Final Reflection Video

Feature Story #1

Our second video of the year was a feature interview of a student from our school. We collaborated in teams to find a suitable location to shoot the video and choose good b-roll to incorporate in with it.We had one week of planning to prepare a list of questions and decide what we were going to interview the subject about and another week to film and edit. During this project, we struggled to find b-rol that was good quality, many of it was shot vertically from a phone and it was hard to resize inside Adobe Premiere. Another thing we struggled with was the jumpcuts. When I was talking I moved around a lot, making it very obvious whenever a cut happened. For the final product we were able to cover most of this up with b-roll. The first time we edited the video we had included the interviewer's voice saying the question. We learned for the reedit that we were supposed to either have voice overs introducing what the subject was going to say next or have title slides saying what the question was. Due to time constraints, we chose the title slide option. Feedback wise I believe people enjoyed the video except for the low quality of the b-roll. Considering it was one of my first videos of the year I am happy with the way it turned out and I learned a lot regarding the transitions between different shots and questions.

Feature Story #2

For our second feature interview of the year we interviewed another student about a book she had recently written and published. We spend a few days preparing the list of questions and setting up a good time to film with the subject. After that we spent a couple days filming and the rest of the week editing. Our weakness with this project was the first day we went to film, the equipment we chose wasn't charged all the way and by the time we had swapped it our there was no more time to film so we had to come back and film the next day instead. When we finally got around to filming the video we forgot to check if it was focused or not and the whole video turned out to be a bit blurry. Our communication issues with the subject also led to a lack of b-roll but we still made it work. In comparison to our first feature interview I can tell we definitely made some improvement. The flow of the shots is much smoother with the voice over and there are less jumpcuts.

ONW NOW Sophomore Edition

https://drive.google.com/open?id=16Y3L85hwx8Izflt2hLGfeVYiqYQQCnU5 

The finale for this semester was our sophomore edition of ONW NOW which we produced as a class. We chose production roles and split into groups to produce news stories to put in. We spent one week learning about the requirements of the project and deciding what would be included in the final product. Another week filming and editing and a third week filming the live show. We had students who wrote and controlled the teleprompters scripts for the anchors, other students who monitored sounds, cameramen, directors and more. Our group made the band concert segment, we struggled with finding time among us to work outside of school and film. Our second interview was very last minute but we ended up making it work. The only thing I wish I could improve about it would be the volume. The interview with Nathan was very quiet as was some of our voice over even though we edited it to full volume. I learned that I need to be prepared for all situations and if something goes off from the original plan, I should have a backup. Overall, the sophomore edition of ONW NOW looked like it could almost be aired to the full school! All we need it a little work on cues and facial expressions and we will be all set to air live!

Time Management

My time management has been pretty good in class, I have only had to stay after school a few times to finish up small things. On days where we finished early we always make sure that everything is done on google classroom before working on another class. Outside of class I sometimes look into the work of other students or people around the world to see what I can do differently about mine.

Strengths and Weaknesses

My strengths as a video student would be editing. I like making sure shots look as clean as possible and I am looking forward to seeing different methods to this. I am also looking forward to our Entertainment unit because I have some ideas for short films that I feel would be a lot of fun to make, I want to see what it would be like to be a director. I also really like writing scripts and lists of questions of interviews, I hope this can be handy later on in the year. My weakness would be performing on camera, I usually find myself at a loss of words if I am not prepared enough. My solution to this would to make a check of myself before I go on film and confirm that I know what my plan is.

Summary

I really enjoyed learning about life as a convergence journalist this semester and I am now considering taking the class next year. My favorite part was working as a class to make the ONW NOW video, I think we really got to know each other better and I hope we do more projects as a class later this year. I am happy to say that I am a lot more comfortable with the equipment and more familiar with the editing system and I can't wait to learn more about the hidden secrets they have. Next year I hope to learn more about how to incorporate animated texts into a video and how to check sounds more effectively on the cameras before filming.

Final Reflection Animation

This year has been a lot of fun so far! I have gotten better at character design, learned a lot about story structure and gotten to know the mechanics of the animating platforms better as well. I have chosen my favorite projects from the years so far and embedded them below with a little reflection to go with them.

Walking Cycle

I picked this animation to reflect on because I thought it was one of my best ones visually. The colors are really nice and even incorporated some of the skills I learned from the bouncing ball project to make a window. I became very attached to my character while working on this project.

During this project we learned how to make our own little characters be able to walk across the screen. It took me a while to decide on a character to animate, I had three options: a robot, a teddy bear and finally my dinosaur. I bounced some ideas off some friends in class and I eventually chose the dinosaur. First, we drew our characters in our sketchbooks and then scanned them into Photoshop to be colored. We divided the arms, legs and head into different layers so we would be able to animate them separately later. Once in After Effects, we set anchor points so the arms, legs and head would rotate correctly. Next, began the keyframe work. We had to be careful not to make the character look like it was gliding, to accomplish this we had to add a little pause after every step. We also had to make sure the arms and legs were alternating and that the legs were never in the same place at the same time. Once we finished this we created a background and a shadow that followed our character. I finished early so I made his eye blink and added a little more to the background. My weak spot in this project would be the slight glitch in his leg due to a keyframe placement issue. I also wish I could have made the background a little better because it looks very 2-D. However, this project really helped me understand keyframes better and how to work with timing. We also learned how to use the dodge and burn tool to make objects really pop. Overall, this project is probably my favorite from the After Effects unit.

