My Professional Project Review

Main Idea

The big picture or summary of the animation was that a photographer was trying to capture a picture of bird until he met a girl. soon they began playing around and having fun and became friends.

Source of the video is here

Personal Review 

The short film itself was a relatively well made animation. It had followed most of the rules of animation but in a small sense, it did not exaggerate the movements of the characters too much yet was able to still show that there was some principle movements.. 

One thing the animator really did well though was that the lighting was very accurate and believable. This would be something I would use in any of my future works.

One thing the animator could improve on would be that in the background the trees' textures were low resolution and stuck out quite a bit compared to everything else. 

Concluding and Personal Thoughts

My general thought about the animation was that it was capable of telling a short and charming story about two photographers who love taking pictures together.

My Professional Video Review

Author's Main Idea

What I had done for my review was watch George Maestri explain the many different things you could do with the many different 3D and animation programs out there in an introduction video. His video was heavily centered around how and how the programs worked, what they were, and where they are used.

 His video was more of an insightful introduction into the many different possibilities animation and 3d programs have rather than a tutorial over how to use them. The video did not have any sources of evidence but simply was an introduction into the topic rather than an argument.

Strengths and Weaknesses 

The great things the author had done was thoroughly explain what the various programs were for and how they are used. He even had his video segmented into different key parts where he would explain said topic in detail. 

Even though he had done greatly in these specific topics, one thing I believe was a bit problematic for him was that he was a bit too fast paced and was confusing at times because of what he had said.

My Critique

For me, My critique on the video was that the author had done a very good job being able to tie everything to the main idea of the video being about introducing someone into 3D and animation because he had explained how each of the programs was relative to the topic and how they worked and even showing examples of what they were. 

Personal Thoughts and Conclusions

This article had applied to me mainly as an animator rather than anything else because that is what the article had mainly been about. I think the biggest thing that stuck out to me was that there are many more programs out there for animating, modeling, rendering, etc. than what we are using in class.

My general conclusion about the video would be that it was a well put together and well explained video introducing anyone willing to watch into the world of 3D animation and programs

Source: 

http://www.lynda.com/3D-Animation-Animation-tutorials/Getting-Started-3D-Animation/193805-2.html

Realistic Shadows with Photoshop

For the realistic shadows we were making I had cut out a German Shepard from another picture and made it sit in a grassy field. I then added the shadow going away from the dog to the left so that the shadow would match all the other ones in the background.

Clipping Masks

For the custom clipping masks I found out on my own that it is possible to have a clipping mask be or be above an animated GIF. Once I found this out I had a little fun with it and made both a space GIF and a Shia Labeouf GIF.

Painting With Brushes In Photoshop

Progress of the Painting

Rough Draft

I first began creating a very rough painting of the robot using mostly a hard round brush and the different options the mixer brush tool had. once i had finished this part I began adding little details into it but still did not add too much besides the lines and a little bit of shading to get a better picture of what it would look like in the end.

For the shading part I used the layer multiply option and darkened the inside of the robot's hood and the side of it's head.

More Detail

For the second and longest part of this all was the part where I added more shapes to the robot's head and more minor details that added to the surface of it. most of these details I added mainly were about making the robot's head look more segmented and hopefully more robotic in a sense.

Adding Last Details

For the last part of my painting I decided to add color to it by making the eyes have a bright green light in them. I added this so that the painting could pop a little bit more with all the greys and then the sudden contrast with the green. During this part I used some of my custom brushes to add more effects to the painting as well. 

 I had used the screen layer option for this part so that it could appear more bright. 

And that would be it for my painting. It is actually still a work in progress but I doubt I think i'll be able to work on again.

Final design as of now

My Logo Design Process

Creative Brief and Ideas

For the first part of designing my logo i had created a creative brief where I had asked my self several questions regarding what my logo would be. Some of these questions were: "what does your logo stand for?" or "who is your targeted audience?". making these questions and answering them helped me narrow down and make new ideas of what i wanted my product to be and who exactly it was being directed towards. sadly during this part of the process I did not interview anyone else too well and only asked another classmate a few questions before i stopped. so i haven't improved my skill of interviewing others.

Research and Sketching

After I was done thinking of ideas and what I had wanted I began to research other competitor's logos and seeing what i could do to make mine stand out yet stay close to what the logo is about. I had eventually found three main competitor logos below:

during this time i was also thinking of key words that would describe and represent my logo and eventually i had narrowed them down to four main words that would best fit my product: "Music, Rock, Dark, 2000's".
After all of this I began sketching my all of my ideas of what i wanted my logo to look like:

Digitizing

Once I had everything put in place I began to digitize my work by creating my own artboard of my logo.
What I first began with was an orange sound wave that was meant to have my logo's name under it or in it in some way. Soon after that i began thinking that the skull and headphones would be a better choice because it had matched the other logos a lot better and was still able to stand out and be different. I first began with the design on the middle left and realized it was a little too big and hard to replicate so I decided i'd go with a smaller and somewhat less complicated logo. during this time I was also messing around with the brush settings in Illustrator and came up with the idea of using a grainy/ graphite looking brush and use it for all the lines in the logo. this led to me making the other logo in the bottom left but i thought against using it because it was too complicated and it didn't fit very well. after that I had continued on until I created a logo i thought was suitable for the class review.

Getting Feedback

soon I was able to get feed back from the class on my project and I was able to make a few minor adjustments to my logo to make it better. the most common thing people had said or what was the most influential thing they said was that it was difficult to tell what the logo was. It was noted that it was difficult to see that it was a skull wearing headphones so I made a few adjustments that made it look more so like a skull.
The very last thing I had done was add my name in a black grainy box under the logo.