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Kelsey White
In making this movie, I learned a lot about a new way of making videos. I think that stop motions are very useful and I would love to use this in a class room setting. Some of the difficulty I had was from not using a tripod, because the subjects were moving, which created moderate differences in the lighting. If I were to go back and reshoot this, I would have put more effort in to the scenes. I think that I would have figured out a way to use the tripod, and create that more constant source of light. Another thing that I learned is to take more pictures than I did. I took enough to let the information be understood but I would have liked to be able to do more costume changes, and more scenes. It would be more effective for the story line, but I would also have to make the movie length longer. In a class room I would probably keep the requirements around 30 seconds when using it as a teaching tool since the students wont have as much time to focus on it. However, with art making I think that is a very fun process. As a photo major I really enjoyed this assignment. I had worked with iMovie before so putting the images together and working with the program was fairly simple. The main problem I had was remembering to change the crop settings to fill the screen and to get the photos in their correct order. I would have preferred to have all four actors together and just shoot them in different rooms in the order that I needed them, however that did not work out, so it just added more time to the making process. I enjoyed telling this story because it is very personal to me. There are a lot of details that were left out of it because it takes place over seven years, and is still continually changing day by day. I have always used my work to represent what is going on in my personal life, so I was glad to see this continue with that trend. In all of my photographs for photography projects I represent myself and my personal life using friends and family to represent me, and I did the same for this. The friendship has been a part of my every day life for so long that it is just something I don’t even consciously think about any more. It was nice to take a step back and think about the landmark points, and the general emotions and feelings that come to mind daily. It is interesting to talk about the journey I have gone through with making this film because as of today he doesn’t know if he will be able to meet me while I am in California, so I think this film speaks to how the workings of a long distance relationships/friendships always has its ups and downs. There is a line from the song that says, “ I’m scared you’ll forget about me” which is a fear in my every day life. This video means that much more to me now that him and I are not sure we will meet while I am there, and it has caused some friction. Its sort of a way of documenting this as a part of my life that happened and I will always be able to go back and watch, and reflect on how I felt about our relationship. I think the main challenge was figuring out how to have my setup to take the pictures. I wasn’t sure about the materials at first or how I was going to have the paper character interact with the real world. I thought of what material I could use that would make it easy to view the character in the real world. So I thought of placing the character on a transparent object to have the illusion of her in our world.
I had not taken into consideration the meaning of the story I based my animation on. I tend to brush things of like this but when I sit down and think about it small events such as this one have had a great impact on me and I had not even noticed. Just as the way I realized the impact events in my life have on me, I could use this as a method when helping students build up their concepts in their artwork. Elizabeth Malmberg
In creating this video, I had a few challenges. For one, deciding on a topic for the video; I chose procrastination because I was still trying to think of an idea during class before we discussed them in meetings. I also thought that it would be perfect because while it is a personal experience that I am well versed in, it is also an experience that the rest of the class would be able to relate to as well. Also, while I have experience in editing video, it was my first time using iMovie, which I found to be a very difficult program to work with. It didn’t give me all the options I needed and I found it to be difficult to navigate. I continued using the program though and although I still prefer other software, it did become easier to use over time and I found myself thinking of ways to teach others how to use it effectively. While I did learn a lot about the technical process on how to make a video like this, I also learned about how to develop a conceptual idea in video format. Being used to making photographic art, I had to think about my topic and how to expand it in time. Though my process in the actual making of the video was simple, finding a way to express my ideas and feels accurately took quite a bit of time and research. In making this video I did procrastinate a lot, but I feel like that kind of added something to the video, somehow making it even more relatable knowing that I had procrastinated on an assignment that’s about procrastination. It did enjoy the process a lot; it is definitely something I would want to teach in my classroom someday. I also like making something about a personal experience that others could also relate to and have similar experiences with. This would make it easier to teach to students and would help them create more intriguing work and would make them create work that considers the viewer’s perspective, something that is very important when make art. I found this assignment to be a very informative experience, both in technical skill and concept. It would definitely be a good assignment for students and a creative way to teach them the significance of relevancy of concepts and quality in technical design and execution. One of the main challenges in creating my stop motion video was the (seemingly) never ending “draw, take photo, repeat.” When I first started taking photos for the first sequence in the animated portion of my video, I contemplated doing something besides whiteboard animation. Each scene seemed to be taking forever to draw out, and it was frustrating having to erase and move things in the drawing ever so slightly. However, I kept telling myself that I just need to keep going because the end result will be worth the work. I eventually had a rhythm going, and would just keep drawing as fast as I could until class ended. Once I had the final product of my video put together, it was very satisfying seeing my drawings move together like a movie. I have a huge respect for animators who work on movies for years, just to get an hour and a half animation out of it. It must be so rewarding for them to see their work in the theatres.
