Video Semester 2 Final: Making of a Shortfilm

Scope

The scope of this project was to make a package about something that fit into the category "Bright." This package couldn't be more than 1 minute and 30 seconds long. It had to include interviews, commentary and a lot of B Role (shots of people performing actions)

Pre-Production

During Pre-Production I was deciding what I wanted my package to be over. I eventually chose to have a package over what goes into making a short film. After I decided what I wanted it to be about I was ready to film. The reason I didn't storyboard or script write at the beginning is that it's a news package and you have to get what you can and then work with that.

Production

During production, I was mainly filming. Filming took a couple days, some days felt longer than others depending on how much was going on and whether or not the group I was recording was actually recording or not. Once I finally finished filming B-Role, I then recorded interviews. Each interview consisted of 21 questions about the project they were working on for their final. I interviewed 3 members of the 4 member cast: Carter, Chris, and Espy. Each interview took around 25-30 minutes. On a good day I could usually finish one interview and start the next one before the bell rang. After recording all of the interviews, I was finally able to start writing my story and recording voice overs.

While I was story writing, I was just planning what shots I wanted to use and what I would say in my voice overs. This is a key part in the making of a news package because it gives you a game plan to follow going in and makes the editing process so much easier. After I finished writing my story, I began to record my voice overs. In case you don't know what a voice over is, it's just audio that you play over clips, essentially commentary over what you're showing. An important thing to remember about voice overs is that you should match what you say with what you say. An example of this would be if I was talking about the editing process, I would show them editing while I talked about it.

Post-Production

Finally, after I finished getting everything recorded and ready to go, I could actually start putting this package together in Final Cut Pro. Final Cut Pro is a video editing software used to edit film. First, I imported all of my clips and voice overs. Then, I in and out pointed all of my clips, favorited some clips, and added key words to the clips I thought I would use. When I finished doing that, I started adding the clips to the timeline to get them sequenced properly (put them in the order I wanted them in). Once they were all in order, I added in my voice over. After all of this was done, I played through it a couple of times to make sure my audio was good, and if it wasn't I would adjust it. Finally, when everything was put together and ready to go, I was able to share this project to YouTube as well as on this blog post.

Lessons Learned

Looking back on this project, I was able to learn a lot, both technically and professionally. One of the first and most important things that I learned was to shoot in sequences. This is extremely important to the overall quality of your B-Role as well as your finished film (or news package in my case). Shooting in sequences is basically getting a medium shot (waist up) close up of the face, then a close up of the hands, and finally a close up of the feet. This also helps you match up what you hear with what you see. I also learned that story writing is key. Without my story written, I would have been lost when it came to editing and putting the news package together. Like I said earlier, this makes editing it so much easier. I also learned that making sure the mic used during the interview is actually working. If it isn't, your whole interview isn't near as good as it should have been. The audio is a lot worse and it causes me trouble having to bump it up so you can hear it or turning it down if for some reason it's too loud. Another thing I learned is that you always need to follow the rule of thirds. This makes sure that their eyes are in the proper place on the screen and that they're looking in to space. This makes everything look nicer and more professional. The last thing I learned is that when you're shooting an interview, it should be one continuous clip and that the shot should be very tight (not a lot of space where they aren't looking). This makes the interview more professional and overall improves the quality of it.

Future Changes & Things to Keep up

After watching this news package, there are a few things that I would change and some things that I wouldn't. I would definitely go back and shoot in sequences if I could, this would make my film a lot better and would have given me better B-Role to work with. I would also make sure that the mic in my interviews was actually turned on and working. Doing this would make my interviews a lot more audible. The last thing I would change is making sure that the shot of the person I'm interviewing is a tight shot. This makes the interview look a lot better. Although I can fix this with the crop tool in Final Cut Pro, it is much easier to do it right the first time.

While there are a lot of things I could improve on, I would keep some things the same. One of these would be the close ups of the screen when they were recording and script writing. This helped me match up what you heard with what you saw. An example of this would be when I had a close up of Carter writing script while I talked about how script writing was an important part of making a short film. The other thing I would keep the same is the way I speak in the voice overs. I think it's very clear and sounds like I'm interested in what I'm talking about, but at the same time it's professional.

