Applied Animation - Week 15

The busiest of all weeks had been this 15th one where ALL of our scenes were created and exported as separate TIFF sequences. As I had mentioned before, this week would consist of compensating for the lack of proper time management in production. Considering that now we have nothing other than Applied Animation left we will not have to divide our attention and capability to manage a workload as we did these previous two semi-productive weeks (in terms of Applied, though). In a nutshell, every single day me and Luca were gathering together (except for Sunday) to discuss, exchange necessary assets for scenes, animate backgrounds and foreground assets, give each other feedback and criticism, as well as export and exchange transparent TIFF sequences of pieces of animation. Now, delving into detail, there were several scenes that only I alone needed to collate, some that only Luca needed to, and several that we both had to create. Initially, we got one thing out of the way: the effects used for the black background behind all the universes, nebulas, and branes, which is created by CC Star Burst with consistent proportions that we decided on. The only variation is the speed and the size (opacity) of the stars, whereas every other value remained the same. We first thought of using our newfound After Effects plugin system Trapcode's Particular to animate this, however, found that CC Star Burst is effective as well along with it consuming less time per scene. Before we collated the cosmic assets, with Luca having the universe and galaxy animated through Trapcode, I created the looping animation of the Brane and the Calabi Yau space through a different method. In order for there to be a fluctuation of styles, I drew the Brane and Calabi Yau space in Photoshop layers, which I then proceeded to alter and modify through Form, Particular, Light Burst CC, and other such effects so that it may symbiotically align with the plasma-like look of the rest of Luca's assets while at the same time differentiating itself from them. Once this was taken care of, we started animating. For the Brane multiverse I used Luca's Zap character rig and animated universe in accordance with my looping Brane animation to fuse and create a smooth keyframe animation that captured the enormity of space. Another scene that I did was the Simulated multiverse which featured several of my minions all computing and formulating universes through a projector, For this scene, I used Luke's universe render, which got me to think about the cross-platforming that we have been doing throughout these final steps of the project. In other words, I had not realized the equal division of work we have been assigning each other during this longitudinal endeavor - something that got me to thoroughly understand the parameters behind collaborative practices. I believe if all of this work was not to be submitted for a college module I would not realize the division between the workflow that we've been subconsciously managing, which is something that alludes to my open-mindedness in collaboration - a skill I've been accumulating throughout these college years. However, in an attempt to be self-perceptive, I believe that at times I've been way too radical in assuming a leadership role, which is something that I will acutely fix and mend for from this day on for it will assist me in working in collaborative groups in the future, despite overall this one being the most successful I've ever participated in. Conclusively, in accordance to all the pictures of every separate scene I've done being posted within this blog post, I believe that despite the last minute rearranging of time management, this week has been the most productive and compensating (for the past ones not being as substantial because of other modules' necessity to be placed at a priority) which has hailed the most important lesson within the nature of the collaborative practice: time management is key for a flexible and functional schedule. No one can accustom theirs to yours, which is why you need set some common denominators in order to get the work done - a thought for the future. Nevertheless, I adore the amount of work that can be done within a mutual agreement and necessity (such as a deadline) through the power of extrinsic motivation!