More W.I.P

Second Test Render and Resume

W.I.P crit:

Well for my animation so far, the main thing I got accomplished was reshooting my entire background and sticthing it together. This time the photos are all in focus and it looks much better, in my humbley awesome opinion. I also changed how I was making my transition from light to dark, but I feel the bottom should be a little more darker. I also put my my new background in the animation and made it look correct.

So on the character front, I solved the problem I was having with his multple layered parts and opacity. Originally since he was different layers parts of him would double up on his transparency, making him darker than I wanted. Now I'm doing all my animation with him as a solid and then precompsing. This allowed me to set a uniform opacity over him. This also allowed me to apply the "roughen edges" effect to him to make him look more like spray paint.

As far as actually animating, I didnt get a whole lot down, but I attempted to animate the falling leaf beginning. I ran into a problem though as without puppet points it looked very stiff even when 3D was enabled, but when I would try and move applied puppet points aftereffects just kept crashing. I don't know what the problem was, but it was rather annoying. Oh well I think it'll be okay later today.

Resume:

Overall, im pretty happy with how my resume looks so far, but making a new email was kind of annoying as I had to end up using my whole name. Apparently theres a slew of John Furrs creating gmail accounts somewhere. I should destroy them....

Anywhom, heres my resume thus far.

John Merrell Furr

75 Oldfield Circle, Montgomery AL, 36117

(334) 220-1487

johnmerrellfurr@gmail.com

To obtain a full-time position in the field of design with an emphasis on motion design; special interests include animation, web design, and typography.

Education

Memphis College of Art Aug 2009 – Present Candidate for Bachelor of Design Arts

with a concentration in Digital Media, Fall 2013

Skills

Adept at both Windows and Mac platforms

Design - Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign

Animation – Aftereffects, Animate Pro

Web – HTML, CSS, JavaScript

Conceptual – Storyboarding, character and concept development

Experience

2009 – Present: Mac Lab Assistant

Memphis College of Art, Memphis, TN

Managing computer labs, providing tech support, and upkeep

2004 – 2009: Video projection and Light Technician

Aldersgate United Methodist Church, Montgomery, AL

Managed projectors, mixed and fade material, set light cues, and timed lyrics

Honors

Earned the Rank of Eagle Scout

Boy Scouts of America

WIP Critique and Demo Reel

Well, I'm back from thanksgiving break, and while I was glad I got to be home I wasn't able to get a whole lot done while I was there. Though I tried to get at least a start on animating my final project. So I decided to do my opening sequence. I had actually imagined a leaf falling during the pan and resting against the wall on top of the character to be the inciting incident to get him up and moving. I dont have the leaf yet, but I do have the pan down. I'm also not entirely happy with all of his animation. I like his stand up from the wall, but I had a hard time making his walk cycle not look well dopey. It'll just take more finagling to get it right.

Now as for my demo reel, this was my first time trying to cut one together. I tried to keep it around a minute in length, but it went a little over. I'm overall happy with the transition of pieces, and I had more work than I thought I did to put in it. Now I'm just going to await critique and see what others think should change or be cut.

Calendar:

So far I'm actually on schedule, but I knew I wasn't going to get a whole lot done over the break, therefore I planned for it. So well see if I can stay that way.

Background work and Timeline

Over the weekend, I went and took a lot more pictures for my background, and started the process of trying to stitch them together. I was doing my best with no reference and just trying to visualize it as I was taking the pictures, but there's still inconsistencies. Also some of them came out of focus, because it was kinda muggy outside (at least that's my excuse). Next time I'm going to bring my tripod, and also some chalk and a tape measure. That way I can set up a line to keep consistent and do check marks along it to take the pictures at. Though here's what I've made so far.

So as far as the timeline goes, its currently 11/22, and I'm shooting for the project to be finished on 12/6. That's 14 days. Oh man. welp so I guess the schedule goes as thus:

11/22 - finish taking background photos

11/23-27 - Thanks giving break. Finish character design, and map out journey through the space.

11/28 - Have everything ready to start animating.

11/30 - Try to finish act 1.

12/3 - Finish Act 2.

12/5 - Finish Act 3 and button up project.

12/6 - Crit

12/7 - Revise

12/8 - Turn in project.

Full Color Scene and Storyboard

Elevator Line:

In a grungy urban setting, a graffiti character is inspired to climb his way up the wall from the darkness in which hes been sprayed and into the light.

