Period 4 -- Critical Analysis #14

2/15/2018

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.

Pull up your stop motion video that you turned in yesterday (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.

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

Dylan Pegg

2/15/2018 09:31:08 am

My stop motion project is about a rock collector who goes to the scrapyard to find an elusive rock, only to run into another person! The two of them proceed to one up each other with weapons, in the hopes of scaring the other away, of which the main character wins. He searches through the scrap yard, finds the rock, and adds it to his collection. The story is weird and hard to understand, but I hope to at least make the audience laugh at their continual one-upping. I was inspired by a short film I watched about two post apocalyptic survivors one-upping each other with weapons.

I feel like I was successful in keeping relatively consistent lighting and having fluid motion. My set was filled with detail and looked realistic for a lego world, and the characters look like they belonged. I also used some transitions and music in my video, which make it more interesting in my opinion.

My camera was extremely unstable and the story was awkward and hard to understand. I used a tripod, but the ball joint it used was weak. I also tried to have camera movement, which further increased the instability of the camera’s photos. The story was unique, but hard to understand and doesn’t seem to have a real purpose. I threw it together last minute since I changed my mind on my original idea, and so it didn’t turn out as well as it could have.

If I could redo this project, I would certainly change the story and have a steadier tripod. Additionally, I could still improve the lighting some and add in specific sound effects to make the video more involved. I might change the location that I shot in, or at least shot it all in a weekend instead of splitting it up and having slightly different environments. This project seems like it was a good starting point, but I have a list of things I need to improve for the future.

Catherine Clausewitz

2/15/2018 09:32:56 am

For my project I decided to do something that would send a positive message. In this day in age it can be very hard for people to accept who they are.There is a lot of judgement in the world and people aren’t always the kindest. It can be very hard to accept yourself and be the person that you want to be. I’ve always been a very confident person and very sure of myself, but I’ve noticed that some people in my life aren’t. They aren’t confident in who they are and can be broken very easily and change themselves because of one thing someone said. Saying that everyone is eventually going to break and it will eventually hurt not matter how strong and confident they are. I wanted to send a message to people that you are loved for who you are and not for being someone else. Also that changing yourself to make others happy when it doesn't make you happy.

I was very successful in doing something that I enjoyed working on and something I wanted to put a lot of effort into. I made sure I got multiples of every shot I wanted so if there was a flaw I could fix have a back up. They story came out the exact way I wanted it to be. There were smooth transitions between most of the shots which is something I worried wasn’t going to happen. I also made sure that the clips were long enough to read all the way through. I also really liked how the colors of the sticky notes showed up on camera.

I was very unsuccessful in my lighting area. They lighting in my shots wasn’t the best and had a lot of yellow tones to it. The tones in my shots also change sometimes so that is something else I would work on in editing and shooting. The angle of my images were also not the best because it would move sometimes and could also see the tile that the blanket was on. Lastly I would have made sure that the camera didn’t move when I was shooting and that I wasn’t in the shots on accident.

I would have done this with white light and had the camera in a better angle. I also would have made sure the background didn’t change or move since I used a blanket. I also would have liked to go more into depth with my project and maybe even done like a five minute video. Lastly I would have likes to make sure my background was covering everything and you couldn’t see the tile. I liked this project a lot and enjoyed doing it once I found something that interest me and was something I really wanted to work on.

Leon Toursarkissian link

2/15/2018 09:37:59 am

My stop motion project is about the journey of bread, ham, cheese, mustard, ketchup, tomato, and lettuce in their quest to join together and create a sandwich. In my project, the components of the sandwich take control of themselves and begin to cut, spread, and make themselves in a sandwich. The story of the video is quite simple: components of a sandwich having a mind of their own and wanting to do nothing more than join together in sandwich form. My intent for the video was to create a scenario that would not happen in life to give the video a certain feeling of awe. All I wish for the audience to get from my video is pure entertainment that makes them feel happy in a way.

I feel like i was successful in many aspects of my video, especially the actual animation of the objects. I did a good job when it came to moving the objects to make the video look smooth and make it look like the components were moving themselves. I also like how I started my video from the very beginning of the making of the sandwich to the very end, which I feel made the video complete. I was proud of my ability to maintain a similar lighting scenario through my two hours of shooting. Lastly, I felt like I did a good job when it came to the plethora of different angles I used when shooting the video, which allowed the video to run smoothly.