Short Story

I choose this animation because it was one of my favorites to do. Even though I got behind and it didn't turn out the way I had originally intended, it was a lot of fun to think of my own story and see it come to life.

For our last video of the After Effects unit, we developed our own story by first analyzing Pixar short films and taking note of the structures of plot lines. Our goal was to implement everything we had learned form previous animations, such as puppet pin tool and walking cycle. I collaborated a lot with friends to give and receive ideas. Originally, my story was to be about a homeless man who lives alone outside of society. One day he goes into town for food and is mocked by everyone. He becomes very sad and starts to leave. On the way out, he sees a little homeless boy who needs help. The man wonders why he should help the boy when nobody helped him. Suddenly the man realizes that that is not the way the world should be and decides to help the boy. He takes the boy to him home in the woods and they build a tree house together. My weakness during this project came from how behind I got while sketching and coloring the scenes, so I got started on the animation very late.  From the animation point forward I had to manage my time very carefully and work quickly which meant cutting out some scenes. I had to stay after school almost every day one week to get finished. I also struggled with the size of my drawings. Some of my scenes weren't colored in a 1080x1920p canvas so the ended up looking a little stretched in the final product. If I come back to this project I would like to add sound because it might help make the message more clear. Overall I think the style of the art looks really good and I hope I can finish the story sometime.

Castle Model

A few weeks ago we began working in Maya. We have only made three projects but my castle model is my favorite. Instead of just making four towers with walls, I added in two more towers in the middle where the royal family lives.

For this project we learned how to add textures to things by using pictures we found on Google. We had to look up "seamless ______ textures" to find ones that wouldn't have a line going down the middle of them. To apply them to an object we added a Lambert and then connected a file to it. This was I bit hard for me and I ended up using a texture with a seam in it for the stone. I worked over this by shrinking the texture to make it less noticeable. Hopefully I can find a trick to finding seamless textures because it will be handy when working later.

PolyThing and Lighting

(Maya render)                                                          (Arnold render)

This is our most recent project in Maya and it was very interesting to me. We studied the different types of lighting and then implemented it into our model to showcase the details and shadows of the "Polything" we made. This project was very quick and easy, the only part that took a little bit to figure out was the order to delete the cylinders to create the holes in the sphere. My final renders were also a bit dark so I might go back and change the color of the plane to a lighter color to reflect more light and show more shadows of the Polything. The Arnold render showed the shadows and shininess of the blinn material while the Maya render doesn't. I am excited to see what else I can do with the different types of lights in other projects.

Short Story Animation: Be the Change

Be the Change is the story of a homeless man who lives alone in the woods. He sleeps in a hammock high in the trees. First you see him walk up and climb down from his bed. Then, he walks to the train tracks down the road to catch he train into town. Once he gets to town, he sees all the stores with clothes and food which he knows he can't buy because he has no money. He asks a supermarket owner named Jim if he can spare some food. Jim is blindsided by the homeless man's raggy clothes and refuses to give him food. The homeless man is defeated and begins to walk home sadly. On the way back he stumbles across a homeless child who asks him for help. The homeless man is about to refuse, probably thinking, "If no one helped me then why should I help him?" He instantly regrets feeling this way, shedding a little tear because he understands the boy's struggle. The man holds out his hand to the boy to help him up and take him home. The story ends with the words "It will be alright". This is to show that even if it seems everyone is mean to you and that no one understands there is always someone out there who knows what you are going through and that someday the hurting will end. Someone will come along to help you up.

For this animation we were supposed to showcase everything we have learned in 2-D animation this semester. In the shot where he is sleeping in the hammock, his breathing was animated using the puppet pin tool. The first shot that is zooming in on his hammock I used multi-plane animation to make the hammock seem like it was closer to you than the trees in the back of the scene. I used arcs with the leaves in the train tracks scene and also with the homeless man's walking. I also incorporated skills I learned from the walking cycle animation to move his arms and legs. For future animations I have learned not to spend too much time on storyboarding and drawing. I spent a lot of time drawing all the scenes out which ended up with me having to cut out some scenes from the animation. I also struggled with the size of canvases in Photoshop moving to After Effects. I needed to remember to make the scenes be 1920 x 1080p in order too fit correctly on the final product. You can tell that I had to stretch some scenes to fit in After Effects, especially in the scene where the homeless man visits Jim's Supermarket. Overall this project was a lot of fun and I think I will be coming back to it later in the year to make some revisions and additions because I feel that it has a lot of potential.

Op-Ed on Raven 50

Are We Getting the Full Benefits of Raven 50?

     This year the Olathe high schools are trying out a new system during lunch. We are given 50 minutes to eat and consult teachers for help. The time is split into two parts; Lunch A and Lunch B. However, the district is trying to decide whether the time is benefitting everyone or if we should just go back to the old schedule.
     Personally, I am seeing that Raven 50 is very helpful.  It allows us time to finish up leftover homework and ask questions to our teachers. Since school starts at 8:00, it may seem like we already have enough time to finish up homework before school, but some students cannot get to school until about ten minutes before the bell. Even if we already have our homework from the night finished, we can get a head start on homework from our first four classes or even study for tests we have later in the day. It also provides us an easier way to communicate with our peers. Last year we could only have lunch with our friends that had the same lunch hour as us. With Raven 50, we can sit with anyone, which helps friends who don't have classes together to stay connected. Raven 50 has health advantages as well. We get more time to eat so we don't have to rush. Students who felt that they didn't have enough time to eat a proper lunch are now freed from worry. I feel that it also functions as a de-stress time of day. I can sit down and distance myself from the busyness of school and have fun with friends for a little bit.
     Overall, I think that our high schools should keep this system because many of my peers really enjoy this time. If it is felt that students are not using this time correctly, I propose that we enforce some rules. Students must only eat in certain hallways/classrooms, they must go in for help this many times a month, etc.

