Dialogue Conner Miller

This project was unfortunately a struggle. I had plans to draw Tony Stark with a drawing tablet, but when I went to start Friday the cage had shut down for check outs. This forced me to improvise and find a YouTube tutorial that showed me how to animate the mouth of images using AfterEffects. This wasn't ideal, but with the pressure of finishing the Fine Cut of my Senior Thesis film I was forced to prioritize. Thanks for a great class, I really enjoyed it!

Motion Media

This project was my favorite in a while. I feel much more comfortable with After Effects than Harmony due to my background with Premiere. I love music and was grateful that we had an opportunity to choose a song that meant something to us. I chose "Green Light" by Lorde from her 2016 album "Melodrama" I will likely be working in After Effects for my final project due to my comfort level with Adobe.

After Effects Bouncing Ball

I enjoyed working with an Adobe software on this project. As a film major intimately familiar with Adobe Premiere this was a little more in my comfort zone. Once I got comfortable with the layers, I felt like I had a good hang of the software! Excited for the music lyric project next!

Weight Demo

I enjoyed this project. I initially tried to incorporate my walk cycle, but found difficulties. This is short, but still shows weight. I'm loving After Effects and can't wait to learn about the program as it is very pertinent to my filmmaking!

Walk Cycle

I faced a much greater challenge for this project. I was able to animate a walk properly, but greatly struggled in the process of pegging my character across the stage. I want to come to office hours to learn how to peg characters better for upcoming projects.

EDIT:

My peg issue was fixable and I was glad to get it resolved. I feel much more confident going forward onto the next project!

Rotoscope

I went with a scene from Amazing Spider-Man 2 for my rotoscope. I was initially concerned with the task of rotoscoping, but eventually grew comfortable. I like that the audio from the original clip matches well with the animation I created. I'm glad this unit is over, but I love my final result.

Stop Motion Project (Appeal)

For this second stop motion project I choose to represent appeal. I had a intricate set up, but with DragonFrame in trial mode I was forced to make an adjustment. I used my previous knowledge and set up a camera and tripod in my bathroom. I used a simple setup of two shampoo bottles moving slowly. Instead of a DragonFrame trial project with a watermark, I thought a DIY project at home edited with Premiere would have more appeal. It is short, simple and to the point.

Bouncing Ball Stop Motion

With my limited background in animation, I still felt ready for this first assignment. I checked out the stop motion lab and got to work in Dragonframe. The first two animations I made were a bit choppy so I swapped out the small ball of construction paper for a bottle cap. In homage to the initial ones I made, I kept the first frame to portray a transformation.

My goal for this animation was to get my feet wet and I feel like I accomplished that. I look forward to upcoming projects with a larger scope and more experience.

Introduction

World,

My name is Conner Miller and I'm a Senior at the University of Tampa. I'm a Film and Media Arts major and in this final semester before I graduate I'm taking Animation I as my last elective. I have an extensive film background, but little to no experience in animation so I'm excited to learn! This blog will serve as a portfolio of sorts for all of my projects this semester.

My favorite superhero is Spider-Man and the recent success of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse has made me want to expand my animation abilities. I've watched videos on how they achieved the unique animation style in the film and would like to try to emulate that some into my work in a much limited capacity.

Best,
Conner