Of course, there are many things I would change if I were to redo my project, including changing the time of day in which I shot. I shot my footage in a 4:00 to 6:00 timeframe, and due to the amount of daylight being limited, I was forced to rush many parts of my shooting in order to assure good lighting. If I had begun even an hour earlier I would not have been rushed as much and could have taken more time when it came to little details. I also wish that I had executed the last half of my video better because it was very sloppy due to my lack of time. The last 20-odd seconds of my video had blocky footage and varying backgrounds as I was rushing through it.

If I were to go back and redo my project, I would use the same general idea, but I would manipulate it. Instead of using actual slices of tomato, I could use red poker chips and instead of bread, I could use a slab of wood. I would basically be replacing all the food items in my video with objects that we use in everyday life. Doing so would make my video way more interesting because it would leave the audience in suspense to see how I would manipulate other food items with random objects. Lastly, I would guarantee myself more time to work because I felt like I was being rushed through the production of my project.

Andi Feik

2/15/2018 09:40:02 am

My stop motion project is about a heart. In this project, the heart is gradually being created. My intention for this project is to show an object to gradually grow into to something. I want whoever watching it to feel good. I think they can do this by watching the video and having the audio in the video also.

I think that I was successful with the idea of my stop motion. I like my choice of music and I think it goes along with the theme of the video. I met the requirement for the amount of time that the video needed to be. I shot 187 images. I also turned my project in on time.

I think that I was unsuccessful in my idea. Even though I want to show something gradually growing I did not like my video. I did not like how my images turned out. The lighting in them looks sort of yellow. Another thing that I did not like was how I made the heart. I made it out of string and the string did not stay together and it was very staticky.

If I could redo this project I would change my idea to something outside. I like working my images and projects around nature. I would come up with a new idea. If I were to reshoot my images I would do it early in the morning so I do not run out of light. I would try to make the lighting less yellow. I would also try another idea to try to challenge myself more.

Estefan Zorrilla link

2/15/2018 09:40:24 am

My stop motion project is loosely based on the movie john wick. It is a story about an ex hitman going back to the hitman life. The story is that john wick goes into a music club with electronic music playing in the background. He tries to find the man that killed his dog. He goes into the club and starts to shoot out the club and starts killing all the goons with his silenced gun. I want the audience to be amazed with the action in the video.

I was successful in having a beginning and end. In my last project kinda ended midway through and it didn't feel like a story. I was able to move around the legos well to have some smooth and good looking animations. The legos were stiff enough to be able to move without completely becoming loose. I was successful at times at keeping the camera steady to make it look realistic and smooth. The times when the protagonist rolls i thought were smooth and well executed. The syncing of the shots and gun fire was very accurate and did that well.

I was unsuccessful at being consistent. The exposure noticeably changed later throughout the video. I also sometimes did not keep the camera steady so the pictures sometimes look a bit wobbly frame after frame like if the background is moving. I also did not really focus the camera on the characters as well. Sometimes you couldn't notice the guy was getting shot or if he is shooting.

If i could go back i would definitely work on the studio and try to make it look more like a club or like the actual scene in the movie. I would definitely try to use consistent lego characters and an actual john wick lego minifigure. I would try to make it longer and use more punches and close ups. I would try to make it choreographed and pre planned instead of just going with it. I would definitely want it in a dark solid background instead of one of my houses rooms.

Kaitlyn Evans

2/15/2018 09:40:50 am

Question 1: In my stop motion project I made designs using starburst. I would make designs then spell out different candies until I spelled out the correct answer. My intention for this project was to make it a fun and cute video using the starburst. I was trying to make a good project while having fun creating it which I did. I want the audience to feel happy because its candy and everyone loves candy.

Question 2: I was able to get the starburst to stay in order and do the designs i wanted them to do in the first part of the video. The first part of the video was also pretty smooth which I liked. I also liked my idea and that I was able to finish my video. I think my audio goes really well with my video. I also met the time requirement for the video which i didn’t think i was going to be able to do.

Question 3: I didn’t like how my words came out crooked. The lighting was really bad towards the end. The time and date showed up on my video which was a little distracting from the video. I had a hard time getting the pictures to focus and because i did my photos on different days my photos weren’t in the same place as the other photos. I wish I did my photos in a different place.

Question 4: If I had more time I would plan the lighting better. Do the words differently and make sure their even and have more space for them. I would probably include more designs and different candies. I would also do my project on a more solid color so you could see the starburst better. I would also do better on my timing with this project because I rushed it a little bit.