Scenes:

I decided to mock up two different scens from what I'm envisioning for the project so far.

First we have the opening scene of the animation where the character first comes to life.

Second I mocked up the scene in where the character first starts his journey upward.

I'm still not entirely 100% on the aesthetic or the character design, but they're still works in progress.

Storyboard:

As far as my story board goes, I didn't have to change a whole lot, but the biggest thing was that I needed an inciting incident. I decided to use a leaf falling on the character as that, because I found that the space in which I envisioned starting the character had a lot of leaves already on the ground. I also like the idea of something natural kicking off this urban journey.

The spatial aspects of the story board are still not 100% as its relies heavily on the space thats already there. I've gone and taken many pictures of the area so far, but I need to do more. I also need to plan out his journey amongst it more throughly.

Story:

So far my story actually pretty closely follows the "three act structure".

Act 1: It opens with a showing the character sitting still in his place on the wall, and a few seconds later a leaf falls and lands on the character. This is the inciting incident for the character to get up and start moving. From there the character starts to walk melancholy like around his environment. A the end of Act 1 he sees a ray of light shining down and is inspired to climb towards it.

Act 2: The begging of this is where the character starts to climb upwards. Hes using the objects in the environemt around him and some of the graffiti already on the wall to hoist himself upwards. He starts to get closer and closer to the top, except he slips and falls. He is eventually caught by on an object before falling all the way down. Here the character lies still and the camera starts to pan away.

Act 3: The climax is as the camera pans away and another light ray slowly shines down upon his face illuminating it. This inspires the character again to pick himself up and start climbing upwards. His journey starts again, but its not any particularly easier. He finally makes his way to the top of the building and sits down to rest staring at the sky and being finally completely illuminated. The camera pans away towards the sky.

Travel Fellowship Proposal

As a digital media major, the focus of my work may appear to strictly be digital, but I believe that artists, even those in computer based fields, take inspiration from everywhere. Therefore my proposal for the travel fellowship doesn’t adhere solely to my major, but to all my interests and passions as an aspiring artist, designer, and photographer. Having never spent any considerable amount of time outside of the country, or even really out of the southern region, a fellowship to Europe would prove to me a wonderful opportunity to take inspiration from places that I might not otherwise get to experience.

France and Switzerland, one may seem to be a stereotypical destination for a euro-based trip, and the other a smaller more obscure place to travel. Except both will provide a wonderful learning opportunity. I plane to enjoy everything from museums, to architecture, to even castles, and to cultural events. France is one of the premier places in Europe to experience the arts, as it contains everything from museums such as historic Louvre to land marks like the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Tropmphe. With tons of things to visit and experience from the Notre Dame Cathedral, to the Palace of Versailles, to Chateau de Vincennes, to the Moulin Rouge, the artistic opportunities of France seem almost innumerable. France is also the birthplace of both animation and photography. The focus of my trip would be to visit mainly Paris, France, but if possible I’d like to venture out a little too to places, such as the beaches of Normandy. Overall, France would be a wonderful place to experience, enjoy, and learn from.

Switzerland on the other hand may seem to pale in comparisons to what France has to offer, except I have personal and artistic reasons for traveling there. Firstly, my father has significant interest in our family’s genealogy, and has been cataloging and researching our ancestors for years. He currently operates a website and database dedicated to our heritage called “The Furr Surname,” homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~furr/. I’ve learned from my dad that the Furr family lines runs all the way to Heinrich Furrer who was the first Furr to immigrate from Switzerland to the United States. Beyond that, our research is sparse and full of holes that I would be grateful for the opportunity to help with, by actually traveling to my family’s homeland. As far as artistically, Switzerland would offer me the opportunity to visit the homeland of the International Typographic Style. With my interests in graphic design, I have a penchant for typography, and Switzerland would afford me the opportunity to visit some of the famous type foundrys. They were the creators of some of the most prolific and well recognized typefaces in use today, such as Helvetica. Along with foundrys, Switzerland has a beautiful landscape surround by mountains that would wonder to capture through photography. It contains everything from the wondrously large Alps mountain range with peaks such as the Matterhorn, to the Rhine Falls which is the largest waterfall in Europe, and the many lakes spotting the country. Switzerland would also be a beautiful place to appreciate and document.

