Kelsie Wilt
Hour. 6-7
Junior Final
During this year we had many animation projects we had the chance to create ourselves and then animate it till the end. It was a tough challenge like every animation will be, but it was a great learning experience to become more comfortable with how hard and the problems we will face later on in life if we choose to go into the animation career. I loved every moment of it because even though there were problems, it helped me learn how to quickly come up with a solution that ended up creating an even better than originally planned final animation. We worked on two animation projects with a group while we had to work on the rest of the assigned animation projects ourselves. I liked the opportunity to work with others because it builds up your social skills and working with others on a project will happen later on in life. It was also fun to learn and get to know the other animators of the class; their different skills and styles of animation and the programs they are more comfortable using, like Maya or After Effects, 3D or 2D animating. It's great to also work the majority of the year on our own animating, it builds us up to taking charge of our project to get it done and if there is a problem we learn how to over come it and work something out ourselves like we would have to in the real world.
One project we had to create was a stop motion animation. My group and I had a lot of problems with this project because our original ideas wouldn't work later on. We came up with an idea and then went to work on gathering our materials and start taking the pictures needed, but once we got started to almost half way through the project, too many problems that were too big to solve occurred. The problems were costing us precious time that we had to get this animation done on the assigned due date, so we had to scrap most of our ideas and come up with new ones. We went through at least three ideas of a project to then end up being too big of a hassle in such little time to continue. We finally decided on an idea of showing one object that best described ourselves at the moment. We had a golf club to represent golfing, a violin to represent orchestra, a game boy to represent gaming, and a duck tape hand to represent creation. Each of us got to have a few seconds of revealing our items that represented us and show it off a bit before tossing it to the next person which it would then change into that new person's represented item. Our idea was a good one in my opinion, but due to such a loss of time and it becoming a last minute scramble to get it done, the final animation was not the best and we could've done better if we had more time. Our failed idea attempts costed us about a week's worth of time to create the project, add on the fact that some members forgot their representing items on the days we were supposed to take pictures of them using it. This project for us showed how in the future we could have great ideas at first but they can end up being too challenging for us at that certain time to carry out, and even with another idea to take the place of it, it could also be too much of a hassle, costing us precious work time, but we were able to create something decent enough to be our actual project with the little time we had left.
Another project we had to create was a layer animation. Like in other animations and movies, this animation was representing the foreground, middle ground, and background of an animation. If for example a character was running, the foreground would be moving faster than the background, which would only be slightly moving, creating the image of an actual perspective view point of how it is in real life. On this project I admit I over thought it and my final animation was not what needed to be done. I had the right idea in mind, but I over thought myself on the perspective viewing of the animation. My animation was the camera going through a forest of dead trees to reveal a haunted house at the top of the hill, while getting closer two different ghosts, a bride and a grim reaper, appeared and floated along the screen. The part of the animation I over thought about was the trees, I didn't have enough trees that were needed because at that time my mindset was not corroborating with me in creating the trees to how they were supposed to look. Now that at this time it is months past when the assignment was given, I look back and see so many things I should change and should have done differently, like adding more trees. But that happens with every animator, artist, musician, movie director, etc. After time passes of finishing a project, we look back at it and see so many corrections that need to be made and changed because we grew more as a person, maturity, and learned more knowledge that increased our professions skills. I plan on over the summer creating a similar animation that would be better to represent the foreground, middle ground, and background perspectives.
Another group project we had to do was during October through November. My group was not the most organized, and we barely had any idea on what to even do, all we had was the theme of the animation which was the ocean. Soon we came up with the idea of an animation about pirates on the ocean meeting each other and battling, then the winner sees a beautiful mermaid to only find out she is a he, to then a whale crashing onto the ship causing it to explode and a seagull creating bubbles as the ending. The animation did not make any real sense but we were having fun putting random things together to create a whole animation of randomness. It was challenging to work with many people when each of our animation skills and drawing skills were very different, you can easily see the differences in the animation, from ones who seem to know what they are doing and are good at it to ones who need a little to a lot more work. We face a lot of challenges during this animation project. Many members were not focusing on the task they were supposed to carry out, created their animation quickly just to get it done and over with causing it to not look even decent, to a member creating their whole part of the animation in 300 x 200 sized format when we needed it to be 3000 x 2000. It was challenging trying to keep members on task and get their parts done so we could put each animation part together as one whole animation. We worked down to the very last day, the day it was due, to have the animation completely finished. Even though it was not the best group animation, we certainly did have the most creative and best comedy animation of the class. Once the finished product was done we all loved it and had a fun laugh together at how random and just how ridiculous it was, but it worked out nicely to show there is very big differences between animators and most of the time they wouldn't work well when put together, but sometimes it doesn't work so much to a point of being better than expected creating an animation that fit perfectly to represent our differences and yet still fit together. This group project made me want to work more with groups. Even though it's very annoying, troublesome, and challenging to work with others and the many problems of staying on task and getting each members parts done at the needed time in the needed format, it was a great and fun experience to get to know the other animators more and see their different skills than others, seeing how unique they are.
