Creative Writing 1: be visual

So I’m not sure of the exact date, but I know it was around 8^th or 9^th grade. It had to have been near the summer cause that’s paintball season and it was hot as balls out side, it must have been around 100 degrees. It was a very clear day with not a cloud in the sky. And there must have been 50 teams and hundreds of fans for all of those team’s there to watch, the place was packed. My paintball team (Chain Reaction) and I were out at Central Florida Paintball, which was Sinister Paintball at the time. We were there playing in one of the paintball series they put on. We were in the middle of one of the last games in the finals, and our black and yellow uniforms had pink and green smeared paint all over them from previous games. The adrenaline was pumping and we only had 2 minutes left in the 5-minute game. We had all five of our teammates left on the field and they only had three. Our front left player, Dane, decides to move up to a bunker closer to the fifty in order to get a better view of the opponent he was about to shoot. Just as he moves up to his new bunker the other guy pops out just in time for Dane to shoot him. Now the game is five versus two. The other team is loosing and the guy that was just shot out is not very happy and decides to turn and run towards Dane, with the rest of my team still in the game and spread across the field. None of us knew why the guy was running at Dane, but it wasn’t normal, it looked as if he was going to try and fight our teammate. So in order to protect Dane, my whole team including me turns and with 30 balls a second, lights up the guy, mid run. At each paintball marker shooting 300 feet per second, the guy had nothing to do but stop and duck for cover till we stopped. After the hail of balls on the moron’s upper torso let up, he turned around, and with better judgment, walked to the dead box like he should have in the beginning. After the game was over he came over to apologize. He had so much paint on him he looked like a color wheel. You couldn’t even see his jersey through all the paint. When he lifted his shirt up to show us our damage, he had purple and blood red circle welts all over his chest and stomach. Maybe next time he will calm down and think about his actions before trying to follow through with them. We went home with 4^th place prize out of 23 teams that day which was entry to their next tournament. Not too shabby for our first major tournament as a team.

Rendering

When scheduling your time to complete a project that needs to have render time, you need to make sure and give yourself enough time to be able to render your project at least three times before your deadline. I say you need enough time for three times only because you will most likely always see something that you can change, something that might look better a different way. And I say at least three times because you never know how many things you are going to want to change. When you are handing in your animation, you want to feel confident in what you are handing in. If you don’t feel confident in your work, why should your client?

Just as it is good to storyboard your video before you actually start to work on the computer, it is good to at least have a day-by-day plan on what you will be accomplishing on your animation. Always keep in mind that rendering out your work can take anywhere from 5 minutes to 5 hours all the way to a couple days. And you don’t want to be stuck with nothing to hand in come dead line time.

-George

Working in Groups

Working in groups can be a great help and it can also be a hindrance. I am in the middle of a group project in one of my animation classes right now and everything seems to be going well for us. Almost everyone in the group seems to be trying to help out as much as possible. I feel no matter what, there will always be someone who doesn’t help out as much as everyone else, sense no one is identical. So it doesn’t bother me when not everyone gives 100 percent. It bothers me when there is people or peoples that don’t want to help. But I feel that weather you want to be in a group or not, you are there, so make the best of it. I’m not having too much problems in m group, besides the one bad apple that everyone is going to have at least one of. In fact I feel that everyone is trying as hard as the can and everyone keeps checking up to see if there is any help needed. On the other hand it’s not bad to ask for help if you need it, it is also helping the group when you get what you are supposed to be doing right the first time. It’s not a bad thing to ask for help, it is actually a good thing.

Then again, I guess I don’t have too much to complain about in my group. I actually got placed in a good one. I like working in groups from time to time, because there are a few others to go to that actually know what is going on when you need help. And they are also there to share them same amount of stress when the time is starting to run out or when your client or in this case teacher is breathing down your neck. I’m not so concerned about my group as I am more concerned about the other two. One group lost a group mate, and the other only has one that knows how to use the program half way decently, but my parents always told me to worry about my self and not what others are doing around me. So I guess we will see what the outcome looks like.

-George

Storyboards

When you are getting ready to make an animated movie it is always good to make a storyboard after you have a good idea of what the movie will be about. In the storyboard you should illustrate or sketch out every key frame that you have. For a single scene you should have a beginning, middle, and an end. Making a storyboard will make it so much easier when it comes time to animate.

A couple good was to make your storyboard even easier to read would be to add notes and color to it. Adding notes lets the animator or animators know what camera angle is being shot and the direction the movie is taking. By adding color to your storyboard you are making it easier on the eyes. If you only use pencil or pen it is hard to see what is going on in your piece, all the lines will get mixed up. The whole point of making a storyboard is so that you have a plan and to make it easier on yourself, so take the time.

-George

Using lights in Cinema 4D

Lighting is a crucial part in animating; it can make or break your piece. I have only been working in animation for a little over two months and sense I have started I have learned from my mistakes with lighting. I have had some projects that, I feel, look amazing. And then I have had a couple that look horrible. All this is due to the lighting. Depending on what you are going for in your piece you could not need any lights. Then if you want it to look real, you will need to put a couple lights in and make sure to include the shadows as well.

Just adding a light anywhere is not going to help. You need to know where your lights need to be and where your shadows need to be. When using the program Cinema 4D made by Maxon, there are a plethora of lights to be used. And all those lights can be adjusted with the depth, intensity, the visibility and much more. So before finishing a piece, be sure to play around with lights or maybe even do some light tutorials so they will be of better use.

-George