To document and draw from this journey, MCA has provided me with the tools and experience to sketch out my inspirations and create from them. I plan to record my entire journey through the use of sketchbooks and photography. Both my sketchbook and my camera will never leave my side. I hope to fill up both my sketch book and many memory cards worth of photos that could provide me not only beautiful images to enjoy in their own right, but with resources for future web designs, animations, graphics, and anything else I would be inspired to create.

Budget:

Flight (round-trip): ~ $1632

Hotels: ~ $900

Rail Pass: ~$300

Food and other expenses: ~ $668

Time line:

June 1, 2012 – June 15^th, 2012: Leave Memphis Tn and arrive in Paris France.

June 15^th, 2012 – June 30^th, 2012: Leave Paris and arrive in Geneva.

June 30^th ,2012- July 30^th, 2012: Arrive back home in Alabama and sort and create from my resources.

More Inspiration.

Storyboard

So here's a basic storyboard for my final project. I'm still working on my character design, and a lot of how the action and story progresses depends on the background I'm shooting and using. So for now I just have the basic story arc in a simplified space.

Now as for the backgrounds, I've found where I'm going to photograph. Its the back side of the hightone and its kind of gritty, full of graffiti, and has lots of pipes, wires and other things my character can interact with. My plan is to shoot pictures closer up and stitch them together into something my character can move around in. I'm also planning to Photoshop them so they progress from darker down low to brighter up top.

Lastly, as for in my story board Im considering when the character goes into light, another color in his stencil appears. So using masks I'm going to highlight some of the features in his figure. proably using white. Similar to this:

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_9F9_RUESS2E/SsZmsQlvK2I/AAAAAAAABUg/Xms19Z8gQNo/banksy-graffiti-street-art-baloon-girl.jpg

Final Project Concept.

I was having trouble coming up with my idea for this project. Thought, I think I finally found something that I find interesting, and could actually carry out.

For my project I'm envisioning making a narrative with a a solid color graffiti stencil character, and using actual photographic backgrounds. He should look as if he is a decoration on a the environment and I want him to wander around on interacting with things in the background.

Plot:

As far as the narrative's plot goes, I'm think just a basic three act structure starting with:

1. the character on the ground level,which is rather kinda dark and grungy, wandering about looking kinda lethargic.

2. Eventually he gets inspired, by light rays shinning down, to climb upwards toward the light, and it follows his journey upward with maybe a few set backs.

3. The resolution is that finally after some work, he makes it to the top of a building to see the sky.

Technical:

I'm planning to go shoot my own backgrounds from somewhere in the city, hopefully going up a building. Then I'd like to basically stitch them together in photoshop to create my landscape, along with some editing to make them more dramatic.

Resources/Inspiration:

As far as technically in after effects, I was intrigued again by the guys at corridor digital, and their graphic violence piece. I like the aesthetic they created using some green screen and masking/coloring to make themselves appear on to the wall. Also how they appear to interact with their wall environment is interesting.

They also have a making of video that breaks down their effects. Although I'm not using live footage or greenscreen, I think I can still apply some of their techniques.

In After effects, I'm planning to create a rigged silhouette character, and using filters, layer styles, and masks to make him look as if he's part of the flat on the wall. And move him around the photographic environment I created.

I was also inspired by the silhouette character from the game limbo. Which is a side scrolling platform game, that has a kinda of dark and melancholy aesthetic.

Lastly, I'm toying with the idea of doing the piece to a song or at the least having background city sounds and sound effects. I was curious what everyone thinks about that.

Side Kicked Title Screen

For my tutorial, I wanted to re-do the text from the intro of my character animation. This is where the title side kicked fades in and then side kicks the kicked and it shatters. The original animation was simple, but thats because I did it rather quickly without researching it that much. This time I wanted to make it more epic and I got to use the pixel polly, cc force motion blur, and fast blur effects. I also added a screen shake with position and wiggler. Over all I think the effects is more awesome and dramatic. It might be a little over the top, and it might have taken everything I could form adding an a fire explosion, but over-all im happy.

The two tutorials I used to get a base for this were both from VideoCoPilot, and I had to listen to andrew kramer. Though they were good tutorials.

