This has been one of the most fruitful years for the Film, Animation, and Computer Graphics classes, and it has been so wonderful to watch these kids do so well. There’s so much going on in the Video 1, Animation, and Computer Graphics classes right now!
A pretty amazing stop-motion animation project has just been completed, and is in the editing works right now, soon to be completed and shown off to the school. Now, our animation students are beginning their new Traditional Animation project (pencil and paper on light tables), where they are working on a project called a "Circle Boogie." This project consists of them morphing a circle into 3-5 different shapes, then back to a circle, which will animate as a loop.
The Computer Graphics kids are hard at work as well. They recently finished a Free Project, where they could use their newly acquired Photoshop skills to create a project of their own choosing, using drawing, photo manipulation, or whatever they want. Currently, they are now working on completing “Album Covers,” which is a project that requires them to create a pseudo, music album cover that must include their face in it somewhere. We’re excited to see what they produce!
The Video 1 students are also on the ball with so many exciting projects! They have been hard at work learning how to make black and white films (either making it into a silent film, or a sound film using the old Trans-Atlantic accent). They also just completed a project where they learn how to create sound for film in their Sound Replacement Projects. For this, they take a 1 minute clip from a movie of their preference and replace the sounds made in that film entirely.
In class, currently, they are learning how to use green screen effects properly with a professional studio-grade program called After Effects. Their project consists of using a public domain green screen effect to take themselves out! They’re already having a ton of fun with it, and I’m excited to see the kind of results they produce.
This upcoming March, our Animation, Computer Graphics and Video 1 students will be taking field trips to Huntington University, where they will be learning how film and animation work in a studio environment, getting a chance to hold and play with some serious equipment (real deal $25,000 cameras used to film multi-million dollar movies), and learn what their newly acquired knowledge and skills can really do in the real world!
These classes have been doing an absolutely phenomenal job this year, and I couldn’t be prouder with how hard they’re working. We can’t wait to see the awesome stuff they finish up this semester, and know that the work they accomplish will make them proud of what they’ve done as well.
Great things are happening, and we’re excited for the future creations they accomplish!
Leah Zink,
Media Arts Teacher