Monday, December 12, 2016

Cinemagraphs




I decided to do a cinemagraph of a water fountain, because I found the motion of flowing water to be interesting. I has several ideas about using a spoon or other object in a stream of water in a sink, but decided that a water fountain would look more interesting.

The main problem I had was trying to hide the person walking in the background. I wanted them in the background of the photo, but not visible in the video. As they walked behind me, there's a small gap between my arm and the wall where you can see their legs as they walk past, but I need this section to show the video because the path of the water goes directly through it. I ended up just having to cut the video shorter so they didn't walk through that section.



For my second cinemagraph, I wanted to include some of my friends from lunch because  thought it would be a good opportunity to make something interesting. I started thinking about the process I used to make the first cinemagraph and realized that it allowed the potential to make more complex and interesting pieces that had multiple sections. I don't know if this is technically a cinemagraph anymore, but it taught me a lot about the capabilities of this process in photoshop.

The problems I had were because my camera was on the same table that I was filming. This meant that as people shifted and put weight on the table, it would flex and the camera shifted slightly. I tried to correct this by duplicating the video and shifting it up one pixel as the angle shifts slightly, which worked ok, but would work better if I put more time into it. It's most noticeable on the wall in the background, but it's kind of small and difficult to see unless you know what to look for, so I decided it wasn't worth fixing.

Sunday, December 4, 2016

Stop Motion



What was the hardest rule to come up with an animation for? Why?

The hardest rule to come up with an animation for was Straight Ahead and Pose to Pose. These are more behind the scenes methods of production, and if you make your video well, hopefully the viewer can't tell how it was made. We had to do the opposite, and try to explain how we used a production method while making a short video.


What was the easiest? Why?


The easiest rule was Squash and Stretch. Almost any action can involve some squashing and stretching of objects, so we could make an animation of almost anything we wanted and we could demonstrate this rule.


What do you think of stop motion? (2 sentences or more)


Stop motion allows for the creation of some really neat videos that could not be created in any other way, but making a high quality video that is a reasonable length takes a huge amount of time. If you put the commitment and time into making a stop motion video, they can look really interesting and unique.


I didn't get a chance to finish Solid Drawing, but if I had, I would have used a whiteboard, and shown the process of sketching a very simple, 2D character. Then I would have added perspective details to make the character more 3D

Monday, November 7, 2016

Character Design

Explain who your character is and how they play into the story.


My character's name is Hakko, and he is Kubo's older brother. Hakko is about 25 years old, and he has been living on his own since Kubo was born. Because of this, he has become very hard, aggressive, and serious. He has also had learned to fight to survive. He is a skilled swordsman, and you can tell that he has been in a few fights by the scar across his face. He is usually very reserved, but wears a golden belt to show people that he is the real deal. Hakko is a very powerful character and strangers usually leave him alone.


Explain your process to make this character.

The first thing I did was create a notepad document to brainstorm characteristics and attributes of my character. Then I opened a new Photoshop document and began sketching head ideas. I combined the elements I liked into a final rough sketch and moved on to the clothing. I didn't spend much time on this because I already knew what type of clothing I wanted, so I made a couple of rough sketches and moved on to the final.

To draw my final picture I started with a stick figure to figure out proportions. Then I filled out the arms, legs, and body to the correct width. Then I made a new layer which included the major outlines of the character. This part took the longest, but when I was finished, I added a layer of shading, which was black and white on very low opacity, and finally, a layer of color. The color layer was fairly simple because I didn't have to worry about value, the shading layer added that all for me.

What things do you find successful and what might you change for next time?

I thought that the process for shading the piece was successful as it allowed me to overlay the shading layer and edit it separately all the way through the piece as I felt necessary, and I also was able to turn the layer off to help with coloring the piece. Something I didn't like was the lines of this piece. I felt that they looked a little jagged and pixelated. If I did this again I would start with a higher resolution canvas.

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

IPads

Keychain

Flat Design


What did you find most difficult about the 3D process?

The most difficult part of this process was cleaning up the edges of the piece. I didn't want to print the piece and have roughly drawn, edges. I tried cleaning it up in photoshop but that turned out to be too difficult, so I opened the piece in illustrator and traced it with paths to get smooth edges. This part took nearly a full day, but the results were worth it.

What did you find successful about your piece?

What I found the most successful is how smooth the edges turned out after I traced them in illustrator. I like that it maintained some of its hand-drawn imperfections, and style, but it looks smooth and clean.