Particle Explosion

Camera Shake

In 3333DDD

So for this assignment, we just had to play around with the 3d-ish capabilities of after effects. Well I got a little ambitious, and I wanted to image what the first mario level would look like with the same textures just extruded out horizontally. Also I wanted to turn it into a first person perspective. Well I learned its kinda tricky to position everything accurately, but with practice I got better at it. I also learned its better to just place the rotation point and think about what degree you need to move it and enter that value, instead of trying to rotate it with just the mouse. Other than that I quite like it. Also I had seen this previously and used it as my inspiration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBb9wFP7uZM

Mindterm_v4 Write-up & Sound Edit

Well I think I've finally perfected my piece, and I've got to say that I'm still damn proud of what I've made so far. Through it all its taught me a shit ton, such as set my sights realistically and to learn to work within the limits of what the program is good at. If I follow that I should end with a good piece, no matter what. I think I was a little ambition when I first envisioned this story, but I think I think I executed it pretty well. For this being my first story driven piece, I really pushed myself to make it about something that pertains to me, and I feel connected to this character now. As I struggle with the same problems, and my biggest fear is loneliness and abandonment.

I also think I did pretty well on character design despite my experience in illustration, as I'm not a very experienced illustrator.

Sound Edit:

- City Background Sounds

- Car sounds and stop

- Car Door

- Bag hit

- Sigh

- Walking

- Director boom and Yell

- Running Sound

- Hitting cardboard

- Sliding down a wall and sitting.

- Rain

- Mask Peel?

- Business door ring.

FInal Final Final Final Animation

Woo, after weeks of working on it, my character animation is finally finished. The biggest thing I learned through this entire process over anything, was the lesson I keep learning over and over is that I need to get better at time management. I've slowly gotten better over the years about it, but I spent many nights up late working in the Mac Labs. I would've liked to get more sleep, but animation came first. I also kept putting off working on an animation for my other class to work on this one, and now its coming back to bite me in the ass.

As far as technical prowesses goes, I have a much much better handle on how after effects. I also more than anything know the limits in After Effects in what I can do, as its not a straight animation program. And It takes a certain kind of masochist to do character based animations in it, by choice. I do like how readily able it incorporates with all the other adobe programs, but even then some things are a bit weird like shortcuts and renaming layers.

Overall I'm happy with what I've created, and have actually grown quite fond of my character. Who still doesn't have a name, but anywho. I'm proud of what I accomplished as I'm still new to animation in general, but I dont think it shows in my work.

Storyboard

Here's the storyboard for my mid-term project. I'm still using my abandoned sidekick character that I've been developing.

Also this was the first storyboard, I've ever made, and it took me alot longer than I thought it would.

Internships cont.

While talking with Gatsby, I realized that I don't exactly know where I want to end up, and that I need to take inventory of what I want to do and go from their. Also that I don't have an up-to-date resume, as the last one I made was, I don't know how long ago. So I got some resume templates and have been slowly putting one together. Lastly, I should also figure out what each one of the companies I'm interested in requires, and start getting everything together.

Since, I don't exactly know where I want to go with my career, I tried to pick places that pertain to my different interests with an emphasis on jobs that deal with both art and technical subjects. So I picked one animation company, one game developer, and one advertising media firm.

1. Radical Axis - http://www.radicalaxis.com/newweb/home.html

Listed two interesting internships:

- Motion Graphics/Broadcast Designer

- 2D Animator

Creating and working on my some of my favourite animations currently on the air, Radical Axis studio, based in Atlanta GA, would be an ideal place for me to gain experience through an internship. With a unique sense of humour evident through shows such as Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Squidbillies, they would be an interesting place to explore what I plan to do as a career. With a heavy interest in both technology and art, Radical axis would be great studio to explore the interaction between the two.

2. Valve - http://www.valvesoftware.com/jobs/job_postings.html

Now they don't have an official postings for internships, I'm still gonna give it a shot.

Captivating my imagination since I was about 8 years old with the release of Half-Life, Valve software has been my go to company for my gaming habits. What really interests me about them is their philosophy and position on how making games should happen. With small groups branching of to work together on what interests them at the time, they aren't just an assembly line. Along with giving employees time to pursue personal projects, I believe that valve would be an excellent place to foster my passion for the intersection of art and technology.

3. LWT - http://www.lwtcom.com

Being a local of Montgomery, I'm familiar LWT along with their work, and ever since middle school when I actually shadowed one of their employee's for a day, they've seemed like a creative and interesting company to work for. Involved in the marketing and branding on companies through print, web, interactive, and social medias, working at LWT would let me be involved in multiple areas I'm interested in. I could find a marketable place for me to use my passion for art and technology to find a career path that I would hopefully be as passionate about.

