PROFESSIONAL ARTICLE REVIEW: 'Newgrounds - The Foundation of the Future of Animation'

In this article, the author establishes that Newgrounds, a website founded in the early 2000s by Tom Fulp, was the origin point of much of the new wave of talented, passionate 2D and 3D animators that came out of the 2000s. The author argues that Newgrounds' use of user-based quality control versus automated bots or user reports (a la youtube) helped the cream rise to the top and kept users and creators alike invested. Much of his evidence is situational; throughout the video, he has a reel of different animations from the site running. The article has quite a few strengths. It evidences its points well, it doesn't ramble, and it makes a good point, not just one people want to hear. I couldn't catch any weaknesses, though it could just be the quality editing obscuring them. The conclusion is around from the start, which creates form. We (the audience) know where the video is going to go, and everything past the first minute or so is just delineation. The article brings up a good point, but the author fails to cite many sources outside of visual evidence, which he supplies much of and cites well. This article inspires me as an animator because it tells me that other people my age with talent and inspiration have created things that aren't just good "for a kid", but actually high quality. As I grew up around newgrounds and similar sites, I fully understand what the author is saying, and much of his evidence is projects I can clearly remember for myself. In conclusion, this article is concise, convincing, and its presentation is creative.

PROFESSIONAL PROJECT REVIEW: 'CODE HUNTERS'

'Codehunters' is a 2009 animation created and directed by Ben Hibon. Its development is shrouded in mystery, but it won many awards and inspired the Gearbox series 'Borderlands". While its animation quality might not seem impressive for today (or even 2009; Crysis, a video game from the same year, looked better at max [though few computers at the time could run it well]), the real point, the meat and potatoes of the animation, shines through in the cool concepting, smooth, cel-shaded artstyle, and quality pacing. The story is rather short, but it revolves around some characters fighting a thing. Video-game-esque in style, but not necessarily bad. The story doesn't FEEL like a short story; short stories have starts, ends, and middle parts. This animation felt like a teaser, a primer for a game I'd love to play. The creator was very good at making the animations feel convincing. Everything did what it looked like it would! The creepy crawlies crawled, the characters moved like they looked like they should've. The animation was fluid, the visual effects weren't excessive. This didn't feel like a group of people bought space on a supercomputer and used it to render garbage, it felt carefully planned and inspired. If it were to improve, it would probably be with modern day stylized graphics, which have drastically improved.

PERSONAL BLOG POST : MATT FIGHTS A ROBOT

As the video says, I regret everything. The project was made to be at least a minute long, with an explosion, a green screen, and a 3D model. Preproduction went as far as writing a script and a storyboard and then filming. Along the way, I learned how to adequately keyframe, which I didn't manage to pick up from the actual project revolving around keyframing. I also learned to communicate with my groupmates (thought not well). If I could do something different, I'd put a bit more effort into getting footage (we got the bare minimum and it bit us in the collective behind when it was time to edit). For my next project, I'll try and have the barest choice of who is in my group. While I'm aware I'm supposed to be able to "work with everyone", working with worthless people is like working with nobody.

Animation - End of Year Reflection

This year was an interesting one, that's for sure. This year in the e-communication, I took two classes: Exploring Animation and Exploring Graphic design. In Exploring Animation, I learned a few things, and it'd be impolite of me not to teach the rest of you what I learned.

 COLLABORATION

This semester, I learned how to work with a less-than-ideal group. I was placed with people I didn't like, and some of them did nothing for the project. You can catch the video here (catch like how you catch a cold, obviously). It's important to learn how to deal with difficult people, as it's a completely different process from dealing with regular groups. I wish I'd learned a bit better, to be honest. The whole thing was a challenge; half the group screwed around for most of the time. I am good at leading groups, most of the time, but I'm a bit of a control freak. For example, with the special effects animation, I had some trouble getting some of the team to work.

TECHNOLOGY

I learned a TON about the software used for animation this year in animation. Last year, we used basic animation techniques- mainly Google sketchup and photoshop. This year, we learned to use AutoCAD Maya and Adobe Aftereffects. By the half-way mark we'd already moved on to 3D animation, and by spring break I knew how to do special effects on live-action (albeit not that well).  These techniques are important because as I continue along in Animation, I'll need to utilize all of these. I'm much better at 3D animation now than I was, and I know a lot more about 2D animation. I still need to work on taking my time. Animation takes a really long time, which sucks, because I have a bad attention span, but I need to keep with it. I'm passable at aftereffects, but I'm not good at maya- the interface is a pain in the side to work with and it runs slow on everything from my computer at home to the macs provided explicitly for the purpose of running maya. This video is good proof of this concept.

