Christmas in June

Tonight, I did something crazy. I swapped out my old 160 Gb internal hard drive for a 320 Gb. (see following diagram)


I needed more room, because I'll be installing Windows shortly, so I can run a couple different PC-only Applications, including Sony's Acid Pro and 3D Studio Max, among others. woo hoo! yes, i know, im a big nerd.

I also upgraded my RAM from 2 Gb to 4 Gb! you know what they say...Christmas only comes once a year. wait...what? nevermind.

keepin' the hardware fresh,

Have you ever smoked 37 cigarettes at once? I have.

JK...i've never done that. But it did feel like i was when i was walking to my car after class today. (there's a lot of smokers at FS)

I haven't posted in a while. Im so sorry. But wait, wait, wait...before you start throwing things at me...hear me out. Last month i was in Developmental Psychology (really boring but somewhat interesting) and Web Design (really really boring, but stuff that i need to know). The Web Design class was all based on HTML and CSS coding. If you don't know what that is...go read a book or google it or something. Needless to say, coding sucks. Everyone knows it sucks. Even web programmers know it sucks. It's just so freakin' boring! I guess I'm just trying to come up with an excuse for why I haven't posted in some time.

Basically, the only thing I did last month that's worth posting is this Cup O' Soul! website. This was the final project for Web Design, where we had to take an existing site, and redo it. I chose this local coffee house in Winter Park. I'd say that, compared to some of the other site's that I saw from my class, mine turned out really good. But I know that I could have done better. It was just hard for me to find the passion this past month.

On a much lighter note...

...doing good so far.

Always,

Playdohfield: Coming Soon

Here's my final "Motion Graphics Project" piece. I had to pick one topic and then make a 60 second motion piece for it. Then I had to cut that down into a 30 second and a 15 second. For this project, I really wanted to try to master the 3d environment and camera movements in After Effects, so that's what I focused on. I created the claymation and did the voiceovers myself. Here ya go!



I won't include the 30 or the 15 second takes. They're basically the exact same thing, just quicker cuts.

I'd like to continue to work with motion graphics in the future. I was actually thinking about failing this class on purpose, so I could have another month to work on it. I've decided not to do that though, and to just work on it in my free time. I love it and could definitely see myself pursuing a job in motion graphics.

Oh, and I think that I'm going to drop out of Full Sail and become a voice over actor. Because I'm so good at it. (sarcasm)

Keepin' It Fresh with the NEW and IMPROVED Freshness Seal,

Trans-Demographic Ad

Without further ado...



This project was very difficult and stressful for me. I was supposed to make a 30 second trans-demographic ad which had to include some video in it somewhere. It was also recommended to use a 3d environment.

I started out making a playdoh ad directed towards kids, where I was going to make a claymation with playdoh, and then create all the graphic scenery for my playdoh figure to interact with. But after a couple different shoots, I realized that I was in WAY over my head for the time period that I had to work with. I did play around with a little something that can be found here. It's not anything serious, so don't expect anything.

So I ended up making a Burton ad directed towards women, because chicks who snowboard are so much hotter than chicks that don't. I did this ad in a little over two days. I think it turned out alright.

Keepin' It Fresh,
Aaron J

Motion Graphics Ad................yup.

So, my most recent Motion Graphics Assignment was to create a 30 second ad for a good or service.  I definitely had a hard time coming up with what good or service I would do for my ad.  I settled on....ummm....dodgeballs?  Right...dodgeballs!  Yup!  Here it is...

So I wasn't too happy with the way it turned out.  I mean, it's alright.  Nothing too spectacular though.  I kind of put this project on the back burner during springbreak.  Whoops.  I promise I'll do better next time.  

Yours,

Aaron J Harms

Oh....and I kind of need some help deciding on my next ad too. I have to do a 30 second Trans-Demographic ad, meaning an ad that would appeal to people outside of my demographic. ie. kids, women, etc. Any good ideas that you would like to see come alive in a motion graphics ad?

I've been thinking along the lines of play-doh, got milk, kool-aid, tampons? jk about the tampons. hahah. alright, let's hear some ideas!

Motion Graphics Bumper

For my MGR class...we had to create a ten second bumper for ourselves.  If you don't know...bumpers are those short clips at the beginning of movies and you find them on websites too sometimes.  (Paramount has those stars flying in encircling the mountains, Universal has the globe spinning, etc)  So...here's what I thought up.

I realize that I probably shouldn't have mentioned those awesome Paramount and Universal bumpers right before you looked at mine.  Mine doesn't even compare to those.  But hey, it was my first attempt. Gimme a break.

Experimentation with Time Travel

I'm not sure if anyone else knows this....but today is the 12th of March!

I say that because I have no freakin' idea where the months of January and February went! Or even the first half of March, for that matter.  Seriously...did I time travel right past the last 70 days or so? ...and not even realize it?  I'm pretty sure that's the case...there's just no other explanation.  

On another note, my sleep schedule just keeps getting more and more unusual.  This month, I have class from 5pm to 1am everyday, which isn't too bad of a schedule.  Atleast, it's consistent.  But the thing is, I don't go to bed until about 6 or 7am each morning...and then I sleep all day until it's time for class at 5pm.  I'm becoming a nightwalker.  Maybe this is where the time gets lost.(?)  But that would totally dismiss my time travel theory.  And I kind of liked that theory.

You wanna hear some exciting news?  I guess you have to, since your reading this.  But if you don't want to hear it, stop reading right now.

My "Bushisms Painting" video, which I've posted in this blog before, which you can also find here, was playing on the big LCD screen that they just installed on top of one of our buildings.  Check it out!

It was one of six other videos of student work that they had playing during Full Sail's "Behind the Scenes" Tour.  They had the music blaring and everything!  It was up there with some crazy stuff too, like an "Addy" award-winning motion graphics piece for Nike.  So I was pretty stoked that they chose my video.  Plus, how often do you see yourself on a massive video screen?