Internships

I was just browsing around looking at internship possibilites, and decided to compile them here. Also so I can show the rest of you guys places to think about too.

LWT - An advertising company from my hometown, that I've dealt with before.

Adult Swim or Cartoon Network (really they have tons for Turner Broadcasting Companies)

Another listing of other Internships with Turner

These two are mostly Atlanta based jobs, from what I've seen.

Radical Axis - Atlanda based company know for great shows such as Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Squidbillies, Archer, and more.

20th Century Fox - Most LA though, but a few scattered around.

Valve - One of my favorite game companies, and they appear to be hiring. Though no specifics on internships, I can still try. Seattle based though.

Electronic Arts - Another game company, although California based.

Google - has a lot of locations and seems to offer alot of internships, but it looks mostly for computer science. But hey someones gotta design the awesome visuals in their software.

Forge104 - Birmingham based company.

Activision - Another another game company.

Blizzard - An awesome videogame company, from such fame as Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo, and that offers internships. CA based though.

Disney Interactive - Kinda cool.

Rockstar Games - I mean GTA, Max Payne, and more - damn I love video games.

Curse - Interseting looking, and Huntsville location.

Viz - The entry point for much of America's Japanese media (manga, anime, and moar!) CA based.

Lucasfilm - Hell yeah Starwars.

Sony Pictures - Both Paid and College Credit, also Summer or fall. Neat.

Dreamworks

Epic Games -Pretty awesome, has done internships before. Also the Unreal engine they make powers goddamn everything, well a lot of games atleast,

Theres a pretty good list so far of places to keep in mind. Now I think I may be setting my sights kinda high on some of these, but damn it a man can dream.

Works done in Aftereffects.

http://vimeo.com/channels/aftereffects

I found that Vimeo had a channel full of just animations made in After Effects. Theres tons of work in there, some straight videos, and some demo reels. Check it out, as it showcases really what you can do with the program.

Character Portrait

As we are preparing to start a character based project in this class, we've started with attempting to nail down who we want out character to be exactly. Starting with the presentation of ourselves and our ideas, we are getting slight more exact by writing a one-page character portrait.

Prompt:

Write a one-page character portrait. Things to think about: Choose one single theme. Explore a concern you care about. Have one main character. Make the character interesting. Describe three characteristic actions by this person. Guess at this person's long-term agenda (that is, what her or she seems to be trying to get, do or accomplish in life. Suggest experiences that might have implanted these drives. Predict where this person's agenda might take them in ten years' time. What is this person's point of view in the immediate, moment-to-moment circumstances. What are others point of view of this character?

My Response:

Loneliness, and abandonment, are the themes that I'd like to work with. I feel that one or the other just doesn’t quite accurately describe the feeling that I'm looking for. Particularly the feeling of loneliness that accompanies being abandoned or being left alone by someone you care about. As far as what I want this theme to accomplish is to lead the character, and hopefully the viewer, into learning self-reliance, or learning how to be alone. This could be seen as my concern that I want to explore.

A character that I'd want to use to portray this theme and concern is a superhero's sidekick whose abandoned by his superhero. For the longest time, the superhero and his partner have always been a duo, living together, fighting crime together, and doing everything together. The superhero was the dominate one in their relationship, as he was the one in charge. Always telling the sidekick what to do and basically controlling his entire life, up until where my story starts to take place. For some reason or another, one that I'm not entirely sure what it is or that doesn’t even have to be explicitly told, the hero kicks his sidekick to the curb, literally. With no direction or instruction from his superior, the main character of my story doesn’t know what to do with himself. Aimlessly and desolately, he wanders the city streets looking for direction, and trying to learn how to live as a single person. I want the juxtaposition of a colorful usually upbeat sidekick to be cast in dark and lonely light to be used to convey my themes. This contrast of character to situation should be reminiscent to that of a sad clown.

This character should seem aimless, as hes lost without someone telling him where to be or what to do. Not knowing what to do himself, where to go, what to be doing, or what he should make of himself, this character should be lost in just about everything. My sidekick should pine for the days he spent with his superhero, and always seem distracted by memories of the past and the life he lost. Sad and distraught, my sidekick shouldn't know how to deal with himself or live now that hes alone, and thus spiraling into a depressed state. Thus, I want this former sidekick to go through the five stages of loss: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and then finally Acceptance.

