue to use even if we don't go into animation.

Collaboration

     I think I worked well with other people this year. On our final project we split into groups and had to put everything we had learned this year together. We split up the roles, casted it, and got to work. Once we had everything filmed, we worked separately and got each of our roles done, asking for help when we needed it and communicating with each other to get it exactly how we all wanted it. Our biggest technical issue is that we forgot to turn on the lights when shooting in front of the green screen and that made it basically impossible to make the green screen look realistic. But, we worked together to make it the best we could. Collaboration is an important skill to have anywhere you go. In school or in the future workforce, you will always be collaborating.

Communication

     This one will be important no matter what you're doing or working on. Communication was most prominent in our final and while working on projects I didn't quite understand. I had to ask for help a lot if I had forgotten the steps in the demo, something wasn't working right, or when i had simply forgotten how to do something (which happened more than I like to admit). I had to ask for help quite often while making our snowflake animation. A lot of the steps weren't working for me so I had to get help from other students.

Project Management

     Project management is really something I've been learning the hard way. I have a hard time focusing during long-term projects, and, unfortunately for me, most of the projects in this class were just too long for me to focus. Luckily, I got everything done. I really fell behind on the individual explosion project because I couldn't figure out what I wanted. I did end up getting it done on time, but it isn't entirely what I wish it could be. Project management is something that is very important in any job and career and is something I'm going to have to work very hard on improving.

Leadership

     Most of our projects were individual, but I still helped some of my classmates when they had problems or weren't sure what to do next. I showed leadership on our final team project by figuring out filming times and directing our cast. Leadership is hard because if you can be shy it is hard to take charge in any way. Leadership is a very sought after skill when people are looking to hire. It is a very important skill for people to learn early on and continue to develop.

     

     I will be going into animation next year so I will be using what we learned this year everyday. Programs like Aftereffects and Photoshop are things I enjoy using in my free time and will almost definitely use this summer. My dad wants to learn how to use Maya so I will be teaching him everything I have learned. 

     If I could change anything I have done this year, I would change my walk cycle. Barold was a pain to work with and I would love to have the chance to redo that entire project, start to finish. Really, if you look through my old blogposts about animation, you can see me constantly bashing him. On a more specific note, I would go back and make his front leg move the right way. His leg drags on the ground and the snaps up and that is not the way it's supposed to go. I would also quickly go back and redo the lighting and exporting of my can animation. 

Looking back on this year made me so excited for next year. I can't wait! Mr. Olson, you will be missed!

bouncing ball

For this project, we returned to the classic bouncing ball project. We started out by heading downstairs and taking videos of us dropping a golf ball, a bowling ball, and a tennis ball from five feet. We then took those videos into Photoshop and measured out where and when the balls hit the ground. Once we had all the measurements, we went into Maya and modeled the balls. I really liked the way my golf ball and bowling ball turned out, but I feel like my tennis ball could have looked better because it is smooth. The bouncing turned out really well. I really liked this project and the only thing I would change is the tennis ball.

Soda

Perks of Being a Wallflower

For our movie trailer, my team recreated the Perks of Being a Wallflower trailer. We had to recreate the video as close to shot-by-shot as possible. There were some scenes that we couldn't really shoot (the homecoming scene specifically) so we had a bit of creative freedom there. We had to work around two work schedules, a rehearsal schedule, and a softball schedule; finding time to shoot proved to be a little difficult.
We had two main days that we did the bulk of the filming. It was very hard to find extras that were willing to shoot over the weekend. Our main cast was very helpful in getting everything done and squared away, luckily. It was sort of hard to wrangle extras when filming and that set us back a little bit each day. We worked right up until the deadline. We tried to edit at home, but something wasn't converting correctly and we weren't able to. Both Jenna and I have different editing processes and I took a little longer than she did. Some of the clips came through without sound and we had to reconfigure our project to use the voices and sound from the original trailer. It proved to be sort of difficult to make your clips match the original trailer when you didn't have them saying it with the trailer to begin with.
I learned a lot about how to manage people and how to communicate. I had a really hard time at first trying to get people to listen and to do what we needed them to do. It took most of the process, but by the time we were almost done filming, I had learned -mostly- how to direct people and be patient with them. I think patience was a ting I had to learn. You have to make your point clear and wait for them to fully understand and not get frustrated with them.
If I could redo this I would make sure all of our actors were talking with the actual trailer so their lines matched up. Or, I would be more careful with the sound and making sure it came through correctly. I really liked the way our music video was planned out with the locations and actors. I thought we did an alright job planning it out and making sure everyone was on board and on schedule.

