Stop-Motion animation Excercise

A ball in a outside environment

     This project was a challenging but cool assignment. Instead of using Dragonform we used After Effects and Lightroom. This was a welcome surprise since I have experience in both of these programs.

My concept

Frame 1 of version 2

     I wanted the ball to have a realistic environment. I used white for the sky, green for the grass, yellow for the sun, and brown for the tree trunk. The first step was to sketch out the environment which was done on day one. On day two, I composed the environment with construction paper. On day three and four,  I took photos of the ball as it traveled to the tree. My mom help me to position the ball inch by inch. The result had 24 frames that were placed in Adobe After Effects to combine them into one video sequence. I loved how it came out. I developed two versions of the animation. I had to use the flash on my camera because the environment had poor lighting.

Introduction to me

        

Animation is a big part of our culture. From movies to TV shows, animation floods our eyes weather it is a superhero movie or cartoons. I am excited to be a part of this culture. My name is Mikaela Arnold. I am a senior majoring in digital media at the University of Tampa. I have a passion for anything that requires an artistic flare to it. My favorite hobbies are photography, video editing, and drawing on my Wacom Cinq tablet. I am currently saving up to buy a surface pro from Microsoft as you can draw endlessly on it as it converts to a tablet. After I graduate from UT, I would like to go to art school in California or Oregon. Any Grimm fans out there? I love Florida, but it is getting to warm in the summers and the rest of the year. One day I would like to study in Japan as a foreign exchange student.

             I have somewhat of an experience in animation in the form of video editing and the Sims franchise. In Sims 2 and later versions, people can make custom animations and or poses with blender or Milkshake. I tried to develop my own, but they were not very good. I am better at video animations and special effects. I have not yet tried 2d animation, but I am excited to learn more on how to develop my own. As for software, I have experience in Photoshop, Aftereffects, and Premiere. In fact, I did an animation of a spider in Photoshop for my digital imaging class last summer.

                As for this class, I want to challenge myself and learn more about animation and how to transform it into something awesome. I have two animation courses back-to-back which I believe will help in each of them. The only project I’m nervous about is the dragonframe one. I haven’t used this software before. I also haven’t done stop motion before. I am looking forward to learning with all of you in the class.