Period 3 -- Critical Analysis #14

2/15/2019

For today's critical analysis, you will complete a self-assessment of your stop motion project. Be sure to post your writing as a comment to your correct class period's blog post. This is due by midnight for a grade!

Pull up your final stop motion video that you turned in (you may locate it in your Google Drive folder). Read through the questions below and think about them as you watch your video.

Once you have watched through your video, answer each question below in complete sentences. Write at least 1 paragraph per each question, 5 sentences minimum per paragraph.

Describe what your stop motion project is about. Be specific. What happens in the project? Is there a story being told? What was your intention or idea for your project? What do you want the audience to get from watching your video?
Name some areas where you were successful in creating/completing this project. Be sure to write in complete sentences.
Examples: I told a complete story in my final video.
I was able to manipulate my objects from shot to shot, creating a smooth animation.
Name some areas where you were unsuccessful in creating/completing your project. These can be areas where you see room for improvement. Be sure to write in complete sentences.
Examples: I wish that I had shot my images in a better lighting scenario.
I wish that I had included audio with my final video.
Finally, describe what you might do differently if you had more time to go back and work on your project. Would you go with a new idea? Would you reshoot some of your images with better lighting, in a different location, etc? Would you give yourself more time to complete your shooting? Be specific.

Your analysis will be graded on:

meeting minimum length requirements
depth of organization
evaluation and completion of assessment questions
grammar/punctuation

Sofia Galindo

2/15/2019 08:26:28 am

My stop motion project is about 3 sour patch kids that have to travel back to their home after their friend gets eaten by a goldfish. In the beginning, I set up the goldfish so that it looks like they're moving in a loop, then they stop. After this, the sour patch kids come in and walk towards the goldfish and begin “talking.” The camera then zooms in on the sour patch kids and behind them a goldfish is sneaking up on the sour patch kids while the “Jaws” theme song is playing. The goldfish proceeds to move towards the sour patch kids and eats one of them while the others run away. Then the 3 sour patch kids that are left travel far and wide and arrive at their “castle,” which is made out of chocolates and tell the “queen” about what happened. The final scene is of a goldfish and candy army that collide with each other, then it ends.

I feel like I was successful in making the sour patch kids and goldfish look like they were moving without it seeming choppy. My animation was pretty smooth and turned out really well. I also like the audio selection I chose because it helped with the story and let the viewers know what was going on a little better. I like the story of my video, which I think was pretty easy to understand because the images portrayed everything that was going on and it wasn’t confusing. Overall, I think I did pretty well on my stop motion project, besides a couple of little things.

I feel like one of the areas I was unsuccessful in is the lighting scenario. In the beginning, the lighting was perfect and well exposed. After a while of shooting, my battery died so I had to recharge it. While waiting for it to charge, it turned from afternoon to evening pretty fast, so the lighting was different. I thought more indoor lights would help, so I turned every single one possible on. The images turned out a little yellowish because of all the artificial lighting, which I’m not very happy with.

If I had more time to work on my project, I would reshoot the images in the early morning so the lighting would be bright for a while. I would also have finished the battle scene at the end of the video and had the sour patch kids win. I think some of the images might have been a little blurry, so I would reshoot those too. I definitely would have given myself more time, because I felt pretty rushed on finishing it because I had to do everything all over again and reshoot the week the project was due. Overall, I think my video turned out well, but I would mainly just want to fix the lighting.

Matthew Sutherland

2/15/2019 08:41:13 am

In my story, a man named Steve leaves his house and discovers that there is an unknown portal with a button on it outside of his house. He activates the portal and discovers that it teleports him to a fiery realm filled with zombie pigmen called the Nether, thus making the portal a Nether Portal. A zombie pigman chases Steve back through the portal; however, instead of being teleported back home, Steve is teleported to a large metropolis called Tilted Towers. The pigman follows Steve through the Nether Portal and starts destroying Tilted Towers. Steve runs and hides from the pigman. He meets another person named John Wick and they team up to defeat the monster from the Nether. Steve and John Wick use the power of dance to send the zombie pigman back through the Nether Portal. Then, Steve clicks the button on the portal to deactivate it and save the day. John Wick pulls out a mystical blue gem called the Power Infinity Stone. He uses the stone to teleport Steve back home.

I personally believe that the story was interesting. I like how John Wick and Steve teamed up to defeat the zombie pigman. The dance was very loosely based on the pumpernickel dance, even if it looked like random limbs flailing around. The story was long enough to actually make it interesting. I also successfully balanced the coloring of the images so they all looked unified.