Originally, my lead in this animation to not have a long-term agenda, as his previous view of the whole world and his original life plan to be disturbed. As a precursor to the story, I’d like to make it seem as if he was entirely dedicated to the crime fighting lifestyle and serving his superhero mentor. Now that hes out on his own, he doesn’t have an agenda. This should be part of the story is, him discovering what he should do for the rest of his life, now that everything in his life has been disrupted. Although he should have an overwhelming desire to be a do gooder. To be honest, the experiences that influence these should be pretty evident. The desire to find his own way in life is attributed to his abandonment by his superhero, and his aspiration to always do good is a remnant of his past as a crime fighter, as hes been doing it all his life. Lastly, as to where this agenda is going to take him, both the character and myself don't particularly know his future, as that is an integral part of the story.

This characters mindset is that of a lost child. Immediately, he will be sad and distraught without direction and completely lost in an overwhelming city. Without a direction his first course of action would be to try and find someone or something to point him in a direction, and originally all he would want is to make it back to his superhero. His gaze will be hopeless, and hopefully by the end of the story to change to a more upbeat attitude in tune with his old personality. Finally, others in this world, would probably view this character as a hasbeen or a shadow of his former self. He should seem hopelessly lost in the big city and without his caretaker.

Oral Presentation.

Here's a skeletal break down of the notes for my oral presentation

1. Peculiarities of my life that have made me see with special eyes:

1. Being a twin

- For my entire life, I've been part of a duo.

- It's always been John and Rachel

- Sharing birthdays, first days of school,

- Competition

2. Technology (geekdom)

- Since before I was born, my families had a computer in the house

- Technology has surrounded me my entire life.

- Had my first computer to share with my sister while still in elementary.

- My Older brother and I built my first personal computer while in early middle school

- Dual phone lines for Dial-Up

- Older brother went on to get a masters in computer science

- Accountant Parents, also huge Sci-Fi fans

- Star trek ornament collection

- Science Olympiad (both brother and I) – built first robot in middle school

Used to dream of going to MIT

2. Conflicts formative in my life are:

1. Break Ups (Relationships)

- Constantly in and out of relationships since middle school.

- Always in it for the long-term - Committed

- First girl I dated was for two years

- Been in emotionally abusive relationships before

- Currently in a long-distance relationship with my girlfriend of almost 3 years (22nd oct)

- Attempted to make remain friends with all those whom I’ve dated, but learned which relationships weren’t healthy to keep.

2. Competition

- Mentioned before with siblings

- I have become a very competitive person in certain aspects

- Had to constantly be compared to both older brother and twin sister

- One National Merit Finalist, the other valedictorian

both Full Ride scholarships

- Had to find a way to excel besides academically – art

- Gaming

- Been doing for as long as I can remember

- Online gaming

- Outlet for my competitive side.

- Been gaming online since around ~10 or 11 years old

- Introduced by my older brother

- Counter strike, Unreal Tournament, Quake 3

- Being chubby as a kid, I was never competitive at sports

3. Themes that I'd like to work with are:

1. Loneliness or abandonment

- Refer back to relationships and being a twin

- One of my biggest fears is being alone

2. The future of Technology

- I'm constantly wondering what the future has in store

- Fascinated by outer space

- ever expanding limits of technology

- Moore's law - # of transistors on ICs doubles every 2 years

- Now the density of storage compounds

- Unoffically the rate of technology advancement ever increasing

- Smart phone now has more ram and cpu ghz than my last computer

- Where can it take us?

- Brings me back to the growing up with a sci-fi loving family

4. Types of characters I empathize with are:

1. Sidekicks or supporting characters

- Rachel always being the outspoken one

- Me being the more shy, less likely to be outgoing

- Never like to hold much of a leadership position

- Being a twin as a part of a duo

2. “Freaks” (abnormal)

- Punks, Skins, Goths, Emos, Metalheads, Nerds, Geeks

- Music Taste

- Being shunned as a nerd through half of my school life, and going to a richy private school in which I never felt like I belonged

- Fringe of society

- One of my other interestes is Body Modification

- Tattoos, Peircings, Branding, Scarification, Implants, anything.

5. Story Topics I'd like to explore are:

1. Similar to the themes answer

- A culmination of current science, science fiction, the future, technology

- A wonder at what is to come or what is or will be possible

2. Refer back to loneliness and abandonment

- Always obsessed with a connection with people

- The opposite of that or the denial of that has always been a fear and interest of mine.

