Reflections

Introduction

Reflection unit is our first unit in senior year. our goal is to learn more about ourselves, express our opinions and feelings, and convey it to Digital Media. Overall, I really liked this unit, and I found out more about myself, which I will explain in my individual projects section.

Animated content

My first project in Animation class was to make a digital drawing about my personalities. it shows that I love movies, very calm guy, and I like to eat certain foods that show in the picture.

 

My first project in animation class is to create a GIF that reflects my experience with Freestyle, which is fun, but also scary.

 

 

After we did that, we started to learn a brand new software called MAYA. This software is for 3D animation, which at first it got me worried because I heard that this is really difficult, but in the end, I finally got through that, and I made my first detailed 3D model, and I made a video about I chose to model that specific model. I discovered that maybe I was destined to be an artist/filmmaker, because of this project

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Essay

In english class, we analyzed our personalities and hobbies in an essay form, which we can use this essay for college application so the colleges will know who we are and what kind of person we are.

I don’t really talk too much to people. I’m even going to say that I have difficulties with socializing. When I meet new people, I always look down and don’t know what to say. I still have this problem to this day. This is why my mom sent me to meet someone who would help me with my socializing. She’s taught me tips for socializing and we play some social games together. In our first meeting, I was pretty shy, but then in follow-up meetings, I became more comfortable with her. Now I talk to her as a normal person. I learned that socializing takes practice, just like an artist must practice to improve his drawing skills.

My mom told me that I started to watch Cartoons when I was 3 months old. I have loved movies my entire life, and I grew up on Disney, Pixar, and Dreamworks. But I didn’t always know that I wanted to be an artist. I always wanted to make movies, not as an animator, but as a director. However, I realized that to be a director, you needed to be in charge of everything, and you needed good social skills. I decided to let go of being a director. But then I found out that I like to draw characters. People told me that they liked the expressions of the characters. That is when I realized I wanted to do animation.

Every time I watched an animated movie, I thought about how the creators did that scene, or how long it took them to make the movie. Until I applied to Freestyle Academy I had always wanted to try to make animated movies, but I didn’t know how. I applied to Freestyle and created some animated shorts. It required a lot of planning, patience, and perseverance. When creating fictional personalities I realized that I had unique talents. I deliver emotions without words through character expressions. That was when I found out what I wanted to do in life, to combine my love for film and drawing. That was when I realized I aspired to become an animator or a concept designer. One of my challenges is that animation is not only about art, but also socializing. At the time I felt that my fears were coming back. It’s not that I didn’t expect it, but I wasn’t ready for it.

I didn’t exactly know what I should do after graduating from high school. My parents and I went to a college career counselor. She told us that it would be best for me to enroll in a summer course. We took her recommendation, and I enrolled in a summer course at California College of the Arts in Oakland. My typical day involved waking up at 6 AM, driving myself to the train station at Millbrae, catching the train at 7:30 and arriving in Oakland at 8:30, followed by a ten-minute walk. The first class was Illustration in which I learned to use different tools. The next class was drawing in which I learned different styles, proportions and how to use different tools. The class lasted for four weeks and I got 3 academic units. But there was a huge problem in that course. I didn’t make friends and barely talked to anyone. My social problems came back, and I had no idea what to do about it. It’s not that I felt bad because of it, but sometimes I think my parents are disappointed with me because it was a good chance to make some friends. My fears came back to haunt me again.

I am still in the process of learning drawing skills. I still haven’t achieved the best that I know I can be. I really want to try to reach for the more professional level. Same goes for my social skills. Until this day I still have socializing as a major challenge, I still have these issues. Yet I continue to want to improve at socializing. But hey, everybody needs to start somewhere, don’t they?

I also made a recording of this essay, if you would like to hear it while you read the essay.

 

Recording essays

So after I replaced Design class with Digital Media, my first ever project in the class is record myself talking about any topic I want to talk about. Because I like basketball, I decided to talk about why Steph Curry, in my opinion, is the best player in the world. I found out that I can express my opinions with no problem, because I don’t actually do that a lot, and it felt really good after I expressed that opinion.

 

I also made a video version, to make the recording a bit more interesting to hear. We used after Affect for the first time in the class. here is a screenshot of my editing process, where I took the photo and backed it up a little bit and than faded it out.

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