For the past few weeks, we learned how to use most video editing (and animation) programs: After Effects, Animate, and Premiere. It's well-known that a large majority of my class despise animation (myself included) so when we learned about the wondrous thing known as computer-generated tweening, it was if God, the man himself, had heard our prayers.
Before this class I had... minimal experience with video editing, mostly with a cracked version of Sony Vegas. They were mostly for my friends, for parody purposes obviously (you can see them here and here.) but they taught me a lot about how editing worked, and how laborious it was. Now, learning how to use these new programs, I can definitely see their strengths and weaknesses. First, After Effects: pretty straight forward and easy to use, especially with the usage of keyframes and the stopwatch tool. You can make some quick n' easy motion graphics and even animations if you really want. It's a much more cleaner (though less detailed) version of Sony Vegas but gets the job done, and easier on the eyes. Next is Premiere, and to be frank, I don't know what's the difference between After Effects and Premiere. They.. look different, but they seem to accomplish the same thing? Ergo, it's relatively easy to pick up on if you're acclimated with AE. Now, Animate. Animate is the bane of my existence. I would rather kneel on rice than use Animate. Animate is a bizarre combo of Adobe Illustrator and AE; that is, you can make vector graphics and animate them, and manipulate how they tween as well. It's strange. And sometimes the tweens don't work. But it's there. Interestingly, it has the onion skin tool, which is very useful when you need to animate. But it's still very confusing. In Summary...
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The first time I joined the tabletop club, I was new and baby fresh to DnD, having just played 5e and knowing exactly what I want to do. Imagine my disappointment when the only game we had was 3.5e.
So I decided, I ought to make my own game! On the fly! No plan at all. (I've improved as a DM I swear, and as player too.) ...That was, until a frankly creepy guy in my theatre class decided I should play in HIS game, and that I was being "childish" for saying no and kept bothering me. Other people were seeing that I was getting distressed, so I pretty much left for the entirety of 8th grade, and returned only when the coast was clear of that creepy guy. In 2019 I joined a thankfully, 5e game with a DM I recognized from the year before. This time she had 4-5 players, instead of 12 (all of them rogues) like last year. I was relieved! Finally, a normal DM session! And I was right. It was pretty fun. Oh god. Please help me. I've got myself trapped in a hell I can never escape. Confession: I am seriously hooked on DnD. I used to not have much care for it, but when I started playing it proper and with people I actually enjoyed playing with, that's when things started getting craaaaaaaaazy fun.
Context: I have played DnD before 2018-2019. It wasn't fun, really, because it wasn't a proper game, and when I was in the 7th grade I was kind of a... how do you say a**hole nicely? Well, something like that. Currently, I play a lvl 3 tabaxi (cat people) monk/barbarian named Aslan in one campaign, and a lvl 3 tiefling barbarian (zealot) named Fiammetta in the other. I decided to play tanks simply because I like being an aggressive attacker. I like the rush of satisfaction when I pummel my opponents mercilessly. And since I'm about as strong as a snail, imagining myself as a 6'3" beefy cat man is pretty amusing. But without dice, you can't play DnD. So I decided, I ought to get some dice for my current character, Aslan, to stay in theme! (p.s. to Mr. B-- this is simply a post about how much I love dice, not a game review. Since I can't stop talking about it, I'll review DnD in full in another post!) Animating is tough work. Like seriously, super tough work. Despite how much effort it takes to make an animation, we see it everywhere, especially with how digital our world has gone today. And without it, our video games, movies, cartoons... would suck.
But what about the animations that go unnoticed by many? The background characters moving along a street, the rise and fall of a sleeping avatar, and the idle movements of your character when you've left the mouse untouched for too long. Do they really matter? The answer is: Yes. They absolutely do. |
AuthorHey, Jay Phung here. This is my blog where I reflect on various assignments from Game Design! Please enjoy your stay (´・ω・`). Archives
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