COMMUNICATION

You can't spell e-communications without communications, can you? I did a whole lot better first semester with this as I swapped hours and left behind a whole bunch of people I liked. I had issues adapting, and I didn't like the spot I sat in, kinda petty, I know. But it ruined my experience nonetheless, and I didn't end up communicating much in this class. Not much more to say here, but I do need to work on this. Animation takes a while, so usually people ARE in groups. I could have communicated better on the special effects project, but whatever, it worked.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

I think I did fine! Not much more to say about this one. I learned how to meet deadlines even when I didn't think I could. For example, this final project taught me that. My lack of self-control really blocked me here, but I think I did OK overall. For example, during my story animation, I had to work hard near the end. It took a while, and I got done with the project at the latest possible moment.

As soon as I end up bothering with reinstalling all this software (I recently reformatted my computer) I'm gonna keep messing with this stuff. I'd like to improve before next year. If I could change anything, I'd put much more effort into this. In conclusion, while I didn't put in 100% effort, I put in a lot of effort, in my opinion.

Graphic Design: End of Year Reflection

What'd I say? Here it is. If you don't know what this is, here's the animation reflection. As I'm abiding by a different set of class guidelines, this one's gonna look a little different; the other one was more of a personal evaluation of my behavior and skills, while this one's going to be a play-by-play of Matt Tucker's greatest hits. So without further ado, here's what I've been doing since January.

1. SWISS DESIGN POSTER

Continuing from my reflection at the end of semester one, my class did a bit more work on different graphic design styles. Because I was assigned Swiss Design, I made this poster, which you can read about a bit more in-depth here. I used a whole lot of hexagons, which made the eComm iMacs chug, but I'd expect that from 2013 iMacs on iris graphics. This poster took a week or two from start to finish, believe it or not, counting the various iterations. At first, the header was at the bottom, but after some peer feedback I moved it to the bottom. The plus was originally less intricate, and the information was harder to read. Overall, the project was pretty good!

2. 5x5 GRAPHIC DESIGN OF MY CHOICE

For the graphic design 5x5s of my choice, I made album art for a friend's duo called Anti-Art. I went for a few different styles here; you might not be able to tell, but [I] is made out of a whole bunch of tiny blocks of text that say "anti art". This made both my computer at home and the macs that we were using chug like a reluctant teenager trying to impress his friends. Other than that, I really liked what I did with [III] and I'm OK with [II], I guess. Definitely my least favorite out of the three, but it looks fine and it's distinguishable from the other two. I didn't change much, but [III] was a bit different and weird at the start. The project as a whole was a week or two of my time.







3.  5" x 5" QUOTES


We had to do quotes that "define us" or something like that. A bit too introspective for my taste, but whatever. I did a quote from Pat "The Bunny" Schneeweis, a notable folk punk artist, a quote from a guy from the cold war that Dr. Seuss paraphrased well, and two BM quotes that just kinda looked good combined with their visuals. Overall, these took about a month of planning and execution. I don't mind this project, but I had some difficulties with getting the first quote to work. Otherwise, I'm rather satisfied with this project.



4. MISCELLANEOUS GOOFS
These weren't assigned, but class time is class time. The topmost image is an art style called 'vaporwave', based around washed out 1980s/1990s aesthetics. The other one's a joke that I found funny. Don't worry, there's no inside reference you're missing on it! Combined, these took maybe an hour or two to complete. The topmost was done the day before spring break, while the bottom one was done because I was bored. Tom Johnson is nobody.


5. REBRAND PROJECT

The current iteration of the business card.

Potential designs for the logo.

This project took two months of class time; in it, I redid a lot of branding for my mother's business. This includes a business card, a letterhead, an envelope, and a series of logos. This took around a month of class time from start to finish, including many sketches and redesigns. I'm proud of what I did, but I'm not sure it constitutes a professional project quite yet. Overall though, I like what I did and I think it will work fine. A lot of peer feedback brought it to this point, and many fixes have been implemented.

The envelope.

Combination marks for the final logo.

The letterhead.

CONCLUSION

In this class, I may have wasted some time, and I may not have done my best every time, but I truly think I've learned and grown during my time here. My skills have even come in handy outside of class, as evidenced by number 5. As a graphic designer, I think I'm very good at doing measurements, getting things perfect, but I'm not awesome at managing my time, and I just don't have that gut instinct you need to make things look just right. My favorite part of the semester was the side-stuff; doing graphic design work for stuff I enjoy really makes me happy. If I could do anything differently, I'd definitely work a bit harder. The hard-work thing is a good takeaway, and next semester, I'd like to not be in this class. Well, wish granted, I guess.