Vivian Trinh How can I make people aware of their responsibilities in keeping our environment safe for future

generations? 3464 Words Archbishop MacDonald 2013-2014

Table of Contents
Introduction/The Goal 3 Selection of Sources 4

Application of Information 6 Achieving the Goal 7

Reflection on Learning 8 Conclusion 9 Bibliography 11 Appendices 12

Introduction: Define the Goal

For my MYP Personal Project, I decided to do 2d animation. I have always had a passion for digital art, and enjoy drawing on the computer. I wanted to take digital art into a whole new level and thought to myself, why not create a 2D motion picture? I have always loved the works of Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks and much more. The way they made pictures come into life, I always found beautiful and moving. I wanted to learn how to do it myself, so I would say the two biggest inspirations for my project would be digital art and animation studios. After deciding on my project, I then decided that the goal of my project is to remind others that we have responsibilities in our environment. I want others, when they look at my final product, to become inspired to take action in helping our planet. In my opinion, I feel like people always forget about the issues regarding our environment, including myself. Everyone should take action in creating a safe environment for the future generations of our planet. This includes plants, animals, and people. It can be the environment within our society and community, or even international. In order to achieve my goal through 2D animation, I had to digitally draw the pictures on the computer frame by frame to make the pictures move. I had many ideas, but decided to make three small animations based on environment. Though before I could do that, I had to produce a rough plan in my head of how I wanted it to look. I researched during the month of October and had to collect many different sources that would help me create my final product. I have found many sources such as websites, teachers, videos, tutorials, and material I learned in school. The creation process happens after the research. That is when I start working on my actual animation. To do this all, I must plan my time accordingly and make sure to attend the MYP sessions in Ms. Dallaire's classroom so I dont fall behind during the whole process of this project. The Area of Interaction I am using is Environments. I feel it connects to my project because I am making three animations about how we can make our environment a better place to live and to do it we have to depend on others and work together as a team.

Selection of Sources
Sources that I have come across while researching include YouTube, my social teacher Mr.Alfieri, my religion 15 text book, my TV, and a social media website called DeviantART. On Youtube I found videos on animation techniques and I have found an animation project as well. I think these are excellent sources because it helps me learn animating techniques so I can do my best on my project. Mr. Alfieri, my social teacher, has taught us about the Lubicon Cree. I think the story of the Lubicon Cree is an excellent source because the message of the story really connects to my guiding question, my focus area of interaction and the message of my animation. I think if I ever get lost along the creation process I can always look back to the Lubicon Cree Story. My Religion 15 Text book has talked about Mother Teresa. I find this source excellent because it connects to my guiding question about how we can make the world a better place for future generations. The story of Mother Teresa has taught me more about how environments is also about the people within it. The TV was also one of my sources. I saw a commercial about lending a helping hand to people in the environment. It's called Care Canada: Reach Out. I think the source is good but not excellent. I cant really incorporate the idea much into my animation, but it's inspiring. On DeviantART.com, there is many digital artworks that have given me inspiration. I think it is an excellent source because it gives me inspiration on art styles and I can evaluate their artwork and see the techniques they used. It helped me create new ideas for the visuals of my project, especially when I had trouble brainstorming ideas. DeviantART also helped me decide on my art style. Many users on DeviantART also post useful tutorials on animation. As I researched, I learned that environments is not just about being eco-friendly to the earth, doing the three r's, maintaining wildlife etc. It is also about being friendly to the community you live in and the people around you. It is about knowing your responsibilities in your environment. Learning about the Lubicon Cree in Social, which is one of my sources, helped me understand this. The Lubicon lost their land and culture due to destruction of the environment. They had a large responsibility to mend the community and to keep their culture alive despite the destruction of their land. Also within our environment we need resources such as water (shower, sink), food, medicine, shelter, etc. But we usually take advantage of them. We have to be aware of our interdependence in the environment. We have to work together as a team and depend on each other to make the environment/community a better place for everyone to live in. I got inspiration from a commercial called CARE Canada: Reach out. Everyone reaches out to one another. It contains the message that we need to work together to take action for our
4