Written News Story

LyLena is “On the Bridge” to Success

LyLena Estabine Olathe Northwest sophomore, just published her third book, On the Bridge. Her book is a dystopian novel that features a boy struggling through the problems in our society today such as bigotry and prejudice. With support from her family, Lylena self-published her book on July 1st 2017. On the Bridge can be bought and read online at Barnes and Noble and Amazon, but if you want a signed copy you can purchase them directly from LyLena.

According to LyLena, On the Bridge took about a year to write and publish. She used easy to access programs such as Google Docs and Microsoft Word to write the book and Canva to design the cover. LyLena wants other young authors to know that reading books, plays or poetry can really help a lot to “…find your voice and a particular style that stands out to you.”

When her book came out, she had book signings where people could come buy a signed copy of her book and talk to her about it. Her book seems to have been a hit with everyone who has read it, including her freshman english teacher, Ms. Toburen. According to Ms.Toburen she enjoyed the book and that she thought LyLena “...did a really good job, much better than I could have done at 15 for sure.”

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Process

When writing a news story you start with the five W's and then proceed with the most important information and concluding with the least important information. This is called the inverted pyramid style of news writing. Along the way we must remember to use quotes and to make sure that we are not writing in a fictional style. (Ex. we ALWAYS say, "...she/he SAID") As a class we looked at different news websites and analyzed written news stories to get an idea of what we were supposed to write. We also looked at our own Raven Daily and Raven Minute to see what other ONW students have made for written news stories before writing our own. I started with the five W's in the first paragraph. For the second paragraph I talked about how LyLena wrote her book and what advice she has for other authors our age. In the final paragraph I talked about the reaction of other students and teachers when her book came out.

My Thoughts

I liked being challenged to write in a less fictional style because I typically use very descriptive and shiny words when I write and this was very different for me. I still need to work on organizing my information from most important to least important and making sure my words are engaging the reader. I also need to remember to say "According to _____" and "______ said".

What I Would Change

If I were to do this project again I would make sure that I have enough quotes and that they are embedded correctly. I would also want to see what other opportunities there are to write news stories on and how much information there is for me to work with.

Interview with LyLena Estabine: Feature Story #2

The Assignment

For our second feature story of the year we were to have two interview subjects talking on the same/similar topic. The videos submitted will be viewed and one will be chosen to be featured in ONW NOW. Our group decided to interview LyLena Estabine, a sophomore at our school who has written three books. In this video she talks about her most recent book, On the Bridge. Mrs. Toburen was our second subject. She talked about what she thought about LyLena's book after reading it and what she thinks the future has in store for LyLena.

Pre-Production

For this project we switched up our production roles. I was the script writer and the interviewer so it was up to me to think of 21 questions to ask our subjects. I found the job very simple because I also have an interest in writing. I was genuinely curious to know what LyLena had to say about the process of publishing On the Bridge. We had to contact LyLena to set up a time when she could be interviewed since she busies herself in other activities such as acting. 

Production

On the first day we went to film, we had some issues with the camera battery and did not get any clips. The second day we went out to film was the day we finally got the interview filmed. We were lucky to have had just a enough time to go and film Mrs. Toburen on the same day. Because of this last minute decision I was completely unprepared with no questions. I ended up being pretty good at thinking of questions on the fly. We got LyLena to send us some b-roll a few days later. Unfortunately, there wasn't very much b-roll and I had to resort to using silent clips of the interview with the voice over in place of b-roll at the end.

Post-Production

Editing the video was difficult at first because LyLena had a lot of great things to say and I really wanted to include everything. Once I got past that and the scarcity of b-roll, editing was easy and I got it finished in good time. On the first edit of this video I did not have an intro screen. After listening to the feedback from my classmates and teacher I realized that I needed to add one. I already  had an ONW NOW logo so I animated that and turned it into an intro graphic.

What I Would Change

If I was to film this again I would make sure that the camera is focused properly because our clips are all slightly blurry. I would also like to make sure we plan a more appropriate place to film according to what our subject is talking about and that we have a microphone to eliminate some of the background noise. We also might want to consider what possible b-roll there is and if there is enough before we choose and interview subject.

Overall

Overall this project was fun, I'm starting to see lots of improvement in my videos and I'm hoping my next video will be the best one yet!

MultiPlane Animation

What is a MultiPlane Animation?

