Week 6A

In class, we learned how to use a program called "Audacity" to edit audio clips. This is helpful, as we are able to include audio in our animations. I did use Audacity in the past for personal use, so it was pretty easy to understand and I knew most of what was demonstrated. I do plan to add audio to my animation though, as the official Steam logo is presented with sound at times. I also created a new and improved digital sketch. This is originally the idea I wanted to do that I believed would be more challenging. I enjoy this idea much more, as it's much more dynamic and creative than my other idea.

Week 5 Outside of Class

Outside of class, I digitized one of the sketches I had done. It's very rough since I didn't finish it, but it gives a basic idea of what I plan to do. Sometime, I plan to finish and polish it completely. I am slightly conflicted though, as i'm not completely sure if this is the idea that I plan to go with. There is another idea that I think i'd rather do, but i'm unsure how to go about it. If I can work it out and it is realistic and doable, I will create another digitized sketch and post it here.

Week 5B

In class, I had sketched out different ways that I could animate my logo. I had decided to use the "Steam" logo, as I figured it was the most interesting to do. Since the shape is very organic and simple, there are a lot of creative things I can do with it compared to the previous two I had mentioned. I have plenty of ideas, although i'm unsure how possible they are since I am pretty new with Adobe After Effects. I did look up a few tutorials for some of the more advanced animations I had in mind, though.

Week 5A

In class, we critiqued our word animation assignment. Even though I had tried to keep mine simple and not include as much motion to keep the feeling of urgency and seriousness, I was advised to make it more dynamic. Some of the other criticism I received was

• More motion
• Change type-face (too generic)
• Add "..." for foredshadowing
• Find a good middle ground between static and dynamic animation

I was given positive feedback as well, as my animation was very easy to read, creative black and white transition, and successfully gave off the serious feeling I was aiming for.
We were introduced to a new project where we must animate a logo. It must be either an opener or an end tag. We must determine the context and type of animation it will be. I have a few ideas. Since I really enjoy the style of comics, I first thought of animating the blue Marvel logo. I would create a "slap" effect of the Marvel logo being placed on the foreground, followed by a graffiti effect which writes the "Comics" part.

              

My second idea would be a little more complicated. It would animate the Batman logo as if he were spreading his wings to reveal his name inside. I'm unsure how I would do this, so it's unlikely that i'll choose this. I've been playing with the idea thinking of different things I could do since I really enjoy this logo. 

                                                  

Lastly, the idea I will most likely go with is the "Steam" logo. I already have a pretty great idea of what I'd do with it and I know how I'd do it. I plan to animate the logo step by step, making it very fluid. It'll start out as a white background with a black symbol, but as it reaches its peak, the colors will invert themselves. I could also have the word "Steam" grow and swing around towards the bottom of it.

                                                

Week 4 Outside of Class

I've finished my word animation. The most difficult part about it was actually getting each element to work together. It was a little difficult timing when to fade phrases in and out relative to each other. Overall, I really enjoyed it. Out of all the exercises we had done, I think the word animation may have been my favorite. I'm getting very comfortable with using Adobe After Effects so far, and can't wait to use more of it in future assignments.

Week 4B

In class, we've had time to work on our word animations. Following my sketch, I was able to create it pretty efficiently. I had to deviate from it a little, since I had better ideas or a few issues as I worked on it. One of my biggest issues was getting my words to be aligned consistently. For an example, as one of my phrases faded out and another faded in, it was difficult to get them in the same position. I would add the exact same values in the position box, but since some sentences were longer than others it wouldn't be aligned exactly the same. To fix this, I had entered the same values and had to adjust it by eye. 


 

Week 4A

In class, we've critiqued a few Rhythm animations that we were assigned to do. We then formed smaller groups to critique so we would be able to critique every student's animation. Some of the criticism I had received for my animation was to create a slight pause to improve readability, and to create smaller lettering as it was in all caps making it overwhelming. Overall, my animation was very cohesive and consistent. Afterwards, we were given a very small lecture that covered a few more terms that we should know when learning animation. These should be applied in our next assignment that we were given. For the next project, we must animate a message or quote. We aren't given many restrictions this time, meaning we can choose color, font, etc of our choice. I had debated choosing a quote from popular movies such as Spiderman, Wonder Woman, Fantastic Four and even the Power Rangers. In the end, I chose to create an animation using a quote from Wonder Woman. Before beginning, we must create a story board from beginning to end that demonstrates how my animation will play out.

"I used to want to save the world. This beautiful place. But I knew so little then. It is a land of beauty and wonder, worth cherishing in every way. But the closer you get, the more you see the great darkness simmering within. And mankind? Mankind is another story altogether."
-Diana

Week 3B

No Class.

We were assigned another animation assignment similar to the shapes one we had done recently. Unlike the other animation however, audio was not required. Our task was to animate the letters that spelled the word "Rhythm" however we wanted. The animation itself could be short, but it had to loop a few times. The animation I had created was very short and simple, but loops pretty seamlessly. I tried to animated my letters in a way that was almost hypnotizing the viewer.

Week 3 Outside of Class

Outside of class, I've finished my basic shape animation. Although it isn't much, it allowed me to test the technique known as "tweening". Using this, I was able to change the position, scale, color, and other elements of shapes smoothly. However, it was somewhat difficult at first trying to sync certain parts of the animation with the beat, but that was due to me being unfamiliar with the program. I would have to zoom in and view the audio in waveform, as adjust the animation accordingly. In the future, I'd like to revisit this and create something more complex.

Week 3A

In class today, we reviewed a few student's dream slideshows in a class critique. For the rest, we split into smaller groups, allowing all of us to give and receive criticism. Afterwards, we were given a tutorial on animating in Adobe After Effects. We've learned about a process called "tweening". This allows for a smooth transition between two separate key frames. Using this technique, we were tasked with creating a short animation that matches the rhythm of a song that we must choose from a collection. The only requirements is that it must include a circle, triangle, and square. It also must be a certain width, height, fps, etc.   

Week 2 Outside of Class

Outside of class, I've completed the slideshow that we were tasked to create. My slideshow reflected the dream that I've written down previously. Although the dream was not nearly as dark as my slideshow portrayed it to be, I tried to find abstract backgrounds that reflected the words that I've chosen. This assignment was a good introduction to Adobe After Effects, as I've never used the program before and it allowed me to test the basics of it.

Week 2B

In class, we've had a brief tutorial of Adobe After Effects. We learned about different elements such as the timeline, inserting images, text, and how to correctly export our projects to the correct formats. We've also learned about the optimal settings to create our projects in. After the tutorial, we were given a small assignment. Based on the dream we recorded last class period, we must create a slideshow reflecting that dream. However, we are only allowed to use abstract imagery and cannot be too descriptive, similar to a dream. We are given the class period to work on this, and must upload it to our blog after we're done.