Explorations
Explorations Project
The Explorations Projects were about students being able to choose what kind of skill they would learn or improve upon. For my project in Animation class, I wanted to do splash art. Splash art is typically used to for promoting a character for a video game and it is also like an introduction for that character. The splash art I made doesn’t have anything to do with promoting a character for a video game but I wanted to create a splash art of an animal. I thought the idea of splash art was really cool and it wasn’t my first idea for the project. Originally, I wanted to create an animation where a bird was going to flying around the city because they were chasing another bird. However, creating a lot of motion in an animation would take a lot of time and splash art was an idea that I thought was interesting.
In relation to improving my skills in animating, I thought it would be cool to animate elements like water in my splash art where some of the layers would be still. Splash art can be a still image or a mix of animating effects like fire in the background along with still images.
First Splash Art Process
These are the progress screenshots for my first splash art that I made. I intended for it to show a crane chilling in a lake.
After I made the art in Photoshop, I would import the files into After Effects and I would eventually be able to export a video using this program.
Second Splash Art Process
After I finished drawing all the images, I had to export these layers individually into After Effects so I could compile them into a video.
In After Effects, they have effects and presets panel that has a variety of tools to help with animating. For instance, the fog you see in the picture wasn’t something I drew in Photoshop but I had to make it in After Effects. This made the process much quicker rather than trying to make fog frame by frame.
Final Product
Presentation
Reflection
I think the project had pushed me to manage my time well. When we started this project, there was about 2 weeks left to do this project so I had to work a lot after school. This project was very useful in learning how to animate better because of the more advanced functions that each animating program has can make your life easier or harder. Looking towards the future for my Zenith project, I am motivated to make my animations look much better one day and to try new things.
Music Recording
The Music Recording assignment was for Digital Media class in using the music recording studio at Freestyle Academy. This was a collaborative assignment, Tyler and I had sang Happy Birthday but it is Stevie Wonder’s version of it. The inspiration for this song was from my mom as she gave this suggestion, it was a very happy tune song.
Our goals for this assignment was to record as many takes as we could until it sounded good for each verse and not all in one go. Afterwards we would edit in Pro Tools to make the necessary cuts and other edits. The main challenge was trying to get the backtrack audio aligning with our voices because the original backtrack has Stevie Wonder’s voice. Putting the backtrack that has no lead singer with the right was a challenge but it worked out.
For this project, we went through the process of using the music recording studio. The takeaways that we gained from it was that it was surprising how clear our voices came out after we used the microphones in the studio. Learning how to use the master control machine that was for the microphones was an interesting experience. It was cool how the machine could control so many different aspects of the recording process. For example, we could control how loud we could hear each other, how loud the audio of the backtrack was, and also how loud we could hear the other person in the other room. All the kinds of functions in that single machine were straightforward to understand. We just had to press a few buttons and turn the volume knob until it was in the right place. Another thing that stood out to us was the different kinds of instruments, many of the instruments we haven’t seen before. It was almost tempting to play around with some of them especially since they looked set up already. Overall, our experience in the music recording room is positive and it seems like something useful for future projects.
Poem
The poem assignment was done in English class for the poetry unit. There was a Poet-In Residence who came by and gave lessons about writing poetry. I thought that having a real poet come by to class was really interesting because we got to learn about different forms of poems like cento-poems and free verse poems. I liked how the person let the topics be open ended themes that we could write our own poetry of whatever we liked on a topic. Their guidance in how to get inspired to write a poem helped me a lot in my writing process. I wanted to describe how I feel when I wake up sometimes and use imagery to recreate that feeling. Even as I wake up I realize I have to wake up again in order to continue the cycle.
Waking Up
I wake up
to the orange sun-rays
through heavy rocks for eyes.
Why do I lay here
bed-ridden by sunbaked sand?
Like jellyfish floating
by warm waters waiting.
The things not yet done
are blattered and cluttered thoughts.
It clings to my mind
the way algae does to wood in the water.
As water-dwellers walk the sea-bed,
As sharks keep swimming forward,
I too shall start swimming again