Saturday, May 3, 2014

How NOT to Animate a Sphere

Hi, as I mentioned in my previous post, I've taken up (da-da-da-da) (that was supposed to sound like a trumpet or whatever)....

COMPUTER ANIMATION!!!!!!!

Lol.

But anyways, I'll tell you a story.  On how I FAIL at animating a sphere.

"Ok," Mr. ComputerTeach said, "Everyone go to Create and make a sphere."

Meanwhile, I'm still playing around with donuts and cubes and such.

The conversation I have with myself in my mind:
"Duuuuddddeeeeeee look at what I just did what that cube!"
"Yeah I know man it looks like a box now."
"Duuuuddddeeeeeee I can totally make it move around now."
"Pfffttt I can rotate it.  That's so 20 seconds ago."
"What is this shape?"
"Don't ask me.  I'm your brain, I don't know.  Just click on it."
"Ooooooooooooooh it's a donut."
"Dude, that's awesome."
"Look at how big I'm making it!"
"Dude, you're gonna crash the program!"
*Program crashes*
"LOOK AT WHAT YOU'VE DONE!"

And so on.  Dang, I have an active mind.

But anyways, we were told to animate a sphere.  So I sat down and put a sphere on my plane (after restarting the program of course).

"Now right click on it and drag it to vertex mode," Mr. ComputerTeach instructed.

I was totally not paying attention.  I was changing perspectives and angles.  The little girl inside me was saying Whooooo! like she was on a rollercoaster.  Thanks a lot, brain.

So I finally put it in vertex mode.
"Now merge the points," he continued.

At this point, this was TOTALLY not my fault.  I was sitting in the back, so I could not see his little projector screen showing us what to do. I stared blankly at the screen, feeling like he had performed some magic that he expected the rest of the class to do, while I was a muggle that had simply dropped by.

I looked at my neighbor.  He saw the look of desperation and the lost anxiety that filled my eyes and he sympathized,  showing me the command.

Now, my shape looked like a modern piece of art.

"Now go into face mode."  I did so.  SUCCESS!!!

"Separate the two halves of the sphere."

Hold on, hold on, hold on.  THERE IS NO HALF TO THIS SPHERE.  THERE IS TOO MUCH GEOMETRY!

So I guiltily made another sphere.

And I goofed around with it.

"Now fill the hole you just made."

HOLD UP.  What hole?

I looked over to my partner.  Shoot...

I went back to my sphere and deleted a face.  I asked my partner to help me and whoola!  I made a...

fail.

There was a triangle that extended outwards.

Inside my head, I was bashing my head against the computer.  In real life, I pressed Ctrl+Z

Hi there y'all

Soooooooooo...............  I'm totally changing the mission of this blog.

Let's get straight to it.

I'm now a college student.  I no longer really web program, but I am learning to computer animate.

And now I have interesting stories about it.

BUT.... I will save those for later.  THEY GIVE ME HEADACHES JUST THINKING ABOUT THEM!!!

*sigh*
*deep breath*

This post is starting to look more like an E.E. Cummings poem than an actual blog post.

But whatever.  #thuglife

So yeah, my first post in like what, 3 years?  Where should I begin...

Ah.  WG.  I was walking down the street in WG (shortened so y'all don't stalk me).  If you know WG, it's like where all the white, rich people all gather and do a competition of who-has-the-prettier-house-with-ivy-coming-and-eatings-it-like-a-kraken-eating-a-ship.  And-I-just-used-way-too-many-hyphens-to-make-one-phrase.  L-O-L.
But anyways, back to the story.  It was my birthday that day, so my daddy took me and my boyfriend to a gelato shop after we had a great dinner.  We got our gelato and sat on a bench, trying to stay warm and dry (it had been raining)  when I heard a commotion.  I was thinking, Whatever, I feel like I'm back in downtown SJ, when I realized, NO!  I'M IN WG!  WHAT IS GOING ON!
Now here comes the interesting part. I've omitted the appearances of the people to protect their identities, and I didn't know their names so I don't have to change them.
The first guy (1) came storming down, yelling profanities.  "**** you,  **** this..." yadda yadda yadda.
Then two guys followed (2 and 3).  2 was trying to catch up with 1, but 3 was holding him back, saying, "I ****ing love you bro,  I ****ing love you."
"Shut up!" 2 said, shoving 3 off of him. At this point, I noticed a helicopter with a searchlight.  I turned to my dad.
"Do you think I should call the cops?" I asked.  I started dialing.  But then I stopped, because two cops pulled up.  3 turned around ad walked the other way.  I guess he had tried to make 1 and 2 avoid this fight.
A guy was jogging in the direction 1,2, and 3 were running in.  He was clearly an innocent bystander-- he was dressed for a marathon.  Suddenly, he booked it the other direction.
"PUT YOUR HANDS ON THE CAR!" I heard a cop yell.  Some people stopped and started watching.  I couldn't see what was going on, so I waited.  More cop cars should up.  Then...
POP-POP!
Ah crap, I thought to myself, I'm going to die on my birthday.
I grabbed my boyfriend and we hid in a shop behind a bench.  My blood ran cold.  I heard someone crying out in pain.  Then, a woman casually walked in the shop, and looked at an item, like nothing had happened.
"What happened?" an employee inquired.
"Some guy grabbed for the cop's taser and he got tased," she said.
I thought they had been gun shots.  I felt stupid.
So I went out to the street, towing my boyfriend, and sure enough, that's what had happened.

So, if anyone is out there, what's YOUR crazy birthday story?

(And sorry for the wall of text)