Howl's Moving Castle Trailer Review

        One of my all time favorite animations is the movie Howl's Moving Castle by Hayao Miyazaki from the famed Studio Ghibli. Miyazaki is best know for his movies like Howl's Moving Castle, My Neighbor Totoro, and Academy Award winner, Spirited Away.

        I decided to watch the Walt Disney trailer for HMC and review it.

Trailer:






       I love this style of 2D animation. Hand-drawn animation is always very special because of of the level of difficulty. I've seen the entire movie and it's just as good as the trailer.

       The story takes place is a fictional monarchy called Ingary. Think of a mix between Olde England and Treasure Island.It's about a young girl named Sophie Hatter who is a hat maker. She is turned into an old woman by the Witch of the Waste. Along with aging, part of the curse is that she can't tell anyone about the curse. The only person who can change her back is the elusive, narcissistic wizard Howl. This is the story of the war in Ingary and the curse on Sophie.

        Being a first year animator, I can't critic a professional piece very much considering I don't know much.

       One element that I would definitely add to my own work is the authentic feeling of hand drawn animation vs computer modeled animation. This was actually animated on a computer, but hand-drawn.

        Though it fits the tone slightly, I wish some of the more light-hearted scenes would have been lighter in colors. The entire trailer gives me an anxious feeling with all the vibrant shadows.

        Miyzaki is truly a master of his medium. He brings these stories to life with his artwork and animating.

Source:

MadmanOnline. "Howl's Moving Castle - Official Trailer." YouTube. YouTube, 16 Sept. 2014. Web. 15 Dec. 2016.

Worm Animation

        The worm animation was one of my first projects this year. I learned how to use the puppet pin tool in Adobe Aftereffects and create a cycle animation.

        The worm itself and the scenery was created using Adobe Photoshop by utilizing the paintbrush tool. I then, moved the saved layers into Aftereffects to animate it. A new composition was created then, the selected layers were moved into it and onto the timeline.. Using the puppet pin tool and starch tool to create the squiggly shape of the worm. 

       In the timeline, there are key frames. By setting a keyframe, you are allowed to change the shape of the layer and the computer will save the keyframe shape. This is what creates the animation. Once, I had two set keyframes, I just copied and pasted unil I filled in the timeline.

      Once I filled the timeline, I added a null object. This is an invisible shape. I parented the worm to this null object which I had added keyframe to, moving it across the screen. 

Next time, I hope to be able to add more movement to my worm and create more action in the animation itself. This was a great stepping stone to future projects.

Final Product:

        

Feature Story Experience

ONW is a very unique high school. One of our greatest accomplishments is the forming of the GSA or Gender Sexuality Alliance. 

          Josie Hilton, a senior here at ONW is a leader of this amazing group and I was able to interview her about it. This has been my favorite project so far as I am a huge advocate for LGBT+ rights and I'm very passionate about the goal of the GSA, to create a safe space for all LGBT+ students and allies.

   

         For this project, we created a video feature story and a written feature story. The written part was probably the most complicated part for me. I am a visually creative person and it's kind of hard to imagine words on a page. I can easily visualize a video or animation, but papers are harder. 

         The video was my favorite part. I'm quite happy with how it turned out considering how many technical difficulties I had. My sound wouldn't record, or my tripod was broken.  It was mess. It cam out strong though and the GSA really loved it.

 

Gender Sexuality Alliance at Olathe Northwest

By Lizzie Swartwood Hour 6

The students walk through the empty halls after school towards an empty English classroom. This room will soon be filled the laughter of old friends and new friends as these students take their places facing the front of the room towards their leaders. On the projector screen is a page with big letters spelling out the words “Let’s to join together to end the hate”. Behind it is a bright banner of genders and sexualities. This mirrors the room which is filled with people of all shape and sizes, genders and sexualities.  This in ONW’s Gender Sexuality Alliance or GSA. It’s a club where both LGBTQA+ students and Allies can join together to make the world and the school a better place.

