DISCOVERING PASSION
Weekly Report 1: 08/21/2017 - 08/27/2017
This week’s primary purpose was to discover what topic I plan to study for the year. After some deliberation, I decided on studying something related to the 3D animation industry as it is a field that is both artistic and technical. I also found a guiding quote to motivate me throughout the year and developed a mission statement for my time in ISM. A large part of this week was about finding passion and how to relate passion to a career choice to study for the year.
A highlight of this first week for me was a presentation from guest speaker Julie Martin who talked about how to find passion and her experience with ISM at Liberty High School. This was a very captivating presentation that included a lot of useful information on finding one’s passion and on how to stay motivated throughout the process. Major ideas of the presentation included that a person’s career choice should have a balance of that person’s gifts, personality, life experience and passion. Using this format of how to find an ideal career I made a chart and filled it in with my traits. This led me to believe that 3D animation fits my traits well and is something with a potential for my future.
This week I developed my mission statement that may change slightly throughout the year. The development of a mission statement is meant to answer the “why” behind my choice of taking ISM and deciding on animation as my topic of study. After thinking about why I wanted to go into animation I created the following statement: My mission is to gain both a general experience in a professional work setting and more experience in the animation industry through Independent Study Mentorship in order to ultimately achieve my dream of entering the animation industry to make something new that can bring people joy. This encapsulates why I want to enter the animation industry and why I was willing to take ISM. This week also included searching for a guiding quote that would be something that could inspire and motivate me during the year. I decided on: “Work hard! In the end, passion and hard work beats out natural talent.” a quote that is attributed to Pete Docter a director at Pixar Animation Studios. This quote means a lot to me since many artistic fields include people that are naturally gifted and I like the idea that hard work and dedication can overcome that barrier. Furthermore, I admire a lot of Pete Docter’s work making this quote even more inspirational to me.
Overall this first week of ISM has been a great foundation for the rest of the year as it gave me more information and allowed me to develop my purpose for picking animation as a topic. I was able to find something that can motivate me throughout the rest of the year and make something to display why I joined ISM and am considering animation for my future. Next week will involve a more in depth analysis of the animation industry’s education requirements and it’s career outlook.
ART AND TECHNOLOGY IN ANIMATION
Weekly Report 2: 8/28/2017 - 9/3/2017
This week was primarily focused on giving an introduction speech and beginning research on a career outlook assessment. The introduction speech was meant to introduce people to my interests and my my passion for the animation industry. After presenting this speech I moved on to research a career outlook on animation. I only did a basic research and will work in more depth next week.
For my introduction speech I incorporated information about my interest in animation into a story about my life. My speech opened with a quick introduction to myself and moved into some animated movies I had watched in my childhood such as Monsters Inc. and Finding Nemo. I then moved into selecting high school courses and how I selected DGA to get a fine arts credit, but had loved the class and the fusion of arts and science it included. This led me to use a quote attributed to John Lasseter, “The art challenges the technology and the technology inspires the art.” I used this quote in the context of the animation industry with examples of how art and technology worked together to create some amazing movies. I then spoke about how I pursued modeling and animation over the summer by following various tutorials and used them to create 3D models and animations. My speech concluded with my goals for ISM and beyond and what I would do to achieve them. This speech was an introduction to me and also helped me narrow my passion and use ideas from my mission statement that were incorporated into my speech.
After I presented my speech I started my research for the career outlook assessment. I began by looking at databases and their information regarding modeling and animation careers and their education requirements. From the brief research I did I found an article called Preparing for a career in animation that was on the explora database. This article had some basics on preparation such as information on demo reels and suggested college courses. In my assessment I want to delve into other careers related to modeling animation. This will include anything in the animation pipeline such as rigging, texturing, lighting and many other fields related to animation and modeling. I will also be focussing on terminology as that is something that is in all of the animation industry and is very important to fully understand. Next week I will be moving into more research and will finalize my assessment, create a website, and engaging interview questions. This will lead me further into my year of ISM and will prepare me for interviewing people in the animation industry.
This week was very informative since I was able to create the first of my four speeches of the year. My research was also very helpful as I was able to narrow down the future of the animation industry. I am looking forward to next week and what I can do to improve my work and move forward with my interest in animation.
EXPLORING THE ANIMATION INDUSTRY
Weekly Report 3: 9/4/2017 - 9/10/2017
This week was very varied as I worked on many tasks including a career outlook assessment, compiling a contact list, and creating interview questions. This week helped me a lot as it provided useful information about the animation industry and who to talk to about animation with in the local area. Furthermore, I was able to narrow down a set of questions that I can ask professionals in the future. In general, this week was very informative and helpful to me as I was able to learn about local animation studios and local professionals.
