Showcase

Introduction:

For my showcase, I want to demonstrate the skills I have learned in my Junior and Senior year in animation, and I feel this is best shown through the final products created in each year at Freestyle Academy. Over both years, I learned many skills and techniques that have improved my technical prowess and skills as an animator, and so felt that it would be appropriate to demonstrate this understanding through my final projects.

Showcase:

In this piece, I explored color theory and greyscaling. For context, greyscaling is drawing in black and white but then coloring over using colors. This method is beneficial if there is less of a desire to be focused on colors while animation and rather shading and lighting wants to be prioritized. Learning color theory and greyscaling was very beneficial as I struggle a lot with coloring, so this was a worthwhile and important practice and lesson for me. It also allowed me to demonstrate my basic skills with background designs. The ambiance is more mysterious which is what I wanted to convey through the colors and through the setting. I also conveyed this atmosphere through the waves and through the occasional strike of lighting.

In this final project of my Senior year, I created a story through pictures using various areas of my expertise. I used my skills as a 3D modeler and as an artist for the backgrounds and the set designs to set the stage, and then used my skills as an animator to position and film the story. I encountered many problems during this process that have helped me grow and improve for the future, but overall I believe this is one of my better pieces. I used camera angles, color theory, and body language to tell the story without words which was an intentional choice because I believe words would have taken away from the overall narrative.

Reflection:

In both of my projects, I learned various things but the most I learned was from the Zenith project in my senior year. It taught me many skills like diligence, accountability, and time-management. And though I do not plan on continuing into an arts career, these lessons and skills I learned from the Zenith project will undoubtedly apply to me as I pursue a career in the mathematics. However in my junior project, I also learned some things, like humility. When I say humility, what I mean is that its normal to ask for peer assistance and review. If I hadn’t asked for assistance, things might not have turned out as well as I believe they did. My classmates and friends helped me improve my work and see some faults that I hadn’t seem before.

Personal Reflection:

As with everything, there have been pitfalls and bright sides. I’ve had great opportunities of success and great recesses of mistakes and failures. But with Freestyle you don’t really fail from these mistakes. You’re surrounded by a caring environment that prioritizes progress, improvement, and skill building over grades and it’s reflected in the teachers and curriculum. I learned so many new skills and met so many incredible people at Freestyle that I couldn’t have learned at my regular school. It’s such a different experience and it’s really a delight to have been part of such an amazing program. The things I learned and the fun I had cannot be described in words because they’re all inscribed in my mind by experience and by actions. So much care and love was shared between everyone that everyday felt less like a class but more like a familial gathering where everyone worked together to achieve the same goals.