Film analysis aims to answer: “What does this film really mean?” It is not about simply saying “what happens in the movie.”
I think editing is like camera language. But it uses the rhythm of cuts to build the story’s atmosphere. Great editing can lift a story and a film. Bad editing can turn a good story into a messy video with no rhythm.
In Nigel’s class, we learned about “long takes.” The audience gets clear plot information from the shot. But the shot keeps going. Things keep happening without any cuts. We also learned about “shot transitions” and “continuity.” This includes: 1. The graphic relationship between shots. 2. The rhythmic relationship. 3. The spatial relationship. 4. The temporal relationship.
I really like Montage Editing. But it feels like looking at visual art. When I try to make a montage myself, it feels too complex. Sometimes I watch other people’s montages and don’t understand what is happening. Simply put, it is too abstract.
Techniques like Cuts, Fades, and Dissolves look very artistic in camera language. They have great visual value.
The planing below shows the personal thinking with Pendulum and find some reference form the book “Animation Survival Kit”， and for my understanding with power reduce rule is that every high point should not be more higher than fomer one.
For Maya animation
week 2, I feel more familiar and more relaxed with Maya animation making, because I know what I need to do and cope with the same problem last week.
So the pendulum animation in this week that I can combine my understanding with pendulum principle. But some skilling things always make some trouble for this home work like when I want to key this frame, this amimation will vanish? I am so confuse about, after I ask for my classmate Bingbing and Chichi for help that I found that if I want to key a fram to move the hole hanging things, I need to select the main control!! OK, so cope with the problem that I just key step by step with the tutorial video (on YouTube) and finish my animation.
This is my Pendulum animation for week 2. also In the week3 class feedback: George said your pendulum should be fixed to more softer, but its original is not bad.
For Ting’s homework
This week2, we need to use the Jiucybox falling motion to perform the difference box’s weight. Also this is new change let me face with difference problem in maya, like how to copy a modle with their modle.
While working on the falling animation, I kept getting stuck on different frames. One box has three controllers, I often picked the wrong one in randomly, or picked a different one every time, which made the box separate or suddenly jump to another place in the next frame.
But this week, I learned how to replace and copy the reference!(from Ting and Marianna) which is very important in my animation life! I also noticed that juice boxes with different weights( empty / full/ half full) fall completely differently, because of the centre of gravity.
In this week, I am quite familiar with model golden post making in Maya. And I am very grateful for my good friend Chichi’s help that I’ve mastered the skill of using the camera and the locator’s function, and how to use them like set the key in the first frame and turning to the final frame set the 360 degree key.
So, I pick the character Akaza, who is from Demon Slayer Infinity Castle. His classic post.（ Video 3)
This is the left side of two juicyboxes falling, compare with light and heavy one.Golden Post Akaza
Through this course, I’ve learned about key parts of visual language, Elements and Principles. For example: color, form, line, shape, space, texture, and value are visual elements. Space can guide the viewer’s eye, while texture adds personality and style. Sometimes an artist organizes these elements to create rhythm, movement, or even uses the Golden Ratio (1:1.6). Strong contrast can create powerful visual impact, and blending multiple elements together makes the composition more beautiful.
But actually there is an principles I cannot understand ,is Value, what is the value in visual language? So I find the imformation from teacher give us ducument :” The word “value” is used a lot around this website. And with good reason. Value is one of the seven elements of art. Value deals with the lightness or darkness of a color. ”
Value refers to tone and lightness/darkness. For example, in Léon: The Professional, when Léon and Mathilda first meet in the hallway, light and shadow split them into bright and dark sides. This is not only a visual composition but also a metaphor for their fate and circumstances.
The overall tonal style of a film，such as the Blade Runner 2049， sets its aesthetic and emotional atmosphere. In character portrayal, specific lighting， like the shadows across the face in The Godfather， can shape personality and inner state.
I didn’t read the whole writing but in my understanding《Film Art: An Introduction》 made me realize that film is not just a story presented naturally, but an art form organized through elements such as narrative structure, cinematography, editing, sound, and value. Much of the audience’s understanding and emotional response is actually guided step by step through the arrangement of these formal principles.
Meanwhile, Color Theory: A Critical Introduction taught me that colors do not inherently carry fixed emotions or symbols. Instead, their meanings are constantly shaped within historical, cultural, and power structures. For example, golden yellow symbolized imperial power in ancient China. Our understanding of color often reflects socially constructed experiences and visual cultural norms, rather than pure perception itself.
This week, we learned many new things. Serra explained how to create a new level in UE5 and where to find all the tools. The class moved quite fast, and sometimes I struggled to follow because of the language and unfamiliar terms， but I still gained a lot.
I also learned how filmmaking in UE5 is both similar to and different from traditional filmmaking. That was really eye-opening for me, since I love game cinematics, music videos, and promotional videos—all of which can be made in UE5.
Basically, I now understand what the tools are and how to use them，like building my own scenes using assets from Fab.
We also learned how to link objects and make them follow a path using Blueprint, similar to the pendulum animation we did in Maya this week. But the Animation Blueprint felt more complex. I was a little intimidated at first, since I’ve never used Blueprint for animation before, but Serra was very patient， teaching us step-by-step and answering every question we had. I’m really thankful to her.
About the “pendulum” Blueprint，for my understanding, you select one actor as the master, make the others its children, and then add physics calculations to create swinging between the different child objects. When you think of it that way, it doesn’t seem so complicated after all.
This blog post is about Maya animation and UE5 and 3D fundamentals. These images below are taken from homework-week1, Maya 3D fundamentals.
This is a ball plan about ball bounce at 86 frames. Actually, I forgot to add the frame in this plan, becourse I didn’t realise that every second is very important, we need to calculate, after the tutor’s reminder.
For my animation in Maya
The video below demonstrates how the bouncing ball’s planing action in animation.
This boucing ball is shows the first animation that I did in Maya, also when I start to use the reference that tutor gave us. then I start learning Maya on Youtube. It is quite difficult with langurage barier and new software to learning new things.
Luckly! I have lots of nice and warm-hearted classmates to help me cope with different skill problem, (include the specifictaly key or some function window or some stuck in Maya I can not find out. Even how to “playblast” and profile saving and so on…Very thankful…
Actually I don’t even know how the problem just came out, then I took some screen cuts for help. Such as:
1. How to adjust the ball to squash and stretch (Bingbing teaches me click ball middle find the top line tool)
2. Why is the ball control disappearing? Where can I control my ball?
in the first week, I get quite lots of imformation form sarra about UE’s function and detail, including fab and liburary…
introduction about the window and how to work in UE5.
In this class, Serra showed us animation works and blogs from Year 2 students. Then, in UE5, she taught us how to find free assets we need in the Fab library, create levels, understand the purpose of different sections, and learn what each tool does. Also how to create the file and name it, and every part of UE5 important function.
She also mentioned that with so many tools and details, we can simply use the search bar with keywords to find what we need quickly, which helps improve workflow efficiency.
I also remember she talked about “Nanite.” I was first drawn to how the word sounds, but its function is to handle highly complex geometry by using virtualized geometry representation, though honestly, it sounded quite technical and I didn’t fully grasp how to use it in practice.