The career outlook assessment was the most important part of the week for me because it helped me learn a lot more about the field I want to be a part of in the future. I learned a lot more about the animation pipeline and the specific roles of animators and modelers in a studio setting. This was particularly useful since these are the two parts of the animation industry I have been most interested in during my animation courses. Furthermore, in the upcoming week, I plan to delve into the twelve principles of animation which make up the foundation of all animation and is critical for animators to understand. In addition, I also discovered that most studios require a bachelor's degree, but mainly focus on a demo reel of an applicant's work. Learning about the general education and technical requirements of the animation industry and the roles filled by various departments in a studio has been very helpful and I believe that this information will be very beneficial in the future.
Compiling a contact list this week helped me discover some studios in the Dallas area and also look at the diverse body of work produced by the studios in the region. In addition to the many professionals I discovered in studios I also found some professors at both The University of Texas at Dallas and Southern Methodist University. In addition to creating a contact list, I made a list of questions I would like to ask professionals in an interview. The list of questions is meant to help me gather information and in addition be interesting and engaging. The questions are all related to specific topics I am interested in learning about and think a professional would have valuable insight on. Thus I made my contact list and interview questions based on things I want to learn.
Overall this week was very helpful in solidifying what I want to learn about in the future with modeling and animation. In the upcoming week, I will be creating a draft for a résumé that I can give professionals and will also be working on an assessment of the twelve principles of animation. This will give me a good foundation for the future of ISM and my interest in 3D modeling and animation.
CREATING FOUNDATIONS
Weekly Report 4: 9/11/2017 - 9/17/2017
This week I delved into a research assessment on the 12 principles of animation and started a preliminary draft for my résumé. The research assessment was very helpful since there was more depth on some of the principles of animation than I had had in animation courses. The résumé was very simple as it only included my information with no formatting. Overall this week was very helpful with both the research and a get a preliminary start on the résumé.
With this assessment I focused on going into depth on the foundations of animation and the physics needed to attain believability. This was important to me because it included the fundamentals needed for animation that I wanted to improve on. I primarily focused on four principles, squash and stretch, timing, anticipation and staging. I chose these fundamentals because they could pair together to serve common purposes, physics and readability. I began by including a small summary of the purpose of a principle. I followed this with an example of how the principle could be used. For this assessment I tried to emphasize the examples I was able to come up with on my own since that is what will help my work in the future. I also picked examples that I had already used in my own work and could therefore easily apply to any future work.
In general this week was helpful in solidifying principles prior to any future work I will complete. In the upcoming week I will be drafting a résumé and will be writing a research assessment either on more principles or on a topic related to 3D modeling. This week has given me a strong foundation for my future work and some in depth knowledge to speak about with any professionals I interview this year.
DIVING INTO COMPUTER ANIMATION
Weekly Report 5: 9/18/2017 - 9/24/2017
This week was very interesting and productive as I was able to develop a rough draft for my résumé and was also able to look into the technical portions of 3D animation and how they relate to the principles of animation. This research assessment was very interesting as it had information on concepts I am learning in class such as splines and graphs.
This week I wrote an assessment on arcs in computer animation and focussed on the more technical aspects of arcs in relation to splines on a graph. I read an article on the principles of animation in computer animation and how the principles had been tailored to fit computer animation rather than hand drawn animation. This article was written by John Lasseter, the founder of Pixar, and was a very interesting article since it talked about research that was done to apply the original twelve principles of animation to computer animation. I particularly liked the explanations he gave on splines as I have been working in the graph editor of Maya recently to smoothen my animation and to make my workflow more efficient. With the information from this article I wrote an assessment that focused on the principle of arcs and how they work with splines in graph editors.
I also made a rough draft of my résumé using Canva to generate a simple format and used the main color from my color scheme for the résumé as well. In my résumé I focussed on the courses I have taken in relation to the animation industry along with awards I have received that are related to animation. I specifically mentioned Animation II and AP Computer Science along with a computer modeling award I received at a competition last year. These are specific classes that apply to the various facets of the animation industry and would be the most important to anyone who reads my résumé.
In general this week was very helpful and I look forward to what I plan to do in the upcoming week. For the upcoming week I have found a few books on Maya which will make my research more specific to the software I already understand. I plan on writing a research assessment on polygonal modeling in Maya based on a few sections from the book. This will give me a good foundation in modeling along with animation to discuss with any professionals I interview in the future.
DELVING INTO SOFTWARE
Weekly Report 6: 9/25/2017 - 10/1/2017
This week was very informative as I worked on finalizing my resume and writing an assessment on splines and the graph editor in Maya based on a book I got from a teacher. This research assessment allowed me to start focussing on software specific information that related to my previous research on the principles of animation and arcs. Overall this week was interesting to me and also very applicable since I am learning Maya in my animation courses.
