In this semester Folio1, I made some different brain animation based on the weekly theme. But based on the rubric in Folio1, I made improvements in Folio2. I set goals for myself. Use AN to create MG animations each week to respond to the weekly theme. Before this semester, I used AN's technique and stayed in simply moving the object position, size, and rotation to add keyframes to create the animation. But this semester I hope I can use other features of the software and try more other ways to create these animations' movements. Because I always have trouble with timing in animation, using the most basic add keyframe animation makes my work look less coherent and smooth. So this semester I hope I can use the features of the software or some programming formulas to assist my animations. My favorite way was the first week and the last week. The first week I used particle effects in a way that imitated the feeling of drops with particles. This opened up a new way of thinking for me. In the last week I set myself a goal and actually struggled a lot with the way to make it. But in the end, I was able to use path tracing and reverse keyframing to complete the animation I had set for myself. In week 10 when I was working on the bubble rising animation, I was thinking about the steps to make it. I usually get distracted by the production steps. So I wrote down the adjustments line by line, which allowed me to think more clearly. In conclusion, I am thankful that this semester's IOL course has brought me many gains and made me examine many inadequacies to improve.

In response to this week's iteration of the theme, I went back to the ball movement I created last week (WEEK10). My goal was to create an animation of a small ball moving horizontally.

To make it more difficult I set the concept of lateral to mountains. I made a GIF of a ball climbing a mountain.

I finally made this animation by practicing path tracing again and again. And added the pattern of object movement, so that the speed of the ball climbing changes. The speed decreases when the ball is climbing up and increases when the ball is falling.

Reflection At first the ball was linked to one part of the wave and moved to the right along with the wave. After some adjustments, I made the ball stay in the center of the screen but ebb and flow with the wave. I achieved the animation I wanted. In order to make the animation look clearer, I adjusted the colors to black and white.

How to create animations that conform to the laws of animation movement with AE is what I want to study this semester. In response to this week's theme, I reviewed the problems I encountered with the animation motion patterns in week8 and week9.

In week8, I did not create the dynamics of the ball changing shape as it fell from a high place. In this week I made this animation. And adjusted the motion curve to reduce the effect of the ball about the gravitational force.

In week9, I didn't make small bubbles for the drink. The bubbles in the drink are not rising in a straight line. So in order to organize the production logic clearly, I made the bubbles in steps.

1. The bubble rises in a straight line

2. Add curves to the straight line

3. Adjust the bubble size based on this: small-large-small

Reflection

• During this week I created two extra animations for the mistakes I made before, in order to organize the logic of making these dynamics clearly. The motion rules ensure that the movement of the objects in the animation is smooth and fluid. This makes the viewing experience more comfortable. It also enhances the viewer's immersion in the animation time.
• This week I created these two animations using the traditional method, which broke my prejudice about the traditional way. At some point the traditional approach also has realistic and coherent motion representation.

In response to this week's theme of still moments. I re-challenged the animation of pouring drinks that I made this semester for WEEK2.

I was inspired by the fact that there are a lot of bubbles when pouring a coke/beer. Maybe after pouring a whole glass, there will be half a glass of bubbles. And if you don't pay attention to how fast the bubbles are rising there is a good chance they will flow outside the glass.

For WEEK2 I created this animation using the traditional hand-drawn method. I chose to draw a close-up of the bubbles as they filled the cup. However, due to the frame rate, I didn't make good use of the pauses, so the whole animation didn't look very clear. In WEEK9, I recreated this animation using AE. And added the still time when the drink is poured. It left the suspense. The bubbles only flowed out of the glass quickly in the end.

Reflection This week's theme got me thinking about the significance of stillness for the camera. With stillness, the viewer can linger on a key moment or scene, giving them time to see, think and feel. This can add tension and emotional resonance to the story. It allows the audience to better understand and connect to the plot in the story.

Opposite :shadow/light

I used the opposites of shadow and light to create a MG animation. I was inspired by the seesaw. I used the seesaw to simulate the sunrise and sunset of the sun and the moon. As the sun rises and sets, the color of the background changes from light to dark.

In this animation I practiced how to make color changes using AE.

During the production I found that the speed of the sun and the moon sitting on the warp to the sun and the moon bouncing up to the sky is not the same. I had a hard time controlling both speeds.

Reflection:

While making this animation, I realized that I still had many questions about the laws of object movement in animations made with AE.

For example:

1. There is no shape change when the sphere falls on the warp.
2. The speed of the sphere rising and falling is also different.
3. In the first version, the speed of the seesaw and the speed of the sphere did not match, resulting in the sphere bouncing up before the seesaw fell.

I eventually made them look more natural through constant adjustments.

