50% through rough animation

We're at 50% of the way through rough animation at this point - where do you stand in relation to that? In front? Behind? On target?

Do you have calendar dates set for cleanup, color, or whatever your technique requires?

Check out the production stills on the "student blogs sp14" page - starting to get the feeling these pieces are going to become films...


Please make sure your production calendars & shot lists are up to date: that's our contract.

character history

character history questions - not all of these may apply to your character, but even the ones that seem irrelevant can reveal aspects of someone's personality that can tell you how they would behave in a situation.

adding these to your "about" page counts as extra credit.

~ Chris

taglines and production stills

Links to festival programs, showing production stills and taglines:

• Annecy
• Hiroshima
• Animafest (Zagreb)
• Ottawa

blog format

• use the simple template (like this blog)

Pages:
• Journal: place homework videos & other images. This is where posts are created.
• About (Production Still, Tagline, Inspiration, Character History, Influences)
• Shot List & Production Calendar (link to Google Drive document). Template here. Shot List gives dates for specific tasks. For most of you, this means: rough animation, cleanup, coloring, and compositing/editing. The Production Calendar uses class dates to indicate what will be finished for a specific week, loaded on the blog by 9am. These need to be clear and easy to understand, with color-coding for work that has been done.
• Naming Conventions (folders, shots, character drawings, backgrounds, sound, etc.). See link on "The Ogre & the Mermaid"for an idea of how to organize your drawings. Naming convention suggestion, below:

my junior animation (folder) > (folder) sh01 >

(file) sh01_001_chicken.jpg (for character)
(file) sh01_bg.jpg (for background)
(file) cluck.aif (for sound effect)

Identify an image by its shot number, the drawing number, the character or background it portrays, and the type of file it is.

Organize PSD's by labeling each layer in a multi-layered document:

sh01_001_chicken_rough
sh01_001_chicken_clean
sh01_001_chicken_color
sh01_layout
sh01_bg

Depending on your technique and approach, you may need to create the following folders:

• animation > shot #
• backgrounds > shot #
• sound
• project (After Effects and Premiere)

Put these sub-folders in a single, main folder called "junior animation," or whatever the title of your piece is, so that if everything needs to be transferred to another computer, After Effects and Premiere will be able to find individual items. Backup your work regularly to a second hard drive. Start now.

I find the clearest way of naming versions of the same file is to add the date. For example, successive iterations of the main timeline file (After Effects or Premiere) would look like this:

om_main_01_27_14.aep
om_main_03_03_14.aep
om_main_03_17_14.aep

etc.

(om = ogremermaid, main = main timeline, 01_27_14 = the date, and aep = After Effects Project)

One test of your ability to work with other people, as well as being able to demonstrate your ability to make it through a complex project intact, without getting lost and/or frustrated trying to find files, or versions of files, is file organization and naming. Do not leave things unlabeled or un-dated. Pretend that someone else will need to step in and easily understand how to locate a particular file.

springing into action in 2014

Hi Class!

Welcome to Junior Animation, where you will make an animated short from the animatic you created last semester in Storyboarding.

As a reminder, these are the guidelines for the piece:

• 90 seconds to 2 minutes in duration, including titles but not credits
• in order to be accepted as finished, the work must be:
- fully animated and colored as per the agreed-upon design aesthetic
- equipped with a fully-realized soundtrack (sound effects and/or music)
- a 1920 x 1080, H.264-compressed Quicktime movie
- handed in on May 5th (Cinqo de Mayo) for the May 6th Junior & Sophomore Animation screening, to be held at 7pm in Connelly Auditorium, Terra Building, 8th floor.

This is your first opportunity to make a fully-realized animated film of your own creation. It is a large undertaking that requires organization, discipline, perseverance, and inspiration. As your first major work, it is also an experiment, and you will make many mistakes and discoveries throughout the next 15 weeks. The main thing is to keep your eye on the overall target and to make consistent, regular progress towards your goal of completion - do not let the speed bumps throw you off course.

I will serve as your guide and producer, your cattle prod and your fellow problem-solver, and you will be part of a class where everyone is expected to contribute constructive criticism and share in the process of making a film.

So let's have at it and make some animation!

~ Chris

all pau!

the show is over, the pieces are turned in. only grades left.

it was a strong show, and congratulations to all who saw it through to the end and succeeded in seeing their work on the big screen before an enthusiastic audience! good job!

aren't you glad that's done with.

time to recuperate.