Explain your piece?  What was you inspiration and how

The inspiration for this piece came from my friends at lunch. I mentioned that I wasn't sure what to make for this project, and we decided that it should be something to do with everybody's name. I decided to make a piece which incorporated the first letter of each person's name into a design. I went through a few combinations but settled on this one in the end because it used the straight sides of the letters to contain the whole piece in a square.

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Kubo and the Two Strings



Kubo and the Two Strings
LAIKA

The stop motion in this movie was made through multiple methods, but mainly 3D printing and wire models. One of the animators who worked on this movie was Rachelle Lambden. She lives in Canada and graduated from York University with a BFA in theater directing. She worked on other stop motion movies by LAIKA including Boxtrolls and ParaNorman. This movie is special because it uses the largest puppet ever used in a stop motion movie.

I'm drawn to this movie because I find the animation style of this movie to be very interesting. The stop motion aspect of it and the fact that the characters exist in real life gives extra details to the characters that would not exist if the movie was entirely computer generated.

Thursday, September 29, 2016

3D Printing

What did you find most difficult about the 3D process?
The most difficult part of this process is figuring out how to move objects in 3D space by changing the work space direction. In 2D art programs, you never have to worry about the third axis of motion.

Were you able to overcome these difficulties with a little practice?
I am getting better at moving objects where I want them, but it will still take more practice to do it smoothly.

What did you find successful about the process so far?
So far I've been able to complete all of the tutorials, and the program is much simpler than thought it would be.

If you could design anything with the 3D printer, what would it be and why?
I really don't know what I'd make in a 3D printer. It opens up so many new possibilities that I'm not used to even thinking in that way. I would like to make something useful, as this is a chance to make something I'd never be able to make in other situations.

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Illustrator Tutorial

What did you think of the project?

This project was very difficult at first, because I had never used Illustrator before and had to learn all of the tools and figure out the way the program "thought". I was familiar with photoshop so previous projects were much easier for me. I did both tutorials because I had some extra time, and it was really helpful. Creating Mario was much more difficult than the origami logo, but turned out to be much more helpful. At the start, I didn't know how to even make a line, but by the end of the Mario project I could use different tools to create an image out of basic shapes, and edit the paths if I made any mistakes.









How is your piece successful and what might you change in the future?

This answer is mainly about the Mario project because that took the most time and was the most helpful. I feel like this piece is successful because it taught me about the program, and it taught me how to correct the mistakes that I make. If I could change anything about this piece I would shrink the cheeks a little bit, because they are slightly too large. I would like to find a way to keep the ellipses used to make them as separate objects but still make them look connected, or find a way to edit them once they are merged, because once you merge all of the parts into a single piece you can't edit them again very easily.

Monday, September 19, 2016

Product Label


Business Card:


















Why did you pick the product you did?

I decided to use a syrup bottle because when I was looking for ideas of labels to redo, I saw the syrup bottle and thought that it would be a fun label to redo. I liked the fact that the back label had all of the important information, and the front was clean and simple. I also thought it would be fun to make a design that wasn't the usual square or rectangle shape.

How did you design your piece?  Tell me your process.

The main design of this piece is thanks to the mini lesson when we had to make a brush. I still had the wave brush I used in that project, and thought it would look good on the label. I first framed off the middle section and added some images to fill in most of the space. I liked the look of the dripping syrup off the spoon, but it needed a background. I used a picture of pancakes that I blurred and put behind the spoon. then I selected part of the syrup and made it slightly transparent to make the images blend together better. Next I needed the title of the product. I decided not to use a brand because I thought it would make the piece look cluttered, so I just made banners that said "Maple" and "Syrup." I made these banners by selecting two boxes around the text on a blank layer, and filling them in with color. Then I used the warp tool to get the bend that I wanted. After that, I changed the Layer Styles to add bevel and shadows. Then I made another blank layer underneath where I filled in the space between the banner borders, and used the burn tool on the bottom half of the banner to make it look like it had a shadow.

What is most successful about your design?

I think the most successful part of this design are the banners along the top of the piece. I had never made banners before so I just tried a method I thought might work and I think they came out really well. I even added one on the back, even though I wasn't planning to, but I feel like it fits pretty well.

If you could change anything about the piece, what would you do and why?

