We have just completed our unit on video editing. Personally, I enjoyed learning about editing and using better programs. Film and video making has interested me for years. I have always edited my own videos, though I wasn’t particularly good. I stuck to simple programs, and hardly used anything more than simple cuts. The final product would usually be okay, but I never really knew what I was doing. I had never received any actual education on how to edit, on things like where to use what transitions, but luckily some of that was intuitive.
I learned a lot of useful things during our unit on video. The most important thing I learned was how to use a professional program- Adobe Premiere. Beyond that, I learned how to edit for intensity, how to make something fluid, and the reasons to use different cuts and transitions. In addition to learning about editing, I learned some things about making videos that I never knew before. Before this unit, I can’t say I ever was aware of the 180 degree rule. I also learned more about when to use what types of shots. While I feel like I followed some of these rules intuitively, I think the quality of any videos I make will be greatly improved by what I have learned. I hope to use what I have learned a lot outside of class. Firstly, I plan to make any and all future projects in Premiere. When filming I plan to try to be better with cinematography. While editing, I plan to make better use of cuts, transitions, and techniques like 3 point editing. In the end, while it has been rather hurried, I think this will be one of the most beneficial units to me this year. While I greatly enjoy working with Photoshop and Illustrator, learning about editing will greatly help me as I continue to pursue film.
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As of writing this, I have finally completed the idle animation project. For this project, we had to create an idle animation for an original character. The finished product depicts a turkey, named Turkey, casually looking from side to side, twitching his beak, raising a sword, and sharpening it. It includes a character and a scene from a short story I have been working on for a while which is titled “Turkey’s Odd-o-see.” The “Odd-o-see” is strange to a point where it can be described as psychedelic, which, in my opinion, would make it a perfect candidate for a video game.
Before I created the animation, I had to create the background. For the background, I used a scene from the book where Turkey was in the Arizona Desert. I put it into Adobe Animate and then began actually making the animation. I started out with him looking around. This, along with the the twitch of the beak and the raising of the sword was fairly simple. It took awhile for me to get the second wing, which holds the rock used to sharpen the sword, to raise properly. Unlike the first wing, the second wing needed to change shape slightly as it moved up. I originally tried to draw two different wings and put a tween between them. Unfortunately it didn’t work, and I was forced to do it differently. Instead of drawing separate wings, I used two versions of the same wing, though one had been stretched. I added another wing in between the first and last to make sure it stayed on the right path. In the end, it looked pretty good. I used frame by frame animation to create the sparks that come off the sword as he sharpens it. One of the most important things about idle animations is how they add depth to the character and help to illustrate their personality. Turkey himself is a fairly complex character. He is eccentric, wealthy, highly intelligent, and rather odd to the outward viewer, but, to himself, and to any associates, perfectly logical. I think I did a good job reflecting this in my animation. As he is himself, the animation can seem a little strange at first- it’s a turkey casually sharpening his sword. Still, his movements are crisp and casual- not at all wild or crazy. This shows how he knows himself to be perfectly normal. In the end, I enjoyed this project. I think I learned a lot about the process that goes into showing the personality of a character through their movements.
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AuthorI'm interested in film and animation. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not represent those of Durham School of the Arts or Durham Public Schools.
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