A MultiPlane animation is a setting that has multiple layers. These layers range in distance from the audience with the sizes of objects on the layers being sized accordingly. When the animation plays, it is made to look as realistic as it would if you were to walk or drive along the setting. The first MultiPlane animations were made by sliding drawings made on transparent celluloid along different shelves and then photographing each fraction of an inch of movement among them. Walt Disney used this setup for his animations: 

The Project

We started in Photoshop with a 10000-7000 by 1080 canvas and made at least five layers and a background. We had to keep in mind that the objects on layers in the back had to be smaller than the ones in the front. Also, the background layer must cover the entire canvas as it would not be moving in the animation. (Ex. When you are looking at the moon it does not move and it does not get any bigger or smaller.)  When we moved on to After Effects it was simple, we put keyframes for all of the layers at the beginning  and at the end. The keyframes at the beginning were all in a line, while the ones at the end had to be tweaked to make the layers closer to the audience move faster than the ones in the back. After that, all we had to do was export the project and we were finished. Majority of the work in this projects was in Photoshop and designing the layers and making sure they were proportioned correctly.

ONW 1 in 2000 Interview

The Assignment

For our second video of the year we were told to interview one of the 2,000 brilliant students at our school about one of their favorite memories from the summer or beyond. In my group, I was the one to be interviewed. I talked about the trip that I took this summer to South Dakota and the wonders I saw there. 

Pre-Production

Before we started filming we had to plan. We created a small storyboard showing where we would be filming, we had to choose a place that would fit the theme of our interview. Then, it was the job of the interviewer to write 21 interview questions that we could work off of during the interview. The person receiving the interview was not allowed to have a copy of the questions and was not scripted. This made the interview very natural and less nerve-wracking. We were also told how to conduct the interview. The interviewer would be sitting off screen and to the side so that the person receiving the interview would look at them instead of right into the camera. Once we had all these things down, we were ready to begin filming.

Production

The filming of our interview was very quick because we did it all in one clip. However, getting set up took a little while, we had to play with some stats on the camera to get the microphone to pick up sound. We moved setup as well, the window we were originally filming in front of had too much light coming through and made me look like a shadow. The only problem with filming in front of the courtyard window was that at one point in our video, a person walked by in the background. While filming I had a hard time finding one place to look, it was very tempting to look at the camera. Next time I will be more disciplined to look just at the interviewer. One instruction we forgot was to not pass the microphone back and forth. This created a conflict later in editing.

Post-Production

The first time I edited this video it was very choppy, the interview was too long so I had to cut some unimportant questions out. I also stuttered a few times and there were awkward pauses where I tried to think of what to say. These also had to be cut out along with the pass-off of the microphone.  I used only three pieces of b-roll in the first edit. On the second edit my main goal was to make it have less cuts, I did this by putting in some more b-roll over parts with lots of cuts and taking out the interviewer's voice and replacing it with a question screen. I also added an end screen. The second edit looks a lot cleaner and I am happy with the way it turned out.

What I Would Change

If I were to do this project again I would try to find some different music because the music at the beginning is reused from the How to Use a Hall Pass video. During filming I would make every answer a different shot instead of having one long clip, this will prevent awkward cuts in the middle of sentences. I would also keep in mind only giving the microphone to the person receiving the interview so there is no passing the microphone back and forth. Otherwise this video went pretty smoothly.

Overall

Overall I think our group used the five guarantees of e-comm very well; we collaborated at the beginning to decide who we should interview based on what we had to share. We communicated through post-production to make sure we were editing correctly and that everyone had the clips and b-roll to make a professional video possible. We had effective project management because we finished filming and editing in good time. We each took on a bit of a leadership role depending on our part of the project (For example, I had to make sure I had plenty to talk about my trip to South Dakota and was able to bring in some b-roll). We used our existing technical skills combined with some new tricks we learned with the camera and Adobe Premiere Pro to produce and then re-edit our video to make it more professional. This project was fun because I learned a lot on how to film a proper interview.

Walking Cycle Animation

The Project

For this project we first had to create a character of our own on paper. We had to leave out shading and colors because that was to be added in Photoshop later. Then, scanned or sent our drawing to our computers and imported it into Photoshop. From there we edited out the extra space so it was only our character. Next we had to separate and copy the parts of our character if we were planning on having them move in the animation.  After that we added in color along with shine and shadows using the dodge and burn tool. Finally, we added in a background and then we were ready to move on to After Effects. In After Effects we started with setting the anchor points for each of the body parts that would be moving in the animation. Then we parented all the parts from the body to keep them from falling off. From there we set position and rotation keyframes accordingly. Every part had to move opposite from each other which was the hardest part. Before moving on to the null object we added a shadow by making a shape and applying a Gaussian Blur effect. The last step was the null object which we only had two keyframes for; one at the beginning, one at the end. If your character walked faster you might have had to move them closer together to make sure your character wasn't gliding across the floor. After that, you were done and you could export and upload to YouTube.

Overview

At the beginning of this project I had a hard time creating a character I really liked I had two designs before I came up with my little dinosaur: a robot and a teddy bear. I ended up pulling out my sketchbook when I had some extra time in another class and started doodling, ending up with my dinosaur. The Photoshop portion of this project was pretty simple for me. I implemented some skills from some previous projects to make the window looking outside and the shadow-like effects on the floor and door. In After Effects things started to get a little tricky. It took me a while to get the movement of the legs to where they are now. There is still a little glitch in the right leg every few seconds. After finishing the arm and leg movements I realized that I needed some head movement to make the animation look more smooth. I had to go back into Photoshop and separate his head into another layer before I could make it move. I ended up having some extra time so I made his eye blink as well.

What I Would Change

Overall, this project was a lot of fun! I missed a day of class due to orchestra but I was able to catch up pretty easily. I really liked how it turned out. The only part I would change would be glitch in his leg. I believe that happened because of a mistake keyframe when I was first attempting to make him walk. I would also like to make the background more realistic because it looks pretty 2-Dimensional.

