im a true animator

had a public breakdown over the class comp, it's a new record my boys

ARTICLE RESPONSE 2/10/18

            The study of real poses and anatomy has been ingrained in artist for centuries, the most famous examples being ancient Greek statues. When you view such sculptures and art, it's hard to deny how lifelike they really can seem. This is due to the certain posing, style, and view of the ye old artistry. Solid Drawing, a principle in the 12 principles of animation, is another reminder to keep posing and realism somewhat involved. Flat characters, too much symmetrical features, and lack of weight and proportion can really send a dent into any animators-- 3D or not, work. Jay Jackson, in his article, "Solid Drawing" delves deeper into tricks and tips into bringing your drawings to life, and helping to better plan out your animations using these techniques of dimensional art.


            Jackson Jay discussing in depth the importance of utilizing art skills, even if you swear off all 2D animation. Of course, Jay isn't requiring you to become Picasso, rather give the sage advice of studying varied bodies and learning how weight works in coordination to movement. It will only make you a better animator if you can do a quick plan-out sketch of the action, so when rigging or figuring out timing, it's much easier to decide where the weight will fall. Learning proper body proportions is more to "recognize natural poses and to study how bones, muscles, and fat work together with gravity to form dynamic poses" (Jay). Furthermore, his mentor, legendary Disney animator Eric Larson, stressed that he should spend "half of his time planning, and the other half drawing" (Larson). Preparing and story boarding out every interaction can help keep consistency, and be a good reminder to keep physics in check with stylistic features. To illustrate this further, Jay uses his own thumbnail drawings to show how he mapped the motion and timing, segwaying into our next brilliant topic.


            Line of action. A line of action "illustrates the force of the action, unifies the pose, and makes a clear statement." (Jay). This is a phrase often used in comics, different illustrations, and 2D animations, but it sure does apply to 3D as well! It's important to keep a clear, focused direction on where your character is headed, to lead the eyes in a pleasing manner. Jay gives vivid examples of this through an image of "The Little Mermaid", where Sebastian is extending his claw. Another extremely important factor that Jay reminds us of, is 'twinning' when creating these solid poses. As we all know, flat designs are much less appealing than 3D, posed and varied-in-sizing illustrations. It just brings a different feeling to the character, a vibe in a way. Twists should be used when available, (but not overdone!) making the body turn in a certain way to show more depth of the character. One more tip that Jay gives us novice creators is to trust in "counterposing", a method of turning the head and tilting the shoulders in the opposite direction! This balances the character, and gives him a more equal weight disposition.

            Now, I was unaware of the art of counterposing. That was quite new, however I have expressed this art use before! I just was unaware of the word for it. The importance of line of action is also more clear to me, as I now see it isn't only for illustrations or 2D animation. If I had the chance to go back and fix a bit of my class competition, I think I would make a more clear line of action next time! Another factor I enjoyed was the credibility and brevity of this article, it wasn't too drawn out and got straight to the point! An extremely fantastic choice to show the importance of solid drawing in 2D and 3D animation.

            Solid Drawing in the 'Twelve Principles of Animation', can be seen as something tedious and unnecessary in actual animation. How could a still frame help when it comes to moving pictures? Jackson Jay proves the importance by showing his credible tips and tricks on how to utilize solid drawing in planning out drawings, keeping a concise movement, and posing to equally distribute weight among a character! These tips both help 3D and 2D animators, and should be kept in mind when working diligently at art and animation.

——————— WEEKLY RESPONSE 2/8/19

                           ————————— WEEKLY COMMENTS —————————



                          ♕  — LEARNED : We didn't learn much besides particle effects! Which, if I might
                                                           say, was extremely fun using the paint brush effect. I would've
                                                           used the effects in my project, had I not feared the rendering
                                                           time taking over literally every waking second. Either way, the
                                                           extra credit demo may be done around Thursday, if it finishes
                                                           rendering in time. I underestimated the fear of rendering.

                          ♕  — WANT TO LEARN: We're probably not going to do any more real lessons,
                                                                       so I'm going to be the one to say I cannot wait to start
                                                                       film. Literally, my life revolves around editing and film.
                                                                       It's definitely a 'calm amongst the storm' for me, sitting
                                                                       down and cutting and stabilizing cameras. PSD's and
                                                                       stunning filters being made, it completely makes me at
                                                                       peace.
                                                                     
                          ♕  — FRUSTRATED: Depression still bad my dudes, I'm guessing it's the weather
                                                                causing the spike in slowness and sadness. I guess a specific
                                                                bummer would be the fact I really wanted to buy me and my
                                                                boyfriend matching keychains, but the card was only for the
                                                                US. So now I have to ask my Grandmother, who is. . .
                                                                an interesting character.

                          ♕  — HAPPY:  The gift Sam made for me!!! Literally I'm so in love with Sam's
                                                    art, and I'm so happy she did it on a short notice too. I can't say
                                                    what it is on here (my boyfriend reads my blogs, and it's a gift for
                                                    him.) but I'm sure you all saw the lovely art and gift!! So. Big happy.

