Pick a process!

For the next week of school you will pick an area of focus and try your hand at learning something new (or getting better at something if you kind of already know something about it). This is a short week of learning. The purpose is to get enough of an overview of the process that you could select this process/software to apply to a final end of the year project if desired. There are two animation concepts you can choose from:

1. Rotoscoping with Photoshop or Flash
2. 3D modeling with Blender

You will have one week to check it out, investigate and make a short, small assignment.

Rotoscoping

Assignment: Please watch the rotoscoped videos below. Then watch the movie linked to Good Explanation of the Process (below). As evidence of your learning, you will create a simple 10 second rotoscope test using video capture with Photo Booth on the Mac, and Photoshop or Flash. You will record your face or body using PhotoBooth on the Mac (no audio), and combine it with little drawings and other graphical elements painted in photoshop or created as symbol art in Flash. Remember you can also apply filters to your video in Photoshop. This will simply be a test, not necessarily a work of art. You will then be asked to consider some questions about rotoscoping.

Rotoscoped sample videos:
A-Ha (the Grandaddy of them all, winning numerous MTV awards)
Ladyhawke
Linkin Park
Kanye West
The Paper Chase 
Doppelganger
Skateboarder

Good explanation of the process

You will demonstrate at the end of the week your progress over 10 seconds, 12 fps, 120 frames. I will want to see a Photoshop file or Flash file with a video layer, and other layers that combine drawings etc. NO AUDIO! (at least for now)

1. Video file (this will be the project format)
2. In a layer you will import your video
3. In a layer on top of video you will have a draw layer for your drawings. 
4. You may also want a duplicate of the video layer in case you want to try filtering frames of your video with filters.

Steps in photoshop (will be better for drawing and filters)

1. New File-Video File, NTSC 720x470
2. New Video Layer-import video clip
3. Make a new blank video layer on top for drawings
4. Duplicate the video layer if you want to try some filters on your video

 Steps in Flash (will be better for timeline tweened animation)

1. Import a video file into the timeline-it must be flv compatible, so you may need to convert to flv, or a format compatible with Flash.
2. Make a new blank layer on top for drawings
3. Make new layers as necessary for symbols and graphics
   

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Blender 3D

Assignment: Please complete the tutorials below. You will turn in one model as listed below (glass model from second tutorial-see below), and answer a short easy quiz that matches up terms and concepts with menus within blender.

Blender Cookie Tutorials-
There are 6 mini tutorial movies in this linked page. You should watch movies 2-6.

Getting Started with Blender(getting started with Blender with Alex Cordebard)
Assuming you have completed movies 2-6 above, you will watch the linked tutorial above and follow along. You will create the glass at the end of the video and turn it in as a rendered png file. You should be able to discuss terms and concepts including 1-10 below, and do a match up quiz at the end:

1. Object Mode vs. Edit Mode
2. Vertex, Face, Edge
3. Extrude
4. Modifiers, Subdivide
5. Loop Cuts, Edge Loops
6. Mesh
7. Duplicate, Mirror, Scale, Rotate
8. x, y, z axis
9. Solid, wireframe
10. Flat, Smooth Shading, Lighting