Hello, my name is Beck dos Santos. I am an animation student at Freestyle. I like to draw, both traditionally and digitally, write works of fiction, animate, and compose music.

For my Senior Showcase, I am pleased to choose my Action Reaction project because I would like to show how much I had learned when it comes to 3D animation and the extent of my knowledge of it. I would like to emphasize that I tried to transfer my knowledge of animation principles into this piece, and I would like to know from you how sufficient my attempt was and any tips on using animation principles to animate using a 3D platform, thank you.

I am also very happy to share with you my Zenith Project, Immortal Grudge, because this is probably the project I am the most proud of that I worked on in Freestyle. I put a lot of effort into making interesting, dynamic shots for the key frames that fit the mood of the music as well as interesting, unique character designs. I also worked hard in putting together a song with lyrics that flowed well and intense, expressive music pairing with the scenes of the animatic. If you can give me feedback on making the composition of scenes dynamic and expressive and what an animatic would need to be sufficient enough to be turned into an animation, that would be very much appreciated.

I plan to go to De Anza and get an associate’s degree in Graphic Design, then I’ll transfer to a 4 year art university to get my bachelor’s degree in Animation. For a career, I want to get into the animation industry, mainly to work on television cartoons on networks, though I would love to work in studios for feature films as well. I’d love to get a job as a storyboard artist or a concept artist, one day, I dream of producing my own show for television.

If you have any questions, you can reach me at beckyvivi@gmail.com.

Thank you!

Action Reaction – “Assassination”

The purpose of this project was to allow some self-direction in showing our teacher what we learned in the 3D Animation unit, using the program Maya.

I thought I’d base the scene on a detective or noir-style story, I also had the movie “The Godfather” in mind as I developed the project. So, I tried to be creative with the composition of the scene by making dramatic shots. The story follows a reclusive assassin who feels some resentment over his line of work.

As I was already running very behind in another project in which we learned how to 3D model, I was unable to start on the project until much later on. This made me end up running really late with the project. I used a walk cycle pattern as a guide to animate the model walking, but as I was learning how to navigate the rig, I struggled to make the walk cycle seem fluid, the model’s walking ended up being rather rigid. I tried to use the animation principle of follow-through to solve this problem, it helped greatly in making the animation more fluid. For the parts in which I was unable to make it more fluid, I constructed the perspective of the shot so that I could cover up the areas that still needed fixing.
Another problem I encountered was that the facial expressions, after rendering a scene, would stay frozen. What the Arnold renderer showed me did not match what Maya showed me, so I split scenes in which the facial expression would change into different parts, and in each part, I would change the expression into one of the frozen faces that would often pop up in the renderer.

In the end, this project helped me greatly in my technological literacy, I developed my problem-solving skills when it came to navigating digital programs, and with the limiting problems I faced, I came up with creative solutions to navigate around them. My experience in 3D animation helped me understand animation principles much better and how they apply to make a character feel much more real, and I find that I can apply them to 2D animation as well!

Immortal Grudge

For the Zenith project, I found that I had even more creative freedom, so I decided that I’d make an animated music video. I would compose the music using FL Studio, Pro Tools, and Audacity, and I used Photoshop CS6 to draw the frames.

Not only do I have a passion for cartoons, I also love music. I drew much of my inspiration from musicals like Heathers and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog since as a writer, which is why I wanted to combine producing music and writing a story in a narrative-based song.
The story follows two spirits haunting an abandoned home, Agnes and Henry. They argue over whether they should keep haunting the house or move on. Since the conflict involves a heavy argument, I tried to make the music dramatic and dark I also tried to make the shot composition dramatic as well to match the music. To prevent the video from feeling repetitive, I also tried to vary the shot composition in each verse, balancing that as well as the dramatic theme I’d have to keep. To make sure I’d save up on time, I simplified my art style to make it faster in drawing frames, making sure to stylize it as well to keep the art looking interesting.

I enlisted the help of a friend to record the lines with me, we’d record several takes so that if there was a problem in a take that I liked, I could edit it by splicing it in with another take so that I could keep the part I liked while getting rid of the error in the audio. I composed the song on Noteflight before I produced it on FL Studio.
The music composition ended up taking much longer than I thought to finish, shortening the time I could’ve spent on drawing frames. The result was that instead of making a full animation, I had to change it into a clean animatic to finish the project on time. Instead of redrawing the thumbnails, I had to scan the storyboard onto a computer and crop them into frames before cleaning them up to save up on time. As the deadline drew closer, it was clear that drawing the frames at Freestyle wouldn’t be enough, so I ended up taking pictures of the thumbnails on my phone and cleaning them up on an art app called Medibang while I was at home. This helped me draw the frames much faster in the end.

I learned the importance of managing my time wisely and the different steps I have to take to animate something. When I move on to animating more projects in the future, I’ll be sure to organize my time and follow my deadlines. I feel that the experience of making this project really did help me learn how important each step of the process of animating really is, and how important it is that you manage each one wisely. By managing them, I’d be able to culminate my passion for art and music in this project. I also learned how to portray keep expressions and movements in storyboards, which would help me a lot if I ever become a storyboard artist in the future, and I find that as long as I don’t try to get too detailed in storyboards, they can be a lot of fun to write. And finally, I rekindled how my passion of art and writing can come together in a big project, which ultimately reaffirms how much I want to become an animator someday and create my own show.