responsibilities in the environment. I think the AOI environments teaches us to gain awareness of environments and to commit to making it a better place. Other research I did would include my research on animation programs. Originally I was going to use Windows Movie Maker to put together my animation, but I learned that I could present my three animations in various ways. If I were to use Windows Movie Maker, I would have to upload it on YouTube in order to publish the video on the website I am using to showcase them. To me, it would be very inconvenient for others to have to click play to watch my three animations. Through my research I discovered a program called Adobe Flash. With this program you can create an animation file that repeatedly replays over and over without having to click play or stop. The website I am using to showcase my product (Weebly.com) also has the option of uploading Adobe Flash files which I found extremely convenient.

I used the following materials to create my project:

My Wacom Bamboo Connect tablet. With this tablet I can draw pictures on the computer to make my animation. I connect it to my laptop with a USB cord and I am ready to go. When you draw on the tablet with the pen, it shows up on the screen with whatever program you are using. It is one of the many tablets created by Wacom Co., Ltd. Paint Tool SAI. It is a raster graphics editor program for Microsoft Windows. A raster graphics editor is a program for computers and laptops that lets users paint/create or edit photographs and pictures. Paint Tool SAI was developed by the SYSTEMAX software. Adobe Flash Professional CC. It is a multimedia authoring program where you can create animations.

Application of Information
I feel like the researched I did affected my final product in a positive way. Most of my research helped me with the visuals of my project. This includes the context, the art style, and the motion of the pictures. For example, the video tutorials I found on YouTube helped me develop animating skills I never had to begin with. With those new skills, I knew exactly what I was doing when I started the creation process. If I didn't learn these skills, I wouldn't be able to make an animation to begin with. At the same time, even though I wanted my animation to look professional and appear as though I have been animating for my entire life, I had to find an easy route to complete my project. I have learned through my research that animating is not an easy thing. It can take years to make an animation thats only a couple minutes long, and as a beginner, it would probably take me double the years. I had less than a year to complete this project, so I had to come up with an easier way to finish it. I have researched and found that there were easier alternatives than taking the time to draw each movement one by one. So to make this easier for me with the limited time I had, I decided to go with an extremely simple art style; nothing realistic. From my research on DeviantART, I learned that I dont necessarily have to draw every single movement. I could drag the pictures with my mouse to create movement instead of redrawing it every time. This has effected the decisions I made in planning my project to achieve my goal and also my process. My original decision was to draw out every movement, but now I know I dont necessarily have to do that. This solved a lot of problems I encountered with time management and animation skills. Throughout the researching process, I have made various decisions about the storyline of my three animations. I used my research about the Lubicon Cree, Mother Teresa, and the Care Canada commercial to decide on all three storylines, and I will say that I had lots of trouble choosing my story line. At the beginning of my project I had ideas about a girl who explores the world and see's all the magnificent wonders of earth which inspires her to make a change. My second idea was about a girl who lived in the country side and learns that a factory was going to be built in her community. My third idea is about a girl who inspires young children to make a change. My fourth idea is to animate about the wonders of the world and what I find beautiful about the Earth. I was always changing my mind, but even though I changed my mind, thinking it was better or easier, it really wasn't. I am a beginner at animation, so all these topics were too difficult for me. I came up with my last and final idea about doing three small animations. One animation would be about the melting arctic, the other about oil, and the last about litter and garbage. Though in order to make that decision of making three simple animations, I had to go back to my research about "easier alternatives". That research helped me accomplish the simple animation I intended to do from the beginning.

