The purpose of the Senior Innovator Project is use your own passion to innovate, create, and develop your own project.
I was inspired to attempt my hand at animation after Mr. Taylor showed our junior class an experimental film which animated line drawings to dance. Also I wanted to incorporate live film into my project, similar to Mr. Taylor’s Raccoon Toons. Lastly, I wanted to learn a new skill and through learning this skill, learn how to teach myself an entirely new adobe program. This was important to me because I will soon be going to college and I understand a lot of my material will be self learned.
I was inspired to attempt my hand at animation after Mr. Taylor showed our junior class an experimental film which animated line drawings to dance. Also I wanted to incorporate live film into my project, similar to Mr. Taylor’s Raccoon Toons. Lastly, I wanted to learn a new skill and through learning this skill, learn how to teach myself an entirely new adobe program. This was important to me because I will soon be going to college and I understand a lot of my material will be self learned.
My research paper was focused on how personalities are acquired. I studied a plethora of theories explaining how people develop their personality, ranging from genetics to ayurveda, the Indian study of life. My research allowed me to analyze myself and the transitioning period I am currently in. My innovator project is a film which focuses on my reflection of senior year and my thoughts on the future. In it, I am having a conversation about the multitude of changes that are occurring with an angel and devil who make up my conscious.
I received a lot of assistance from my classmates. My peer, Peter Coish allowed me to view how he created his animation and we went through it step by step. This allowed me to view the many different techniques that are available when working with animation. I ran into some trouble when it came to layering my illustrator files over my premiere files in after effects. Luckily, my classmate Kayli Bailey’s project was similar to mine so I was able to learn how to combine animation and live film. Lastly, throughout this entire process, I have had Mr. Taylor looking over my shoulder and assisting me with the many technical issues that can occur when learning a new program.
If I could do this project differently I would take on less. I didn’t realize how long it would take me to set up my project before I could actually begin to animate. In order to begin animating I had to have my film fully edited with all my voice overs and effects finalized. I then had to draw my characters and their features on separate layers in order to be able to use them in after effects. Only once all these other mini projects were completed could I begin learning to work in after effects.
Throughout the process of my project, I developed the skills of technological literacy and risk taking. The focus of my project was to learn and understand the adobe program, after effects. Through much help from Mr. Taylor, my peers, and Lynda.com I have begun to feel comfortable using this program to animate and create special effects. I also developed a sense of risk taking. My project was a lot to take on but I wanted to make the most out of my last few months at freestyle and really challenge myself to learn something new. The 21st C skill I struggled with the most during the innovator project was self direction. At first, I was very frustrated with my project. I didn’t understand how to interpret the after effects interface and kept making silly mistakes that would take me hours to notice even existed. I spent a lot of time re-doing, and re-working my project because I kept learning new techniques and better ways of accomplishing the look I wanted.
When I developed my rubric and project proposal, I had no idea how much work my project would actually be. I didn’t realize how much work I would have to do before I could actually begin animating and learning after effects. In the future, I would do a better job of planning out my project so that I would know everything that had to be done beforehand. Therefore, allowing myself to manage my time more efficiently.
Designing a project on a subject I didn’t have much knowledge about was a challenge that often overwhelmed me. The innovator project was one of the most challenging assignments I have ever had because everything was on me. However, I feel like I was successful in motivating myself to try something new and understanding new material. Overall, this project was helpful in showing me that there are many skills that I still need to acquire but it is possible to learn anything you desire.
Overall, how do you value this project?
I think this project was really helpful in showing students what it would be like to create something completely on your own. This is an important skill to learn for us second semester seniors who will soon be leaving for college. This project taught me that I get as much out of something as I put into it and therefore I should always take risks and try my hardest.