I learned that I am a pretty impatient person, and patience is key when it comes to hand drawing animation. I knew that people who animate movies spend years working on just one film, but what I didn’t anticipate is just how long it would take to make a one minute video. I don’t know if I would have the patience to be a professional animator for television shows or movies, however, the end result was totally worth the work put in. In the future, I definitely think that I want to do a project like this with my students, and I think that I would make them hand draw everything in order to get a taste of what animators go through, and hopefully be super satisfied with their final products. Maybe the project will inspire some students to pursue a career in movie making or animation. Reflection: Samuel Cavazos
The world of images that exist all around us is what helped in the creation of this project. We viewed many examples and were inspired by a variety of techniques that allowed us to decide how we would best convey our message. There were many challenges including time, editing decisions, as well as being able to simply approach the assignment. This is where digging into our personal lives and viewing various examples came into play. By doing so we were able to get a general idea and direction that would guide us throughout the process. This experience isn’t much different than from the way many artists approach other works of art. Give a topic, research, get inspired, plan, then create and personalize. Super Reflection- Derek Jackson
This was a new process for me and like anything new I like to experiment and play with ideas and materials during the planning process. This is a sort of hectic way of working and maybe I put too much emphasis on letting the process create the outcome but I think that’s where my creativity thrives. Everything else in my life is planned it seems or requires a lot of planning, the creative process for me is an outlet, a moment to challenge myself to let go and let things happen. I felt some sort of fatigue when done; maybe it was the editing that did me in. I think I dwelled on every second and maybe over analyzed each and every frame. Ultimately I had to let go and just let the cards fall. I did feel like there were some frustrating limitations iMovie gave me when it came to the editing choices but what was available created its own character and forced me to adapt. I used my dinner table, which is a place I frequently go to work on projects, it has good natural lighting, in a quiet room, lots of space and doesn’t get used much otherwise. I looked around the house for materials that would help personalize and help visually narrate. I used a lot of my baby’s puzzle pieces that included numbers and letters. I used an Art book I own about watercolor and I used a variety of items to represent the various aspects of my life that obstruct me. They represent other priorities that I have to balance in order to be successful. I used the dog color to represent my dog and the attention he demands food, walk and pets. My baby’s pacifier to represent a crying child that is demanding my attention, my cell phone to represent the phone calls and text messages I receive during my studying. I also used my wallet and car keys accompanied by a grocery list that also represents a priority that takes me away from my studying and finally I used my baby’s doll to represent her coming to play and investigate what her daddy is up to. She is more demanding and forces her hand into the frame onto the book and ultimately our hands interlock representing what she really wanted and that was my attention. I learned patience with this exercise, having a limited time to film and edit at the house forced me to try and make it with back up plans. As an art educator this is something I think would be fun for my students to produce. The ever-increasing importance of technology and its intrusion into our daily lives sometimes creates a void, a void that creativity can fill. I never really used my iMovie and didn’t realize what it could do. I think this would be a good exercise for my students to learn and perhaps they can teach me. I think playing with different materials allows me to be able to speak to and teach about this process. It’s not perfect but it familiarized me with the process will build creditability and gain an understanding of potential pitfalls my students may encounter. Reflect |
What are the important non-technical concepts learned? I learned about the structure that certain limitations can provide. The ambitious project that I first began was conceived when I had an excess of time. When time became limited, it forced me to develop a new and more efficient process. It is important to set limitations for yourself at the beginning of projects. How do you understand the documented experience differently now? I think that the experience was an exercise in creative problem solving. There were problems created by my solution to the problem of the assignment itself, so I spent more time solving the problems that I had created. Supplement your existing “reflection writing” by exploring why this art making experience was significant. Part III My main challenge was being pressured by time. Coming to terms with the abandonment of my initial project was difficult, but it was a decision that needed to be made. Certain circumstances had changed, which meant that my ambitious first project needed a more efficient process. That wasn’t going to happen. Thankfully, inspiration had struck long before I knew that I was going to have to change course. I responded to the challenge by taking my reversed video construction process and applying it to a new and simpler idea. The combination allowed me to still produce a quality video under my time constraint. I discovered that only a certain degree of planning is going to help a person like myself. I actually benefit from the structure that a time or material restriction provides. It creates a more specific problem for me to solve, rather than trying to tackle the problem of using excess time and materials. I think that the creative problem solving skills that I used will help me develop new, efficient means of reaching the same end—like teaching to students with different ways of learning. What are the important non-technical concepts learned? Non-technical concepts that were learned through making this animation would be concepts of not taking myself too seriously when it comes to making mistakes, I cannot allow myself to keep dwelling on things in life that just happen. Making this animation helped me to look back and laugh about my own kitchen catastrophe.