Achieving the Goal

My final product turned out quite well in my opinion. It was the product I had created before my final product, that did not turn out so great. It was too complicated and it was taking a lot of time to draw. Changing my previous idea was a good decision because it wouldn't have achieved the goal I had made. I think the concept of my final animations connect more to my goal than my first concept idea. My animations, as I said, show environmental concerns such as pollution, litter, oil spills, and global warming. This concept, I believe, sends out the message that we have responsibilities within our environment. If I am literally displaying the issues surrounding our environment, then it's easier for someone to look at it and think "I want to make a change". So from one to four based on criterion E, I would give myself a four. Another thing that has really helped me achieved my goal would be my Area of Interaction, Environments. If I had chosen another AOI, it wouldn't make any sense because I wanted to specifically do something relating to our Earth. I think the AOI environment means taking care of our community called Earth. I believe most people mistaken the topic of environments as being about eco-friendliness, and all about global warming. It is true that environments is about that, but it is also about how issues in our environment can affect the people, animals or plants that reside in that environment. My project connects to my AOI because it shows how problems in our environment can affect the ocean, the artic, or the atmosphere and how those can effect humans and animals that live in those habitats. My first animation is about how our greed for recourses such as fossil fuels, can cause issues for surrounding environments. The arctic is melting slowly as years go by; global warming is a large contributor to this. We are always hungry for recourses and the burning of fossil fuels causes pollution. Air pollutants such as carbon dioxide and chloroflourocarbons increases greenhouse gases which contribute to global warming. In my animation you see a person is drinking the water thats melting from the ice. It's as if we are drinking up the homes of many animals such as the polar bear and penguin. My second animation is about Oil Spills. In my animation, the Earth is sitting on a plate, and above it is a bottle of oil. This is supposed to represent a bottle of syrup, the Earth on the plate is supposed to represent food. I am trying to say, through this animation, that we are hungry for oil. We are always hungry for Earth's resources, and oil is like our topping. It tastes better with it. Oil is such a necessity that I dont think people can live without it. Though it's harmful to our environment. My third animation is about litter in the ocean. The message I am trying to say is that there is so much garbage in the ocean, might as well call them fish. In my animation I have turned garbage into fish, as if they actually live in the sea. Through that animation, I am also trying to say that if humans can't bathe in garbage, then why should sea animals?
7

I think the concepts of my three animations help emphasize my goal and my guiding question. Not only are issues about our environment present in my animations, but it also is incorporated how it can affect people and everyone as a whole.

Reflection on Learning
Journaling was one of the requirement's of this project. I learned that journaling does not have to be done traditionally using pen and paper. We live in a time period where technology is available anywhere we go. I created a blog for my journals, as I thought it would be most convenient since I'm doing my project on my computer. We were also assigned a teacher advisor that we had to visit every month to report our process. Whenever I had questions about the project, I could simply ask my teacher advisor. I think having a teacher advisor is beneficial so I can reach success. My advisor would give me feedback on my work and gave me assistance whenever I needed it. Each month when I would report to Mrs. Sarnecki my process, she would check off "Needs Improvement", "Satisfactory", "Good" or "Very Good" on my Guidelines and Deadlines sheet. From there we would discuss what needs improvement and what I did well. I have definitely gained new time management skills. Even though we had many months to work on this project, it is still beneficial to be organized in my schedule so I can avoid procrastination. I was still organized despite having done my project close to the deadline. Regardless of changing my ideas frequently, I still had my schedule laid out. I knew what I wanted to do, and when I wanted to do it. Other skills I have gained were the basic skills of animating. For sure, animating is more complex. There are many more skills and techniques in animation, and many ways to do it. Though this project has helped me gain a basic sense of what animation studios do when creating picture films. This project has helped me accomplish another goal of mine, which is to try animation. I always wanted to do it, and I'm glad this project gave me the opportunity to do so. In the end, I feel like I achieved my goal. Though this is my own personal opinion in response to my animations. I clearly dont know how people will feel once I present my animations. My goal is to inspire others about our Earth and to remind them that we have responsibilities in our environment. Though I have to say, my goal might seem a little unrealistic, as not everyone can be affected by my project. Not everyone will be left with a feeling of wanting to help change the environment. I decided to stick to it anyway, because I'm always inspired by the messages of many motion pictures created by Disney or Pixar. You can also say that the messages of their stories are also more imaginative and not based on realism as most of

their films are based on fiction. Still, those are the stories that inspired people across the world, and that is also something I wish to have achieve, even if it was just a little bit. Strengths of my project I would have to say is the simplicity. Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. If I had decided to stick with my original animation, which ended up being to complicated, it wouldn't turn out as well. But adding onto that, one of the weaknesses would be my indecisiveness. I kept changing my ideas. I am glad that I was undeceive though, because that is what brought me to my final idea. I am very proud of the final result and how it turned out because it was simple, and not too overboard. Yet, something I will do differently in the future is maybe organize my ideas better. I was organized in my schedule, but not my ideas. Since I tend to brainstorm a lot and have trouble sticking to my original, I wish I would of organized them better. In the future I would create a list of all my ideas and list out the pros and cons of each idea and how it would affect my time management and planning process.