                          ♕  — INTERESTING LINK: I'm gonna promote my friend's animation channel,
                                                                            as their art is extremely cute and stylized! They're
                                                                            self taught, and Ramuu has an extensive story being
                                                                            made! They're semi-popular, and they mainly use
                                                                            keyframing or cut-out puppets, which I highly
                                                                            applaud them for! Here it is. It's funny how I met
                                                                            them honestly. My friend Jaiden introduced us, and
                                                                            I realized I followed their YouTube account! Ramuu
                                                                            is pretty chill.

ARTICLE RESPONSE 2/3/2019

                                              FOR-PROFIT COLLEGE SCAMS

              For years, colleges have provided students the ability to gain degrees to further their credibility in their wanted field. However, in the college field, a snake in the grass known as 'for-profit' colleges have been draining the life force of students, and their pockets. It's a trap essentially, to promise students a glorious class filled with the knowledge of life, and leave them ensnared in thousands of dollars that will loom over their life no matter they do. It's cruel corporate greed and manipulation on the colleges part, and the further students fall into this trap, the worse it will be. This is why it is extremely important to be conscious of where you apply, and who you give your trust to when it comes to cold hard cash.

              These for-profit colleges have a funny way of targeting their victims. Imagine, you are a single parent who struggles to make ends meet, and a stunning, beautiful college swarms you with advertisements, promises of loan help, and statements such as "Make your life better!"  or "Get up and do something with your life.". It must be hard to deny that, especially when it's an onslaught. Statistically, they mostly lean towards African-Americans, Veterans returning home, and single parents, says Adam Harris in his article, "The Lifelong Cost of Getting a For-Profit College." Another author of an article exposing the greed of these colleges agrees, Gillian B. White states they use "savvy persuasion" in order to grab in desperate students.
              That barely scratches the surface of the scam and artifice of these colleges. After taking these often expensive classes, the student loans are the most damning things to ever be seen on this planet. White says in her article, that "the amount of debt owed by those attending for-profit colleges has grown from $39 billion in 2000 to $229 billion in 2014." Those numbers are most definitely outrageous, and most of the time, students cannot pay the debts they've accumulated by the end of their graduation. That would be expected, however, with the average salary of graduated student simply will not make ends meet. With the high cost of rent, food, driving, and general living expenses, it is most likely that those students will remain tied to this lethal debt. And when those schools close? Loans must /still/ be paid off! Due to the fact these organizations are for-profit, there is little to none loan forgiveness. One organization that closed, Corinthian College, has over 10,000 students still swimming in that debt. And to pay to who? A closed school that went bankrupt. Not to mention, kiss your degree goodbye! It's usually nullified, and reduced to a simple certificate of shame.
             
              As for my personal take on these colleges? I was way in over my head when I sent in my email and phone number to one of the many out there. Unfortunately, it is true that they spam your email and phone. I had over three emails after the second day of signing up, asking me to call an adviser and book a date to visit the campus. Which was quite insane, when I only requested additional information about cost that was not listed on the website. It truly did try to lock me in, and I'm very glad that I have such an astounding teacher who warned me about the dangers of these colleges (Thanks, Ms. Licata!). I'm appalled by greed, but I also must take the fact that there must be decent ones still out there. However, these articles definitely made me make the decision to choose a public college.

              In the end, it's wiser to choose a public, trusted school that is non-profit, than a money-grabber that has the chance of closing, and your degree becoming nothing. It's much safer, and as shown above, a way to save your mental stability, and your wallet, to be conscious of your college choice.

——————— WEEKLY RESPONSE 2/3/19

                           ————————— WEEKLY COMMENTS —————————



                          ♕  — LEARNED : Not a lot to cover in a measly two days, other than the nice
                                                           packet about camera positioning and lightning! Soon my love of
                                                           Dutch Shots and Over-The-Shoulder will be revealed, I tend to
                                                           overuse those shots. It was good to learn about better positions
                                                           and the meanings of each. The rest of the days were just work!

                          ♕  — WANT TO LEARN: Hm.. Particles are going to be fun for sure! And by fun,
                                                                       I mean terrifying. This will definitely be scary for me.
                                                                       After all, my class competition requires me to use water
                                                                       splashes, which I have been watching tutorials of all
                                                                       week to attempt to perfect. Let's hope I got this!

                          ♕  — FRUSTRATED: I really, really had an awful break. I don't want to talk about
                                                                what happened, but things were done without my consent and
                                                                I've completely stayed away from any contact all week
                                                                because of it. I'm okay, I don't need the police or anything, I
                                                                just got into a very bad situation. I'm safe at least. Also, I
                                                                accidentally spilled water on my laptop. Not fun.

                          ♕  — HAPPY:  Yeah I've got nothing, my depression is at it's peak, this is a chore
                                                    to even talk about my week, and I feel like I'm about to lose it. I
                                                    guess I'm happy that I had some ice cream today. And looked at
                                                    ferret pictures. I really love ferrets...

                          ♕  — INTERESTING LINK: I'm seriously running out of links so.. here's my
                                                                            animation music playlist! This has literally all my
                                                                            music tastes in one, and also some killer bops. Some
                                                                            include mild language, I'm sorry! It's expressive...