This week I wrote an assessment on curves in the graph editor and how to edit them in Autodesk Maya an industry standard software. This is my first research assessment that is software specific though I plan to continue focusing on Maya since it is the software I have experience working in. The research assessment I did was on curves in the graph editor because it is something I wanted to know more about and is also a topic I have been working on in class recently. Furthermore, I based this assessment on a book I got from a teacher that is full of information about how to apply various concepts to animation in Maya. Overall this assessment has been very helpful and I plan on sourcing more of my assessments from books on modeling and animation in Maya.
I also worked on finalizing my resume this week by using my peer reviews to edit the rough draft. I mainly fixed the formatting and where I placed certain things on the resume such as my technical skills which I moved to the highlighted side. I also standardized everything by making the spacing even and making other small fixes to the format of the paper. These edits polished my resume and made it look more professional for the future.
Overall this week was very useful since I was able to start working on things related to Maya and prepare for the future by finalizing my resume. In the upcoming week I will be focussing on making cold calls and going to the business symposium and speaking to professionals there. This will give me a good start for the rest of the year in ISM and will give me a good foundation for my future.
INTERACTING WITH PROFESSIONALS
Weekly Report 7: 10/2/2017 - 10/8/2017
Overall this week has been very helpful as I have been able to speak with professionals and set up interviews. I attended a business symposium to network and speak with professionals in the community about their work and my work in ISM. I also began cold calling and scheduled an interview for next week with an executive producer.
This week I attended the ISM business symposium at Independence High School. This was a great experience as I was able to network with professionals and also speak to them in an interview style. I found the interviews particularly helpful as I was able to experience an interview prior to interviewing professionals. I also found the session on marketing to be helpful as it touched on many ideas such as looking at goals and future plans. Furthermore the session with the ISM alumni was very interesting since it showed a new perspective on ISM and its effects. Overall the symposium was very helpful especially with speaking to professionals.
This week I also cold called Infinite Fiction and Brazen Animation both are small studios in Dallas. I have been corresponding with Joey Cade of Infinite Fiction over the week and have scheduled an interview for Monday of next week. I will be speaking with Joey Cade the executive producer at the Infinite Fiction a studio under Republic Editorial. Infinite Fiction mainly works on effects for commercials and models of technology such as phones and watches for commercials. Next week I will be conducting the interview and writing the assessment for it.
In general this week has been very helpful and productive because I have been able to start connecting with professionals and setting up interviews. I have also been able to work on speaking to professionals in general through my cold calls and the business symposium. In the upcoming week I will mainly be focussing on my interview with Joey Cade and on setting up more interviews via cold calls. Overall this week was very productive and I was able to look forward to what I want to do in the future.
MEETING PROFESSIONALS
Weekly Report 8: 10/9/2017 - 10/15/2017
Overall this week has been very important since I conducted my first interview on Monday with Joey Cade of Infinite Fiction. I also wrote an assessment on this interview and wrote topic proposal for animation. Additionally I made more cold calls and scheduled another interview with Gerald Rice of CRM Studios.
The most important part of this week was the interview I had with Joey Cade and the assessment I wrote based off of the information she was able to provide. My interview was very informative and I was able to get a lot of information from the interview. Most importantly I got some advice on how to improve my work from David Gaitan who said to work through many tutorials and practice my skills often to improve both quality and speed. Furthermore, they both emphasized that having good communication skills and being flexible were very important in being hired. Ms. Cade mentioned that she had worked with people who were very good technically, but had trouble communicating their ideas making working with them very difficult. In general this interview was very informative and I enjoyed learning new information on improvement and qualities people look for. Based on this interview I wrote an assessment where I focussed on what I had learned and how I could apply these ideas to the work I do in the future.
This week I also worked on writing a formal topic proposal for animation. In this proposal I focussed on how I discovered animation based on my natural interests in technology and art. This proposal also discusses how I have fostered my interest in animation by taking animation courses and working through tutorials on my own. Furthermore, I gave specific characteristics I have that could make me successful in animation. Working on the topic proposal allowed me to examine why I enjoy animation and how I can be successful in the future.
Generally this week was very interesting and informative since I was able to gain information on the animation industry through my interviews. Additionally, I gained an insight into how I can try to be successful with animation in my future. In the upcoming week I will be conducting another interview at CRM Studios and will also be making more cold calls to schedule some interviews.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
Weekly Report 9: 10/16/2017 - 10/22/2017
In general this week has been very important since I was able to conduct an interview at CRM Studios. This week I conducted an interview with Gerald Rice and created a display board plan. In addition, I was able to make more cold calls and schedule another interview.
A major portion of this week was an interview at CRM Studios with Gerald Rice the director of animation. This interview was very interesting as I was able to discuss various aspects of animation including his experience and various animation softwares. We discussed softwares from Autodesk and the Adobe suite and what they could be used for in the field of animation. In addition to the digital aspects of animation he said that animators should have a good understanding of general art principles such as sketching. In addition to the technical aspects of animation he talked about the general characteristics he looks for in an animator. He specifically mentioned that he looks for people with patience and the ability to listen to constructive criticism. In relation to getting criticism he said that I should show my animation to as many people as I can since that will give me an audience reaction and show me what to improve upon. Overall this interview was very helpful and allowed me to gain a better understanding of the skills need to be in the animation industry.
