This Week Sucked

We learned how to After Effects this week. I'm never using After Effects in a project. Premiere will service me right. It always does.


I can make blood... But I want make blood squibs. Do I put the blood in a zip lock bag with an M80?


The steaming turd on my breakfast this week was the relentless demos and tutorials! I'd rather be given a week to make a movie better than Shawshank Redemption!


On the bright side Fallout 3 is my Typography and Fallout 4 is my life.


Frozen could've been 2D!! What the butt Disney Corporation!! I'd forgive the contrived, stupid, nonsensical third act if it meant a movie that looked this good! http://www.hypable.com/frozen-2d-handdrawn-animation-concept-art/


When did 2d become toxic!?

I hope these articles aren't constant

Blue Sky Studios recently made the Peanuts movie. In 3d. The studio wanted to maintain the spirit created in the original comics and animations. To do so they examined the expansive archive of Peanuts stuff. Charlie Brown and his friends have eyes and mouths that tend to wander around their heads. Easy in 2d. Not 3d. Motion lines often swarmed characters in motion so the rigger got more work to do that evening. Nope, never mind. They just freaking drew some motion lines in 2d. But not the rest. Ultimately they did what they wanted and it's not hurting anything.
 This movie is, however, following is following a stupid trend. A trend that should be addressed. Addressed with a simple question. Why? Why is it in 3d? Who ASKED for it to be 3d? Who decided that 2d isn't allowed anymore? When did 2d become toxic? People do this stuff as an "homage" to the original 2d material, painstakingly rigging and modeling to get it right when they could just make it 2d? It's always 3 freaking D. Why? What's so bad about 2d? One could say that these attempts to match the 2d spirit is like a director shooting on film. I could see the parallel to paying respect to the old while moving forward... But what's wrong with 2d? It's cheaper! It's unique! Nothing emulates 2d better than 2d! Why the heck are 2d animated movies such a rare thing in this day and age when it's easier to make 2d than ever? 3d animation is fine, but I shouldn't have to learn French to enjoy a 2d feature length animation made in the 2010s! Why is 2d never an option? It really bums me out that 2d is dying when no one wants it to. It never can catch a break. Luckily it's alive and well on TV, but it's a damn shame that movies won't give it a fair shake.

Ambitious Ambience

Ambient sound is the most important factor in flesher out the background. If the ambience is quiet the setting will feel dead. So this article will slap the pecs of your chest into a soup of good audio quality. Environmental sounds come in 3 flavors. Transient sounds are what's obvious, the quick sounds like footsteps, a table being flipped, a car crash. Speech sounds aren't the important discussion we're paying attention to, be the mushy word soup of background charaters. Evolving sounds are an unchanging audio force, the backgroundiest background noise, crickets, a light bulb, a car engine. But how am I supposed to sounds? Shut up! I'll get there. When recording this junk keep distance in important, the closer you are to the sound the more important it is. To magnify the shock of a crowd, focus on speech ambience so the break is more jarring. When getting sound for a big setpiece like a shootout you'll need to record stuff separately. The gunshots, gore mushing, the shouting, glass breaking, running, bodies smacking the ground. Then you blend that crap and call it a day!
I am gonna be on the prowl for ambient audio shortcomings from now on! It gives an appreciation for that background stuff you normally don't notice, but your brain does. The tip on distance will be valuable, Brady Scream real close, everything else far as ****.

Crazy Comments!

     This week I learned that Villa Maria has a Video program.

     I now must learn how to make blood squibs.

     The worst part about this week is that I couldn't shoot over the weekend.

    But I learned we have Wednesday off so I can Play Fallout 4 all day!!!!!!

    And now... a trailer for what is sure to be... the greatest movie in the universe... Samurai Cop... 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=996zhYei9Xw

Pixar's Most Nothing Movie

     Inside Out is the story of 5 completely and utterly 1 dimensional characters with 1 personality trait and the little snot they control. The producer of Inside Out was recently interviewed because apparently they saw something magical in this pile of nothing. Emotions are a very complicated thing that are capable of numerous things. They drive to love, hate, create, and destroy. However, Pixar thinks kids are stupid so rather than throwing all their cards on the table they make Inside Out. Which is so nothing I get none of the feels from a movie about all the feels. All 5 of 'em. In the film only five emotions are present: happiness, repulsion, paranoia, rage, and depression. Aptly named Joy, Disgust, Panic, Anger, and Sadness, and their personalities are name-deep. They decided that they would ask scientists about the brain so that they could a cartoon movie aimed at kids with an underlying theme of growing up and relationships. They worn't going for science in the movie so what was the point? Just ask a poet then dabble in the abstract in her mind. Use your imagination! Take a risk! Disney's business model is make all the money rather than some of the money so it was released worldwide. Rather than having it be a product of America with distinct touchstones of American culture, and rather than an entire rewrite to change personalities to fit the culture of other parts of Earth, they changed minor details. The dad's favorite sport is changed from hockey to soccer for our soccer-obsessed friends in... everywhere that isn't North America... Then there's also a scene where this spit swallower gets a turd on her breakfast over a broccoli pizza, and since Japanese kids are pretty ok chilling with broccoli, Pixar put some bell peppers on that crap.