Conclusion
This project was not an easy ride from start to finish. I have tried many ways to achieve my goal. There was many trials and errors which left me frustrated and wanting to start over. As I have mentioned, animation isn't simple. At the beginning of this process, my ideas were very unorganized, and all over the place. I did not have a single plot idea I wanted to work with, even if I thought that I would stick to one idea, I would quickly change it. After a long while, I had finally picked what I wanted my animation to be about, what I thought would help reach my goal. I over complicated things for myself, and didn't take into account what my research has taught me. I made it difficult by over complicating the drawings for my animation. This took up too much time. I had to remind myself that I only had a couple of months to finish this project. I ended up not using those drawings and started over with a simpler idea. By doing this project I have learned many animation skills and I have grown as an artist. I have learned more about time management and creativity. As well, I learned not to over complicate things and stick to what my research has taught me about time management. This personal project has inspired me to continue creating projects such as making paintings, drawings, and crafts. One thing I would change, is my want to over complicate things for myself. The project was a fun process, but if I hadn't made things complicated, I would have enjoyed it a little more. Though it has taught me a lesson that sometimes simple is not a bad thing, and that there is no need to impress others because that was not my goal. My goal is to remind others of our Earth's importance and that we have responsibilities to preserve our Earth for many generations. Throughout this process I have grown to understand many things about my Area of Interaction. Environments is about being kind and caring to people and animals within your environment,
9

being eco-friend, and caring for the world we live in. I also believe it's about understanding what causes environmental concerns and how political and economic dimensions are large contributors.

10

Bibliography
"50 Ways to Help the Planet.." . N.p.. Web. 4 Nov 2013. <http://www.50waystohelp.com/>. DarkmaneTheWerewolf, , prod. Animation- Bouncing Ball Explained. YouTube, 2011. Web. 4 Nov 2013. Miller, Sam, prod. Clouds. YouTube, 2008. Web. 4 Nov 2013. Yan, Wenqing. Countdown. 2011. Digital Art. DeviantArtWeb. 1 Jan 2014. Johansson, Erik. Drifting Away. 2013. Digital Art . DeviantArtWeb. 4 Nov 2013. Fishing on Europa. 2013. Digital Art . DeviantArtWeb. 4 Nov 2013. Jackson, Brittany. GREED. 2012. Digital Art. Divine Advanced Human BeingsWeb. 31 Jan 2014. "How to Help Save the Environment." Wiki How to do anything. Mediawiki. Web. 4 Nov 2013. <http://www.wikihow.com/Help-Save-the-Environment>. Justice for the Lubicon Cree. Amnesty International UK, 2009. Web. 4 Nov 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfYsrBW8B2I>. "Mother Teresa - Biographical". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2013. Web. 4 Nov 2013. <http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1979/teresa-bio.html>. Ani-r, . On an unfamiliar plain. 2013. Digital ArtWeb Web. 4 Nov 2013. cartoonsmartlessons , , prod. "Tradigital" Animation. YouTube, 2012. Web. 4 Nov 2013. Manadhiel, . Uummannaq. 2013. Digital Art . DeviantArtWeb. 4 Nov 2013. Manadhiel, . window. 2013. Digital Art . DeviantArtWeb. 4 Nov 2013.

11

Appendices
Visit http://viviantmyp.weebly.com/journal to view my journals.

A frame from my third animation about garbage being littered in the ocean.

12

A frame from my second animation about oil.

A frame from my first animation about the melting arctic.

Planning page 1

13

Planning page 2

14

Planning page 3

15

Planning page 4

16

Planning page 5

17

Mind Map

18