Adriana Vazquez

2/15/2018 09:42:31 am

My stop motion project tells a story about little people that live in a someone’s house backyard. They have always been curious about how the human world is. And so one day, one of them wakes up inside a cardboard, he gets out of it and realizes he is in the human world. The little man goes inside the house and sees humans eating but completely ignoring each other, then he sees the news and sees all the war that is happening in the world, and he also sees the humans fighting each other. He sees that the human world it's a mess and that he would rather be inside the cardboard than at the human world. I want to show how people can sometimes be mean or disrespectful to something or someone new or out of the common. For people to accept everyone as who they are because there is no one that is perfect.

I was successful in shooting this project because I had really good lighting through the day. I remember waking up early the day I shot and took advantage of the sunlight. I was able to create a smooth animation with the objects I was working with. I was able to tell the story in a small amount of time. The final video was only one minute long when I expected it to be two minutes. With this, I was able to delete parts of the video that were not necessary and able to reshoot other parts.

I was unsuccessful with shooting some parts of the video. I had some scenes in mind that I was not able to shoot because it was too hard. I also had a different story in mind than the one that i ended up with. I did not shoot the first story i had in mind because it was too hard to shot and the video would have been longer. In some parts of the video, I wish I should have used better lighting because there was some camera shake on the pictures.

If I would have had more time to work on my project. I would have made a new story. I don't really like the story I ended up being, I feel like i could have done better. I would also had gone to more places to shot. Places where there is more space and better lighting than the place I was shooting in.

Melody Umsted

2/15/2018 09:42:41 am

My project is about a guy who wants to see out the window. In a bucket list book, he sees a picture of a tree outside, and this is what makes him determined to see out of a window. Because he is short, he has never seen the outside. He tries different methods to climb up to the window like jumping and climbing up a rope. Finally, he finds a big pillow to climb up and use as a stepstool to the windowsill. He sees the outside and is content. A picture of him looking out the window gets put into the bucket list book next to the original picture of the tree, bringing the story full circle. The lesson of my story was that if you set your mind to something, don’t give up, and you will eventually succeed.

In my project, I was successful with lighting. I shot during good times of the day with the inside lights off to create a soft, diffused light. I was successful by creating a whole, cohesive story that I think is easy to comprehend. Another successful aspect of my project was getting a good mannequin that I could manipulate how I wanted for the most part. I was also successful in managing my time; I spread out my shooting over two days and was efficient during the editing process.

I was unsuccessful in sticking to my storyboard. There were some extra things that I left out that probably would have made my story stronger. Also, this is so dumb, but I was unsuccessful in the way that I didn’t know how to use my camera properly until half way through this project. I have always had trouble getting enough lighting for my images, having good focus, and having a depth of field that I wanted, and I never knew why I was the only one with this problem. As it turns out, having your camera zoomed all the way out doesn't mean literally, looking at the lens, but looking at the screen while the lens doesn't look all the way in. When I figured this out, it was smooth sailing from there.

If I could do something differently, I would include all the scenes and details that I had in my storyboard. I would also reshoot the beginning scenes, when my lens wasn’t actually zoomed all the way out. I would pick a different window to shoot, or find a smaller mannequin. This is because he actually could reach the window by raising his arms and jumping, so finding a different way to reach the window seems a little silly. Finally, I would shoot more images to create a smoother motion.

Chase Blackwell

2/15/2018 09:45:42 am

Describe what your stop motion project is about.
A: The original idea of my story was to tell a compelling story, but that actually changed into an effort to satirize the modern animation world. Cartoon and movie animation quality is being destroyed by executives focus on budget and marketing, so I aimed to make a point about how hard it can be to watch shows where the budget dictates the quality. The original story I was going to tell was this hopeful story of two paper cranes that desperately wanted to fly, but couldn’t, and they would eventually learn to “Fall with style” like buzz lightyear did. The main goal for my video is for the audience to understand that tight budgets are ultimately harmful to a shows success.
Name some areas where you were successful in creating/completing this project.
A: I was largely successful in my stop motion of the cranes. Not only did I have to create pose-able models out of paper, but i had to animate them fluidly. Both of which I believe I accomplished very well during their short appearance. In particular, I’m the most proud of the scene where the blue crane hops onto the CD case tower, as I had to animate the crane in flight using a very, very rough suspension rig. Despite this challenge however, I believe it's probably one of the fluidist scenes in the story. I also think that my sound quality is very high for my level, and i was really proud of how it enhances my film.