Experiences

I've been able to draw a few things from this project that will help enhance my next project. The first thing I'll take away is the group I work with. I worked with an enthusiastic group who knew what they were doing. This made the filming process a lot more fun and made things go a lot smoother. The last experience I will draw from this is staying on task. I think I was able to stay on task pretty well and this helped me finish the project on time. The only thing that slowed me down was confusion and last minute interviews.

Wrapping Things up

Overall, I thought I did pretty well for what kind of B-Role I had (not the best). I'm not that proud of this news packages but I'm definitely going to learn from it going into next year. I definitely could have done better and plan to do so. My projects will only get better from here on out. This was a fun package to make and hope to work with groups similar in the future. Thanks for reading.

Attack of the 100ft Dude!!! Animation Semester 2 Final

ANIMATION SEMESTER 2 FINAL

"ATTACK OF THE 100 FT DUDE!!!"

The goal of this project was to make a short animated film that included 3D animation as well as special fx. The 3D animation was done in the program Maya and the special fx were done in Adobe After Effects. Both of these elements were required and had to be incorporated into the film in some way. The people in my group who all contributed to the making of this animated film were: Me, Drew McCall and Graham Petter. What our film is about is in the title: Attack of the 100 Ft Dude!!! If you didn't get the hint, the film is about a 100 ft monster that attacks the city. The military attempts to save the day, will they pull it off? Watch the move to find out!


Pre-Production we were coming up with ideas on what we wanted to make our short animated film about. We all came up with an idea, pitched it, and at the end chose a winner. After we decided what we wanted to make, we began storyboarding. Storyboarding is drawing out images of the different scenes that you plan to include in your film or animation. Most of the drawings were not the most accurate portrayal of the scene but more rough sketches of what we wanted to happen. Then, we decided who would play what role in the film, basically chose characters. Then, we chose which locations we wanted to film in. Finally, we were ready to begin making this animated film. Oh, here is what the storyboard looked like:

During production we filmed all of our scenes. Some scenes we filmed more than once to make sure that we got the right shot and the acting was ok. We did a lot of filming in front of a green screen, here is what that looked like:

After we got everything filmed, we imported all of our clips into After Effects. In After Effects, we added in all of the Special Effects and did most of the Video Editing. Special FX and video editing were done by Drew McCall and Graham Petter. While they worked on editing the film and adding special fx, I worked in Maya to create the animated tank and the missile. I was responsible for all 3D models and animations. Finally, when all of this was done we rendered out or movie and began typing the blog post that you're reading now.

Looking back on this project and during the production of it, I was able to learn a few things. One of the first thing that I learned was how to batch render in Maya. This was extremely useful and made all the 3D animation actually able to be in the film. The second thing that I learned was how to make a tank. It isn't the best tank but it was way over my expectations on what I thought that I was capable of making. I also learned that communication is key when collaborating with others to make a short animated movie. Without communication nobody will know exactly what it is they're supposed to be doing and you will not finish before or on the deadline. I also learned that deadlines come up extremely fast so all the time you are given to work on a project in class should be used wisely; in other words: DON'T SLACK OFF. 

After watching my final project, I would definitely do a few things differently. The first thing I would do differently would be bettering my acting. It was ok but it was kind of corny. My only excuse for this is that it is a 50s movie and it's supposed to be bad (Me:1 Haters: 0; I'm keeping score). The second thing that I would do differently would be to try to make a better tank. The one I made was ok but I feel as though I could have done better if I utilized a lot more of what I had learned over the semester. Although there are a few things I would change, I could draw a lot from this project.

The first thing I will draw from this project is the willingness to go out on a wing and try to make something I've never made before (this being the tank). The reason for this is that I actually surprised myself and the turn out wasn't too bad. The other thing I would draw from this is how to batch render. Without this, you wouldn't see the tank or missile in the film.

Overall, I thought the film turned out pretty good and I had a good group I was working with. We all executed and got what we needed to do done. All of our handwork leading up to the finished product was well worth it. Also, the reason that the film is not uploaded on this post is because it is still rendering (in case you couldn't tell from the text in the parentheses reading: "Movie goes here when it's done rendering").