Inchworm Animation

Overview

As our second project of the year we took it up a notch and animated inchworms. We started out in Photoshop designing the layers and then moved to After Effects for the animating. We learned how to use the null object and how to make a shadow using one of the previously existing layers. This time we did not use the paintbrush tool to make grass because it would be too hard to see the inchworm behind the grass. Since I didn't want to have a flat layer of grass I decided to make my inchworm on the moon. I was also going to animate my worm coming out of the crater on the left but it proved to be beyond my skills. You may also notice that the shadow of the worm is missing on my animation. This is because one of my files got lost. Otherwise, this project was really fun and my experience in the Adobe programs are getting higher.

The Project

I was a little behind on this project because I wanted to try and get the worm to come out of the crater. After a few days of trying and redoing lots of work I decided that I should just wait until my animation skills were higher so I could come back to the project. My worm stayed on the moon and the crater is still there but they don't interact. When I came back to school to finish the animation, one of my files was missing and the animation was messed up. That is why my worm doesn't have a shadow. 

What I Would Change

If I were to do this project again I would probably wait until the end of the semester or even the end of the year because I wouldn't have more experience and I might be able to get my worm to come out of the crater. I would also make sure that when I make my worm layer in photoshop, he is flat on the ground and not pulled up in the middle. When I did this project my worm started out curved instead of flat so I had to work backwards from the instructions when making him scrunch and move. 

The New and Improved Bouncing Ball

The Project

You might remember a project similar to this one on my older posts from last year. Now that we are back in animation, we revisited our first project ever: the bouncing ball. This time we were working with the 2017 Photoshop update to make the objects and the backgrounds, but not to make the actual animation. For that, we used Adobe After Effects. 

Overview

During this project we learned the new features of Photoshop and made realistic grass using the paintbrush tool. We also got to use the bevel and emboss window to create more realistic shadows and shapes rather than using the gradient tool. Then, we learned how to use a completely different program: Adobe After Effects. We downloaded our photoshop project into After Effects and then started working. Instead of making loads of layers to animate it, we used keyframes to move, squash stretch and rotate.

How it Went

My animation went well, I found it easy to learn how to use the new program. If I was to do this again I might add some more things in the background like birds. I could also try having an unexpected ending.One thing I would like to change is to figure out how to animate the clouds so they move slower and look more realistic. In the future I want to add music or sounds to my animations.

ONW Procedures Video

It's the beginning of my sophomore year and for our first video we were to make a short procedures video that might be used to show freshmen the expectations of our school.

Pre-Production

In my teammates for this project were Tressa and Emma. We decided we would be showing how to use the hall passes in our planners. Since this video is silent and the sound was only background music, our script consisted of actions for the actor. Using the script, we crafted our storyboard. Our video was much longer before we started filming and editing. Originally we had get up from her seat and walk to the teacher to ask to sign her pass. The actor was going to get stopped three times in the hallway. Once for running, again for talking/singing and being loud, and third time for peeking in the window of a classroom and distracting a friend. However, we ended up eliminating the third one because of time issues. It took a few days to learn the ins and outs of the camera, but once we were finished with all the preparation, we were very excited to begin filming.

Production

 I was the main actor in the video while Emma was the actor who was stopping me from being disruptive, Tressa worked the camera. Since the video was only allowed to be around 30 seconds, we got finished with the filming in one block period and the clips were uploaded to the server to be edited the next day. During editing some of our original clips were eliminated or shortened. The audio was to be made up of only background music. I silenced the original audio and added in happy music up until 0:15 when I become mischievous and start running down the hall. I had some faster music start playing until Emma stops me. However, it starts up immediately again when I am out of her sight. I tried to find a singing effect for the part when I start yelling over the staircase but failed. I ended up using a dinosaur roar instead. In the last few shots the happy music returns and the video ends. I was going to add in a title and end screen summarizing the video by listing the dos and don'ts of the hallway, but we had already met the time limit.

Overall

Overall I was very excited to learn how to use the professional cameras to get a higher quality video. I also was happy to see that we are using the 2017 update of Premire Pro. I loved the changes because it was easier for me to understand where everything was and that helped me edit my video quicker. I did need some help along the way with audio. I am hoping to explore some new sites we can use for it because ISM Films loads very slowly. If I were to do this video again, the only thing I would change would be the time limit. The 30 second limit  is crucial to keep the video from rambling on, hut I also think that it might be limiting some people's capabilities. I know I could have made a better video if we just had a little more time. I really enjoyed this project and I can't wait to see what the rest of my class did.

Animation History: Evolution of CGI

It's a new school year and I have moved out of E9 and into Exploring Animation. This week we looked into the history of animation and how we got to where we are today. We viewed some old animations and identified what kind of animation it was: Cel Animation, 3D Animation, stop motion, 2D animation, etc. Then we got to research anything about the history of animation, I looked into the evolution of CGI.