Team Kim's image for their Jr Show Interstitial

This image includes characters from many of the junior animations that will play on Wednesday (see image below)

blog comments, 30apr13

Interesting, humbling discovery in class today.

Students are required to create a blog that is updated weekly to show evidence of regular progress according to their production calendars. this is the second-to-last week of class, and today they/you were all asked to comment on each other's pieces for the journal assignment. The comments I read often contained interesting insights (along with the usual "cheerleading"type of encouragement) that was constructively critical and honest. It was eye-opening to see the trickle of intelligent feedback that came out of this exercise.

Writing feedback in the comments form just after having watched someone's weekly progress was useful today. Now, how to get this sort of thing going over the course of the semester...I am imagining a few reasons:

1) the computer is now a natural tool for self-expression, via texting, e-mail, and Facebook.

2) some of you guys maybe felt more comfortable typing your opinions, as opposed to verbalizing them in the classroom environment - perhaps wanting to avoid being shot down, contradicted, or otherwise embarrassed. or maybe it's just because I told you you had to do it as your journal assignment of the week!

3) there was enough on the screen today to make comments about.

I don't think it's so much the last thing, because feedback is possible at all stages of production. Whatever the reason(s), in-class blog feedback may become part of next year's workshop.

Of course, your considered comments are welcome here as well, and I wish you all good luck in finishing your pieces this week so we can celebrate your work at the show on Wednesday of next week!

~ Chris

eric goldberg

just a reminder that Disney animator Eric Goldberg is coming to talk to us on Friday at 1pm in Connelly.

try to make it if you can - it's a rare treat!

response to journal question for April 2nd, 2013

Hello Class,

I've compiled the response to the question: which of your classmate's pieces do you prefer. The top three were:

Erica (5)

Eun Ock (4)

tie:
Min (3)
Kaitlin (3)

The most helpful comments are specific ones that articulate observations regarding things like storytelling pacing and viewer engagement, character thought processes, staging, music and sound, use of color, movement, and others.

Feel free to check out each other's blogs to read the comments.

also, if you're curious to learn more about them, please find links to the blogs showed today in class below:
• asifa-east, student, juried screening
• asifa east
• signe baumane talks about storyboarding
• michael sporn's blog
• scribble junkies (pat smith & bill plympton)
• bill plympton: cheatin' productions
• tiny inventions blog

~ Chris

tiny inventions

hi class! here's a link to Max and Ru of Tiny Inventions; scroll down to see the way they organize their production schedule (it's very motivating to see how well they plan things out):

tiny inventions blog

remember, too, that they are coming to talk to us on Thursday, April 11th, at 1:00pm in Connelly Auditorium.

~ Chris

crit schedule for tuesday, march 19th

Hi Class,

Here's the crit schedule for our mid-semester crits on Tuesday, March 19th, 9:00am, rm.1421 -

09:00am - Omer Qayyum (senior crit)
09:20am - Kaitlin Till
09:40am - Eun Ock Kim
10:00am - Max Matiash
10:20am - Karima O'Neill
10:40am - Alexandra Varga
11:00am - Victoria Heckman
11:20am - Lemon Li
11:40am - Patrick Keenan

12:00pm - 01:00pm: LUNCH BREAK

01:00pm - Dave Morrison
01:20pm - Tracey La Guerre
01:40pm - Anthony Dandola
02:00pm - Erica Kukoski
02:20pm - Frank Lim

Please confirm via e-mail that you have read this message.

thank you,

Chris

spring break & crits

Week 7: Spring Break on the horizon, and mid-semester crits just after!

Mid-semester crits represent the moment when keen outside eyes (professors and professionals) come in to our class to have a look at pieces that have full, rough animation and sound.

This is your chance to see your piece as a whole, timed out more precisely, and with the feeling of life that movement brings to what was previously just a series of storyboard stills set to a timeline. So catch up over the break and come into crits after having taken a deep breath and having stepped back from the animation grindstone to see what shape your vision is taking.

The best approach to a crit is to behave as an interested observer, listening to the comments made, noting them, and asking questions to find out why people make the comments they do, and then digesting that information. Find out whether your ideas are coming through, and listen to suggestions as to how make things clearer.

After this, it's your choice to decide what to do.

On the plate after this:
• clean up
• color
• compositing
• sound
• editing

Upward and onward!