Getting To Know Me

Thank you for stopping by my showcase! My name is Matthew Hoke and I am an animation student at Freestyle Academy. Over my years at freestyle, I have learned so much from animation to work ethic. I really value all the knowledge and experience Freestyle has given me, thank you freestyle. Outside of freestyle, I am a skateboard instructor, I teach kids how to skate at the local skate shop Skateworks. I also enjoy mountain biking and hiking.

Zenith Project

For my showcase, I chose to present my Zenith project. I chose to present my Zenith because I think it was my most creative project. Having the freedom of making any animation for this project really intrigued me, I wanted to produce a fight scene of some sort. My inspirations were “Baki” for the character designs. Baki is an overexaggerated “Hajime No Ippo” for the fighting style and boxing aspect of the animation. The show is an anime from the 80s that has an amazing animation style. I wanted to add a comedic aspect to it, so I made all of the sound effects myself. I was just having fun creating all of the sound effects and watching my animation back.

Mandala

A mandala is defined as “a geometric figure representing the universe in Hindu and Buddhist symbolism”, in simpler terms it is an art piece that is symmetrical in every segment. Mr. Flo challenged us to create a mandala in Adobe Illustrator that would be printed onto a wooden pizza cutting board. Instantly I knew I wanted to create something that had to do with the little Cesar’s man. I wanted to have him in the middle as the centerpiece. I picked him because I love little Cesar’s, it may be cheap, but that is exactly why I like it. I feel that there is something to be said about cheap food, it isn’t totally authentic, but they somehow make it taste delicious. And I am on a budget when I pay for food myself. I also added some small details from naruto, I added the hidden village signs close to the top. I also added one of the seven swords from the hidden mist village. I just liked the way it looked and the sword is very nostalgic for me.

Reflection

These projects were super fun, the zenith and the mandala project were my two favorite projects in all of the Freestyle. When Freestyle first started, I had no drawing experience at all. I was extremely worried about joining animation, everyone seemed so artistically talented and knew how to execute all the projects. I had no clue how to do anything, from drawing basic character models to basic 2D animation. I wanted to quit, I felt so out of place and discouraged. I talked to my mom about transferring into a different class and she laughed at me, she said “you’re really going to quit just because the other people in the class know what they’re doing, and you don’t”. This really reinspired me to try harder in animation and give it my all even if I wasn’t the best at it. I wanted to focus more on my ideas and wait for my drawing skills to come naturally. My drawing skill is still a work in progress, but there have been major improvements from the beginning of my junior year. Overall Freestyle Academy has been a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I am so glad I joined.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1NBn-XWAO7dT_tjq8iXswxlAHCyNKYvXnLiGsqdKLLuY/edit#slide=id.p