Friday, October 25, 2013

Captains log - Week 10


       This week was pretty interesting. Since we were still locked out of MAX for more of the week, we learned how to use Maya and Flash. Maya wasn't super interesting, but I do like it more than MAX. The reason for that is because there are a lot more possibilities with Maya. There are just more options and settings. I'm choosing to stick with MAX though because I actually know how to use it, and Maya just keeps confusing me. Flash was pretty fun though. I haven't used the program since I was around 10 or 11, so it was nice to revisit something I used to do. When I was in flash, I created the official Monsters Inc. 2 movie. It was quite a success, and I'm positive that Disney will be more than satisfied with my final product.

Here is a sneak peak of my Movie:









But other than my awesomely created movie, we FINALLY GOT BACK INTO MAX.
This was really exciting because I've been trying to work on my helicopter for 2 weeks and I can finally finish what I started. The helicopter is a totally random and completely pointless project, but it's fun and I'm enjoying it. The main thing I have to do on the helicopter is create and model a window for the cockpit, and maybe model some cockpit accessories, but other than that I'm almost finished. I haven't decided what I want the helicopter to do in terms of an animated video, but I'll figure it out soon enough.

Here is a picture that shows the progress I have made on my helicopter over these past few days:



It's not completely done yet, but it is definitely a project I pan to finish.
  

                                         This has been a PSA,
                                                                             Captain out






Monday, October 21, 2013

Captains log - Week 9

       This week, we were locked out of MAX... Again...


       Mr. Smith kept me away from my beloved Helicopter for another cold, and long week. So to get back at this evil Smith Lord, I decided to totally destroy him in a bet that will ultimately result in him doing 30 humiliating push-ups in front of the whole entire class. The bet was on who had the better video? Mr. Smiths dumb little genetic video, or my AWESOME Star Wars Episode 7 movie. The class hasn't decided yet, but come Monday, they will decide on who's video they enjoyed more. I'm almost positive that my video will come out victorious, because the plot is stupendous, and the special FX are top par. 

Here is my perfect video:


  
       And on a productive note, this week we spent a lot of time working on Kuder navigator. I typed in the few careers that I'm interested in, and compared them based on education and salary. The first career that I'm interested in is becoming a Police Officer. I am currently in pursuit of this career, and am already doing special programs to achieve my goal. Education wise, I technically do not need to do anything. But I plan on getting an AA in Criminal Justice or a class of that sort. And once I graduate from the JC with my AA, I'm going to apply to the police academy at the JC and hopefully graduate from there. The average earnings of a patrol officer is about 112k per year, so if all goes well, I will be living a pretty well organized and successful life.

       The only other career path I can really see myself pursuing would be something along the lines of becoming a therapist. The reasoning behind this decision is that a lot of my friends come to me for advice on various things, and I've even had my friends mom come to me for parenting advice once (which is weird considering I don't have the slightest knowledge or experience on parenting). But if I can currently help people and give half-way decent advice without any actual education in this field, then I believe that if I were to get an actual education and real training in this field, then I would definitely be able to do my job as a therapist rather efficiently. In terms of education, I'm not really sure what I'd exactly have to do because Kuder doesn't have a therapist as one of their options, but based on other related jobs, I believe that I would have to receive a graduates degree, and some form of state license. And in terms of salary, it appears that I could make somewhere between 75k and 100k per year, which is definitely a comfortable pay.

I already have my mind set on becoming a police officer, and based on this short little compare and contrast thing I did, I have come to the conclusion that it is definitely the better choice. By becoming a police officer, I would save a lot of time on education and school because I do not need a graduates degree. I would also make more money as a police officer. So out of these two choices, a law enforcer seems to be the most desirable choice. But who knows. Life is weird.

   
                                        This has been a PSA,
                                                                             Captain out



 

Friday, October 11, 2013

Captains log - Week 8

       This week I mainly focused on modeling. During the time we weren't watching presentations, I was modeling this really cool helicopter. I was going to post a picture of this awesome helicopter, but as we are currently unable to use 3ds MAX, I will not be able to provide such a picture. The helicopter is coming along rather nicely. I have almost finished modeling the the shape and design of the helicopter, and I plan on finishing the color scheme of it sometime next week. I haven't decided what type of helicopter I want to make it yet though. I'm thinking of either making it an army helicopter, or a search and rescue helicopter. There is no real purpose behind this helicopter. I just randomly decided to make one at the beginning of the week and now I'm pretty hooked on this project so it's going to be something that I finish.

       The other thing that I worked on this week was animating bones and skin. I learned how to place a skin around some bones, and I learned how to animate them in a way in which it looks like an actual limb is moving. Although this week wasn't super eventful, and we weren't actually taught a whole lot due to presentations, I still managed to get a decent amount of work done. Which I'll probably show in next weeks blog post.

                                       
                                        This has been a PSA,
                                                                             Captain out

Friday, October 4, 2013

Captains log - Week 7


       During week 7, I solely worked on my project in premiere. I basically took the original rendered MAX version, and just added some splash and noise effects to bring it more to life.


The only real difficult part about editing this intro in premiere was finding decent splash/explosion effects, and color-correcting them to look the same color as the water. It wasn't that difficult though. Just slightly time consuming. Anyways, I'm quite content with the outcome of my intro. But I do hope to improve it at some point in the future.






This has been a PSA,
                                                       Captain out