One of our last animations and my favorite animations was an animation we had to create to enter into eMagine. I came up with the idea of a wolf running after listening to one of my favorite songs recently, "She Wolf" by David Guetta. I came up with how the animation will look like by listening to the first two minutes of the song and drawing out whatever came to my mind during the certain lyrics and rhythms of the song itself being played. The animation starts out with the grass blowing in the wind to then start moving across the screen like you were running. The paws of the wolf appear with the first beat/lyrics of the song being heard. Then different parts of the wolf, the shoulder, tail, muzzle, and eyes, were then shown at different beats and lyric changes. The next frame was a full look at the wolf running to then zoom out to show it was running in a valley with mountains in the far background as the moon of the night shined some light down. With the next change of rhythm and lyrics, the frame changed to the wolf running along past trees in the valley, it running across the screen. During this time there was better foreground, middle ground, and background of the grass moving at different paces, like the foreground was going faster along with the running wolf while the background grass, trees, and mountains barely moved. The next change in lyrics of the song was "What do you see in those yellow eyes" which was during the frame of the eyes of the wolf blinking to then fall into pieces, as said in the lyrics, to then be falling down slowly with the instrumental part of the song. During the last seconds of the song before reaching the two minute mark, the rhythm and beat began to pick up, so in the animation the pieces began to fall down the screen as the wolf running from a front view perspective, the wolf facing you/running toward you, began to fade in as the beat was picking up. At the climax of the song and when beat/rhythm change to "when the bass drops" the wolf explodes into many pieces to then fly and fall across the screen. This animation took about three months to come up with the idea and then animate it out. There were many challenges that I had to face regarding the animation, like original ideas that I was not able to make work with the little time I had left to put the animation together. The timing of the animation to the music was also very challenging. Most of the time it would be only a second to a millisecond off and was very irritating when I was so close to getting it to match up perfectly. Sadly due to how fast we hear sound to how fast we process movement of what we see in our sight, it was just by nature itself causing the very slightest of an offset in the animation to music. Luckily most of the issues I saw in my animation were just any normal animator criticizing their creation harder and more than others, since many others saw nothing wrong in some parts till I pointed out an issue I could see, yet even then nothing would be wrong through their view point.
It was upsetting to not make it to the final of eMagine with my wolf animation, because it was the best animation I have made since I started animating so far. There are many things people cannot understand and comprehend like others. Metaphors, symbolism, and small details that are over looked and not seen at all. It's sad that many artists in all different branches and styles of creating art, have their projects, their creations they spent so much time on, be criticized or put down or not even understood due to some people unable to actually understand it. But that is life. Many will get what you have created, while others will not. The best thing to do is know you yourself did the best you could do and learned from mistakes to create something even better later on in the future. I was very upset and disappointed, but I know I did the best I could and cannot let it get to me, that I have to keep moving forward and become even better by learning more knowledge and enhancing my animating skills even more, to be the best I can be as an animator.
This year was my junior year in high school, my third year in E-Communications, and my first year of going fulling into just animating throughout a whole year and not a small amount of time. Many challenges were thrown at me not only as an animator but as a person myself, but I learned to overcome the challenges and continue moving forward. Next year I will be a senior and it will be not only my last year at ONW, my last year of high school, but also my last year of having the honor of being part of the Animation branch in the E-Communications 21st Century program. During my last year I plan on working harder on my projects and animations, to spend more time on them and take it more seriously while still maintaining having fun in what you do. I plan on going to a college that will provide a great animation class for me to take to make my skills grow even more. To hopefully work for Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks, or another animation company, or maybe creating my own. I plan on working my way up in whichever I end up being part of to hopefully be part of the team that not only animated but also created the next big animated motion picture, maybe even bigger than Frozen but it doesn't hurt to dream. Even though people say an art career is not a stable career to have and does not make a lot of money unless you are outstandingly great at it, I believe they are missing the most important part of life, doing something you love. In this world, money seems to be the only thing on everyones minds, that it's the only way to get anywhere in life. Even though part of that is true, it shouldn't be the thing that keeps you from continuing in a profession you not only have the skills in but also the heart and determination, the love to do it. Many creative/artistic legends were told the somethings, yet you see them as some of the most recognizable, the most remembered and well known people in the world, who continued on for their love of art and left their mark on the world. I hope to do that someday later on, it's a big dream and there is a very small chance of it actually happening, but that won't keep me from trying and doing what I love to do. I have E-Communications and the Animation branch and Mr. Netterville as my animation teacher to thank for providing me more knowledge and enhancing my skills in animation, and keep me motivated and determined to continue on in the profession. I have never thought this much or been so passionate about anything else before until this year of animation. In the years past I was fascinated by it and thought it would be "cool" and "fun" to do, but thanks to this year I matured away from that into really thinking about animation. Looking past all the flashy cool things that could be done, and seeing just how hard it really is, and that amazing feeling you get when you worked so hard on an animation to see it finally done and cannot help but smile and be so happy and thankful, to have that feeling of doing what you want to do for the rest of your life and will never get bored of it.
I am looking forward to next year and the years beyond that to continue in the animation profession and becoming a better animator, the best I can be, and do the thing I love most as a career to be part of for the rest of my life that will keep me more than happy no matter what life may throw at me. I am ready for the challenge and ready to become an animator.
What I learned during this project is to know the due date in more advanced time and think of projects that can be great but also very simple. Our original project would have been great when done, but it required more time to make. Next time, we as a team will have to come up with a more simple project so we would not have to deal with time issues or material problems. What I think we can do the same next time is the "team meetings" we had. I enjoyed being able to discuss more with the team members and becoming closer and getting to know one another better. Knowing the whole team better will result in a more affective environment to complete a project.
