Back From an Insane Summer

I can’t say I had much of a summer break as I spent my summer doing the UT Semester in Los Angeles Program where I essentially worked around the clock. But it was one of the most beneficial experiences I’ve had at UT (besides being an STA of course).

I spent my summer in LA completing internships and taking Hollywood based classes provided by the program. I interned at MorningStar Entertainment and HappyNest Entertainment, 2 very different types of production experiences as MorningStar was mainly a history and true crime documentary production company and HappyNest is a kids animation distribution company. The experiences I gained from both companies was absolutely crucial to my growth as an animation student. While I have many technical skills in animation, I learned so much about pitching, negotiating, budgeting, and the inner workings of producing a well-made story.

While the internship is the main seller of the UTLA program, I’d say some of my most valuable experiences was all the animators I met who were super kind and made it obvious that all they wanted to do was to help animators break into a very scary industry. They were kind enough to get coffee with me and even show me around their workplaces!

I think what I took away most from the UTLA program is how to prioritize my work schedule and realizing that I’m very capable of hard work despite my inner monologue. I was always working and always networking and when I wasn’t working, I was seeing friends and going to different events. I never really had a day off. I not only want to take that work ethic into my career, but also as an STA to make sure the projects I get are up to my best ability.

without making this post too long, that about wraps up my summer! I’m so glad to be back as an STA and continue working with people and making art and graphics to be viewed by thousands of students!

Wrapping up my projects

I got to work on a few pretty exciting projects these last few weeks so I’m very satisfied that I got to work on projects that I could not only complete but also enjoy working on before leaving for the semester.

World Literature Animated Intro

While I didn’t fully animate an intro for this class, I was given the task to think of an animatic for one of the world literature classes at UT.

This was fun to think of as it was simple but shows the transitions in time for world literature and theater. The book is by far the most complex asset for this animation.

Foundations of Data Science Logo and Animation

We have settled on a logo design!

The gears were a favorite for the client. Now I had to animate it.

This was a lot more tricky than I thought it would be because gears are surprisingly very complex. At least for me. Getting the timing right for the gear turning was a concern as a lot of the time the turning of one gear would offset the others and it would turn into a domino effect.

Luckily, I was suggested to slow down the turning which not only helped the pacing, but lessened the risk of the gears being offset. Here’s what I was able to finish with.

And once approved, I could add it to the intro animation template!

Foundations of Data Science

After my previous logo drafts I made a few more based off requests from the client. Here’s what I came up with.

I kept the gear theme since both the client and my supervisor liked it and I think it would make a fun logo to animate. They suggested the concept of regression on a graph in the design and the other gear is a more refined puzzle piece look.

I also worked on some backdrops for the course graphics.

pretty basic but productive work.

PSY317K Intro Animation

I was tasked with reanimating and intro animation for one of the general physics classes. I was basically given an After Effects template and some stock footage to replace the current footage and I was set to go.

Here’s how it looks!

I’ve grown to really enjoy working in After Effects. It’s one of those programs that’s insanely intimidating and powerful but you really end up using only 1/4 of the program than necessary. I look forward to new After Effects projects.

I haven’t updated in a while due to a main project I’ve been working on being confidential so the other work I’ve been getting hasn’t been enough to dedicate a post to. Now, however, I do have enough material!

UTFC Work

I’ll summarize this as it’s work I’ve made posts about before. This month, I was able to complete a PowerPoint presentation for the textbook and I’ve also completed 2 banners for the project.

STA Presentations!

This was the first time I attended an STA presentation and it was a ton of fun! I learned so much about the work form other departments and got to see my fellow design STA’s present their work. It was a nice experience to cheer on all the students who work so hard in this department and I got to know some of the faculty better. It really put into perspective how tight-knit LAITS is and that it can really build connections and a healthy work culture.

Foundations of Data Science

I was assigned a new type of course graphics for the Edx department. I’ve never done this kind of work before and it was pretty intimating at first. My main assignments are to design a logo for the new class and animate it. I had know idea where to start but luckily I was given a sheet of past examples I could take inspiration from.

I also looked up how data science is normally represented and found some ideas to go off of. Here are some logo designs I was able to draft as of now.

After showing these to the client, they said that they really like the concept of the gears and puzzle piece look. They offered some notes on implementing a possible regression reference on the design so i’ll be looking into that.