In my project, the set of images from the first weekend were pretty blurry. I wish I had less blurriness. The light also wasn’t very good during the first weekend. After that, the blurriness and lighting improved though. I wish I had made the movie smother with less choppiness.

If I could redo the project, I would reshoot some of the blurry and dark images. I would also shoot more of the images in general so I could have less frames per image. This would make the video less choppy. I might also add smaller movements. This would make the video look smoother and more fluid.

Sam Meldner

2/15/2019 08:42:23 am

My stop motion project is a little different because instead of creating a story to unfold I used words to describe things that I struggle with a lot. Things being school, time management, and motivation to complete assignments. It starts portraying a very negative side of the school. I did this using crumbled pictures and crossed out writing to express difficulty or failure. But, then the story changes and has a more motivational side.

I was successful in the placement of objects because I feel as though I worked very hard to produce good quality animation that flowed smoothly. I moved each piece of the project very, very, slowly. I had to take a lot of pictures, but in the end, it was worth it. I also made sure not to touch the set when I was not shooting so that when I went back to it on different days nothing would have changed. This produced a very smooth flow.

I struggled a lot with managing my time throughout this project. I spent countless hours in one night working on it because I hadn’t done parts of the assignment when it was due. This caused a lot of problems when I was tasked with completing the project and when the deadline rolled around. I also struggled with some of the technical aspects of the premiere. It was a very confusing platform for me to figure out.

If I had more time to work on this project then I would re-shoot many parts of the project because they could have been in better lighting and in more focus. I would also add more to the story itself to make it more interesting to the audience. This way it could make more sense for viewers. Finally, I would add more upbeat sound effects and music in the background. Even though it wasn’t the best I felt like someone with my skill level did well.

Overall, I wanted my project to represent the struggles that students feel. All the pressure, no time, and difficult grading scales. But, I also wanted viewers to know that no matter what school does not define you and a grade does not change the type of person you are. It’s simply a number. Even though school can get hard, it will get better and grades will go up.

Clara Blume

2/15/2019 08:42:58 am

My stop motion video depicts the process of baking cookies, from the individual ingredients to the final product. Initially, the ingredients make their way across the screen, all except for the ingredients that have to be refrigerated. Then, the electronic mixer and the measuring cups as well as the refrigerated ingredients. Each ingredient is shown getting mixed in the correct order. A baking pan is introduced to the video and cookie dough balls are set on it. The pan exits the frame and comes back in with the cookies baked and ready to eat.

I think I was successful in relaying the process of making cookies. I also think I was successful in the movement of the ingredients. The movement is very smooth across the screen. I am happy with the way that worked alongside the sudden movement of ingredients to the front of the frame to show that it is the next step in the process. I also like the amount of time allocated to each ingredient.

I wish I had done my project in a better lighting scenario. The counter where I took the photos receives very limited amounts of light, especially on cloudy days, and that made exposure a big factor in the quality of my photos. I had to introduce artificial light when I would have rather used sunlight. I had to reshoot a portion of my photos due to poor lighting.

If I had time to go back and work on something, it would be the frame of my photos. Because I had to reshoot, the frame of the re-shot photos is not the same as the originals or as the rest of the photos. I would go back and spend more time making sure I had the correct height and angle of the camera on the tripod. I would also make sure I didn't have anything extra on the sides of the frame or in the back that could take away from the pictures or the video as a whole.

Teresa lei

2/15/2019 08:44:00 am

My stop motion story is based on a rainbow teddy bear. He is a priest in the neighborhood. Everyone in this neighborhood loves him for his kindness and generosity. However, an unpleasant atmosphere is suffusing the neighborhood because a murder happened a week ago, and nobody knows who did it. The Priest Teddy, as an important figure in the neighborhood, is helping the investigation. Eventually, the murderer is caught. However, the criminal is not the actual murderer of the crime, instead, the murderer is the other persona of Teddy.

The successful part of this project is that I got a story done. It’s a long story that is hard to tell by the stop motion. There are many shots that I really enjoy individually. For example, at the beginning of the video, I use the rule of third to depicts the teddy. This method also applies to other shots too. I borrow toys from my dorm parents to finish the project which increases the diversity of the neighborhood and make it more interesting. I am also successful in making many shots fluent and visually pleasing.