     So this gives insight on this movie. I am just not into this movie honestly. It had potential, but it is so offensively inoffensive that it's unoffensive and I feel nothing for this film I can only describe as nothing. The filmmakers wanted it to be about something, but it's just a generic family movie. So generic I feel nothing for it. In conclusion this movie is nothing.

Bloody Movie Blood Mate!

     We get to learn about the history of movie blood!

     It is believed by some that the first gore filled plays were made by William Shakespear by putting animal organs under the actors costumes. Fake blood started, like most special effects, in France. More specifically the Grand Guigrol, a theater that used a mixture of glycerin (a clear syrupy liquid) and carmine (a red dye from a bug). The resulting mixture was a very liquidy, runny blood. However, in the Film Era of the the early 1900s had Hollywood self censoring brutal deaths to keep Uncle Sam from actually censoring them. After Joseph Burstyn,  Inc. vs Wilson declared film protected under the First Amendment in 1952. At that point TV was invented so film studios had to get creative, blockbusters introduced widescreen, surround sound, epic setpieces, and 3D!

 
     However smaller studios couldn't afford that fancy gear, so the B Movie was born... These small studios relied on sex and buckets of blood. Like Micheal Bay with an R rating. With small budgets they couldn't afford the Guigrol blood, so they used chocolate syrup. It was cheap, ready to use, looks great in monochrome, and actors wouldn't mind swallowing the stuff.


     Meanwhile in Britain while color started to hit the scene Hammer Studios started using what they call Kensington gore. It was made by the retired pharmacist John Tynegate out of golden syrup, water, food coloring, corn starch, and mint extract for taste. This fake blood was used in the Shining.

     However it was to red for some directors. Around the 90's the Dick Smith formula was being used. It had corn syrup instead of golden syrup, water, food coloring, lecithin, and non dairy coffee creamer, resulting in the easiest to control blood texture.

     At the end we got a tip on using shaving cream to clean up the blood. And don't wear your favorite clothes.

     I found this to be very useful! The history was interesting, and the recipes will be helpful in the future. If you plan on making gore ridden movies blood is the basest necessity. It was very straight forward so there aint much else to say.

It's that Time of the Week...

     This week I learned what a couple of people were for Halloween. Ryan, a furry in the Metro universe. Elaine as cat Harley Quinn. Jack as anorexic Guy Fieri. Gage as a hipster.

     I want to learn how to set up a shot from within a car.

     I'm bummed that I couldn't go Trick or Treating :'(

     But I got my computer fixed!!! That's why the quality of my blogs are so much better this week.

     Now feast your face on my favorite youtube channel!
 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3D_ZXHwaKekKwbO_LM48OQ

But here's a taste of what's there.

9 Ways to Composition

     Film is like photography but with a bunch more pictures. Point being your shots should be interesting. Good camerawork is what separates Roland Emmerich's masterpieces from shaky cam garbage in teen novel movies. My personal favorite rule of composition is the rule of thirds. I never notice it until we got that packet, but now I know the magic it holds. Shots without it SUCK. Vertices help lead the audiences' eye to the picture, which creates the illusion of depth. Third are diagonals, they are similar to vertices, provide a more subtle yet dynamic way of directing the eye. A good example of Vertices and diagonals are present in this screenshot from 2012.

See how dynamic that stuff is?
Next comes framing, the ability to make a border out of the environment is an excellent way to make depth. Then there's contrast, which is a juxtaposition in color to make the subject pop. There is also frame fillage, an important subject takes a bunch of the frame while the insignificant part takes less room. Next is to center a character's dominent eye to freak out the audience. Eight is to use patterns so that it's easy on the eye. No one likes shaky cam. Use symmetry, not perfect symmetry, but a good balance so we can take it all in.

     I like this one. Although we literally already learned all of this. But not the Animation class. Ms. Licata should teach them to use these techniques. Their projects will be more aesthetically dynamic.

What Animator are YOU?

     When you're trying to land a job in the animation field it's important to know what you're looking for. When you're creating your demo reel you should tailor it to the genre you're entering. For instance people in the gaming industry with want movement that cycles and can be quickly blended to other movement. For movies and shows you'll what to create mini scenes that show off natural feeling if not realistic movement.  In special effects you'll want to make it as realistic as possible. You should dabble in as many different varieties as possible so you can find your strengths as well as what you enjoy. 

     This is will be useful for anyone that wishes to pursue animation as their path. It gives insight on what to prepare for. Although after learning about the  animation industry last year I realize that it is not the path that will release my ideas to the world. A nice article, but not one I'll use.