Holy boots, guys.. this semester is ending at record speed! I have been running myself ragged between classes, work, teaching... dishes. Always dishes. WHERE DO THEY COME FROM!?
Anyway.
I believe I posted pictures of in-process tiles.. well.. they didn't turn out as well as I would have liked them to. They were all cracked and damaged before and after firing. I glazed them to try and hide the ugliness of craftsmanship aaand.. my professor was not impressed haha. I had to redo at least one so here's the new 'crack' at it, pardon the pun.
In addition to the tile box project..thing.. I have to some how crank out two coil-built vessels that are at least 14 inches high with designs from the tile project incorporated in some way. As I type this I realize how truly insane I am.. but I have one and a half vessels near completion and will be returning to the studio today to try and make a dent in those, too.
 |
| Insanity. PURE MADNESS! |
I call it "Chimes" for obvious reasons...
We have a mandatory revision, much like the one from the oranges video project. Here's the comments I received for the animation, round 1:
sphere
movement maybe a bit more pronounced, but less jerky?
-spheres
all spinning would be a good idea!
the orbs
around it could have some variation from the centered orb, to differentiate
them from it
move them a
little more to the left, since at the end the bottom left corner looks a little
bare and the spheres sort of rotate away from it
-not enough
happening, stay on one part for too long (especially second camera cut)
the out
of control central sphere spins way to fast for how slow and "flowy"
feel from the rest of the animation
Some cast
shadows from the orbs onto the main surface would be nice to see and would add
more depth.
- Depth of field could work well with the particles
wish the balls would move in time to the chimes throughout the whole thing
more close-ups could make it look sweet
Teacher Comments:
g-
-
interesting main shape, bizarre and ambiguous (see below also)
- good
sequence of camera cuts
- changes
of motion between the main shape and the slower spheres is good -- change in
texture as well to differentiate between them
-
experimental modeling approach
b-
- main
shape could develop or change over time -- different shape entirely or new
texture or different deformer... it gets repetitive by the ending
-
reflection on side of big shapes is odd and black
- some of
the cross fades are jerky -- watch your keyframes in AE
- fade
out all the way at the end
- perhaps
the animation could have some more direct relationship to the audio --
something happens in time to the bell chime (like a change of color, size,
light increase/decrease, change of movement in the spheres, etc.)
- the
experimental modeling approach could to further yet, periodically filling the
frame with "stuff"
- fast
rotation sphere near the end is odd (second to last shot)
Elementary I: Day 3
So.. I had a big learning experience yesterday. FRIDAYS are the most difficult day of the week to engage students.. and myself haha. The kids had a school-wide assembly for pride/faculty volleyball so my 'regular kids' were not all there. In addition to that I had interviews and work all day so I was pretty zonked... needless to say it was a slow work period. Some new students came in to work but they just wanted to hang out and draw - which would be fine if I didn't have deadlines and expectations for completion! Sigh... hopefully they are more willing to work on Monday.
I found myself compromising and changing this lesson a lot as I worked more with these students. Some of them were really motivated to start.. and now they're dwindling. As am I! It was obvious to me which students wanted to draw all the time and make a bigger project because they have produced the most work, but yesterday was just a blah day for everyone. I think Monday will be more interesting because we start the next step, which is creating the background space and adding details. Some of the kids said they would take their drawings home to work on them, and the 'Mario' kid said he would definitely work on it. Hopefully.. everything makes it back into the classroom. It took him 3 days to want to put pencil to paper.
I'm not feeling completely defeated though.. the teacher at the school I have been corresponding and working with (and using her room, thanks, Amanda!) sees a lot of improvement and excitement in these students she doesn't normally see. They ask her when art is coming up and look forward to coming in to work, which is a big boost for me. I put a lot of energy and time into planning and presenting information in a fun, energetic way so it's nice to know they want to keep coming back.
In addition to that, I was talking to the teacher about the big move the school is going to take on. After this summer, the students will be moving to another school in town and STILL will be without an art program. After working with the students, both the art-enthusiasts and the general walk-in kids, I can tell these kids NEED and WANT art in some form. The kids were talking yesterday about how they 'wished music was every day' (currently they have Tuesdays and Thursdays for music) and that got me to thinking... Art is probably the same way. Sure enough, after asking them about art being a regular thing they expressed the same feelings. After talking to Amanda a bit she suggested I do some research on grants for art supplies and art resources.. a big, BIG task I have never taken on. But I know that the arts would go leaps and bounds to help the students become more engaged, learn differently, and have a creative outlet for all their energy and thoughts. There are a few non-profit organizations up here that specialize in art grants for schools without the arts - I have worked for one before, but I need to contact them and see where to start searching. The teacher even offered to sit and write the grants with me! Basically, that would mean if we could write a grant/grants for funds for the arts we could possibly put an art teacher in the school AND fund the supplies needed for an effective program. AND I could, possibly, be THAT teacher. I am going to make some appointments with higher-ups and see if I could count teaching at the school as credits or independent study.. it raises lots of questions about my future, but I would be so excited to bring the arts to these students who consistently express the need and want for creative expression opportunities. Even if I wasn't the teacher or the direct provider in the classroom, I would feel better knowing they had art in their school lives.
ON THAT NOTE. I need to get back to MY school life! On to the studios and the caffeine and the snacks...
Wish me luck,
Ms. Kanak
No comments:
Post a Comment