The audio is one of the problems that I have for my video. I personally don’t really satisfied with the audio that I choose, which are mostly electronic music. They don’t come along with storytelling because it was mostly too hyped and bouncy. Some of the shots are not as fluent as the others, there are variations in the quality of my images. I also didn't plan the length of each scene which can potentially affect the presentation of the story. There are many parts of the project that I can improve.

If I can I’ll shoot part of the images in better lighting and better compositions. For example, Teddy has a rainbow color, I should better choose a scene that is not so crowded and show the colors of itself. Also, I would plan the storyline and decide to keep the scenes in specific time duration and make it less boring and more intriguing for the audiences. My time management is always a problem, I feel like I should have done more in the last few weeks. The subtitles are the one thing that I don’t enjoy because for some reasons my adobe cannot connect to the Stock and download the fonts that I need. If I can do it again, I'll definitely improve that too.

mariah podwika

2/15/2019 08:44:45 am

This stop motion project was really about me expressing some of the things that I went through at my old school. People evaded me for various reasons, much like the "main character" of the video. Out of it all came a friendship that is still there today. The song that I derived the title from was Medicate by Gabbie Hanna. I wanted a title that portrayed the significance of the movie for me. The song resonated with me and I wanted to take some of that resonance with me and incorporate it into something that was meaningful and told a story. The "main character" is going through a lot of the same scenarios that I went through to make at least one friend in the swarms of people that taunted me and strung me along. I intended to, as the end card says, remind people that no matter how lonely life my feel or how low you are in the dumps, that you are not alone. I wanted to do that because of my remembrance of the loneliness that I felt in that situation.

I think that I did an excellent job picking the subjects of the movie. Basketball has always been something that I could project my emotions onto, so it's only fitting that I aim this on it too. The basketballs, although a pain to get to hold still, were the best way for me to portray what the story was. The scars on them, the wearing away of the leather, all the blemishes show that the ones doing the evading had the same issues as the one they were trying to stay away from. The final ball at the end had probably the most blemishes of them all, but it still left with the "hideous one." I think I did a great job depicting the story through the perfect subjects, without those subjects, the story would be completely different.

I think the technical portion of the project wasn't the best for me. I shot the images throughout three weekends. One weekend was sunny, the other was partly cloudy, and the third was raining, so there are more than a few lighting inconsistencies. The big windows in the gym where I shot the images didn't help the lighting situation one bit either. Another inconsistent part is the angle of the tripod, as much as I tried I just couldn't keep it straight when I was moving it. So those two things combined, made the images go into Premiere with different lighting, and not in a straight line.

If I could go back and do the project again, or have more time to fix it, I would definitely take more care of the lighting, and I would find a more efficient way to keep the tripod straight while I'm shooting. Other than those two things, I genuinely cherish the idea that I went with and I really like the subjects that I shot. In a way, I think that this project acted as a bit of therapy for me and I'm thrilled that I did it the way I did. The story, I feel, flows at just the right pace, and the song that I picked has the beats right where I needed them. The story I'm telling is a very light one in the end, so I'm glad I got to share it in such a fun way.

EmmaKate Spies

2/15/2019 08:56:20 am

In my stop motion video I have two of my shoes walking through my house. The shoes come down the stairs and into the living room and then to the kitchen and then to the dining room. The story that is being told is a pair of shoes just wants to explore the house. My intention for this project was to do something different. Most people probably used legos or dolls to make their video but I used s pair of shoes. What I want the audiance to get from this video is that when making a stop motion video it takes a lot of work and to be creative and different, don’t follow the crowd, be origional.
I think that some areas that I was successful were going all around my house and making the video. I was able to make the shoes look like they were moving by moving them a little bit and then take a picture for every little piece of footage. The lighting in some of the shots i think was good because it was bright and you can really see the shoes and how they are moving. I think that my idea is good because it shows the movement of a pair of shoes over the course of time. Another thing that i think that i did well was after they got off of the stairs and you can really see the movement in them. What I did that i think worked was that i moved my camera on my little tripod back a lot and zoomed in and took shots and zoomed out and took shots which i think looks good.
At the start of the video the shoes leaving my room and going down the stairs is very choppy and fast. At certain points in the video the camera is either tilted too high or too low that you can’t really see the shoes. I wish that when the shoes were going down the stairs that i took more images all at the same height instead of at different heights which i did. Also at the beginning you can see the shoes starting to go down the stairs and then they jump halfway down the stairs. I wish that during the time I shot the shoes going down the stairs I would have used a longer tripod and shot the images so you can see those gaps between the start of them walking down the stairs and about halfway down the stairs.
I probably wouldn’t have changed my idea because I think that my idea is good and unique. I would re-shoot some of my images with better lighting and at a better angle so you can see the whole subject. I might have changed my location a little bit to add a different effect on the video. The location that I would re-shoot would be i would start in the kitchen and then have the shoes going into my backyard. I would probably give myself a little more time to shoot and add more things to the content of the video. I would add another pair of shoes entering the frame at a certain point in the video because I think that adding that aspect to the video would be cool and also interesting.