How do you understand the documented experience differently now? I have gained a new respect for this genre of art. It is much more challenging than meets the eye. My video was 1:20, but to achieve that length- I was required to take over 600 images. Just, wow. Supplement your existing “reflection writing” by exploring why this art making experience was significant. When given this assignment, I was not too thrilled. I don’t particularly enjoy photography or video etc. so creating something like that was completely out of my element. It seemed kind of hellish during the process, but I feel stronger as an artist having completed something like this. I want to focus on teaching art to a younger crowd and although technology is being implemented into school at a rapid rate, I’m confident that this may be over majority of elementary age children- possibly a shorter animation would be more achievable for them. A very interesting assignment though, and as Pharrell Williams says, I feel like a “room without a roof…happy” about completing this. -Alex Wagner When the assignment was giving, there were many ideas that I wanted to work with. Most of my ideas were either to cliché or not changeling enough. I wanted to work with something that was more personal and not a lot of people understand or have knowledge of. I used my learning disability as my big idea for the project. I knew working with this concept; I was going to face some challenges throughout the project. A week before the shoot, I made sure that I was going to have my cast ready and camera fully charged. The day of the shoot, I was having a hard time getting one of my cast members to move slower with his movements. He knew that I was getting very frustrated with him, and towards the end of the shoot, I was able to get photos that would work. My main character did a great job. When we started with the first scene, she was moving at the perfect speed. Overall the shoot was a success and I didn’t need to redo my photos.
The following Tuesday and Thursday, I use that class time to put together my video. I deleted any unnecessary pictures that I wasn’t going to use. Then, I did very little editing with the brightness and contrast over Adobe Bridge. Next, I need to make the words move on the picture of the book, as if the main character was having a hard time reading it. I saved the first picture as “book 1”. I used the smudge tool to create the effect I need. I would smudge parts of the page little at a time and “Save As” each photo as “book2, book3, book4,” etc. Then, I uploaded all the pictures to iMovie. I cropped the frame and set each picture to 0.01 seconds. I upload “Chasing Smoke” and set the song to fade in and out at the beginning and end of the song. Toward the end of the video, I add text with effects in 5 different scenes and finished with the credits. Video was uploaded and submitted. I am very pleased with how my video turned out. I would use this assignment in my future teaching to introduce new programs into the classroom and different media such as photography and film. I like the idea of using Pinterest to save the different resource to show for the students in class. I would also have the students to work in small group before starting their individual project to give them a better understanding of what they need to be doing. This project would be a great unit to get the student to explore and get creative with their projects. -Keisha Casiano I think the biggest challenge was the animation. Thinking of a story and how I wanted it portrayed wasn’t difficult but getting the movement I wanted was very difficult. I wanted my characters to have more expressions on their face and for those expressions to move but when I tried it didn’t look good.
Making this video was significant for me because it combined traditional art with computer art. I would like to do replicate this experience with my students to emphasis that digital art does not have to separate from physical art. I think this is an important concept to learn so students can understand new media art. I’d like to experiment more with stop motion in my own art making. I think I would use a different medium besides clay to do the project because working with it was difficult for me. For future teaching I would like to have students make a stop motion animation as well. However, I would have the time requirement around thirty seconds to make it easier for high school students who may only have time or equipment to work on it during class. This was a very time consuming project. I am proud that I finished the task because there were many times it overwhelmed me. I started out with one concept and ended with something somewhat different. My initial idea was with a white board because I really didn’t want to be in the video. It was going to show me juggling 3 different colored balls (another reason I didn’t want to be in the video…I can’t juggle). Each time a ball flew above my head I planned on having it show an image of what the ball stood for, whether it was my kids, husband, school, etc. When I began working on it I realized that 35 pictures in 2 hours would take an eternity. The other problem was that my images when played back were moving properly so then I just got frustrated.
