Late Arrival Nov 1, 2011

I will be late to class today, but my work is on the server. The new folder wasn't up so i dropped my assignment into the class folder. My work is also posted to my blog. (except for the video: youtube was taking forever to upload but i will have it up asap)

more demo reel reviews

This one was subtle. It had a really surprising start, then goes into this slow song with all these animations. It was nice, but it could have been so much better. The only thing that gives it any credit was the work put in it. The text could have definitely been handled better.


I got bored 36 seconds in and stopped watching. A lot more could have gone into just the camera angles. the shots also hold for too long and there's too much showing off pre-work.


This biggest problem with this is that it just plays too long... from the start all of the shots are holding for a long time. The music goes decently well (however I personally think that demo reels shouldn't have music with voice - its a little distracting from the visuals)


This reel's problem is that the student is showing off how he did the shots at the beginning. This was very misleading, it had a high energy start then slows down majorly.


Beautiful! it almost looks like a video you'd see at the opening of a video game. The music really packs some emotion and the work itself is gorgeous

Midterm (version 3) Writeup

After hours of playing with fonts, I decided to not get TOO fancy with my title and credits. They will simply fade in and out, and at the end the "created by" and "amanda Willoughby" pop up at different times. I found this font on dafont.com (its called "where the stars shine bright"). It looks hand-written, so it fits with the whole style that I'm going for. I made the text orange-ish (similar to the skin tone of my character). Overall, I'm decently satisfied with the outcome of this animation. I'm really excited to start working with 3D effects in After Effects.

Stills

Miderm Revise Writeup

I fixed more of the issues in this edit. I have just about everything done, but i just need to add one more clip before my character interacts with the spider. I also added a title and credits, but they're really plain. We will be working on text today in class so I'm excited to see how far I can take my text.

things to fix on midterm

add title sequence
feather the tunnel on book
-keep the text moving
remove pan to bear
fix text
fix flower scene (add a pause)(closeup)
interact with web before we see it
transition to end clearly
credits

Travel Fellowship- Brainstorm

Places to visit:
Colosseum
Pantheon
Trevl Fountain
St. Peter's Basillica
Forum Romanum
Vatican Museum
Plazza di Spanga
Arch of Titus
Castel Sant'Angelo
Palatine Hill
Arch of Constantine
Vatican City
Theater of Marcellus
Museum of Roman Civilization
Pyramid of Calus Cestlus
Temply of Hadrian

Personal Reasons for wanting to travel:
Italian Theater
Movies
Culture and Customs
Getting to know the people
Boat trips
the Lanuage
Never left the country before
the food
will probably never get this opportunity again

Demo Reel Reviews

This is a student demo reel that i found on youtube. I would say this is a kinda bad one. I like the way that this one starts and moves into the text, but after that I got bored. It starts pretty fast paced and explosive, then we have the 3d animations which are slow and makes you wanna hit the stop button. The biggest problem with this demo reel is that it has no direction. This person is pretty much showing off everything instead of one type of media. The web design should come out and the vector animaition runs too long. Oh and the titles above the animations are unecesscary in my opinion.

Okay this is a really bad one!
another student demo reel...first of all, there's no sound. I will give them credit for the logo at the begining and end but that's all that's there. the quality of the film is really bad and the clips just run too long. everything is just really random. Plus the work in itself is bad.


This one is actually pretty cool! My attention is held throughout and I just want to keep looking. All of the graphics move with the music (which makes it more aesthetically pleasing) and the work is NICE. Unlike the other demo i reviewed, the text labeling the work didn't bother me because the reel transitioned really nicely.


I like this one, but at the same time I don't. The soundtrack and clips work really well together but i feel like im watching a lot of the same thing over and over again. i found myself turning this one off halfway through.


I think this one works pretty well for what it is. This one is a company showing off what it can do for prospective clients. I've seen better, but this one works well for me. This is a good example of grabbing the viewer at the opening. The text and the sound effects really pulled me in. I would love to work with text in after effects.


I think i fell in love with this one at about 20 seconds in. My eyes were glued to this video. I felt like i was watching one continuous video of something really cool. these shots were put together gorgeously and are complemented greatly by the music. The music drives the pace of the demo reel . This is just absolutely gorgeous.


Im diggin this one too!

Midterm (final)

Self Critique
I took a good chunk of the advice from my critique and reworked this project. I made a closer cut in the first two clips. Also fixed the warping sequence to make it more appealing. Seeing that the words are a big part of being sucked into the book, i slowed down that part and made the words do a swirl. I am much more pleased with this version; however, I didn't give myself the necessary time to do as much as i would have liked. for example, the text is the same as in the first edit. I tried changing it but it came out looking worse. I know Jill doesn't like it but, i just kept it the same. The spider sequence has an added shot of the hole in the sky being seen behind the spider web. This gives the viewer a little more spacial clarity. My overall, assessment of myself for this project is that I was not organized like i should have been. I was working with so much, that finished clips weren't named clearly and some things were lost due to my working on multiple shots in one project.

