Final Reflections on the last Day of Class...

Here we are, it is the last day of class. My project is finished and in the drop box. I feel relieved, but also a bit sad. As I always do at the end of a project, I wish I had done more. It would have been nice to have a bit more time to perfect my project. Don't get me wrong, I am happy with my final product, but I am a perfectionist, so it will never live up to my expectations.

I think I did pretty well for someone who had never used Flash before this class. If I could go back and do it again, the biggest thing I would fix is my character design. I like the character of the cactus, but he changes from scene to scene. I should have been more careful about that.

Also, if I had had more time, I would have loved to have animated the whole thing frame by frame. The puppet animation was easier and still worked fine, but I just prefer the look of hand drawn, frame by frame animation. I think using puppets is almost like taking the easy way out.

Overall, I think that this class was a fun learning experience. It has given me the great new skill of being able to animate in Flash. I am excited about that, especially since I am about to graduate in a few days and won't have access to the 2D animation capture stations here at Montgomery Hall any more. I liked the class, and I liked my project, so I think this quarter was a success.

Also, I would like to thank everyone who gave me feedback on my project along the way. I really appreciate it!

My Senior Project is Finished, Too!

In case you were wondering what else I have been up to, I also took Senior Project II this quarter. The Digital Cel final and my senior project kept me pretty busy for the past ten weeks (along with my screenwriting class). So, for your viewing pleasure, I am also going to show you my senior project. Here it is:

Final Project = Complete!

Here it is!!!! This is my finished final project. I decided to call it "Happy Birthday." Yay!

finished!!!!

I have finished my project!!!!! I am fairly pleased with the way it turned out. Like every perfectionist animator out there, there are a lot of things I would go back and fix if I had more time, but I am happy with what I have. I tried to upload it here, but the file is too big. I will try to make it smaller and try to post it again. I am just happy to be done!

alarm clocks are not our friends

So... apparently, I set my alarm clock for PM instead of AM last night, so by the time I woke up today, it was too late to go to class. Luckily, I am almost finished with my project, so I can afford to lose a little bit of work time. I am pretty much finished with all of the animation. There are a few spots I want to fix a little bit, and then I'll be done. Then, I just have to make the opening title and end credits and then put it all together in After Effects. I should be completely finished by Monday. Hopefully.

progress

I didn't get finished this weekend like I had hoped, but I am almost there. I have all the way to the balloon pop finished. Right now, I am finishing up the last scene. Then, I will do the credits, fix any little things in the animation, put it all together, add music, and be done with it. Here is the part where the cactus hugs the balloon before it pops:

updatesssss

I have just completed scene 14! Now, he just has to hug the balloon, the balloon has to pop, and then he has to get sad. I think I should be done animating by the end of this weekend. Then, I can go back and tweak and fix some stuff and do the credits next week and be done with everything.

Here is scene 13, which is more interesting than 14:

Scene 11

I have just finished scene 11, which is where the cactus starts to hop. I will probably go back to it and tweak it when I am finished with everything, but I like it. I got to use the information I learned in the jump tutorial. It came in handy. Well, here is the hopping cactus. It looks pretty similar to the one that I did earlier in the quarter.

Scene 9

Here is scene 9 of my project. It is one of my favorites so far. It is sort of representational of all of the other scenes that I have completed thus far. It has the cactus and the balloon together in one shot. I will probably go back and tweak all of the animation a bit at the end. The video quality isn't that great, but it will be fine for the final product.



P.S. I am finished with scenes 1-10, and am halfway through scene 11. I am still ahead for the week according to my original schedule, but I am beginning to slow down a little bit. I won't get much done this weekend since my sister is visiting, but I intend to try and crank out the rest of the animation by the end of next week. I want to spend the last week or two polishing everything and not having to pull any all-nighters.

Updating time

So, I am currently working on scene 10, which means that I am almost a week ahead of schedule, which makes me happy. I want to keep being ahead, so that way I can finish early and go back and tweak anything that needs it. The animation is much simpler than I am used to doing, but I am fairly pleased with how it is turning out. I still am not sure how to get a still frame out of flash, but I will keep trying. If not, I might just post a scene or two up in the next couple of days to show some of the progress I am making. Well, time to get back to animating!