Once I started going with the stop motion I presented in class I began to see how this whole thing was supposed to work. I felt like accomplished something when I uploaded my first several images to iMovie and it actually worked! I got a renewed sense of energy and was able to finish the project. I think this goes to show that just because you have some brilliant idea in your head it might not actually work in real life. Sometimes it’s good to be flexible and keep going even when discouragement tries to get in the way. Anna Carter What A Project…..
Automated autoethnography changed my theatrical and artistic mind to all ends of the spectrum. So many things that could happen when using stop motion. A hard thing was to decide what to tell… what story, what emotion, what side of yourself did you want to expose in a movie like way to the world. I eventually chose a “dark” weakness in my own life to visually display for the world. Though what is underneath the words of the music, the pretty cloths, and beautiful surroundings there is a girl who has a weakness to a man. A Man who dose not motivate her in her endeavors but is only a burden to her in a way that is he must be waited on. Being the kind hearted nature this she is goes above and beyond to please him. Leaving her giving all she has and have nothing given to her in return. A relationship must be two ways. Knowing this she caves to him and his ways because of her fear of being alone. Though my dark thoughts don't translate as dark because I don't look out of the darkest hole in the wall. I look up to the sealing of the dark room and see the endless possibility’s as the Italian Baroque artist illustrated on great sealing’s. I learned that this proses is a great way to use (Mulit media) as an art form. Telling a story is just the beginning of using this project in a classroom setting. By using people this process moved along quite fast. Directing the actors to move super duper slow and allowing me to take a bazillion pictures in order of how I wanted them to show in the video. After inserting into iMovie made the process so much easer. Looking back at the video there are small details I wish I could change but we as humans can always improve. As a result of Brittany’s first automated autoethnography I believe my message comes across quite clearly. I look forward to challenge young minds with getting a point across by using these proses. Having the choice of what cloths, props, space, and media. Weather clay, paper, white board or people, the possibilities are endless. I did run into some challenges while making this project. First, not being able to follow through with my original plan because I didn’t have the time of resources for it. I originally wanted to depict this story and using me as the subject. I didn’t quite have the time or the right locations that would have been right for my story. I thought about using one of my roommates in place of me but they were also busy. So that’s how I resulted to using myself for only part of the video and drawing the rest of the scenes on a whiteboard. Another challenge, which I had to improvise, was that I had lost a piece of my tripod (the piece that attaches to my camera so it can be held in place on the tripod), so instead, I laid a flat surface on top of my tripod and placed my camera on top of that so I could still have a steady surface.
I learned something about myself while doing this project. I learned that, I might not be as okay with living in the city than I thought I was. I really do miss the ocean more than I thought I did and that it’s just isn’t a good memory to me. I also learned how to finally use iMovie that is a lot easier to make a stop motion movie with than it was with Adobe Premier the first time I ever made one. I don’t know if I would assign this to my students or not. If I did, I would put them into groups and have a list of categories prepared for them to choose what the story may be about. Sometimes it’s hard depicting a major change in your life and being okay with sharing it with a classroom. Technical challenges included working out camera angels, keeping things in the correctplace, keeping flow moving frame by frame, and difficulties keeping out of the shot. When I would realize I had been in the shot, sometimes it was far too late to reshoot, but some instances allowed for reshooting.
While designing the project and through taking each photo, I had time to reflect quite a bit on those events. The more I, or anyone, reflect, the clearer the situation becomes and the better I understand myself. Self-reflection is a great tool for any artist, and I would gladly design a project around it. The potential for stop motion animation is endless, and a useful tool for teaching. |
AboutWelcome to the spring 2014 course website for AEAH 3770: Computer Art Applications at the University of North Texas. Members of our class are Visual Studies majors perusing teacher certification in K-12 art education. Archives
May 2014
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