6. Ways I'd like to act on my audience:

1. A sense of wonder

- I'm always amazed when a piece of media leaves something with me

- inspiration, hope, amazement,

2. An appreciation for their lives and all they have in it.

This video...

Awesome:

http://vimeo.com/15425583

Research

Well onto the research into whats out there in terms of motion graphics today.

First up, Haley, the photo teacher, sent me a link to this video no that long ago, because it is pretty freakin' cool and it reminded her of a animation I did for her class, that was stop motion done with composed dslr pictures. I wanted to share this link with all who would possibly read this too:

http://www.lomography.com/magazine/news/2011/08/24/500-people-in-100-seconds

Its almost like a video within a video, cool stuff.

Next up, poking through the links of the class blog, a couple of things caught my eye:

The demo reel for Big Film Design, stood out to me because not only did it show the final result of their work, but they included transitions that showed the footage before, a little bit of the process, and the footage after of certain scenes. The concept of not only showing your final piece, but the work that went into was pretty intriguing.

- http://www.bigfilmdesign.com/

Curious Pictures website seemed to stand out, because of it minimilist approach along with a strong logo. It stuck in my mind after I left it. - http://www.curiouspictures.com

(also they made Kids next door, and Sheep in the big city so they're alright by me)

Finally another demo reel stood out to me, just because of the interesting way they portrayed their name and said who they were. By hiring a graffiti artist to paint it as the reel plays, throughout the loads of their work you see his brush strokes and him working along till its finally over and hes done. It was for Imaginary Forces - (which is a cool ass name too)

-http://www.imaginaryforces.com/featured-work/reel/montage-spring-2011/

Now onto unofficial research topics:

OMG, second half of season 6 for doctor who started. Freaking win.

Also I just watched an pretty neat movie called The Nines, starring Ryan Reynolds (one of my favorite actors.) It was pretty interesting with him changing characters along with the story. Its pretty cool.

"Three short films, each depicting the same actors in different and sometimes overlapping roles. Together the stories illustrate the relationship between character, that role, its creator, and the creator"

Watch it here: http://www.crackle.com/c/The_Nines/The_Nines

Motions

Well I finally got to do something with my scene, but I realized I was better off remaking it as a wholey illustrator file. Since I still wasnt sure exactly what I wanted to do with it, I wasnt sure if I wanted to zoom in or expand certain things. Therefor my original scene was a composite of vector shapes and photoshop, and therefore not nearly as scalable. So that was the first thing I had to overcome.

Also I had to learn the gradient function of illustrator, apparently I never had to really use it before.

The second problem I had to overcome was being too ambitious with the first project. I really had a lot I wanted to animate with rain, fog, film grain, and the final car moving. Asides for the rain, the fog and film grain proved too much a challenge with my still limited knowledge of After effects.

Finally on a side note of learning new things, I found the wiggler in after effects to be pretty awesome. I thought the car just moving smoothly from side to side was a bit boring to be honest, and with a bit of internet research I discovered the wiggler and how to use it. The big hurdle I came over was that I had to select both the beginning and ending keyframe for it to allow me to use it.

To sum it all up, here you go:

Scene Assignment

For the first assignment in this class, we had to develop a singular scene of still images and graphics with a foreground and background while not particularly knowing exactly what we're going to use it for. Thats where the problem was for me. I kept being unsure of what I wanted to make, because I didn't know what where I was going to go with it after that. So after some time, I decided I really wanted to make a kind of vectorized film nior type urban lanscape. After finally making up my mind as to what I wanted to make, I didn't run into any problems.

Overall I am happy with the result, even if I'm still not sure where we are going from here.

Inspiration.

One of the the things that really spurred me to take this class, beyond that its a requirement for my major, was my interest into After Effects. While I know this is not a special effects class, i've been throughly engaged with the work of two related groups called Corridor Digital and Freddie Wong:

Corridor Digital

Freddie Wong

These guys work together making videos, primarly for youtube, but are just using that to build up a sorts of resume to get farther into the film and special effects industry.

Now the kicker is they, aslong with making kick ass videos, both have a secondary channel in which they break down what went into shooting or creating that particular video. They aslo have a few tutorial videos and links to tons of other resources:

Corridor Digital's Second Channel

And Freddie's

So yeah, check them out if you're curious.

First!

First! Thats is all.