I viewed this video, A History of CGI Characters - DOCUMENTARY:

It talks about how crazy creatures in movies used to be done with stop motion and puppets like in King Kong (1933). Then, in 1985, the first photo real computer generated character was created as the Stained Glass Knight in Young Sherlock Holmes. In 1989 Photoshop was used for the first time in a full length film to help create the water tentacle in The Abyss. It took six months to finish, but the movie won an academy award for the visual effects. Jurassic Park in 1993 broke new ground with the photo real dinosaurs including bones and textures, they used a dinosaur input device that would convert the movements they made into keyframes. In 1995, Casper the Friendly Ghost became the first computer animated character. In the same year, Toy Story came out becoming the first fully computer animated feature length film. Overall, the video is a timeline that effectively shows the progression we have made in film technology in the last 76 years, it is truly incredible. The video ends with Avatar from 2009 which is 60% computer-animated and 40% live action according to the director, James Cameron. This video is really interesting because it shows that hard work does pay off.

e9 Semester 2 Final

     During this last quarter of e9, we have been working on a project with a group of four people that may not have been in our original class. Our groups were created based on our personality tests that we took at the end of third quarter. On the first day we were told to brainstorm a problem that we have or see in our world, or seek similarities among our different personalities that we could build a project off of. From there we made a team/company name and a product that we were going to spend the next four weeks making graphics, animations, a commercial, and a website for. Our product was the Tele-Pack, a backpack that is enhanced with teleportation. The Tele-Pack is both voice activated and works with your phone. We thought that the Tele-Pack would be the perfect solution to students' aching backs and air pollution by other transportation machines. Below I have included the material included on our website:

Our company logo:

Our product logo:

Our ad:

Our coupon:

Our web banner:

Our 2-D company animation:

                                     

Our 3-D product animation/demonstration:

            

Our commercial:

            

     The main challenge in this project was our personality differences. Some of us were more outgoing than others so we had to make way for each other to be able to receive input from all of us. However, I liked this challenge. It gave me an opportunity to collaborate with all different people and see how the different personality types can benefit and counter each other at times. I learned that this is an important thing to remember even outside of this class, you may not always agree with everyone, but that is because everyone is different in their own way. Sometimes you will have to work harder to get along but once you get through the hard part of getting to know each other, things might not be as bad. I also got a little stressed when we started getting to the last few days and still had work to do. I took too much on to my plate when what I really needed was help. Then, we talked as a team and spread out the work evenly between us an everything turned out fine.

     During this project, we all gave each other feedback on our work. I learned that we needed to speak up and show more confidence. We also found some flaws in our website that we promptly fixed and resulted in a really successful presentation.

     My overall opinion of this projects that it was a great learning experience but also a lot of fun. I learned teamwork values that I will continue to apply to my life. I really enjoyed using all of the computer skills we learned this year to make one big project it was very rewarding to finally see it all at once during our presentation and see what others thought of our product.

     We made pretty good use of our time during class on this project. In the beginning, we decided as a team that we would still continue working even if we were missing a team member or two. We agreed that if we didn't get everything done in class that day that we would schedule a before of after school time to come in and finish up. This plan worked well and we only had to come in early to tweak small things on the last few days. On days where we finished early, we checked and double-checked that everything on the website was working smoothly and that we had all of our requirements.

     My strength as an e-Communication student is that I am open to ideas. I really like to collaborate with others to see how their mind works compared to mine and how we can incorporate our ideas together to make something truly creative. It is fun for me to try multiple approaches to a concept and select from the group which one fits all the needs. I strive to give everyone an equal chance while working in a project. I really want to hear what everyone has to say, I don't want anyone to feel uncomfortable around me, just to feel like they can share their deepest, richest ideas. That is how I contribute to making a team what it is. An area where I need to improve is being more vocal. While my teammates give their input, I need to give mine back. However, while I do this I have to remind myself not to overpower the others. During this project I improved on this by remembering that my team members wouldn't judge me because they wanted to hear my thoughts as much as I wanted to hear theirs.

     This semester I loved seeing what the other teams in first hour e9 came up with and how they wanted to change the world. I especially liked seeing how everyone grew together and became friends over this whole year. The only part I would change is just getting a few more minutes to practice our presentation individually in our teams so we really know what everyone is sharing. My goal for next year is to produce even better work, and strive to make more friends and stronger relationships.

Animation Rotation

     Graphic Design has ended and we have moved on to animation. In animation we were assigned to make a 3D animation, a 2D animation, and start the product website. After collaborating on what to do, we decided that the 3D animation would be a of demonstration showing how the Tele-Pack works. Our 2D animation is a little different, instead of making it full-length, we made a short animation of our team name: FLYLO. We thought that we could insert this at the beginning or end of our commercial from the upcoming video rotation. Below I have added some screenshots of the website-in-progress and our animations.

2D Animation:

3D Animation:

Screenshots From Our Website-In-Progress:

     The end of this year is coming up fast but we are still working hard and I am very happy with what we have accomplished now that I am looking back. I am still considering changing the color scheme of some of our graphics to make the website stand out. We are also looking into adding some sound into the 3D animation. I can't wait to see how our video rotation and presentation will go!

Graphic Design Rotation

This last quarter is off to an eventful start. I am starting off in Mrs. Smith's graphic design class and we have been given five tasks to create in Adobe Illustrator.

~product logo

~company logo

~website banner

~advertisement

~coupon

After a week and a few days of collaborating and hard work at the computers, we have accomplished our five goals:

Overall I am satisfied with our results. We worked to make our logos reflect a theme. Our product logo font was made to look futuristic and reflect our slogan of "Going Beyond" using the arrow in the T. The company logo was made to look professional with the cursive-like font. I think it says that our company and product are reliable. Finally, our website banner, advertisement, and coupon combined these ideas and looked very nice. We have to finish some last bits on our advertisements, but other than that, the last thing we might look at is the background colors. I am really excited to move on and see what our team will create in the animation rotation.

Mini Presentation Blog

     Now that we are back from sprig break, we have begun our final unit in e9.  All of the students in the program were shuffled an then put into groups of four based on our personality types. My group is Nathan, Mason, and Kevin. Our assignment is to create a product and apply our knowledge from graphic design, video, and animation to make logos and advertisements that will make people want to buy our product.
     Every day in class we use the five guarantees; technical skills, communication, leadership, collaboration, and project management to effectively work together as a team and create our company and product. After a week and a half of working, we decided that our company name would be FLYLO with the slogan, "Go beyond". We all agreed that is matched our product: the teleporting backpack (TelePack).
     The TelePack is a product made for people around 13-25 years of age. It includes an app on your phone with a GPS that can sync to the backpack, telling where and when to go. Another option is a voice activation so you can tell the TelePack where to go. We thought that our product would help students save time and prevent backaches from all the books. It will also bring the possibility of traveling and vacationing to the ease of pressing a button.
     Today in class we had a mini presentation of what we had developed so far. We instantly received feedback and got to discuss our strengths and weaknesses as a class and a group. Our group did well receiving a 9/10 score we only missed half a point on explaining why our logo was perfect to represent our project and our slogan.

CSS and CARP Website Design

Overview:

     This week, we finished our house in Sketchup and started another web design project. The purpose of this project was to show how using the principles of CARP could make our websites better. 

Relating to CARP

Contrast

In this project we used contrast in our text fonts and colors. The title fonts were bigger and had more serifs than the poem's fonts. There were also slight contrasts between the colors of the title text, poem text, and page text. The colors were were all different shades of brown and black which created more contrast. We also made the first paragraph of the poem in italics to add a bit of style.

Alignment

Alignment is very important in a website, it is the rule of keeping different texts lined up with each other to produce a cleaner look that is visually appealing and easy to read.   It looks silly to have important text floating in the middle of a page, away from everything else. All of the text should be aligned either to the left or the right under the title.

Repetition

The repetition in this project is found in the colors between the dog and the webpage. We used the eyedropper tool to select colors from the dog and apply it to the texts and backgrounds. Even though they weren't the same color every time, it was easy to see a rising theme knowing that the colors came from somewhere.

Proximity

Proximity is used to group related ideas together, in this project we grouped the poem and the dog close together because they shared the same idea.

What I Learned: 

During this project I learned how to apply the rules of CARP to a website, we renewed our knowledge in Adobe Dreamweaver and made two websites showing what a great difference CARP can make in our work. One trick we learned to use that we didn't last time we used Dreamweaver was editing the code to input text fonts that weren't available in design mode. I will remember to apple the rules next quarter and throughout the rest of my time in the E-Communication program.

My House Animation

Summary:

A few weeks ago, we were introduced to a program called Sketchup, a 3D modeling application. First we learned out to make a simple chair using video tutorials. Then we moved on to learn how to make a doghouse which would help us prepare for this next big project, building a full size human house. We visited http://houseplans.housingzone.com/ to find houses we liked. We downloaded a picture and the floor plan of our chosen house and began to recreate in in Sketchup.

What I Learned:

I learned how to use the 3D modeling application, Sketchup, including move, rotate, scale, orbit, push-pull, offset, follow me and more tools. We also learned how to import extra details, add shadows, and use and edit textures. After we built, colored and decorated our houses we learned how to make scenes in Sketchup. You pull up the Scenes window and simply click Add Scene after you adjust to where you want the view to be focused.

How Did it Go? What I Would Change:

This project took quite a while to finish but it was quite simple to do. I really liked getting creative and trying to make our house model look real. If I were to do this project again I would spend more time editing textures and the landscape around the house. Next time I may even attempt to make my house two stories!

My Personality Type

My Personality and People I Share it With:

     Yesterday we took a personality test (http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp) to see what kind of people we are and who we can work best with. After taking the Myers-Briggs personality test, I found out that I am an ESFJ. According to http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/the-16-mbti-types.htm, people with my personality are typically peacemakers, work with others well and consider their feelings. They work hard every day and are loyal. Then we explored some famous people who have the same personality type as us on http://www.celebritytypes.com/esfj.php. I share a similar personality with the Pope, Hugh Jackman, Whitney Houston, and more. Many of them seemed to be actors and singers.

Description Pictures:

http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp 

http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/the-16-mbti-types.htm

https://www.truity.com/view/types

https://www.truity.com/view/types

My Thoughts:

     When I looked at the description of my personality on https://www.truity.com/view/types, I agreed with pretty much everything that was on there. I consider other people's feelings before my own, I see things in black and white (right and wrong), I stick to a regular schedule, and I believe that things will run more smoothly if people follow the same rules. The only part I didn't agree with was: "not shy about sharing their evaluations of others' behavior. 

     Now that I know more about my personality, I understand why I enjoy certain classes and sports, and get along with certain people better than others. Most of my friends are also outgoing and we agree on many things. I have always loved classes where me and my peers can all sit down and have a thorough conversation with each other and all understand exactly what each other is saying. It gives me a sense of unity, that everyone isn't as different as we might seem.

