sweet, sweet awesome-ness
so here it is. my entire quarter’s work of 3d animation in one video. i have the higher quality version to show you guys in person, but here’s the link to the crappy youtube version. i hope you enjoy!
super mario galaxy on the snes
i found this video in one of my feeds and thought it was a pretty sweet animation. they also put out a video on what super mario bros. would look like on the atari 2600. i’ll post that if i find it.
95 on my physics test, but i have to take the final. i found that out today
last day of classes tomorrow!
a lesson in stress management
sorry if the title freaks you out.
so yea, the entire last week i’ve been working nonstop. well, i wouldn’t say nonstop, but practically. brittany and i went to a concert friday night on campus. it was okay. the crowd was really annoying. the band isn’t very, you know, mosh pit crowdsurfer crazy, but apparently the crowd thought so.
anyways, school…we’re going into week 9, which is very exciting, but very frightening at the same time. for one, we’re almost done with classes. but all those deadlines are getting closer and closer and the work is really piling up.
on to the work:
physics…can i stress how much i dislike this class again? haha. we have a test on thursday, so i’ll be making a very information-filled crib sheet. if i can get above a 90 on this test…it means i can not even try on the final. he takes the best 3/4 test grades. my previous ones have been 88 and 94. that would be so sweet. cause final pressure would be even worse. *crosses fingers*
3d animation. this class started out being really awesome. now it’s just become really tedious. fiddling with little 3d characters to make their movement just right doesn’t please me in any way. now, programming them to do something would be a lot cooler. but yea, moving them…nuh uh. but that project is starting to build up, so i’m planning this week to go to the lab and get a lot of it out of the way.
2d graphics programming. this class is still awesome. but the project is coming to an end, so i’m starting to freak out on what needs to get done. i mean, it’s functional and works, but the one task i have left is to up the visual effects. i spent a good amount of time wednesday night in the lab trying to do that. with the other effects we have (bomb explosion warps the screen, getting hit by an enemy shakes the screen) the visual experience is hard to increase. but i’m trying to do that graphically. we’ll see how that turns out.
game design & development. i already told you how we’re in that values at play study. this week’s project was to make a paper game that demonstrates a value. my group made a card game, with our own cards. but when we play tested it on friday, i found it ridiculously difficult. i had to leave early due to the concert, but i put my feedback in and some suggestions. they haven’t gotten back to me as they seem to enjoy the complexity, but i really think the difficulty needs to be taken down a lot. oh yea, and the final project for this class is ridiculous. a 5 minute commentated video of how a video game demonstrates a certain value and other terms we learned in class. AND a 1500 word essay to go with the video. OMG
take me home now.
the week’s happenings
so i got an e-mail from mom saying that she checked my blog and hadn’t seen anything.
first of all, way to go mom for checking the blog. second, shame on me for not posting anything. =p
let’s see, what’s been going on here.
i’ll start with a thorough surgery on what’s going on with classes:
physics. i hate physics. i got an 88 on my last test. *waits for applause* and i have another test on thursday that consists of fluids and simple harmonic motion. i know, you’re getting giddy just thinking about it. on to more exciting subjects.
3d animation. we’re working on our final projects, which consist of a character performing an animation in an environment. i chose a tim burton-esque character in a haunted house. he’s going to be tip toeing down a hallway, trip, then look up hesitantly. sounds simple, but i guarantee it won’t be. our homework for friday is to design the environment.