Overall this week has been very informative and has allowed me to gain a better understanding of the technical skills needed to enter the animation industry. In the upcoming week I will be interviewing Julia Bacak an animator at Janimation. In addition I will begin working on things for the future such as the showcase invitation and my original work proposal.
VIRTUAL REALITY
Weekly Report 10: 10/23/2017 - 10/29/2017
This week was very informative as I was able to interview Julia Bacak an animator who told me about the animation industry and Janimation studios. She also told me about the use of fine arts in creating realistic motion and realistic poses. This interview was very interesting and I was able to learn a lot from Ms. Bacak about the animation industry.
This week I interviewed Julia Bacak an animator at Janimation studios who told me about her experience in college and the industry. From this interview I gained a lot of useful information and was able to discuss animation softwares and skills. I found the information she gave on fine arts and figure drawing to be particularly helpful. She said that I should focus on anatomy and gesture drawing with half of my sketches from life and the other half from imagination or fantasy. A focus on anatomy and gesture will help me have more realistic poses and movement in my animation. In this interview I also got to experience virtual reality which was very interesting. The virtual reality involved wearing a headset and headphones which were meant to make the reality more immersive. The graphics were really interesting and very beautiful as it was a large three hundred and sixty degree desert landscape. In addition to conducting the interview I wrote an assessment over the interview in which I focussed on the skills needed for animation. In general this interview was very informative and interesting as I was able to learn more about animation and fine arts.
Overall this week has been very informative as I have been able to speak to an animator and have more meeting scheduled for the future. In the upcoming week I will be interview someone from Reel FX a large studio in downtown Dallas that has made feature films. I will be conducting an interview and writing an assessment along with working on my research speech.
INTERVIEWS
Weekly Report 11: 10/30/2017 - 11/5/2017
This week was very helpful as I conducted two interviews and was able to gain a lot more information about the animation industry. Additionally, I began preparing my research presentation and also wrote an invitation for the research showcase in January. Overall this week was very productive and I was able to complete a lot of work that will help me in the future.
A major portion of this week were the interviews with Marta Marks at Reel FX and Jason Rojas at Post Asylum. The interview was very interesting since Reel FX makes feature films and has a very diverse skill set. Ms.Marks told me about her experience as the director of artist management and recruiting. She had a lot of experience working with people from various departments and the various aspects of how a studio goes about producing a feature film. On the other hand, Mr.Rojas worked with motion graphics and had a lot of information regarding how to improve my skills in animation and how to make a demo reel. He also had information on various types of jobs in the animation industry. As a whole these interviews were very interesting and provided me with a lot of information to use in my research presentation and to consider in the future.
This week I also worked on my research presentation and speech. I plan on covering the business side of animation, the pipeline along with specific technologies and concepts in animation specifically. I will be presenting my speech next week along with a power presentation which will have some images to breakdown the concepts I will be talking about. Additionally I worked on a draft of the invitation for the research showcase in January in Canva. For the invitation I used dark colors with a highlight of my feature color. In general, these tasks will help me prepare for the future and I will have some things done ahead of time.
In general I was able to complete a lot of work this week and will be able to apply this work to the future. In the upcoming week I will have an interview with Jasmine Johnson of Brazen animation and will be writing an assessment on this. Additionally, I will be giving my research presentation over what I have learned so far. In general this week was very helpful and I was able to learn more about animation and prepare for the future.
RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS
Weekly Report 12: 11/6/2017 - 11/12/2017
This week was very helpful overall and I was able to accomplish a lot and learn new skills. The most important thing this week was my research presentation along with a phone call with Jasmine Johnson of Brazen Animation. My research presentation was good practice for my future presentations and my phone call was very informative.
This week I had a phone call with Jasmine Johnson of Brazen Animation who was very helpful and was able to give me a lot of information regarding the animation industry. We spoke about the animation pipeline at various studios along with how various departments collaborate on projects. Ms. Johnson said that Brazen currently has 30 projects that they have to coordinate between their small staff. This is done with an efficient pipeline and good producers and directors. We also discussed the differences between how studios critique work and how Brazen has open critiques that anyone can attend. On the other hand larger studios have closed critiques since they have too many employees to have an open critique. This information regarding various studios will be helpful in the future and was very interesting.
In addition, this week I was able to give my research presentation which is very important for my future presentations. For this presentation I created a powerpoint in which I tried to use very few words and keep it very short. I also incorporated some pictures to make my presentation more interesting and engaging so that I could explain the images. My speech addressed three main points that I heard were important for future animators. Overall, I think I did well on my speech even though I ran over time I will be able to fix the timing by cutting down on my slides. This was a very important portion of this week as I was able to learn a lot from presenting my research on animation.
