Interview of Mario Bustos

Mario Bustos Interview



The Task

In e-Comm we had to film and edit an interview of a person in our group. The most outstanding event that we came up with was Mario Bustos reaching black belt in Taekwondo. I drew out the outline for how we would film, and Lauryn wrote the 22 questions needed. We recorded the intro and outdo in the classroom. Then, we went out to the gym, recorded about 13 minutes off footage, stayed after school to finish asking questions. 

Editing

I headed over to Premiere Pro and started editing. After two days, my files got corrupted. So I started over. I used many different title screens and fades to try and make my video look good. Next time, I'd like to not take this as seriously, and take a more comedic approach. I did learn how to crop and add second media over existing clips, though, which is extremely useful.

Overview

For two weeks, I worked hard on my new project. It was to draw your own character, import it into PhotoShop, clean it up, and then put it into AfterEffects to animate it. This was something new to me - scanning my drawing into a computer file.

PhotoShop

First thing I learned to do was how to scan something using the cool machine in our classroom. After that it was 2 tries of trying to import that fresh PNG file into PhotoShop, which I realized on my second try that the reason it looked so blurry was because I was on a quarter view. Yeah. After that hiccup I was back to stuff I already knew how to do: using the paint bucket, wand tool, brush, etc. from my time in Microsoft Paint.

AfterEffects

After about 4 days of polishing my character, who I based off of Sackboy from LittleBigPlanet, I imported him into AfterEffects. Oh. Ohoho. I spent twenty minutes trying to figure out why he was importing so blurry, until I asked my teacher for help and he pointed out that I was on a quarter view. Again. After THAT hiccup I was again back to what I knew how to do: using rotation, anchor points, and position to make Sackboy walk across my screen. When I first used the null object tool to move him across the screen, I managed to make his footsteps line up perfectly with his walking speed on the first try. He started in the middle of the screen, though, but I was too scared of messing up my accomplishment, so I just made him fall from the sky to let him land in the same place.

That was something I could have definitely done better, along with a background that was actually made by myself. I do think I did well on actually drawing my character, though. We're gonna be starting a new project very soon actually, and I can't wait to see what it is.

Wiggly Worm

Overview

Once more, a daunting task was assigned. Last week I finished my bouncing ball. This week, I finished my inchworm animation. As you can hopefully see, I have gotten better at Photoshop. We made the tube shape of the worm on PS, along with our background layers, and imported everything into After Effects. 

Learned

From there, we used a new tool - the Puppet Pin. I messed around a bit with it, tried to use the starch tool, failed at it. Solved the problem by just adjusting the pins instead. After making the worm arch its back a sufficient number of times, I headed on over to the Null tool. That was new. I learned how to move the worm according to the pushes of its body, and after 2 hours I finished the animation completely.

This has been my favorite project I've done in Animation so far (including last year), and this week we'll start working on a walking animation. Should turn out to be quite the challenge.

Jumping Ball

The Task

Like last year, our first task in animation was a bouncing ball. Except instead of only using Photoshop, though, we also got to try out Adobe After Effects for the first time. But, we did pay attention to detail a lot more.

Overview

Instead of having to make 40+ layers for a 3 second animation, we instead made one separate ball layer in PS. Then in After Effects, we used movement keyframes to animate it. I have a pretty basic understanding now on how to squash and stretch using AE, but I still need to work on the whole speed thing.

Animation

It took me quite a while to get all way to animating. But when I did, I almost wished I hadn't. I had to fiddle around with all the different key frames and arcs and stuff like that, but when I finally got my ball's path plotted out, I had to figure out squashing. Then stretching and rotation. I'm still not too happy with it, though, mostly because I couldn't figure out a way to manually adjust the easing of the ball myself.

Procedure Video

ONW Procedure Video

Our first video project was a simple one designed to let us take the new video cameras for a test drive. Mine turned out awful. Three months out of practice, I was unable to spit out something I'm proud of. We decided to show the students how to be the best Raven ever.

We came up with a list of FIVE need-to-know items about ONW:

Secret shortcuts between hallways

Bathroom that almost no one uses

Out of the way staircases

The auditorium

Special drinking fountains for bottles

We didn't really storyboard at all, besides listing those five musicians-haves on paper. I was the camera man, though, and we managed to get a hold of the school mascot hat. We filmed all of our scenes in the span of 80 minutes, ending up with about 5 minutes of footage. Unfortunately, we got hit with the 30 seconds-only rule. So we lost over half of our clips.

We edited our own clips, and mine turned out alright, I guess. I definitely could have done better if there wasn't a time restriction. I would've made better transitions, an easier to follow flow, and actual audio. I did like all of the shots we got, though, so I'd keep those. 

Honestly, for the next project, I hope we get to pick our groups. I feel I could do a lot more with people I've worked with extensively before.

e9 Final

My fourth quarter project was quite the beast. The end goal was to create an imaginary product with a design team, and create graphics, animations, and even a video commercial for it. Overall, it took us about 2 months, I believe. We started out very well in graphic design, where we had the good fortune to be able to come up with our product idea - the Magic Pack. Our graphics were easily created, as you can see:

Our animation that Katie, Nick and I worked out smoothly, as I am quite proficient with SketchUp, after creating a three-story house.  Katie isn't bad either, as she's the one who made the surrounding campsite. Making something appear like a cloth backpack was different, but a welcome challenge:

All was well and good. Until we hit web design. Now, no one in our team could honestly say it's their strong suit, but I, myself in particular, am pretty much lost without a step-by-step tutorial. Which we had, but then we lost it. In the end it all worked out though, after much trial and error, and we managed to cobble together something presentable.

Over the course of production, I did have time to practice new skills, like listening to others, not being bossy, and how to work with difficult people. I also got to exercise my video editing in our YouTube commercial, which we recorded as a group, but edited individually ourselves. This was mine:

After our presentation, we were approached by many of our peers, who told us they had enjoyed ours the most, and it filled me with a sense of pride, but also trepidation, as if I'll have to do even better next time. But then again, I still have much to learn, so I have much to improve.

This whole time spent working was definitely not time wasted, I think. I do believe that I managed my time well, as my team and I were fully prepared to present at the end of fourth quarter. When we finished recording our video a little late, I stayed after school for three hours each day, for three days. I was determined to make a  good commercial I would be proud of, and ultimately, I am. This has brought me to realize that my strength is definitely video and film, and I will continue to grow in that area.

My weakness, though, is without a doubt web design. My solution is to stay as far away from that as possible.

This semester, my favorite parts were definitely creating a 3D house in SketchUp, and filming and editing our commercial for the Magic Pack. However, I would like to change how my group is still slightly awkward together, though that can only be fixed by constant exposure, but I fear that we won't be seeing all of us in e-Comm next year. Next, I will significantly improve my ability to film and edit, and how to incorporate animation into it. I have the next three years to do it.

What Have We Done

Once again, I write. Last blog I told you I had joined up with a specially operated squad. I am here to report my - our - success. we came up with our product the Magic pack. We then designed various logos and graphics for it as well.

This is our product logo for the backpack with infinite space

Our company was name Company Inc, and this logo took a lot longer than it should have

This was our coupon, still looking slightly evil

Our ad, enticing you to buy our product

As you can see, we put some good effort into our graphics, and basically just grew as individuals. We were all friends by the end of fourth quarter, and I hope they stay in e-Comm for the next couple of years with me. Maybe we could work together again.