FLASH ANIMATION

This is a test. Not sure if this will work. If it does you can play my animation. If not...I'll find a new one. Feel free to try to view it.

Instructions:

1. Download File.

2. Open your browser.

3. Drag file onto the URL bar.

4. watch

Alternate Instructions:
1. Download file.
2. Open file with your internet browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc.)
3. Watch


If neither works try commenting the problem and maybe I can help

Download Link:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4HeBSxj2SOtb0FtVEdfa0pWeDQ/edit?usp=sharing

Evaluation

For my presentation I think I would give myself around a 28-29/30. From the amount of positive feedback I would say I did pretty well. My voice projected well, I was making a lot of eye-contact with the audience.  In most cases I have a personality shell in most classes. In classes like health, or electives I tend to feel more "real" and I'm usually a quiet reserved guy in most other classes. Not sure why. I also usually suffer from some bad stage fright. I think the lights being bright and not being able to see the audience well made things easier for me to talk. My cousin told me he always feels more confident whenever he's on an elevated position, so maybe I'm the same way too.
As far as the Ted Commandments I think I did a pretty good job. Dream Big was pretty good in my opinion. Honestly I do think in my whole life this was one of the best presentations I've ever done. Easily top 3, possibly number 1. I also liked my message of using justified lies, and advancing through life by "speeding up", and not taking "shortcuts".
Showing the real me was pretty easy in this. Usually I have to present facts, analysis, conclusions, etc. and things I don't care about. In this I just said how I truly felt about things and spoke it like it was. I already talked about my "personality shell" so no more really needs to be said.
Connecting with people's emotions I did very well on. After stepping down from the stage I was complimented and was told things like "that was awesome" or "That was really good". The amount of laughter while I was on stage was also pretty prevalent. I always had a knack for being funny, I just have to plan being funny ahead of time. (By the way for those of you wondering, yes the plunger story was real...don't worry though. I literally had a can of febreeze in my left hand if needed). Felt kind of weird when I heard some chuckles in parts I didn't even intend to be funny.
In making the complex plain, Well I spent a good chunk explaining the big ideas, and I'm hoping I got what I wanted to say clear. I'm usually bad at explaining, and simplifying so I'm not sure whether or not to take a point off.
Not flaunting my ego. Here's my scale. Me < Kanye West. I'm good.
No Selling from the stage. Occurrences : Niddy
Feeling free to comment on others talks. The only person who even did this is Himavath...does mentioning him in my post just now count?
Don't read your talk. Ethan said I was good here so I'm going to trust his opinion; personally I thought I did well here too.
Ending talk on time. Well the purpose was to not take time from others, and since I was the last one I guess I pass this automatically.
Rehearse your talk. Yes, a lot. I think I ended up subconsciously remembering after a certain night when I was thinking about it while going to bed. Though I always did it in front of a clock and not a person.
As for the content I wouldn't call my visuals distracting. But I wouldn't necessarily call my self the main show. I think I think it was more than just an aid, but I always made sure to attract attention to myself. I would describe my use of powerpoint as proficiently synchronized implementation used to create nostalgic and entertaining representation. (I made it rhyme so you know it's good).
Also Mr. Perlman, if you're reading this, was that dropbox thing an April Fool's joke? I haven't found it yet.

The YOLO project? Did anyone else notice this?

AAGHAHAHGEW. Got back from New York to visit my sister. Now I have a strained throat and I'm congested. All the sneezing, mucus, and pain aren't helping my progress by the way. I've also been making significant changes to the original storyboard. Scenes are going by faster and I hate everything. Failure is supposed to be expected but is all this really necessary? I'm being tortured. Luckily my Ted Talk is going to be good (I hope. I'm going to feel awkward if the emotion I provoke in the audience isn't what I expect 0_o). I'm going for a more casual but energetic feeling, but stage fright is an issue for me. It usually is in the past, but I want to be able to make an impression with the TED talk. 

Animation is very choppy and the quality is also nowhere near "good". I may be using stnadards that are too high to judge myself, but, yolo? This project should just be called the Yolo Genius 20% Project because that's what this is. Almost everyone is using this to fulfill their own aspirations they probably wouldn't have otherwise. Although, if you read my last post you'd know I'd want to stop. I should have just done "make an art collection" because that seems more fun. 

I also was asked to make album art for own and max for their songs...at this pace? Not happening. There was point where I made this choice 

Toilet plunging > Animating

Now would you rather be in a bathroom with a porcelain bowel with brown and yellow insides, or cooped up in a room with computer and a tablet. Well...if you choose the latter.......I...........But I do think the new story board is more random. It starts the same, but everything is less cohesive. I got so bored with animating, I decided to attempt to make a legitimate interpretation as to possible symbols and themes I could assign....and I did it. Whenever I show the animation maybe I'll explain (If I remember to)