2d graphics programming. still continuing work on the game. we received feedback from the teacher today and learned we are the furthest along out of all the groups. it looks awesome. right now, i’m trying to come up with a way to enhance the graphics using a high level shader language (HLSL). we’re programming the game using microsoft’s xna environment. so far, we’ve got particle explosions, a high score server, and networked multiplayer. sounds/music and other features remain to be added. you guys will surely see the final product. =)
and last, but not least, is game design and development I. we’re participating in this research study that NYU and another college is conducting. so we’re reading articles on social issues and how video games can express them. the study is called values at play. we’re expected to keep a blog and whatnot. sounds like it’ll be pretty cool. and we’re still waiting on grades for the timeline project (my timeline is on the bottom) and the pinball machine. but from what i saw in class, my pinball machine was up among the top 5. =p
other than school, brittany and i will be heading off to buffalo on thursday for a concert featuring cobra starship and we the kings. that should be a nice interruption to an otherwise class and work filled week.
i know…it’s late, but
i found this awesome article that lists the top 10 gaming schools in the country…
look at number 3!!!!
http://education-portal.com/articles/Top_10_Gaming_Schools.html
week 5: when does it end!?!?!
okay…time for another update from me.
programming is going well. the teacher isn’t very user friendly and doesn’t know how to post assignments, so it’s kind of hard to know when something is due. but i’m pretty sure i have a 2d world project due sometime next week. don’t worry, it’ll get done.
animation is AWESOME!!! our next project is rotoscoping. i have this breakdance footage from archive.org. i’ll post the finished product. it should be AMAZING. cause i’m working on it now. i don’t even have one full second done and it’s awesome.
the novel…we’re currently starting dracula. we went over a history of how the novel may be an outlet for bram stoker’s apparently being homosexual. weird. anyways, just handed in an essay for that class as well. i wrote on frankenstein and how he is an outcast of society based solely on his appearance. he has everything else that would allow him to fit into society, but his appearance is his defeat.
myth, legend, and folklore is interesting. we just finished the epic of gilgamesh. we compared some of the flood narratives, such as the ones from genesis, the enuma elish, and gilgamesh. the material is very interesting and easy to read. i think we’re going to start reading hesiod’s theogony next. and sometime soon the golden ass. yes…i said ass. =p
finally, i went to a concert last night. by myself, of course…because everyone has classes and doesn’t usually like my music anyways. but it was so awesome. i caught a drumstick and 2 guitar pics. also caught 2 bottles of water that the lead singer threw into the crowd. i’ll post pictures of the drumstick and pics. i drank some of the water and passed it around to the rest of the crowd. the band is called the starting line. they’re awesome.
week 3…status: feeling sane
this week has been very busy, once again….in my programming class we are dealing with using bitmap instead of vector graphics because flash can process the bitmap graphics faster instead of recalculating the vector graphics. we are using some classes provided to us to make a functioning 2d world with different layers that move at different speeds. apparently that is called the parallax effect. it’s pretty cool.
for my animation class we have a homework due next week. a 30 second frame by frame animation using photoshop cs3’s new video layer. class tomorrow should be interesting, as it pretty much always is. i’m thinking telling the story of prometheus for my homework. he’s on a cliff tied to a giant rock, and every day this bird of prey comes and eats all his organs. and because prometheus is immortal, he regenerates every day. i’m hoping to make it more humorous, though.
for myth, legend, and folklore, i’ve got an essay due saturday. we have to compare the genesis myth to either the egyptian myths we’ve been reading or the enuma elish. i’m thinking i’m going to compare it to the enuma elish because it is more of a story whereas the egyptian readings are more like instructions on how to perform different rituals. and the names are very confusing.
as for the novel. we’ve just finished up daniel defoe’s “moll flanders“, the first of what would come to be known as the whore novels. it was so-so. and now we’ve just started frankenstein. i have to have it read by tuesday, which shouldn’t be too bad.
easily the best class
today i went to my animation class, and it is definitely going to be the best class this quarter. we discussed the different types of animation and the earliest animation techniques. we watched some early animation flicks like “gertie the dinosaur” and “little nemo”. we also watched georges méliès’s “a trip to the moon”.
then, for our exercise, we were asked to make a flipbook. we had to make two objects move differently across the page and then a face that changed expressions and rotated.
here’s what i did (it was one of her favorites):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQiJzVSjPrg
