Final Exam Review

Media Arts Terms:

Film Terms:

Continuity - The seamlessness of detail from one shot to another within a scene. Continuity refers particularly to the physical elements, rather than to the choices in Coverage that can result in a lack of seamlessness. Elements of continuity include any actions of the actor, the placement of props, the lighting, the costumes, and so on.

Cut
1. What the director says to end the filming of a shot.
2. The cutting apart of 2 shots at the frameline, or the point where the shots have been cut apart.
3. In the different stages, or at the completion of editing the edited film itself can be referred to as “the cut” or “the edit.”

Dissolve - A transition between two shots, where one shot fades away and simultaneously another shot fades in. Dissolves are done at the lab in the printing phase, but prepared by the negative cutter, who cuts in an overlap of the two shots into the A&B rolls. Labs will only do dissolves in fixed amounts, such as 24 frames, 48 frames, etc

Edit - 1: The cutting and arranging of shots. 2.: In the different stages, or at the completion of editing the edited film itself can be referred to as “the cut” or “the edit.”

Fade - A transition from a shot to black where the image gradually becomes darker is a Fade Out; or from black where the image gradually becomes brighter is a Fade In. Fades are done at the lab in the printing phase, but prepared by the negative cutter, who cuts in an overlap of black into the A&B rolls. Labs will only do fades in fixed amounts, such as 24 frames, 48 frames, etc.

Frame - A single image (of a series of them) on a piece of film. There are 24 frames per second.

Rough Cut - The edited film, between the stages of being an assembly and a fine cut.

Scene - A scene is really just a single shot. But often scene is used to mean several shots, which is more to do with the word’s origin in theater. It is sometimes clearer to say “sequence” for several shots, so as not to confuse the filmic and theatrical meanings of the word.

“Safety” - An additional take, done after a successful one, as a backup.

Shot - A shot is the film exposed from the time the camera is started to the time it is stopped. Shot and Scene are interchangeable terms.

Sync - The degree to which sound and picture are lined up, in-sync being lined up exactly, and out-of-sync not so exactly. It can be applied to any specific sound and picture relationship, not just voices and not just sync-sound, but any type of specific effect too.

Tracking Shot - A tracking shot is one where the camera is placed on a dolly and is moved while filming. Also known as a dolly shot.


Animation terms

Vector: In graphics and animation, a "vector" is a line or a movement defined by end-points or, essentially, the distance between point A and point B. Vectors can be used to calculate animated motion mathematically instead of through the use of manual key frames; vectors can also be used to define computer-animated shapes.

"Tween" is actually short for "in-between", and refers to the creation of successive frames of animation between key frames. In computer animation, the term is most commonly used for Flash's "shape tweening" and "motion tweening" processes, where the user can define two key frames and Flash will automatically create the in-between frames, either morphing one shape into another over a set period of time or else moving a shape or shapes from point A to point B over a set period of time. 3D animation programs also have their own method of "tweening".
ActionScript is the name of the programming language used to develop applications for Flash. When combined with Flash animation and graphic objects, it can be used to gather data and dynamically manipulate objects and events while a Flash movie is running. ActionScript is similar in some ways to JavaScript, and in others to Visual Basic, but its basis relies on events, handlers, and classes that perform specific functions based on the movie's timeline and certain established conditions.

Animation is the process of creating the illusion of motion by viewing sequential images in rapid succession. This can be accomplished with hand-drawn images in a flip book, images drawn and painted onto cels, sequential photographs of objects moved one frame at a time, or images created in a solely digital environment, but the core principle is the same. Each image is part of a sequence that depicts the various stages of movement required to show the progress of an action, and the images are then displayed at a pace (frame rate) swift enough that the eye no longer sees individual drawings, and instead sees the illusion of a moving image.
Stop-motion animation is animation produced by arranging real objects, taking a picture of them, repositioning the objects minutely, then taking another picture of them to create a sequence of consecutive images that create the illusion of motion. One of the most common forms of stop-motion animation is claymation (think Gumby).


Straight Photography refers to photography that attempts to depict a scene as realistically and objectively as permitted by the medium, forsaking the use of manipulation both pre-exposure (e.g., filters, lens coatings, soft focus) and post-exposure (e.g., unusual developing and printing methods).

Pictorialism It largely subscribed to the idea that art photography needed to emulate the painting and etching of the time. Most of these pictures are black and white or sepia

Mise-en-scene The term stems from the theater where, in French, it means literally "putting into the scene" or "setting in scene." When applied to the cinema, it refers to everything that appears before the camera and its arrangement.

Aphorism is a term used to describe a principle expressed tersely in a few telling words or any general truth conveyed in a short and pithy sentence, in such a way that when once heard it is unlikely to pass from the memory.


Montage A single pictorial composition made by juxtaposing or superimposing many pictures or designs.

Camera Obscura Latin for “dark room” The term was first used by the German astronomer Johannes Kepler in the early 17th century. He used it for astronomical applications and had a portable tent camera for surveying in Upper Austria.

Rule of Thirds The rule states that an image can be divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines. The four points formed by the intersections of these lines can be used to align features in the photograph

Common-Realism also known as Naïve realism. Naïve realism holds that the view of the world that we derive from our senses is to be taken at face value: there are objects out there in the world, and those objects have the properties that they appear to us to have.

Parody In contemporary usage, it is also form of satire that imitates another work of art in order to ridicule it. It can also be used to poke affectionate fun at the work in question.

Panorama is any wide view of a physical space. It has also come to refer to a wide-angle representation of such a view.

A) Micromedia Flash MX Terms:

Movie terms

A Flash animation is called a Movie. A movie contains all the scenes, objects, effects and actions that make up the final animation.

A movie is a collection of Scenes. Just as in a TV show or real movie, each scene may have a different background or camera angle. The plot of the movie flows from one scene to another. A simple animation would have a single scene.

A scene is a collection of Objects that animate over a number of Frames. When a scene is complete, all the objects are removed from the display and the movie automatically moves to the next scene. Typical objects are text objects and image objects, such as a picture of a car or person.

Stage terms
Following the movie-making metaphor, the work area for your Flash animations is called the Stage.

Objects--such as drawings, buttons or animations--are placed on the stage in Layers. This allows objects to be in front of other objects. It is also useful for breaking up effects into simple parts.
The very first layer (and the furthest back) is the Background. This layer is usually visible through a whole scene.

Motion terms
The Timeline is the part of the interface where you can see the flow of a movie.
A Frame is a single time-slice of the Flash movie. It is a similar concept to a frame of a motion picture. Frames are seen in the timeline.
Events and actions

An Event is when something happens at a given time in the movie or as a result of a user action. A frame event occurs when the movie reaches the specified frame. Mouse events occur when the mouse interacts with an object in a scene.

The event will then trigger an Action, which can be used to control the flow of a movie or issue instructions to the browser. Typical actions include stop the movie at the current frame, go to the specified frame (and scene) in the movie, and tell the browser to load a Web address into the specified target HTML frame.

Effects
Effects are animations that change the appearance of an object over time.
A Simple Effect is where all components of an object move in unison. An example is when all images slide into view at one time.

Another simple effect is a Transformation of size, rotation and/or color.
Complex Effects are when several objects in a movie or when components of an object move independently (typically letters of a text object). Complex effects are usually done in layers. Some Flash rapid application development tools--such as Swish--have complex text effects preprogrammed into one layer.

In conclusion
The basic terms used for Flash animation concepts are classified as movies, stages and motion.

Welcome Back and Happy New Year 2008!!

Today's class activity plan:

First activity: Writing and reflecting--15 to 20 minutes students will write a one page Past and Future Reflection. Reflections must be completed by the end of class.

They are to reflect on accomplishments and set new years resolutions for 2008. Students will also set 3 predictions for 2008. All entries will be blogged.

Second activity: They are to continue with ongoing projects. Check previous blog entry for details.