            LGBTQA+, more commonly referred to as LGBT+ or just LGBT, is an acronym for Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans, Queer, and Ace. The plus refers to all other sexualities and gender identities not represented by the acronym.

            Josie Hilton is a senior and leader of the GSA who fall under two parts of LGBT+, Bi and Ace. Josie identifies as an asexual, biromantic female. This means that she doesn’t experience any type of sexual attraction and is romantically attracted to both males and females.

            This is her first year in the GSA as she joined by the recommendation of a friend. She has the privilege of leading this amazing group before she graduates.

“I’m in charge of setting up all the meetings, coming up with the new topics that we’re going to talk about and for me, that’s been the [best] part” She said.

            Ms. Powers, the sponsor this year, is very impressed with Josie and her leadership skills and elaborates on her stance.

“Josie is an amazing leader. We didn’t have elected officers. Basically, I just asked who was interested in leadership and what qualified them…based on that I put together five people and she has consistently been one of the people who shows up to the meetings prepared…she runs the meeting with the help of the other leaders. She’s great.”

            The GSA used to be called the Gay Straight Alliance, but they decided on a a name change this year in order to make it more accepting and open.

“We are a safe place where a community of people who’ve come together to embrace the LGBT community and to also help both those in the community and allies learn more about the different parts of the LGBT community and what it all means,” Hilton says.

            The GSA has been around Olathe Northwest for about nine years now. It was created by the students in order to create a safe place for anyone. Whether you are straight, gay, questioning or anything else, this is place you can go to find community and acceptance.

Maya Castle 3D Model

        Maya is a program used by animators everywhere, usually for 3D renderings. My castle (to the left) is my introduction project to this platform. The whole point of this simple venture is to familarize myself with Maya.

        To start out, we (my class and I) began by creating the towers on all four corners.  We made 2 cylinders and combined them using the difference and union tool to make a tower.  Then, we added turrets by using the Extrude tool. I took a creative license by adding a cone to the top. Command-D (duplicate) came in handy because it allowed me to do less work.

         The walls came next; they were much easier. They were just the cube tool. The turrets were made  the same way. The door opening was made with a cylinder and a cube, using the difference tool.

        This was very helpful in learning the beginnings of Maya. I learned how to create shapes and other different techniques.

Bin Tutorial

Bins are important in video editing. They help keep everything organized. Watch below to learn how to use bins in Adobe Premiere.

ONW 1:2000

           For this project, I interviewed Ariel Seemann, a sophomore at Olathe Northwest about her summer. I found out that she was born in Kansas City Kansas and went back to visit over the summer. she went to BBQ restaurants and listened to jazz performers. She said she had fun, but wouldn't do it again.

          My voiceover was probably the hardest part of this video. We don't hear our voices as they really are, so it was very awkward hearing it. I sat in my room with my earbuds in to record it. It about 4 tries to get it right.

          Shooting the video was quite tough because we didn't have a tripod, so our video is very wobbly and of poorer quality. In between Ariel's interview and mine, we walked around and got some raw footage of us walking around, scouting locations. It was a lot of fun to film and mess around a little. We also had a little more freedom for artistic interpretation.

         I'm quite proud of the finished product. Permiere Pro is growing on me a little more and I'm getting better at it. This video has more effects and a better editing quality.

          Finished Product:

  

ONW Procedures

My first video assignment was a ONW procedures example. My partner Ariel and I decided to be a little humerous and go with the right and the wrong way to fill out an get your planner signed.

Here it is:

We went through the normal process of video making using Adobe Premiere to edit.

Next time, I will check out my shots better and not be sick. I think it turned out quite well.

The opening shot explaining the basis of the video. It's an extreme wide shot.

Our middle shot after showing the incorrect way to get a planner signed. It is a closeup.

Our ending shot after showing the correct planner procedure. It's a wideshot,