Formal Interview

Maya Animations & Creations

Polything

This is my project called Polything. This was one of the early on and first projects we worked on. This project really focused on getting the lighting right, which in turn would make the shadows look better. A win win situation. The three main lights we used in this project were: Area lights, Ambient lights, and Point lights. Area lights are the over-head lights that light up a fairly large area. They're normally directly above something. The other type of lighting we used - point lights - are kind of like mood lights. Not too bright, not too dark. They usually go inside of the object you're making. Finally, Ambient lights. Ambient lights are like point lights, except brighter. They also usually go on the inside of whatever object you're making. We used many of these lights in later projects.

Hammer

This is my Hammer project. Before I talk about the tools we used in this project, I just want to say that I am aware of the small claws on the hammer. I didn't know they would be that small until I was close to finished shaping them. At that point, when I finally realized what they would look like, there was no way I was going back to redo it because I didn't have that type of time (just kidding, I'm lazy and wasn't sure how to fix it in the first place). Now, on to the tools. The first tool I used that played a big role in the making of this Hammer was the extrude tool. This allowed me shape the head of the hammer in order to make it look more realistic. The second tool I used was Bevel. This allowed me to edit the edges to add curves to the head and handle of the hammer. The last tool we used was the Cut Face Tool. I used this to get rid of unnecessary polygons in the hammer. All of these contributed to the final product. The lighting was pretty good in this project, I could of made the lighting look a little cooler but this lighting should suffice.

Ice Cream

This is my Ice Cream project. This was one of the first projects we actually animated, which made it pretty difficult. What I think to be the most important tool we used was the Bump Map. This added the texture to the Ice Cream, without this, the Ice Cream would look like spheres sitting on top of upside down cones. The second tool I used was the Looping Move that gave the project its animation. This tool is kind of self explanatory, it looped a single movement on the Lazy Susan. The single movement was just a single, full rotation; it wasn't anything too crazy. However, I did encounter one problem. When I added the animation, the Lazy Susan itself would move in a circle while rotating in the same direction. Modifying the center pivot didn't seem to work.  Thus, there is an image here instead of a video. Came closer to getting this animated and rendered than I did with the Bouncing Balls, I can tell you that much. However, on the bright side, the image looks pretty cool. Except for that dark spot in the bottom left of the image, that bothers me. 

Bouncing Balls

This is my Bouncing Balls project. I will mention that this was supposed to be a video but let's just say that the animating and rendering of this was hard for no reason; to cut to the chase it didn't work out. One of the tools we used was Keyframes. Setting keyframes is what makes the balls bounce (or appear to bounce). The second tool I used was Graph Editor. This tool allowed me to edit the heights and times at which the balls bounce. All of the balls bounce for different periods of time and some bounce higher than others. 

Revolve Cup

This my Revolve Cup project. This project was fairly simple. I used NURBS to make the shape of the cup. Then, I used the Curve tool to make curves a little more rounded and realistic. I used the Revolve tool to make the object in 3D. This tool took the drawing from the NURBS and repeated that pattern in a circle so it wouldn't be flat. This tool was vital in the making of this because it completed the cup. The lighting in this project was - in my opinion - amazing. Although the lighting in the PolyThing project was pretty cool, especially with the shadows and the fact that it was my first project , this is definitely a close second, if not, first.

Salt Shaker

This is my Salt Shaker project. One of the tools I used in this project was The Curves tool. This tool allowed me to edit the curves on the Salt Shaker to make them more rounded and overall make the Salt Shaker look more like an actual Salt Shaker. The other tool I used was lofting. Lofting was mainly how I made the Salt Shaker. Lofting added a surface to the repeated pattern and made it solid but hollow on in the inside which works out perfectly since salt was going to be in the Salt Shaker. I made the salt by copying the lofted surface of the body of the Salt Shaker, then shrinking it down a little bit and placing it in the salt shaker. A lot more simple then it first sounded. Lastly, I just added a rock bump map to the shrunken down salt shaker body and colored it white. Before I end this post, I want to talk about the lighting. It sort of bugs me, but for me, that was as good as it was going to get, hard enough getting the light shining on the object the way I wanted it. Adjusting the lighting and then rendering an image to preview it got pretty repetitive. I know there is probably an easier to way to set up the lights but, me being me, I made it harder than it had to be.

