Thursday, April 12, 2012

Critiques…

What I had prepared for my in progress critique was fairly barren when compared to what others had completed. Mine consisted of a simple walk cycle and a basic fire animation layer in the back. Just as I had guessed, no one could guess the myth given the material on hand. This is obviously the single biggest thing I need to improve on the work. However that wasn’t surprising in the least bit because I had only recently started on the actual displayed work. Prior to Tuesday of last week, i had spent all my time trying to make it possible to sync 10 to 12 monitors.

Of things discussed, besides from getting something more apparent with in the video, I liked the generally positive feedback I got to the abstracted animation approach. A few agreeing that if it were to be actual legs a number of people would focus on what they are wearing rather than what is happening; which was the intended purpose. I liked getting some feedback on ideas for audio queues, the energy people gave to a voice over narration that followed the animation was positive enough that I’m now gathering my audio recording hardware and prepping for narrating. (However I may still not use it, never really liked my voice)

While listening to everyone’s feedback I also gathered some new ideas of my own that were very much influenced by the critique, such as diversifying the onscreen material. I could vary the animation slightly, add some basic backgrounds and possibly make an attempt at incorporating the large classroom projector to continue the immersive experience I am aiming for.

Lastly, I enjoyed the few technical questions that arose in both how it was presented (asked by a classmate last Thursday) and what I did to create the many individual videos and animation portions. As the name of the blog implies, I’m a computer geek. One of my favorite things is to teach people what I know about computers, and particularly, push the boundaries of what’s possible.

Monday, April 9, 2012

My Attempt at Making up for Missing the Film Festival

Unfortunately I was unable to attend the film festival in any length due to having a tripe planned to Utah that began mid-day on Thursday. (This trip was planned two years in advance) however I have attempted my best to view as many things from the film festival online, mostly threw YouTube, in order to hopefully get a grasp of what it was like and to wright up this entry. Below are some snippets of my thoughts on some of the many that I watched.
Phi Phenakis Tiscope
1:38 By Gary Schwartz
A cut out stick figure made of wood and a maple leaf bottle cap walks about a bronze relief map of a city. Other maple leaf bottle caps interject through the film till it ends with a spinning effect of them.
Fa Fha Pha Ottawa!
58s by Gary Schwartz
Stop motion short film that heavily involves round disks with a hoping person on it being rotated on various surfaces and tables in a workshop. There is a level of ambient noise, a grandfather clock and kid’s lafter along with a very 8bit sounding bas track.
Split Description
8:14 by Andy Moore in 1994
A video of stuff, it presents two seans of either similar of opposites by placing one in the center of the other. Some are so similar that they appear to be simply another shot of the same scean while others are so opposite you wonder why it’s even done. eventually it begins to present 3 seprit pictures however it has transitioned to Black and White by this point. Also the sound track has shifted from a mostly silent, minus the tick noise when changing a shot, to a constant hum of engines on a plane and some electrical static. At 5 minutes it starts playing very short clips of music in repetitive rotations, while presenting shots and alternative shots of cities.

FOREST STORY TRAILER
John Dod
A lively animation of a forest monster partying with apples.
47th AAFF Animation Trailer
Can I just say that out of all the trailers I’ve watched I’ve enjoyed this one the most? It’s beautifully animated, the camera panning in its spot on and it’s wonderfully fluid. The sound work is unique to it and is catchy. Not to mention I had no clue Google was involved in this film festival in any forum, that list of sponsors is really quite something!
Bad Ass Apple Box
2:54 by Martin Thoburn, JDSY, Adam Hunt, Jon Moodie
A quick video, it was produced in 10 hours and had to be around 3 minutes long, the required subjects were a box, something old and an apple. This on won the competition. Of the video it mostly resembles a music video with a constant tonal quality to it along with some forum of, I guess, singing/lyrics.
Mecanismo Olvidador - preview
By Juan Camilo Gonzalez
A sample of the full work, it demonstrates the mass of the animation with fluid motions and a rough look from the added unnecessary lines giving it a unique style.
Retouches
By (non listed)
Retouches is an example of animated painting and ink work, something I’ve never come across before. The animation is fairly smoth and something I didn’t expect to see. I wish I could see its full length work as it would have been interesting to see more of it in motion.