Travel Fellowship Statement

The opportunity to travel abroad in Europe would be the chance of a lifetime for me. This kind of privilege doesn't come along often in one's lifetime, and I know that I couldn't take off the time to do this on my own, so I'd definitely take full advantage of this honor. The first place that comes to mind for me to go is Italy. I love all of the historical architecture and art within. I hear many students mostly visit museums on these trips, but I would completely put myself into the Italian culture from the food, to the clothing, to the language and the social scene. Being a digital media major, I'd also see as many Italian movies and theatre shows as possible. I've never left the country before, so it's really exciting for this travel fellowship to be offered. My GPA has been in good standing since I've started here at MCA. I've also already fulfilled my internship opportunities for class credit, so I want to involve myself more.

Midterm Assignment Writeup

This animation came out longer than i thought it would. I like the overall premise of it, but with a little more time this animation could be much better. I did manage to finish, so that's a plus, but I did cut down the scenes where my character fights a flower and then ties up a spider. I would really like to extend those parts so I will surely be doing more work with this.There are some spots when my character seems to be kinda stiff. I'm also curious as to what others will think about how my character interacts with the other characters in the story. I was going to work in HD, but changing everything i'd already done proved to be way too time consuming. I do think this would look awesome in HD. There's a lot more i want to do to this project, but given the time we had to work on this and the enormous amount of time I spent in MacLab 3 I think i did a pretty okay job.

so here it is...

work progress writeup

So i focused my time on ironing out the setting of the world that my character falls into. I took Jill's advice and worked large in my design (which helped so much) and that will cut down on my work in photoshop. I think my little world looks a lil too realistic in color. Im thinking that i should maybe make the sky or clouds pink or purple or change some other colors to give it a more funky look. We'll see after critique. I animated a short clip of my character falling into this world, but i know she falls too close to the bottom of the frame. I also will move that warphole to a different spot.

Travel Fellowship

The opportunity to travel Europe would be awesome and the first place I'd want to go is Italy. The historical architecture in Rome peaks my interest the most. I am especially interested in seeing the chapels and cathedrals. As a Digital Media major, there are a multitude of audio and video projects that I could make. Going to Italian theaters to see stage plays and movies would be right up my ally. I must admit Cinema Paradiso is the only Italian film that I've seen, and it was pretty good, and it would be really beneficial to familiarize myself with more foreign films. I want to experience the Italian culture and my work would definitely benefit from knowledge i'd gain. Not to mention, this Travel Fellowship would look awesome on my resume. My job requires me to interact with many different types of people on a daily basis and I've found that I'm a real people person, and I think that the person who is awarded this fellowship should be able to represent herself and MCA to the best. I'm really good at adapting to unfamiliar situations and through past experiences, I'm able to work well regardless of conditions. Granted that I'm new to digital media, I think that this could be a sweet advantage. I used to be a sculpture major, and I learned to really appreciate the sculptural aspects art ( and Italy has some AMAZING sculptures. I want to see, up close, the work of some of the greatest artists who have ever lived. I've studied so many great works and the chance to travel to the places that I've been marveling at in my art history books would be greatly inspiring. I also hear that real Italian food is like nothing we'd buy here.

Thinking about my goals at the beginning of the semester, I was really open minded to all aspects of digital media because I'd just changed my major. I'm really happy i did this because I now know that this is where I'm supposed to be. I'm starting to think that I want to work with live action video with more focus on creating post-production effects. So far, I've got one digital cinema class, digital imaging, and sound acquisition and editing under my belt. I honestly haven't done much traveling and my summers are usually spent working. It would be really nice to take a summer off and be paid to experience something as amazing at traveling out of the country. I only have one year left in school and I have never left the country and I know that an opportunity like this Travel Fellowship probably wont come up again. Plus, my GPA is looking pretty good at the moment so I would probably be a good candidate. If given the chance, I'd also travel to France, Amsterdam, and the UK.

Work Progress

So far I've worked out some designs for my midterm project. Here are my main characters and a few scenes from be begining of my story. Its taking me longer than i originally thought to design the world that my character gets sucked into. I've also made some changes to my story and to the types of shots im using. im not exactly happy with how the bear turned out so im going to do some revisions to him.

Storyboard for Midterm

My Meeting with Gadsby

After meeting with Gadsby, I now have a better idea of where I should be headed at this point. We talked about how my current internship is going and even though I have been offered a full-time job after graduating, I still want to expose myself to as much as possible while I still have time. I have already used up my for-credit internships and I'm not at the point where I'm ready to apply for any jobs; so my plan for now is to gain as much experience as possible in TV and film before I graduate. That way, I can gain more the skills that are in demand for jobs. I also want my resume to be as impressive as possible. She recommended that I apply for more internships; however, if the internship is strictly for students gaining credit then I should still call these places to see if I can intern, shadow, or tour.

Recommended Local Internships:
Im going to visit each one of these places for a tour. Just to get a feel for the type of atmosphere each one of these places has and to gain some new contacts.

WMC TV 5
Internship information:
WMC-TV 5 is proud to offer a limited number of internships each semester. Students will work closely with news professionals to gain a better understanding of the news process. Students will learn the basics to news writing, researching and gain experience with production techniques.
1960 Union Ave
901-722-7827
contact: Clint Moore


WREG-TV
803 Channel 3 Drive
901-543-2161

Palm Coast Imports
3059 Forest Hill Irene Road
901-494-1903

Running Pony Productions- Graphic/Animation Assistant
1770 Kirby Parkway
901-683-6693

Insurance Media Services
1440 Central Ave
901-302-9755

WYPL FM 89.3
3030 Poplar Ave
901-415-2757