How This Applies/Applied to my Life:

     When working in a team, I usually try and help fit our needs to satisfy everyone, I don't want anyone to feel left out. I am not necessarily a leader in a team, unlike the descriptions, but I do step in sometimes to help get us back on track. On the other hand, when I am at home with my family I am a leader. I am the oldest child and I have been taught to be a role model for my sister. (I have been told that I get along better with my sister than any person ever seen.) I am not strict with her, unless it is required, but most of the time we just have fun. When the role I need to fill doesn't match up with my personality type, I usually let other people take over, I can sense when it is or isn't my turn and I act respectfully.

     In the past, some people have accused me of being too stuck to the rules and afraid to have a little fun. But they may not have understood that that is one of the traits of the people who have my personality. I don't usually have "issues" with anyone in my life, but I sometimes feel uncomfortable around people who are extremely introverted. I love to talk, and when it comes to introverted people, I see them as someone who needs help. I try and get them to loosen up and feel like they can talk to me and that they don't have to be shy. However, if the person just refuses every effort I make, it can be awkward.

Personality Activity:

     Later we did a personality activity where we looked at a variety of characteristics and marked which ones, in each row, were most and least like us with numbers (1-4). When we finished, we added up all the numbers in each column and circled the one that had the biggest sum. On the back of the activity paper there we animal names and descriptions tied to the columns. According to this, I am a Beaver:

-perfectionist

-creative

-problem solver

-doesn't like sudden change

My second match was a Golden Retriever:

-good at making friends

-loyal

-doesn't like big changes

-looks for security

-caring

-deep relationships

-wants love

-steady work pattern

In my opinion, these descriptions are more accurate than the first ones.

What I Have Learned:

     After doing this assignment, I realize that not everyone will always get along. That is just the way life is. However, no one will be lonely forever, there is always at least one person that they can relate with who can make them feel welcome.

10 Words Animation

Summary:

We already know the basics of Photoshop and how to create a frame animation, but this time we did something a little different. We chose a background picture that we liked, used the ten words we had chosen at the beginning of the year to describe ourselves and embedded them with special fonts and colors into Photoshop. Then we learned how to make a video animation. We added fade-ins and fade-outs and a title screen. 

What I Learned:

I learned how to make a video animation including fades, and how to animate a piece of text. Animating the text was fun, first you set what the word would look like after it is done moving, and then you would set another point. Inside this second point you can move the word the way you would like. When you play it, it is like a timeline and the word changes perfectly.

How Did it Go? What I Would Change:

I thought that making a video animation was easier than a frame animation because there was much less to work with as opposed to almost 100 frames. If I was to do this project again, I would try to learn how to add sound effects for each word or just some music in the background.

Bouncing Ball 2: Arcs

Summary:

     It is our second week of animation and we have already finished our second project. It is a bouncing ball animation, but this time, it is bouncing in arcs instead of in place. For this project we really focused on making the ball bounce realistically. It started off high in the air, and as it kept bouncing, we reduced the amount of squash and stretch and the arc sizes. Just like in the first animation, we started off making the main layers, sky, ground, and ball, but this time, we had a layer for the arcs. We copied, pasted, rotated, exaggerated and transformed, until we had made the ball bounce all the way across the screen. At the end we each thought of a creative way for the ball to disappear and prepare the animation to start over. We made the frame animation and added tweens and timing along with a title and end screen to make it more professional.

What I Learned:

     As I said above, in this animation we added tweens and timing. These are features in the frame animation that helped us with the title and end screen. Tweens made the screens fade in and fade back out beautifully. It was a bit hectic because of all the frames it added to create the fade but I eventually figured it out. We used the timing to pause slightly on certain frames and add suspense. This was also a bit tricky because I wanted to make sure that it didn't look like my animation was skipping. To solve this, I made the pause time shorter.

How Did it Go? What I Would Change:

     Using Photoshop to make this animation was easier this time because many of the steps were the same. Even with the parts that were new, I did not struggle. I really enjoyed this project. If I was to do it again, I would make the ball disappear in in different way at the end. (I was thinking something like getting struck by lightning.)

Bouncing Ball Animation

 Summary:    

     Now that we are back from Winter Break, we have started our animation section of the e9 course.  We began to familiarize ourselves with adobe Photoshop while creating an animation of a bouncing ball. On day one we set up the main shapes and colors of our animation, the sky, the ground and the ball itself. On day two we added gradients (shades and tints according to the light) to them so that they would look more realistic. On day three we made multiple copies of the ball and changed the shape so that it would squash and stretch. Finally today, day four, we animated it, making sure that we used ease-in and ease-out. We copied, pasted, deleted, and reversed frames so that it would bounce over and over again.

What I Learned:

     On the first day we started learning right away about squash and stretch and ease-in ease-out rules in animation. Squash and stretch is something you use when trying to show the mass of an object through movement. Imagine a bouncing ball, if it is lighter, it will have more of a stretch and more of a squash when you drop it. If it is heavier, like a bowling ball, it will have very little to no squash and stretch applied to it. Ease-in and ease-out is how speed is applied to an object in animation, getting faster and slower gradually.

How Did it Go? What I Would Change:

     I had a lot of fun making my very first animation, I always wondered what it would be like to animate, and now I get to do it! I struggled a bit while changing the ball's shape so that it would squash and stretch, but I am happy with the end product. If I was to do this project again I would animate the light on the ball so that it would look more realistic. I would also add something in the background like a bird or some clouds, just to make the landscape more diverse and visually appealing.