Better late than never? Let's Hope so :-)

Soooo leave it to me to forget to blog for the last week of posting. I think I must have gotten so excited about this whole being done with school forever thing that I forgot I actually still have some work to do. To be quite honest I don't really know what to post about. I could find a video on youtube or vimeo and talk about how I think it was done. Or I could find a recent news story related to motion graphics. But to be honest I don't really want to do either of those things :-). Not that I don't love motion graphics, I just think my senior-itus has gotten the best of me over the past few days. So, I figured instead that I might offer some words of advice for any underclass-men who just happen to decide that they'll read the blog this week. Sooo here it goes

1. If you can and haven't already INTERN seriously you wont regret it. Not only is it a great networking opportunity but it is also a really good way to get a feel for what you want to do/don't want to do as your career. The opportunity to work in a professional environment rather than a student run one like ICTV or whatever is seriously great. Yes, it sucks that you have to pay for credit and then work for nothing, sometimes doing "bitch" work but in the end it is totally worth it for your resume and just as general experience. If you choose to do an internship over the summer I recommend trying to get credit from a state school or local community college since it's insanely expensive to do it through Ithaca. You don't have to give up an entire summer though, you can easily find an internship in the Ithaca area during the semester or do a semester in LA/London...which brings me to my next point
2. STUDY ABROAD. Seriously you will not regret it and will have the best experience of your life. Doesn't matter where you go just go somewhere and if you can squeeze it in/ afford it I recommend going twice. Once to a foreign country and once in LA. I had an absolutely amazing experience in France but going to LA was even more valuable. Especially if you're considering moving out to Cali after you graduate. A semester at the Pendelton center is well worth it because you can get a feel for whether or not you'd be happy living in LA before you move out there officially.
3. I think most people already know this but get involved in as many student productions as you can. Now that you know how to use AE I'm sure you can find plenty of student projects in need of a motion graphics artists to do titles or even effects. Even if you're not into the whole After Effects thing just get involved in projects in whatever way you can. I've found that a lot of what I learned before taking Media Thesis came from working on student productions just as much as in the classroom.
4. Realize that your professors are a valuable resource and use them(especially Arturo)! Seriously, I can't even begin to tell you how much help I got from Arturo this semester. From career advice to help on projects that weren't even assigned in class, I have gained so much by just stopping by his office in my free time and bugging him with a million questions. And in all honesty you probably couldn't bug him enough, he really does love to help, and he knows A LOT about many, many things, not just motion graphics. But really be nice to your professors, be an engaged student and not a passive one, it will pay off.
5. Finally, enjoy and cherish your time in Park. Pretty soon you're PPECs card will expire and all the amazing resources you have at this school will be gone. Take advantage of them while they last but don't forget to have fun. College goes by in a heartbeat and you only get one chance to do it right.

Welllll this blog post ended up being a lot longer than I expected. I guess that kind of makes up for the fact that it is 5 days late and has nothing to do with motion graphics really. It's been a good semester and I am more than happy to have taken this class with all of you. Although I do wish you all were a little less quiet and a little more weird like me :-). Have a good summer, never stop animating!!

Cigarette people

Well after not missing a post all year I guess it's fitting I forgot the last one haha.  So I'll just leave you with this sweet music video.

http://youtu.be/voBNpdXkLnU

It's from The Prodigy.  I think the concept for the video is really cool.  The characters are people made from cigarette boxes.  I had assumed the video had to be made using stop motion because the textures looked too real but after finding this "making of"video I found that they actually did live action work with puppetry and green screen.

They also used animation along with the live action.  It still amazes me to see the level of planning and sophistication in order to make one 3 and a half minute video.  Really cool stuff.

Everything Animated

So to end my semester, I decided to dedicate my last blog to a page on Vimeo called "Everything Animated." I thought nothing could be more appropriate then to end with this blog about a channel for the admirers of any kind of animation. On this website there are numerous videos of all varieties of animation. Overall the one video that I really liked was for a new upcoming video game. The trailer is really cool, especially how the visuals in the blood transform and morph into all different objects, such as animals or people. I hope that with more practice and maybe even taking more classes in my future that I could potentially generate something to this standard. I really enjoyed this class and very happy I got to take it. So here is the video...Enjoy!



Also in addition, if you would like to check out any other videos on the page here is the link. There are a crazy amount of videos that are all worth taking a look at!

http://vimeo.com/channels/everythinganimated/page:1

Gundam Fight

Today I came across this really cool stop motion video and I thought I would share it with the rest of the class. In it there are some shooting effects and also explosion effects. These effects are not stop motion like the rest of the film so it gives them a distinct look. The one effect that I thought worked the best was when he knocks down the bad guy and the dusk gets shot up everywhere. It lingers onscreen and gives it a nice fluidity even though the characters and moving choppy from frame to frame. It always amazes me to see the lengths that some people will go to when it comes to making these types of films. It says that the movie is over 3000 frames and done within 30 days. It is consistently lighted the same and the it seems to flow flawlessly. For some reason Blogger won't let me insert the video into the post so you will just have to copy the link.  

http://vitamincr.com/2012/05/3000-photos-30-days-lots-of-love-epic-stop-motion-gundam-battle/

Flipping the Next Page

I found this trailer for a motion graphics piece that will come out in August (2012). I thought it was very beautifully done and also incorporated much of what what we learned this semester into it, from the production logo to the ending titles. Now we are all leaving school, whether for summer or for good and it is time to think of our own projects!




Enjoy, and good luck!

Re-Imagined Title Sequence

I'm a big fan of the British TV show QI and I saw this animation that was tweeted by the host, Stephen Fry. It's a title sequence for the show that was made by a professional studio. They didn't make it for any reason except that they are fans of the show and thought that the existing titles could be improved on.

The titles they made are good, but what interested me most was the idea behind it. First of all, it's cool that professionals still have time to make things just for fun. Also, it's fantastic publicity for the studio. Although there's no chance the show will change their titles, Studio Tinto got their work noticed by lots of people. Stephen Fry has over four million followers on Twitter.

Making fan made stuff for free might be a good starting point for new animators trying to get their work seen. It's also important to remember that social media can be great publicity.

So here's Studio Tinto's version of the titles.


QI Title Sequence (Re-imagined) from Studio Tinto on Vimeo.


And the show's official titles. I actually like this one better, but that might be because I'm so used to it.

Zero

I went onto to vimeo.com and I found this video called Zero. I thought that it was pretty cool and I really like the camera work the DP has very good composition choices. I thought the story was kind of cute. I hope you enjoy.