Tuesday, June 28, 2016

INSTRUCTOR POST - Welcome New Students!

Welcome to the AAU Summer Semester of 2016

There are hidden instructions in this post to test if you read it entirely!
There are also 2 intentional typos - cookie points to you if you find them!

This is a persistent online site I use to allow students in my class to solicit and offer feedback on their animation. There are a few important notes;

1. This blog is as helpful as you make it. Be active with comments, post your work regularly and take advantage of this venue. Monitor this site between classes. I will use this as a forum to make general announcements and answer common questions, so you don't want to miss out. Any post from me will have "INSTRUCTOR POST - ..." in the title: make sure you read them carefully.

2. In my regular classes, participation accounts for 20% of the total grade! If you're shy this is a great way to be involved in the classroom discussion. You get points for posting your work or for giving feedback on other people’s animation. Bonus question: ask me right now how to get 100% on your participation grade!

3. Title each post with your name, for example: “David Latour: Blocking Pass 1”. Your blogger ID may not be something I recognize. You don't want to miss out on participation marks when you post here. Qwigybo!

4. Conduct yourself here as you would in the class. Play nice with others and be supportive and constructive with your comments. Limit the posting to information relevant to the class.

Even If you're new to blogging you'll find this a pretty painless and straightforward process. If you have something from class you'd like to show, use the following steps:

  • Playblast your work (16:9 ratio, 960x540, convert to .mov, with H264 compression) 
  • Click the 'insert a video' button and browse to your movie file.
  • Be sure to put your first name in the post title.
  • You're done! 
  • continue reading to see how you can adjust your video size to fit nicely on the page.
  • (additional instructions to share video from another site)
  • Post the movie file on any video streaming site (YouTube, Vimeo) 
  • Copy the “embed HTML” from the streaming site 
  • In blogger click "new post" on the upper right corner of the screen and click on the "edit HTML" tab on the top right of the new post and paste the code in the window. (You can edit the html so that the video size is 600 x 337, to fit nicely within the blog interface.)

5. Blogger works best with Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome. If you have technical issues: try switching your browser. Make sure you login with the Google ID that you were invited with or you won’t be able to post or comment. Scarmfargle.

6. Check out SyncSketch: a great tool for posting your work and getting feedback. We're going to make use of this handy website occasionally through the term.

Every time someone adds a new post or comments on an existing one, I get a direct email. I try to look in here regularly and offer critique and guidance as well. This blog will be available to you as space allows, which means you will be able to continue posting here after the end of term. (You may even see former students offering feedback here.)

Welcome to the blog and have a great time.

*Your first assignment:  Post your name in the comments of this welcome message with a sentence or two about what you hope to learn in this class.

15 comments:

  1. Krsna Turoff-Carstens
    I am hoping to advance my skills in animation, and I am excited to learn how to make a 3D model. In addition I want to learn how to work with different programs besides the flash animation program.

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  2. Mamie Tonnies
    I want to know if 3D Animation is something I'm interested in doing later on. I also wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to learn something completely out of my comfort zone.

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  3. Francesca Liu
    I want to learn how to use Maya and further my understanding of the principles of animation.

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  4. Izik Vu
    I hope to learn how to make 3D models of all shapes and sizes, rather than just learning how to model one thing.

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  5. Tristan McCulloch
    I have very little experience with 3D animation and 3D modeling and I hope to learn at least the basics of those in this class.

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  6. my name is Tia Thomas.

    I want to learn 3d animation because I want to know all types of animations. It also seems fun :D

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  7. Lin Dudas
    I want to learn a thing or two about Maya, and just animation in general.

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  8. Tucker McCulloch
    I want to learn how to animate because it will probably be useful in making video games

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  9. Paulina Vega-Vazquez
    What I hope to learn in this class is how to create 3D characters and learn more about animation. Overall I want to be able to bring my ideas to life.

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  10. Gracyna Mohabir
    I am excited to learn the basic skills of animation, having no prior experience. I want to see what this is like as it is something I am interested in as a potential career.

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  11. Tyler Luu
    I hope to animate the projects will be working on

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  12. Anthony Vargas
    I am hoping to learn more about Animation through this experience and how to turn my artwork into an animation.

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  13. Tyler Tucknies
    I would like to learn about 3D animating and what it takes to dose so, and i would like to improve my skills in maya because i have almost no clue how to use it i used it a little but i was confused the hole time

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  14. Talea Rendon
    I want to learn how to better myself at art in general and also if 3D animation is something I would like to further pursue

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  15. Alexis Flores
    I want to learn and be able to use maya, and also learn the basics of animation. Also would love to learn how to 3D models.

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