Interview With Carter Maass

The Convergence is Real: Blood Drive and Lego Day at Olathe Northwest

Donating Blood & Saving Lives at Olathe Northwest High School

Recently, Olathe Northwest held it's annual Blood Drive. Surprisingly, a lot of students volunteered to give blood, which was nice to see. Many students were nervous, but others had given blood before and knew what to expect. I, however, was lucky enough to join Tao on his adventure of donating blood. During this journey of sorts, I learned many new things and just going to the Blood Drive, overall, was a new and exciting experience. Especially since I was recording it; getting in people's faces with a camera is fun... Most of the time.

And so it Begins...

Before I could even begin filming, I needed to choose someone to follow around and "stalk" I guess you could say; I ended up choosing Tao to cut to the point. Little did I know that this was Tao's first time donating blood. He hadn't done this before and thought that Olathe Northwest High School having a Blood Drive was a good thing and overall a good program. Although it was fun filming Tao and the Blood Drive as a whole, the process you had to go through in order to donate blood... Well, let's just say that it took A LOT longer than I expected.

The Process Before Blood Donation

One of the things that bothered me the most about filming Tao and the Blood Drive was the long process you had to go through before you could actually donate blood. First, you had to talk to a registration lady that would ask you a lot of questions that I didn't really pay attention to; so if you're dying to know what she asked, this isn't the blog post for you. After that, you were required to fill out various papers that contained personal information for safety reasons. While the students were filling out this information, I was not allowed to record them in order to ensure privacy and for other obvious reasons.  Then after you finally answered all the registration lady's questions and filled out all the paper work, you went inside and sat in the waiting area until a blood donation station opened up (yes, that rhymed; I'm aware; I didn't mean to).

Donating Blood

I know you'll hate me for this... Unfortunately, I was unable to catch Tao actually donating blood. I apologize for this gap in my story. Due to time constraints and the unexpected longevity of registration and paper work, I had no time left to catch Tao actually donating his blood. Yes, I would have liked to have been able to film him actually donating blood but I won't complain because I was able to learn a few things here and there while filming and editing this. Up until the end, I'd say I'm pretty satisfied with the way this turned out.

The Positive Side of Things

While I am sad that I was unable to catch Tao actually donating blood, I am happy that I was able to learn some new things while filming the blood drive. One of the things I learned was how to use my body as a tripod. This was extremely helpful and kept the camera from shaking and making the video practically unwatchable (in my opinion). I also learned a few things while editing this: The first of those is how to play audio from one clip while playing (displaying) a completely different clip. This was very useful and - in my opinion -  gave the film a more "professional feel" if you understand what I'm trying to say. I was definitely able to utilize these skills in my Lego Day Video.

In Comparison to my Lego Day Video

My Lego Day video and my Blood Drive video are very similar. Both of them include me "stalking" someone for the day. I also didn't use a tripod in either of them; Hopefully not using a tripod wasn't too noticeable, as the goal was to get steady shots.

Lego Day at Olathe Northwest High School

Fairly recently (not as recent as the Blood Drive), Olathe Northwest had it's Lego Day. We e-Comm students took full advantage of it and built Star Wars Lego Ships. In my video, Madison (the one actually building the ship) is building the Millennium Falcon. I had a lot of fun shooting this and making her uncomfortable - unintentionally of course - and working on getting steady (not shaky) shots. Madison finished her ship pretty fast compared to the time it took me to finish mine. She had a lot of fun building the Millennium Falcon and hadn't worked with Legos in a while.

Before Building

Before she was able to build the Millennium Falcon, we had to wait a pretty large amount of time for a lego set to become available as there were a lot of participants (students). During this waiting time, we just worked on other projects and sometimes homework from other classes. Eventually though, we were finally able to get our hands on a Lego set and begin this journey of epic Lego building. Although it wasn't too "epic," I had fun filming it and she had fun building it, so I think that's what really matters.

The Building Process

The process of building the Lego ship felt pretty long but fortunately wasn't too hard. If I were to ball park an estimate of how long it took, I would say about 7 or 8 minutes, but I'm just guessing. She worked at a pretty steady pace and was good about not getting distracted. I didn't ask her as many questions as I would have liked to but I think it still turned out pretty good.  Throughout the process, she looked very determined to get the ship built and stayed on task. After a while, she finally finished it and the final product was pretty awesome if I do say so myself. She was pretty happy about how it turned out and it was definitely worth the wait and work.