In general this week as very helpful and has been good preparation for my future presentations. In the upcoming week I plan to write two interview assessments on Post Asylum and Brazen Animation and also write my original work proposal. The upcoming week will prepare me to have time to work on my original work in the future. Overall this week has been very important and I look forward to starting on my original work soon.
PRESENTATION REVIEW
Weekly Report 13: 11/27/2017 - 12/3/2017
This week was very productive overall as I was able to work on my website, review my speech and begin my original work. The most important piece of this week was the editing I did to my website. In addition to editing the content of the website I refined a lot of the formatting and aesthetic of the site as well.
This week I mainly worked on refining the format of my website and updating some of the content on the site. I added my most recent weekly reports and assessments to the website and also added a link to my LinkedIn profile, and my email to the header of my website. The website now also has slightly different formatting, motion graphics, and overall aesthetic. This has added a lot to my website and has made it much more professional and easier to navigate on various platforms. In addition to the website I was able to work on some of my binder and print some of the necessary documents for my portfolio. Another important part of this week was reviewing my research speech. Reviewing my research speech has allowed me to focus on the mistakes I made and what I want to improve for my future presentations. In general these tasks have allowed me to prepare for future presentations such as the showcase at the Star in January.
This week was very helpful since I got to watch my presentation and review what I had done. In addition I my interview assessment on Jason Rojas of Post Asylum and also started my assessment on the interview I had with Jasmine Johnson of Brazen Animation. In the upcoming week I will be working on my original work and contact Marta Marks of Reel FX again. In general this week has been very important for my work in ISM.
MENTORSHIP
Weekly Report 14: 12/4/2017 - 12/10/2017
This week was very important to my work in ISM as I was able to find my mentor and also moved forward with my original work. Upon having my original work proposal approved last week I moved on to start the modeling process and also began calling Ms.Marks for a mentorship. Overall this week was very productive and I was able to set a good foundation for the upcoming semester.
The most important part of this week was contacting Ms. Marks and asking her to be my mentor for the year. I was was able to contact Ms. Marks and was able to talk to her about the ISM program and the mentorship. I then submitted the forms for mentorship and reviewed the mentor handbook in order to prepare for my first mentor visit. In addition, I began to produce my original work using Autodesk Maya to begin modeling the various assets I will need for the scene. The first asset I made was of a playing dice which was a very simple model to start with. After the dice I moved on to make a more complicated model of a complete chess set. I was able to model the pawn and a rook completely and created the base of the king and queen. In the upcoming week I will be modeling the bishop and knight which will most likely be the most difficult pieces to model. In addition, I will be beginning a model of a set of dominoes. Overall, my original work is off to a good start that I will be able to build upon.
This week was very helpful as I was able to find a mentor and also start my original work. In the upcoming week I will continue to work on my original work and will also be writing a research assessment. In general, this week has been very important to my work in ISM and has been a good start towards the work I will be doing throughout the spring semester.
ORIGINAL WORK
Weekly Report 15: 12/11/2017 - 1/2/2017
In the past three weeks I have been primarily working on my original work and have also written a research assessment on walk cycles. Additionally, I received the prints of the research showcase invitations which I will be delivering in the next week. Overall, the last past few weeks have been very important to my original work.
In the past few weeks I have been focussing on my original work of modeling a toymakers workbench. This will include models of various toys and tools on a work surface. In the last few weeks my original work has had major progress as I have started many models. The models of the original work will include simple assets in addition to more complicated assets. I completely modeled a dice as my first simple asset. In addition, I made a slinky as another simple asset and will also be modeling marbles and other small toys to have many simple assets. More complicated models of the past week include a chess set, lego minifigure, and a vintage steam train. In the upcoming week these complex models will be finalized and other assets will be created. These assets will include other toys and some tools such as hammers and nails. All of theses assets can be staged together in the final stages to create a complete workbench. In addition to creating these assets I created an account on Sketchfab, a 3D art website, to help me display my work in an appealing online format that I can later try to embed into my website. This will all allow me to create good presentation for my original work.
Overall the past few weeks have been very productive as I have made great progress on my original work. This time has also been spent on updating my website and portfolio in preparation for the upcoming research showcase. In the upcoming week I will continue to work on my original work and will also schedule a visit with my mentor. In general, this week was very productive and I was able to make a lot of progress on my original work.
PORTFOLIOS
Weekly Report 16: 1/3/2018 - 1/7/2018
The majority of this week was spent preparing for the upcoming research showcase by working on my original work, display board and scheduling a mentor visit. During this week I have been focused on my original work and setting everything up for my research showcase. Overall this week has been very productive and important for my preparation for the research showcase.