Continuing

I really am starting to lose motivation... Everything I do is just repetitive. I'm trying to use strategies to make things more efficient, but nothing seems to work the way I want them to! Also the fill tool, and changing colors makes little to no sense on adobe flash. When I switch colors I change EVERYTHING to the color I change it to, then I have to go undo it all, but the most annoying thing is when I need to use the fill tool and a line isn't connected properly. This is sort of my own fault, but I have to switch the color to black, then undo when everything turns black, fill the line, make sure the line is of a similar thickness, then change color again, undo, and finally fill the space (Assuming I don't accidentally fill the outline and not the space). The computer lag is also a huge issue, I try to draw slowly so it doesnt seem bad. Makes lines not as smooth and everything just turns fugly. I'll have to go to New York so I'll be taking a break (Finally). On the dark side I don't want to get unused to the tablet.  Life just seems to want to smack me in the face. Progress is overly slow, adobe flash is illogical, and the smallest things just annoy me. No wonder an episode of spongebob is sent to a team of 50 dudes to be animated. THIS IS A NIGHTMARE. Storyboarding was fun. Drawing individual characters was fun. Animation drains the fun out of all of it. I get tired of drawing, erasing, copying, pasting, undoing, redoing, and all these keyboard functions! Did I mention computer lag? I'll repeat this as much as I have to. I AM ANGRYY.

Then theres the quality issue. My drainage of motivation is definitely affecting my artwork. Some designs are getting lazier and lazier (detail especially drops in elmer fudd and nyan cat). The narwhal is consistent only because I'm able to draw that the fastest (though the pompadour is a bit frazzaling in conjunction with the horn). Mario i'm just not good at drawing, and Ronald...well I haven't gotten there yet.

I basically have all my character designs done now. I may tweek some details later, but all of them are done. I also finished my second-by-second story board. I'm planning on doing all the grunt work over spring break. Luckily I won't have to draw every individual frame in back-breaking work, because all I really have to do is erase a moving part and redraw it. It makes the overall frame look a bit stiff, but doing it otherwise wouldn't be reasonable. I also have the option on adobe flash to use a "bone" tool which automatically registers certain portions of picture as a person, and I can move each "bone" that corresponds to a limb to a place where I want movement, but all my characters designs are apparently "too complex" for flash to handle. Go figure. I also got a very good idea as to how to do my TED talk. I got some very good feedback today, helping me with what I should and shouldn't do during the presentation. The rest of the work I have left is pretty dry and boring, but the end result will (hopefully) be awesome!

Hopefully my storyboard is accurate in what actually looks normal though. I'm also concerned because there have been some lagging issues arising more and more frequently with the graphics tablet. Not sure if it's the computer, flash, or the tablet, but it's still manageable. Overall it should be smooth sailing from here on out, and I doubt anything else can really hinder and major progress.
Posted on these blogs:
http://21cmr.blogspot.com

peartisapunkpalmerisagod.blogspot.com

http://johnrecording.blogspot.com

Video Blog
https://vimeo.com/62217900

Posted to these blogs

http://benowitzianblog.blogspot.com/
http://kuroy22.blogspot.com/
http://kuroy22.blogspot.com/

I've finally gotten adobe flash CS5 (trial version). It will last me 30 days, then I'll use 30 days in the CS6 trial. So far my experiences with adobe flash are astonishing. I haven't gone through all the tools as of yet, but the program is awesome. It automatically smooths out my lines for me so nothing looks pixelated whatsoever! The entire thing about smooth lines may not sound like much because several also programs can draw "smooth" lines, but all those are really just lies. The way photo editors such as gimp, of MS paint handle their smoother lines with the brush tool is by making a base line. This is the darkest one, and the truest color, but its surrounded by gray pixels to give the illusion it's smooth. This is a problem for the fill tool because you'd end up with this ugly outline inbetween the real outline of the drawing, and the now colored portion. Plus, adobe flash has many features installed that will make animating a lot easier. I can add these bone structures to the character designs, and what these do is they act as joints, so you can add joints to a person. This way I can merely bend the bone structure, and it will look like the character just bent its elbow or knee. I've been doing a lot of learning about adobe flash so far, but i'm still no where close to a professional level. Something I've also considered recently is how I'll be using background music (BGM). For the thing I'm animating I already have a general idea of what type of mood the song will set. The song is only a minute and a half so I'll be able to use the whole thing throughout the project. I've also decided to base the animation around the music in terms of pacing. So I'm planning on modifying the storyboard for more precise times to fit the length of the song, and if possible, have the animation flow with the music. For example, while the music raises beat, so do the actions currently showing. I've also started doing some rough sketches of one of the characters. It's not currently finalized, but It's what I've done so far.

I'm thinking about getting rid of the pompadour, and I feel like I should make the horn bigger, but I'll see how it goes. Still got to rough out a couple things with the proportions of the body and whatnot, but again, nothing has been finalized.

Here's a Ronald McDonald Concept. I personally think so far from the ones I've attempted this is the best, but I'll try more things.

On another note, I've been changing up the story board to some degree. I've taken out my idea of including a Morgan Freeman since I don't feel like he fits in with the rest of what happens. I'm trying to shorten it because the amount of work for a couple of seconds can possibly range from half an hour to a full 2 hours from what I hear. It's all about the speed and intricacy of what your doing. Nothing is too grand scale in my project (except for a part near the end) so I don't think anything will slow me down a ridiculous amount.