Name some areas where you were unsuccessful in creating/completing your project.
A: I do wish that i had been able to shoot more footage of the cranes before the satirical ending, because I has a lot of fun with the cranes, but was too limited with my schedule to shoot any more footage. I think that if I had been able to shoot up to the intended climax and then stop it, the ending would’ve had a much greater impact on the audience. Another area I could’ve improved was my camera’s movement. In alot of scenes, my camera movement was a lot faster than I intended it to be, and it comes off as slightly jittery when the original idea was for more of a slow pan feel to the shots. The last area I was unsuccessful in was probably my story’s lighting, as I shot this almost all in one night, but yet somehow still had a lot of lighting shifts that I had to edit out as best as possible in photoshop.
Finally, describe what you might do differently if you had more time to go back and work on your project.
A: I would’ve posted my shift at work and taken an afternoon to shoot the rest, as that’s the main reason I didn’t have enough time to shoot the original idea. I still want to tell that story eventually, but for right now, I just didn’t have the time to shoot a film that intensive and long. The other thing I would change is my camera’s movement. Like I said above, I was generally displeased with how the shots moved, as I wasn’t used to stop motion filming yet. The last area I really wish I could change was the dialogue at the end. I’m no script writer, and I think that it’s really obvious, as the dialogue feels weird and rushed at points.

Pedro Mejido link

2/15/2018 09:51:04 am

My stop motion project is about lego batman beating some criminals. I was going to put more criminals in the fight but it's already hard enough trying to make a fight scene with one of the lego bodies being in the way. I did a lego batman animation because my last animation I used a minecraft figure but it turned out to be harder than it looked and you really couldn’t make fluent walking animations because the figures would always fall over. Another reason why I did lego batman is because when I was in elementary school I was really into legos so I would always watch lego batman animations on youtube. My intent was to make my animation like the ones I used to watch on youtube.
What I did successfully in this project was making a decent walking animation. I also think that I did pretty good on the fighting scenes and since it was lego I’m proud I at least made a setting and not just the top of my droor in my bedroom. I think the sounds fit in nicely in my animation.At the beginning, I really like the walking animation by the criminals. Overall I’m really proud with my animation because it’s far better than my last one.
The fight scene in my animation went far too fast in fact I wish it were slower. In the start of the fight scene the guy on the floor was in the way of one of the criminals so I had to shift the guy on the ground. Another time that happened is when the Joker was driving the bus on the street, one of the criminals was in the way so I had to move him before the bus came. In the fight scene the guy was in the way of the camera so you really couldn’t see batman. When Batman was fighting Bane and Catwoman you really couldn't see Batman throwing Bane on to Catwoman.
If I had more time to work I would put more criminals and more fighting. I would get a new set and make the fights slower. I shoot it somewhere much brighter than my room. I would also add more weapons and more sound effects that come with it. I would probably also add Batgirl and Robin, Probably Robin because he’s easier to animate.

Julieta Vazquez Maritnez

2/15/2018 09:53:34 am

My Stop Motion project is about music and a side to it that is rarely mentioned, frustration. In the short film, the musician (played by my sister) is trying to come up with a song, but she can not come up with anything and gets frustrated this making her mess up in the part she already knew. Then she gives up playing and starts drawing things on the music sheet, she throws the paper away into the piano, after a few second she remembers that nothing is supposed to be inside the piano so she quickly gets up to try to get it back. She does, but she accidentally leaves behind a piece of paper from which a mini person come out of. Then when she realizes it is there she tries to get it somehow by playing the Piano keys in which he is standing. This action provoque her to play a sequence that makes sense and she realizes that she (with the help of the mini person) is composing a song, she then focuses on playing and ends up thanking the mini person for its help. The idea behind that I wanted the audience to learn was that you can find inspiration everywhere, even when the only thing you have is lack of inspiration.

I believe that there were many things that worked out fairly well in my project. To begin with, the angles and the movement of the camera I really liked. The actress did a good job whenever I asked her to do a specific expression. With the mini person The movement was done smoothly and it was well-captured by the camera. Which, when using the camera I made sure to have good lighting and payed attention to my ISO, aperture, light meter, shutter speed, etc.

With all that mentioned, of course there were down parts to my project which I will mention in this paragraph. In the video, there are a few shots that look blurry which aren't because of focus but for slow shutter speed. Also there are some parts that objects suddenly appear or disappear, like when she discovers the mini person, the paper suddenly disappears. Then there is the audio. In some parts it doesn’t exactly fit with the images, the images are either going too fast.

If I had more time to do this project I would definitely do some changes. I think I would add a few more audio effects, like dropping something or taking out the paper from the piano’s box. I would also get rid of some shots that are blurry (something I couldn’t do because it would have messed up all the audio as I had already organized it). I would also add more shooting to the part in which she is playing. And finally complementing the last ides, I would add more scenes with the mini person those were fun to edit and shoot (and it was funny and archiving to watch the final outcome).

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Period 4 -- Critical Analysis #14

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