Technical matters

When I use AE and go to change the keyframe path to animate a shape change, I usually take a long time to adjust the changes and the corresponding timing. Even then I can't get the animation to do very much in line with the animation motion.

Question In AE, how to make the melting dynamics look smoother and more in line with the laws of motion?

Assumptions

1.Adjust the jogging curve of object movement.

2.Calculate time and frame rate

Solutions

I reversed assumption 1: adjust the jogging curve. I discarded the traditional way to adjust the shape path of the object. I ended up using the particle effects in AE to create the feeling of particles falling to simulate melting. This way looks smoother and is more efficient and accurate than manually adjusting the frame rate. And I used this method to create the opening animation of the video for folio2.

I used this approach to create the Folio2 credits. First I used the Particle plugin to add some particle glow effects to the text background. Then I created a mask for the text. In this mask I drew some colored lines and then used a turbulence displacement effect to make them look like they were flowing. The colors stayed from the top and finally dripped down. This method is more natural and random than the previous way I drew the drops one by one and hit the keyframe with the position to create the drops falling.

Context： In response to this week's theme of "play and stillness," I used UE5 to make a scene that looked quiet and healing.

Method： First of all, I downloaded the model I needed on the Internet (because of the time problem, I could not build it by myself). Then I import the model into UE5. I adjusted the sky and atmosphere parameters and added aperture in UE5. Then I replaced the land with water and built an island in the middle.

Response： I was inspired by the shots of big trees in many movies. Like "Gone with the wind," "The lovely bones," and the big tree in "Up." The big tree scene in the movie always makes me feel very quiet. So I thought about a question, why does the tree give people a very quiet and healing feeling? Even big trees can become landscapes.Because the tree symbolizes time. The tree is still growing after many years of wind and rain. So in response to this week's theme, I used UE5 to build a scene about a big tree.

Context： In response to this week's theme, "play and nature," I made a stop-motion animation with plants. I used branches and leaves to simulate a bonfire burning.

Method： It is autumn where I live now, and the leaves have changed from green to red and yellow. I picked up some suitable branches and leaves on the road. Freshly picked leaves are relatively moist, I put them in a few days, the leaves become very dry. Then I set the branches up like a bonfire. Finally, I kept changing the leaves and took pictures.

Response： I was inspired by the work of Andy Glodsworthy. He often uses snow, ice, leaves, grass, stones and water. Tree branches and other natural materials create temporary works of art in nature. Nature in a broad sense is all animals, plants, some inanimate objects. Such as climate, and geographical phenomena. But a lot of art about nature uses a lot of modern technology. So I limit my materials and work with materials that are within the definition of nature.

Context： In response to this week's theme "play and body", I made two illustrations combining daily necessities with animal bodies.

Method： First I picked out some animal body parts. I want to connect with human products without changing their shape. 1. I use unusual body parts of animals, like the neck of a giraffe, which is very long, like a straw. So I connected the neck of a giraffe with a straw and drew a cup of bubble tea with a giraffe's neck as a straw. 2. In addition, I chose octopus. An octopus looks a lot like a mop. Octopus suckers are also great for cleaning floors. I think of the Disney animation that uses flamingos as golf clubs. So I drew a mop made of an octopus.

Reflection： I was inspired by the poster designed by Thai designer Surachai Puthikulangkura and Polish designer Analog for the Robin Wood environmental group in Germany. They linked animal bodies to disaster and called on people to stop forest fires, stop deforestation. I think my approach can also be further changed to an illustration calling on people to protect the environment. I think my approach can also be further changed to an illustration calling on people to protect the environment. For example, Marine life is affected by garbage. It's possible to combine human trash with body parts of Marine life.

Context： In response to this week's theme, "play and sound," I envisioned a street installation: the Gossip machine. I named this machine SecretX (meaning an unknown person hears your secret). Method： 1.This machine contains 100 mini radios. Every radio contains gossip/secrets about a person. 2.Passers-by can take out a radio and listen to other people's secrets. But the secret on the radio can only be played twice. After listening to it, it will automatically destroy the secret inside. 3. In exchange, the person who listens to the secret needs to record his secret on it. The relay continues. Response： 1. Gossip can make people relax and release pressure. Imagine listening to someone else's secret while waiting for the bus. A study by the University of Michigan found that people who gossip a lot are significantly happier than those who keep to themselves. 2. Maybe this machine can help people who are eager to talk, but don't want others to know who they are. It may also help people who have been hurt, and they may find comfort in knowing the experience of others in this machine. Because subconsciously we all want them to go through the pain for us. According to psychologist John Mendel, people have a subconscious desire to experience pain for themselves, and people who focus on gossip and negative news are in part trying to fulfill that desire.