The most important part of this week was working on my binder portfolio and my display board. My binder portfolio has been finalized and the only document that is missing is my mentors biography which I will be working on with her during a mentor visit. My digital portfolio needs to be updated with my latest weekly report and my latest research assessment. I also worked on my display board over the week in preparation for the showcase. The display board is white and black so that it has good contrast, stands out and also follow my color palette. The display board is nearly complete and is only missing part of the title, the mentor biography and some pictures of my original work. This week I have been able to complete a lot of tasks that will be a good foundation for the showcase and my original work submission.
In the upcoming week I will be working on finalizing the display board by putting in the title, a final original work picture, and my mentors bio. I will also be adding some more models to my scene and consolidating them into one scene so that I can upload it all to sketchfab. In general this week has been productive and I will be continuing to work on all of these tasks through the next week to prepare for the showcase.
SHOWCASE PREPARATION
Weekly Report 17: 1/8/2018 - 1/14/2018
This week has been focussed on finalizing my preparations for the research showcase. I have completed my board and I have also finished the vast majority of my original work. This week I also finalized all of my portfolios in preparation for the research showcase. Overall this week has been very productive as I have been able to prepare for the showcase.
The most important portion of this week was the finalization of my display board which will be very important for the showcase. This week I added a title and a QR code to my board so that people can scan it to go to my digital portfolio. In addition to working on my board I added to my digital portfolio and my physical portfolio. I was able to add pictures to my digital portfolio so that some of my original work can be displayed on my site. I was also able to add an internal cover sheet and resume to my physical portfolio. All of this will be presented at the research showcase in the upcoming week.
In addition to preparing for the showcase I worked on my original work this week by modeling multiple assets. I modeled a radio control car and the toymaker character himself. In addition to these major assets I also made a desk and multiple tools to place around the desk. This has created all of the assets I will be using to put together my complete scene in the upcoming week.
In general this week was very important to the creation of my original work and the research showcase. In the upcoming week I will be attending the research showcase and going on a mentor visit. In general this week has been very important to my progress this year in ISM.
RESEARCH SHOWCASE
Weekly Report 18: 1/15/2018 - 1/21/2018
This week was the most important week of the first semester of ISM as I finalized my original work and also attended the research showcase and also went to my first mentor visit. This week I was able to finish the first semester by compiling all of my work and discussing it with various attendees of the research showcase. Overall this week was very important to my work in ISM.
This week I attended the FISD research showcase and discussed my research and original work with many people. This was a very interesting experience as I was able to speak with various people who were attending the event. I spoke to former teachers, friends and other attendees that I did not know about my research regarding the animation industry. I also discussed my interviews, mentorship and my original work with the people I spoke with. At the showcase I displayed my character as it was the most complicated asset I created for my original work and was also the most interesting. This display allowed people to look at the entire model easily by tapping the screen. In general, the showcase went very well for me as I was able to speak with many people about my original work and my research on the animation industry.
This week I also finalized my original work by adding in some final textures and cleaning up my scenes. I did this by deleting all of my history, grouping objects, and freezing transformations of my models. I then saved all of my models and imported some of the assets in to the same scene to compile a complete scene. My scene included a desk, my character along with multiple other assets to set on top of the desk. I also took multiple screenshots of all of my assets and the final scene to include with my original work submission. In addition to finalizing my models I also added to the documentation of how I created my models. I did this by creating a powerpoint that explains my general process for making the assets and also includes various images to supplement my technical information. Overall I was able to completely finalize my original work for submission.
This week was also very important since I was able to go to my first mentor visit to discuss some future product ideas and also go over the mentor handbook. In the upcoming week I will be writing two assessment and one will be over my original work while the other will be a research assessment. In general this week was very productive and in the upcoming week I will be working to continue my research and begin planning out some possible ideas for my final product.
ASSESSMENTS
Weekly Report 19: 1/22/2018 -1/28/2018
This week I completed my first mentor assessment and my original work assessment which were both very important assessments to my work in ISM. My mentor assessment was done for my first mentor visit which was very important to my work and will be important to my future work particularly my final product. Additionally my original work assessment was very important as I was able to effectively write a report on my work that people can read to understand the work I put into creating my original work. Overall both of these assessments were very useful to my work in ISM and were also very interesting to write as they were about major parts of my work in ISM.
The largest part of this week other than my two assessments was beginning working on a tutorial regarding the animation of dialogue. This will be helpful if I want to add any major dialogue scenes to my final product or when I need to create dialogue for any future project. Furthermore, I will be writing a research assessment in the next couple weeks over how to animate dialogue. Overall this tutorial will be very helpful to me even if I am unable to use its principles in my my final product.
In the upcoming week I will be working with my mentor Marta Marks to finalize her mentor biography. I will also be in contact to send her a copy of my proposal and to discuss the specifics of my final product idea and what I will be working on in the future. Overall this week was very important to my work in ISM and has been very informative as I have been able to speak with my mentor about my future work.