I don't really know what I would change about this piece. I feel like it needs something, but don't know what it is. Parts of the label, like the top of the back side, look kind of bare, but I don't know what I should add to fix that. overall, I am happy with the way this turned out.





Monday, September 12, 2016

Edible Architecture

Who lives in the house you created?  Is there a particular reason you picked the parts you did?


    This house is home to a small family. The main living space is in the bottom burrito and the bedrooms are in the top. The kids also have a swing set to play with in the back yard. I chose to use burritos in this project because their open sides left a perfect space for a front door. I also liked the idea of having multiple levels to the house because it makes the space more interesting.

    What alterations did you have to make to make it look realistic?

    The main problem I was running into was that the door photo I was using was a picture of the door from straight on and to make it look right I needed to warp it. The bottom door was fairly easy because it's close to straight on, but the door on top was very difficult to skew properly. To make the door look like it fit the burrito, I had to first use the clone tool to fill out the image a little and make it completely fill the area, and then I used the burn tool to add some shadow. I used a similar process on the second floor door, but it still looks a little bit off. I don't think the angle of any of my additions look quite perfect, but I don't think that's too bad because it gives the image a very cartoonish look, which I kind of like.

    If you could change anything about the piece, what would you do?

    The one thing that I would change about this piece is the second floor window. The original image I used was of an interior window, so the lighting inside was very dark, and the lighting outside was very bright. It was difficult to cut out all of the bright outside of the window, and you can still see some white around the inside of the window. I also couldn't get the angle of the skew just right so it doesn't quite line up to the side of the burrito. The next problem I had was that there was nothing inside the window. I didn't really know what to put in the window, and I thought trying to add an interior to the house would be too difficult, so I just used the burn tool on the side of the burrito. I think this looks okay, but it could definitely look better.

    Tuesday, September 6, 2016

    NewAnimals



    What problems did you overcome during this project and how?

    The main problems I had while making this project was making the legs and dog's body blend together smoothly. First of all, the dog's body was much wider than the centipede's , so I had to cut the legs out and separate them to give me more space. Once they were lined up, I had to figure out a way to blend them. I originally tried to merge the layers and begin blending, but by doing that, any mistakes I had made earlier on would be kept permanently, so I gave up on that and tried to find a different way. I ended up using the clone tool to copy parts of the dog onto the leg layer, and blend them together there. This ended up working pretty well because I could use the layer mask we used in the clone project to fade the background and the overlaid layer gradually.

    If you could change anything about the piece what would you do?

    If I could change one thing, I would have probably started with a thinner source animal. I didn't pay too much attention to what animal I chose, I just wanted to put centipede legs onto something large. Choosing a dog has forced me to push the legs farther apart, making the animal appear way to heavy for its legs. I think that is making the image look less real because its proportions mean it couldn't actually exist.

    Explain your animal?  What is their name/species? How did you come up with this idea?

    This animal, called House Dog, is a mix between a House Centipede's legs and a dog's body. I came up with this idea from watching the example video of a frog's body and an alligator's head. It gave me the idea to mix a very large and very small creature. I wanted to use a house centipede as the base because I knew it had many long legs that I could attach to the body of something else. The dog was just used because its body was a good shape to add legs to, and I thought it would look ridiculous and funny.

    Friday, September 2, 2016

    Illustration Friday

    Tarot:
    Traffic:

    Orange:

    Rain:
    Nest:

    Weapon:

    Ice:















    Google Doodle:

    Title: Communication
    Description: Communication has been invaluable in the development of our culture and society, I see a future where communication is easily available to everyone worldwide.


    Kiss:


    Stripes:

    Steam:


























    Aquatic:


























    Spider:


























    Tape:


























    Soup:


























    Spiral:



    Talk:

    Tuesday, August 30, 2016

    Clone Me



    What problems did you overcome during this project and how?

    The problem I ran into during this project was getting my layers to line up properly. The two images where my hands are touching were actually offset by about one or two feet. I had to move the layer mask very close to myself so you can't see any of the background. The layer of myself walking also overlapped with and covered up other layers behind it, so I had to move that layer over to the right and try to line up the rails in the background with the rails that were already there.

    If you could change anything about the piece what would you do?

    If I could change one this about this project, I would start over with higher resolution photos. The lower resolution did make it easier to smoothly join the layers, but I would have liked to have a higher quality final product. I also would have moved the camera's position to the right, because a lot of space over to the left is unused