Reflection: My inspiration comes from my fitness trainer. Whenever I feel tired from exercise, my coach will use a gossip to get me to do more moves. I want to listen to her gossip, I will stick with it. So I started to wonder, why do people like gossip so much? I find that most of the content of gossip is very private, so that people have a desire to find out what it is. Through my research, I have concluded the following points:  Gossip can satisfy people's curiosity  Information exchange is human nature (by judging the target of gossip, we can determine friendly and enemy forces.  Sharing useful intelligence with friendly forces can help improve survival during hostile environments.  Gossip can build and maintain relationships (think about if someone A came to you to gossip about someone B, who would you think would have a better relationship with you? Gossip is like a bond that instantly connects the gossiper with the receiver. Although the connection may not last very long. Therefore, the spread of gossip can play a role in maintaining interpersonal relationships.  Gossip can influence others reference：Foster, E. K. (2004). Research on Gossip: Taxonomy, Methods, and Future Directions. Review of General Psychology, 8(2), 78–99. Research on Gossip: Taxonomy, Methods, and Future Directions - Eric K. Foster, 2004

Theme： In response to this week, I designed a desktop wallpaper. I related the weather, farming and fishing. When I played the Animal Crossing, I learned about many kinds of insects and fish. So I wanted to make a wallpaper that would be popular for the fruit and vegetable growing season.

Method: The wallpaper changes according to the actual weather. When it rains in the real world, it rains in the wallpaper. In the real world, it's so hot that the vegetables that are afraid of the heat will burn. The fruits and vegetables that can be grown vary according to the season. And we can catch different kinds of fish in different seasons. Wallpaper provides 4 grids. Players can modify the ground according to their preferences. Players can expand their farming area or leave only fishing area.

Context ： I found something similar in the Steam Wallpaper Engine. There is a little game about skipping rope. And a building game. You can choose the size of the planet. And can build land and lakes and trees on the planet. Also found a wallpaper called Desktop Farm. Because I don't want the whole desktop to be about farming. So I only designed four floors. And, I hope my work can let people learn how the planting season and weather affect crops.

Reflection ：I really want to make this wallpaper. However, due to the limited technology, it only stays in the design stage. This motivated me to teach myself how to program.

Theme： I wonder what I can do with the time I spend waiting in front of the restaurant in response to this week's theme. At popular restaurants, it is common for people to line up at the door because there are so many customers. For fear of missing their numbers, customers sit bored and wait at the door of the restaurant. Some restaurants offer snacks to waiting customers. Even a Rubik's cube. All because of the fear of losing customers as they get bored while waiting. So I imagine waiting customers can participate in a multiplayer game together to solve the boring waiting problem.

Method: Customers can enter the web page to join the multiplayer game by scanning the QR code on the table, or the QR code on the receipt. Merchants can choose from different multiplayer games.

Context ： My favorite game here is the multiplayer game Tetris.  This game is similar to Tricky Towers.  A game takes about 1-3 minutes.  The classic mode of this game is to compete who builds the highest in a limited time.  While waiting, the more seats a guest wins, the more vouchers they get for the restaurant.  It allows guests to earn vouchers while waiting and enjoy lower prices to eat at this restaurant.

advantage： 1. Help guests eliminate boredom while waiting. 2. Help hotels keep customers who don't want to wait too long. And help the hotel remove some of the guests' negative emotions. 3. Social. Because the guests are playing the game together. It might increase your chances of socializing. 4. Help the game designer promote his game.

Theme： In response to the theme of "play and time" I made a time loop animation exercise. It occurred to me that man had created the concept of time and invented clocks to measure the changes of time. What we can perceive is the alternation of day and night and season. So I made a circular animation with alternating day and night.

Method： Due to the need for a smooth color change. So for this animation I drew all the graphics in AE. Then I made the position changes of these figures, and finally made the color changes. When making the animation, I need to follow the motion of the animation, so a lot of details are added in the end. For example, the start time of the facial expression and the sphere movement is different, which adds some sense of volume to the sphere instead of making a single sway motion like a piece of paper.And changes in the size of the shadow...

Context Animator Nata Metlukh's GIF gave me some inspiration. In particular, the process of fruit growth and human growth are combined with GIF. The first fruit that grows is a baby's head. Turn it around to become an adult head and then finally to the old man's head. At last the fruit ripened and fell and grew new fruit. At the beginning of this topic, I thought of the artist Nele Azevedo who made thousands of ice cubes and placed them in the center of the city. The ice began to melt within half an hour, symbolizing the passing of life. So there are some other ideals: Candles were carved into human bodies and then made a life-burning time-lapse photograph. But since I wanted to take advantage of the time cycle and the candle needs an external force (fire) to burn. So I redid what I'm doing now.

Reflection ：After animation, I want to try more hand-drawn animation. Pursue more transitions in shape.