Interview Project

My latest video project was my first time doing an interview. I was kind of nervous at first, especially when actually conducting the interview. Eventually though, I got through it, and made a project that went pretty well. The hardest part was likely making the questions and asking them. After that, I got into the editing and made the footage into a completed video. During the editing process, I learned how to make titles in Premiere and also how to use static images and how to include keyframes to make motion with pictures.



There were definitely some things that I could have done better, though. While the titles were nice, they often got in the way and were a bit repetitive. The only reason that I used them was another problem, too. While I was recording the interview, I forgot to get full sentence answers, so the titles explained what the question was. Also, the framing of the shot, while mostly fine, was a bit too zoomed out, especially with the head-room.

Walking Animation

The latest project I've made in Animation is a walking cycle. This was definitely the hardest, but also the most fun project I've done so far. One cool thing about this animation is that I actually drew the character by hand. I don't think that I'm any good at drawing, but when I scanned it in, my drawings looked fairly good, and the weirdness of the proportions actually worked for the project. After setting up the foot movement and moving my character (who is half pug, half butler) across the screen, I started messing with the other limbs to give the whole thing a sense of realism, applying the Principles of Animation, such as Squash and Stretch, to the head. I also made the arms swing slightly. All of these really subtle changes actually worked to make a somewhat natural-looking walk cycle.

First After Effects Animations

For the first two animations of the year, I started learning how to use After Effects. Last year, the only animations I made were in Photoshop, but I'm really loving AE. Before, I had to make frames for everything, but keyframes are really helpful to make animations longer than a few seconds. My first animation was just a bouncing ball, something I had done before. However, this time I was able to make the bounce look smoother and more realistic. The second animation was of a crawling worm, and it turned out even better. This was technically my first "character" animation, so I learned how to use puppet pins to move parts of the worm. It ended up pretty good, but if I took a bit more time, it could've probably done even better.

Procedure Video

I finished my first video for sophomore year, and it turned out pretty good. As well as being the first of the year, it's also my first video using the Panasonic camera and using Premiere Pro. Both tools were a bit confusing at first, but eventually, I learned how they worked. Many people were complaining about the differences in Premiere from Final Cut, but it's really the same thing with a few more features. Filming the video went well too. My partner and I both used our ideas together to make a complete project. All of our shots worked for the video, telling a story and following the rules of video design. Editing was fun, too. Learning all the things I could do with the new software was really cool, especially the video effects I could add in. Finding audio clips and putting them in the video was also fun, to add more emotion into the story. If I could change anything, I'd probably make the second to last scene a bit more zoomed out, as  it would do well to add more to the tone and feel of the shot. Overall, I'm pretty proud that this is my first project of the year, and I'm exited to see what things I'll be able to do later in the year.