PREPARATIONS FOR FINAL PRODUCT
Weekly Report 21: 2/5/2018 - 2/11/2018
The last week has been spent working on my final product proposal and meeting with my mentor to brainstorm ideas for my final product proposal. In addition, I have also updated more of my website and worked on starting to work on my original work presentation. Overall this week has been very productive as it has set up a lot of the groundwork for the upcoming months as I begin working on my final product.
The most important part of this week was the mentor visit I had on Tuesday with Ms. Marks to discuss some ideas for my final product. While at this meeting I was able to brainstorm three ideas with Ms. Marks for my final product. I had the idea of pitching a plan for an animated short with storyboards, a script, and a budget. I also had the idea of creating a short 15-20 second clip of animation using the lego assets I made for the original work. My plan is to create some extra lego assets and animate them for 15-20 seconds for my final product. In general this will be a very useful final product as it will be able to give me a good foundation in the animation industry.
In general this week was very important as I have been able to create my idea for my final product and write a proposal for the idea. This will be very helpful as in the upcoming months I will be working to create my final product using Autodesk Maya. In the upcoming week I will be giving my original work presentation and getting feedback from Ms. Marks on my final product proposal.
ORIGINAL WORK PRESENTATION
Weekly Report 22: 2/12/2018 - 2/18/2018
The last week has been mainly spent on planning and presenting my original work presentation. This was a very important part of the week as this presentation will be the foundation for my final night presentation. In addition to giving this presentation I also wrote an assessment on my mentor visit and began brainstorming specific ideas for my lego animation.
For my original work presentation I added on to the presentation I had for the research presentation. I added a few slides on various parts of my original work. I focussed on creating my slides using pictures of the models I created for my original work. I had a slide that showed my character model where I talked about the work I had put into the model and the research I had done to be able to create the asset. I also had a slide for my drone model since that was an important model as it was very complex and used various techniques to make. I also had a slide for the lego minifigure I had created since this asset will be very important to my future work since I will be using the model as the basis for my final product. I concluded with a slide going over my final scene composition and how I laid all of the assets out. Overall the presentation went well even though I was slightly under time.
In general this week was very productive and I was able to effectively complete various tasks that will be very helpful leading into my final presentation. In the upcoming week I will be contacting my mentor to plan another meeting and reflecting on my original work presentation.
ORIGINAL WORK PRESENTATION REFLECTION
Weekly Report 23: 2/19/2018 - 2/25/2018
In the last week I have worked on various tasks that will lead to the start of creating my final product. I have also completed the reflection on my original work speech after I watched the video of my speech. This week was very helpful as I was able to build the foundation for the rest of the years work.
The most important part of this week was working on my original work speech reflection that I presented last week. Through my reflection I was able to watch the video of myself presenting and analyze the features I wanted to change and what I wanted to maintain going into the final presentation speech. The feature I was most pleased with in this speech was the lack of filler words I had as the people I was presenting to mentioned the feature and it was something I noticed while watching the video. For the next speech I will be adding an extra slide to my research portion so that I am within the time limit and can fill in more information for my research. Another change I am planning on making is to the conclusion of my speech since I want to revert to my old conclusion since I though that was better. Overall looking back at this speech was very helpful in understanding what I want to do in the future.
In general this week has been very helpful as I have been able to improve upon my presentation and public speaking in general. In the upcoming week I will be submitting and assessment and finalizing my final product concept for approval from my mentor and then be moving into the actual creation of my final product.
PORTFOLIO CHANGES
Weekly Report 24: 2/26/2018 - 3/4/2018
In the last week I have written an assessment, and worked on updating a lot of my website and portfolio. In addition I have started to write a finalized concept of what my final product shot will be and will send it to my mentor within the next week or two. Once I have the concept approved by Ms. Marks I will be working on my storyboards and models at the same time in order to stay on schedule.
The main part of this week has been updating and improving portions of my two portfolios. I updated everything on my website including weekly reports and the mentor tab. I added my mentor biography and picture to the tab and will be working to add my mentor assessments to the website in upcoming weeks as I fully finalize them. Updating my site also included some changes I made to the design of the site that improved the overall layout and aesthetic of the site. In addition, I updated my binder and added my latest weekly reports so that I will be prepared for any future updates I need to make to my portfolio. In addition to updating my portfolios I started creating a complete concept for the animation I will create as my final product.
Overall this week has been very beneficial to me in creating a foundation for the future work I do in maintaining my portfolios. In the upcoming week I will be shadowing an animator at Reel FX studios and discussing their work with them and writing an assessment on the observations I make. This will be a very interesting mentor visit as I will be able to meet someone who works as an animator in a studio that creates feature films and learn from what they have to say. Therefore I will be able to learn a lot about the career I want in the future through my upcoming mentor visit.