Snowflake Animation

This project was definitely on the longer side. We went in making the snowflakes and that took a really long time because you had to make them look like plausible snowflakes. Once you had all of your snowflakes done, you had to make them 3d and smooth them. This was one of my least favorite steps.  Making them smooth was a whole process on its own. They look wildly different smoothed versus un-smoothed and it really makes away from them toking like real snowflakes. There were also a lot of problems for me with the polygons and that made it difficult to even get to the smoothing stage. Once that was done and you would make your window. something weird happened to my window but since you really can't see it, I'm not going to go into it. The animating of the snowflakes went mildly well. After finishing all o the snowflakes, I had to go back and make sure you couldn't see them through the window t the end. Then, I realized that they spun way too much as they fell and that they weren't spread out enough. Fixing that would have required taking out every single key frame and restarting the animation portion. I am mostly happy with the way this turned out, especially through the window.

Now It Spins!

We can animate with Maya now! We took our last project (the ice cream shop) and made the ice cream cone, scooper, and bowl of ice cream spin.

Process
      There really weren't all that many steps in the process, but it still took me a long time to really figure out. I hit a bump pretty early on trying to get it to actually spin. The pivot point wasn't in the center so when it would spin it would go off the table. You know, as it does. I had to call in backup to figure out how to fix it. Luckily, we did get it fixed and could get back to work.
   
      Rendering turned out to be a whole different story. It took me days to get it out of the door. I had a really hard time finding all of the different required steps and settings and that really set me back. I had to render it out a couple times to get it to actually work right. Once all 120 pictures were rendered, we put them into After Effects. This all made me run out of time to go back and fix the bump maps.

Bump maps and Textures
If you watched the video, you may have noticed something was off. The bump maps and different textures look normal when they are still in Maya, but that's not quite true when you're watching it as a video. If you look closely (or even at all), you will notice that the textures and bump maps don't turn with their respective objects. But, you know what, for my first ever 3d animation, I think it turned out pretty good.

Final thoughts
I can't even imagine what our next 3d animation will look like or if it will be this simple. I'm excited to see what's in store!

Salt Shaker

For our next Maya project, we had to make a salt shaker. We also had to make a cup, but that went pretty under the radar. We started with the body of the salt shaker, making circles and attaching them together. Then, we adjusted the sides to make them the actual shape of a salt shaker. After we got it looking right, we made the bottom of the salt shaker. Something here went wrong for me and I had to adjust it a lot to actually fit the bottom of it. The cap was really fun to make. By making a sphere, cutting it in half, and adjusting it accordingly, you could get a fun cap. When we were making the holes in the cap, I decided to make them into an S. My salt shaker at home looks like that so I thought it would be a fun little addition. Though, you can't really see it in the picture. We had to make the body of the salt shaker see-through and the cap a shiny gray. Nice the salt shaker was finished, you had to put it in a box so you could see the lights and compliment the salt shaker itself. I've never been the best with lighting and making it actually look right. The salt we made by taking the original shape of the salt shaker and sizing it down slightly. I'm overall happy with the way my salt shaker turned out.

Hammer time!

      For our next Maya project, we were tasked with creating a hammer and nail. Now, this project was difficult and surprisingly frustrating for me. I got sick in the middle of it and missed days of work. But, I ended up getting it finished and I think it turned out all right!

      Lucky for us, we had instructions to go off of and follow in Google classroom. There were a couple of small detail instructions missing here and there and that made it pretty hard for me to keep a steady pace. I got stuck for a while trying to figure out how to get the back end of the hammer to split in two. This was the point that I missed three days of school. When I came back, I was more confused than when I left, but I ended up figuring everything out. Mr. Olson got an updated version for us to work off of and that helped a lot. I was finally able to get the shape of the back end of the hammer right and move on to the other side. The head of the hammer took a couple tries for me to get right but I figured it out. The shape of the handle was the easiest and fastest step to get done. The nail took a couple tries, too, but I got it done and out of the way.

      Shading was easy even though it took a couple tries. My hammer was sort of dark in the end, but it's at least the right colors. The grey is sort of off and the brown doesn't go with it really well, but hey, it works. My nail is a nice yellow-gold color and it's rocking and living it's best life. I like the way my nail turned out.

      The first time I attempted three point lighting it was close to a disaster. I tried, like, six times and I ended up needing close to six people to figure out where I went wrong. This time went much better, luckily. I think I only needed one person to keep me to the right track and got it done sort of quickly. Sadly, when I got into rendering something was off and I had to readjust the lights a lot. I still really don't understand the process of rendering if it doesn't go well the first time. I can't really adjust it well. I had someone help me with the rendering and I got it out of the door!