Claire Rollwitz

2/15/2019 10:51:26 am

The main character in my stop motion movie is a girl. At the start of the movie, the girl is doing homework on her desk when she becomes bored and falls asleep. The girl then dreams of an adventurous life and travels the world. She wakes up confused from her dream. The intention of my movie is for entertainment purposes. I hope the audience enjoys watching all of the effects.

I was successful in creating a unique video for my stop motion project. I wasn’t sure if using a green screen was a good option, but in the end, it worked. I was also successful in creating a controlled setting where I filmed the movie. I was able to set up lighting and camera angles. I was successful in using after effects and premiere pro when editing my project.

I was unsuccessful in my project with time management. I didn’t anticipate how long it would take to edit my movie and how many times I would have to reshoot. I also struggled with meeting the time requirement. Both of these issues could have been solved by better planning. I also wish I filmed the ending scene differently. I could have made it more interesting by switching up the camera angle
.
If I could do something differently, I would not choose to change my video idea. I would improve my planning process so that I have better time management. I would probably reshoot the ending scene because I don't think it is very strong. To make my video a little bit longer, I would travel to more places in the movie. I shot every weekend on a different memory card, and in the end, it was hard to find all of my images. I need to improve my organization.

Farouk Ramzan

2/15/2019 04:33:14 pm

My stop motion project is about a man named Serrato who decides to stop by the bar one night for a drink with his friend. Serrato drives his car to the gate in the first scene as the security guard opens the gate and allows Serrato to park his car in the plaza’s parking lot. The plaza consists of a bar and a high end atlantis themed restaurant where you can see a man drinking out of a gold goblet in one scene. The plaza is guarded by an armed ranger and a security officer. After Serrato parks, he walks to the bar, gets a drink, and proceeds to his friend as they begin to conversate. Suddenly a red car begins to back up as Serrato and his friend conversate. The car continues to drive backward until it crashes into the restaurant alerting the officer and ranger. The officer and ranger approach the red car in a steadfast manner. Serrato and his friend are paralyzed by suspense as they watch carefully. The two officers remain in their positions until the car drives forwards and stops in front of them. The officers demands the mysterious driver to step out of the car. An old man appears out of the car with a shotgun and his pet chicken. The officers and the old man argue as the old man is frustrated for an unknown cause. The old man orders his chicken to attack the officers. The chicken responds swiftly as he attacks the officers causing them to fall to the ground. Serrato and his friend
observe this event in shock as they wonder if they are ‘seeing things’.

My original intention of this project was to create a world that could get the audience dissolved into it. I wanted the world to look and sound real with unique characters. The idea of a fantastical city led me into building a plaza with a bar and a five star restaurant designed by me. The restaurant is atlantis themed with many specific details such as tridents, a shark head, golden swords, seaweed attached to the railing of the balcony, and emeralds with greek mythology symbols placed in front of the restaurant. The bar where serrato and his friend are placed is very detailed too with sofas, couches, and designs.

The plot was designed to make the audience confused and think “‘what did I just watch”. I added the element of confusion by making a slow progression of plot (or what seems like no progression of plot in the beginning) and suddenly causing chaos in the last forty seconds of the movie. The ending feels abrupt and the ending occurs at the peak of the climax causing the film to end at the most emotional dense part of the movie. Even the outro slide is an image of Serrato and his friend standing in shock. To add to the strange nature of this film, the background song orchestrates the mood entirely to a different dimension, feeling disconnected. I hope that the audience reacts strongly in whatever way they feel.

I was successful in creating a smooth intro scene of Serrato driving his car into the parking lot. The song in the background was successful in creating the mood I wanted and blending in perfectly with the motion picture. My shots were relatively stable with a few exceptions. I was also successful in crafting the plaza and taking images of the plaza that made the plaza look to the scale of an actual city. I’m happy that I was able to keep a variety among my angles of shots which allows the audience to understand the plaza better.