RESEARCH FOR LEGO RIGGING
Weekly Report 25: 3/5/2018 - 3/18/2018
During the past two weeks I was able to shadow an animator and also make a good start on my final product. The most important portion of the week shadowing lead animator David Vallone at Reel FX. Mr.Vallone was able to provide me with great information regarding various pieces of software and how animators work with various departments in a studio. In addition to shadowing an animator I worked on some research of how to rig a character in Maya and took notes on how to do so. Overall these two weeks have been very productive and I have been able to learn a lot for my final product.
While shadowing Mr.Vallone I was able to learn a great deal of information regarding the animation industry and how animators collaborate with various departments. Animators work with both modeling and rigging departments so that whatever they animate has the ability to move as needed. For example, if a character needs to be able to make a certain expression the rigging department would be responsible for making sure that the character can be manipulated to do so. The rigging department would then have to work with the modeling department to make sure the character could be rigged to make certain expressions. This collaboration is needed so that the animation pipeline functions well and animators can stay focussed on creative side while rigging works on a more technical side. In addition, an efficient animation pipeline allows for production to stay on schedule and for the final product to be cohesive
This week has been helpful as I have been able to learn a lot about the animation industry and I will be able to apply a lot of the information I learned to my future work. For example, I will be using many of the softwares Mr.Vallone told me about to aid in the creation of my final product. In general, I was able to use this week very productively and learn a lot more about various part of animation that will help my future work.
PRODUCT PROGRESS
Weekly Report 26: 3/19/2018 - 3/25/2018
This week I have been working on my final product by trying to rig the lego minifigures and writing a product progress assessment. I also wrote an assessment on my visit with David Valone an animator at Reel FX which was very helpful in consolidating the knowledge I gained during my visit. Overall I was able to accomplish a lot over this week by working on various assessments.
The main thing I accomplished this week was writing two assessments. One was on product progress while the other was about the mentor visit I conducted with David Vallone a lead animator at Reel FX. In my product progress assessment I was able to show all of the work I have done for my product. Thus far I have modeled assets, made thumbnail sketches, and started the rigging process. In the upcoming weeks I will be working on finalizing rigging and test animation prior to creating the animation for my product. Through the visit with Mr.Vallone I learned a lot about various add ons to Maya that I can use to make my workflow more efficient and allow my creative work to shine so that my work does not look too technical. In general, this week was very helpful as I was able to learn about animation and also work on my own project.
Overall this week has been productive as I have been able to work on my final product and plan another mentor. In the upcoming week the most important piece will be a mentor visit to shadow a surfacer at Reel FX. In addition, I will be working on some preparations for my final night presentation such as creating invites and finding a room to present in.
FINAL PRESENTATION PREPARATION
Weekly Report 27: 3/26/2018 - 4/1/2018
This week has primarily been focused on preparing for final presentation night. This week I made invites, got a room for my presentation. In addition this week I shadowed Diane Bradley a surfacer from Reel FX and was able to learn about surfacing for the first time.
The most important part of this week was preparing for final presentation night. This week I designed my final presentation invites. For my invites I used the main color from my color palette. Additionally, I used the previous original work presentation invite colors as well in order to have continuity between my invites. In addition to preparing my invites I asked a teacher to use their room for my final presentation. These preparations will be very helpful for my future presentation. While I worked on preparing for my final presentation I also worked on my final product this week. I began blocking out my animation and I will have it critiqued in the next couple of weeks. In addition I went to another mentor visit and shadowed Diane Bradley a surfacer at Reel FX. This mentor visit was very interesting as I was able to have an intro to Mari a 3D painting and texturing software. This was very new to me as I have not used Mari or any similar software before.
Overall this week has been very important in making preparations for final night presentation. In the upcoming week I will be coordinating my next mentor visit and continuing work in my final product.
WORKING ON FINAL PRODUCT
Weekly Report 28: 4/2/2018 - 4/8/2018
During this week I have mainly focussed on working ahead and working on my final product. This week has been mainly geared towards testing out animation cycles for the lego minifigure in order to have a more complete understanding of the geometry and how the legos should be moving. In addition, I spent time preparing a few things for final presentation night. Overall this week was very helpful as I was able to accomplish a lot of extra work.
During theis week I was able to block out a walk cycle for the lego figure which was very helpful as creating the cycle helped me better understand the geometry of a lego minifigure. In the upcoming weeks I will be working to refine my walk cycle an blend it into the rest of my animation. In addition to working on animation this week I also fixed some of the problems I had with my previous prop models. This week I also wrote an assessment on my visit with Ms.Bradley which was very interesting and also ordered my final invitation prints. In general, this week was very productive and I was able to accomplish a lot of work that will help me create my final product and have a successful final presentation night.
In the upcoming week I will be sending my mentor some of my work and also coordinating a visit with a modeler at Reel FX. Additionally I will be working on my final product and writing another assessment that will be about shadowing Ms.Bradley. Overall this week has been very productive and I am looking forward to the upcoming week.