Reflection

Looking back on Lego Day, there are a lot of things that I could have done better but then again, there is always room for improvement. One of the things that I really should have done better was getting more shots in an effort to make this video at least 1 minute long, which - in case you didn't know - I failed to do. The other thing I would have done differently and will try to improve on next time is a bit less shaky shots. I know there weren't too many in this video but, while editing, there were a lot of shaky shots that got rejected. I find it weird how shaky shots work; while filming it doesn't look or feel like it's shaky until you go back and start editing it. Then, you realize that the shots were pretty shaky and wish you could go back and re-shoot them but there isn't much you can do about it; you just have to work with what you have. Sometimes what you have is better than you expected and other times it isn't. The last thing I would change would be in the Blood Drive video. A lot of my shots were out of focus. This bothers me and makes the video hard to watch. Getting my camera in focus before I begin recording is definitely something I'll make sure I do in the future. However, Despite all of my mistakes, I had a lot of fun filming this and I think that added to the quality of my video. I'm pretty proud of both of these videos. Although there are some things that I wish I could go back and change, I'm still satisfied with the final product.

Get That Hamburger! (Character Story Animation)

This is my Character Story Animation. I know this isn't the greatest animation ever; definitely not my best work. I apologize for the large black border around it; I wasn't sure how to fix that. Before watching this please read what I'm about to say: The story line of this animation is that the main character (the one with the mustache) sees a sign that says MacDonalds (McDonalds spoof) only has one burger left and he just has to have it. Little does he know that there is another character that acts as his rivalry who also wants the burger (he's wearing the "I'm With Stupid" shirt). They race to MacDonalds knowing only one of them will get the burger. That is all I can give away, you'll have to watch the animation in order to find out who gets it. The reason this animation is extremely short and simple is because I put this off for wayyyy too long. After procrastinating to the max, time became an issue and I only had a few days to finish the animation, get it rendered and then upload it to blogger; I was obviously in a rush to get it done. I take full responsibility for it, that was bad on my part and that's what I'm definitely going to improve on and one of the things I'm going to draw from this project in order to enhance my next project.

When I was making this project, I wanted to make an animation that told a story and also had a beginning middle and end. During the early stages of this project, I was thinking about what story I wanted to tell and what the characters should look like; I knew I wanted the characters to look funny, so that's what I did; that explains why they look the way they do. After I came up with a general idea of the story line, I began storyboarding it. Storyboarding is basically just drawing out different scenes so when it comes time to make the actual animation, you have a good idea of what you need to do and what needs to happen in the animation itself. Here is what my storyboard looked like:

There are some scenes in my storyboard that I never added to the animation; there were three scenes that I never added and they are the two scenes where it zooms in on my main character's face and the scene where he tosses his rivalry like a sack of potatoes. I never added those scenes because of confusion and time constraints. The arrows in my storyboard represent movement, or where I wanted the character to move/walk to. While I'm talking about the storyboard, I apologize for the bad art, I'm no artist and won't act like I am. The art is bad and I know it is, so bare with me.

After getting the animation storyboarded, I finally started animating it. One of the things I learned while animating this project was how to make different parts of the character's body extremely large. I know it's simple to do but I had never thought about doing it before and experimented with while animating. If you've already watched the animation, you'll know I never actually used this because when I first learned it, I thought it would be a way to give the viewer the illusion that I zoomed in, but when I tried it... Let's just say it looked better in my head.

Looking back on this project, there are a lot of things I would change. One of those things would be the absolutely awful walk cycle I had. I would definitely go back and try to improve that. The other thing I would do differently is make the animation longer and add the scenes that were in the storyboard. The only things I would keep the same are the backgrounds and the way the characters look; I think it adds a certain uniqueness to the animation.

Overall, this animation was pretty bad, terrible I might add. There is a lot of stuff that could have been done better or needs fixing. Given the amount of time I had to work on this, the terribleness of this animation is inexcusable and I take full responsibility; I'm definitely going to do better next time and won't procrastinate.