There were a couple scenes where you can clearly see camera shake such as the scene of the door of the restaurant closing and the man drinking on top of the restaurant. In many of my shots you can see the change of lighting in the shots. To control the shake, I wish I would’ve invested in a camera button to avoid the shake that results from clicking the shutter button. I also should have explored my tripod options more thoroughly, as the tripod I used would slip often. I also wish I included sound effects of the car crashing and the chicken attacking.

I would definitely give myself more time as I like to reshoot my images over and over again to try to achieve no camera shake among my frames. I would also use better lighting as I will buy a desktop lamp. Given that I have more time, I would carefully explore more character options at the Lego store and would expand the plaza with more stores and restaurants. I would also take more detailed shots of the plaza, focusing on the restaurant and bar and their interiors. I would choose to shoot the plaza in a more enclosed area for next time.

Hasan Ehsan

2/15/2019 06:35:17 pm

The main idea of my project was to depict some adventurer going a journey and overcoming multiple obstacles. The challenges included solving a Rubik’s Cube, wrestling a tiger, and answering a riddle. At the end after completing everything, a house popped up with a car (which was the prize). My intention was to thread all of these ideas together and make it seem like the character was on an island in search of treasure. I wanted my audience to see this as the story with as few words as possible. I did give my video the title “Treasure Island,” which probably gave a better idea as to what’s going on.

My story had straightforward plot. The focus of my images were very clear, especially because I used a lens that could reach an aperture of f1.8. The Rubik’s cube animation looked extremely smooth and made it seem like the action figure was actually moving it. I only needed one setting for the entire story, which made the continuity of the story much easier to recreate when I would go back each weekend to reshoot. The audio that I chose for my project matched the story perfectly, to the point where it would change from dramatic to cheerful right at the resolution. I literally had to do no editing with the audio.

I had to reshoot multiple times because of composition issues, so the camera can be seen randomly changing viewpoints at certain moments. When I was shooting the riddle, I didn’t account for the time it would take the audience to read the riddle, so I had to reshoot the day before the project was due, and it made the whole video look slightly choppier. At some instances, my action figure’s movements didn’t look smooth. I also think I could’ve added more to the plot at the beginning to explain how the character got to Treasure Island. My USB had some problems that affected the speed (for example, it took 30 minutes to import images into Premiere instead of 2). I lost a lot of time because of that USB, so the video wasn’t as smooth as I wanted.

I’m content with the idea I had. I might have changed the setting to include trees and animals so that you couldn’t see floor tiles. I also would changed the composition because there was one frame where you could see half of a door, which really takes away from the whole treasure island concept. I also used the portrait lens at some instances when a normal lens would’ve looked better. For example, in some frames, I needed two things to be in focus, but the lens would only keep one. The lighting and exposure were good for the most part; I just wish my USB hadn’t given me problems as a lot of my reshooting was hypothetical because I hadn’t even seen it in Premiere.

Henry Cool link

2/15/2019 08:32:01 pm

In this project I depict the “adventures of a water bottle” which show the story of a water bottle trying to escape my house. This is the story the whole entire time which brings out the imagination in people and brings out that child like wonder. My intention of this idea was to do something very simple yet interesting which really brings out the artistic point of view like the different angles of a water bottle. I hope the audience is able to awake their imagination in everyday things and think the unthinkable. Also make them think about what happens to stuff they lose.

Even though most of my project went well there were a few things I could improve. The first would probably be making each little movement close to each other in order to make everything move nice and smoothly. Next I would like to keep my photos in a more controlled environment because some of the photo had bad lighting or my shadows kept getting in frame. Then I would like to correct the different position of the camera to keep each picture in the same spot instead of having it be shaky. Plus I need to correct my procrastination which doesn’t happen in this class, but others too.

Furthermore there were also some things I liked that I did in this project. First I think that the each photo was perfectly exposed and looked nice. Secondly I like how I used different components of photography that I learned in other projects like birds eye view and bugs eye view. Next I liked how I made such a simple idea into a completed result that turned out looking pretty nice. Finally I think that most of my pictures smoothly transitioned onto the next making it look like it moved with little changes.

If I were to do this project again I would definitely change my whole idea especially to see how it comes out. I would make sure I get started early so I can fix little errors in order to make the final result look very nice. Also I would have everything in a really controlled environment so the light of each image would look perfect and just increase the overall quality of the whole thing. Plus if I got the chance I would try to make nice props like the ones out of clay to make a real story and make it look so much more professional. Finally I would try to plan out and set up each event into an intricate story that everyone is able to watch and recognize it as an art style.

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Period 3 -- Critical Analysis #14

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