BLACK BELT JOURNEY

This video was our first feature news-type of story that we made in Exploring Video Production. It took us about two or three weeks to fully complete, which is really kind of sad looking back. One of our challenges was finding someone to interview in the first place, but we finally decided on myself reaching black belt in Taekwondo, as no one else could think of anything. We learned how to use a two-shot system, with overlapping audio in many places. The feedback I got back wasn’t negative or constructive. They just praised it, so I left my video as it was. That was probably a bad move on my part, not gonna lie.

In class we took quite a bit of time o get to the point of being ready o film. I happened to be chosen to be a group leader, and we got to pick our own teammates. We took about three or so days to figure out questions, camera angles, and visuals. We were never early to do anything, so when we got to filming we had to hurry.

My area of strength I think is editing clips and audio after they’re filmed. My best quality is making quality content, but it might be a couple days late. I stay after school a lot to edit videos. It’s kind of fun, but it drains the soul very quickly.

Like I mentioned before, time management is where I struggle the most. I haven’t really done much to try and fix that, so that’s my bad honestly. Next semester I plan on speeding up a lot. My hands will be flying over the keyboard, you won’t be able to see them.

NEWS PIECE IN ONW NOW

Well this project started out okay. We got to choose groups again, which was nice, and I ended up with some different people this time. Once in our teams, we were assigned a specific part of our student news show, ONW Now. it took about two weeks, which is respectable enough I guess. It definitely would not cut it in the REAL world.

For our news piece, my group chose to cover an Orchestra Performance and a Band performance. The day we picked them out was also the night the Orchestra had their performance. So I had to stay after school until 9:30 p.m.

Another challenge was the audio for the band, as we accidentally only recorded on the right side chanel, so the audio only came out of the right side of the speakers. I did learn how to set up a tripod real quick, mostly due to necessity. Once I got to editing, I was in my element. I learned how to stabilize a shot using Warp Stabilizer, ad that made my B-roll significantly better. The band files were very good as well, thanks to my other team members.

Then we were on to putting it all with the other groups features and interviews and such. Without our teachers guidance it quickly became a mess, and we were very confused. I forgot to sign up for a role, so I just went into the studio for moral support. But then it seemed i forgot to make lower thirds for the anchors, so I went a made them. I forgot export them however, so they were useless. It turned out okay though, as the anchors introduced themselves anyway. We managed to film and play all the clips we needed in that class period thankfully, even with those cutoffs and dead spaces.

What I enjoyed the most of this semester was making the Black Belt Journey video, as editing it was much fun indeed. I would try to work a lot faster next time, though. I can’t wait until next semester where we start on entertainment. Let’s get away from this journalism stuff. I shine when I have the freedom of creativity. What we worked on these past two quarters was not something I enjoyed that much.

Animation First Semester Reflection Review

INCH WORM

I got the chance to act out deepest fantasy. I learned how to animate a worm to make it look like it’s moving. Mark Olson taught his young Padawans how to do it by using the puppet pin tool in Adobe After Effects. I am very proud of this project, as it was my first time making a 2D animation that didn’t make me want to burst into tears. My greatest strength would have to have been drawing my worm, while my weakness was animating it to look a little more realistic. If I was forced to do this project again, I would be tempted to sigh uncontrollably. But, I would make the background of the animation so much better.

STORY ANIMATION

This was easily the project I despised the most throughout my Animating career. We took everything we learned from AfterEffects and poured it all into one single story. This is my child, the apple of my eye, the piece de resistance, my legacy. When my grandchildren ask me what my best accomplishment in life was, I will link them my e-Comm blog. I drew every possible scene for this story that I could think of in PhotoShop (which I despise), and animated it all in AfterEffects. The only thing I would change is adding more scenes to this beautiful piece of art, as I was greatly saddened when we reached the deadline.

MAYA CASTLE

For the final two weeks or so of this semester we shed our Adobe skins and shouldered 3D modelling in MAYA. I personally enjoyed this more than PhotoShop and AfterEffects, and I was ridiculed for my opinion. I learned how to create 3-Dimensional shapes, and how to modify them further. After some trial and error work, we started the base of a castle, and then formed turrets from the ether of MAYA. After completing the castle shape we added textures and lighting, as well as our own personal touches.

MAYA POLLY THING

After mastering MAYA, we went back a couple steps and just made this weird hollowed out sphere. We used shaped to cut out spaces from other shapes, and made a normal sphere look a little thin. We also used more lighting in this, three point lighting specifically. The final product was just a geometrical mass that looks kind of pretty with the lights on. If I could’ve done this again I wouldn’t. But if I had to do this again, I would try to make the shape a more appealing color.

Story Animation

My story animation’s plot has to do with a bird. The bird is flying minding his own business, when suddenly a storm appears and he’s forced to perform evasive maneuvers. After a couple seconds of flying he gets struck by lightning. Just kidding it misses and he actually survives. That’s about it.

This was the most complicated animation I’ve ever done, because I had to use all I learned this past quarter and a half. We used position frames, multiplane techniques, and arc tools to make it happen, as well as opacity keyframes to switch between scenes. After many grueling hours, I managed to finish it. Here’s the finished product:

Essentials For Features

A good feature story needs expert use of the six shot system, using the power points. Strong audio leveled out through the whole video. The most important part is a good interviewee. If the story OR the person is boring, the whole thing is kinda kaput. An interesting delayed lead is essential, as it's the hook to capture your audience's attention.

Boy, have the last two weeks been a wild ride. We went from inchworms and walking straight over to multilayer designing. Which is not at all hard to animate, but designing it is another thing entirely. I started in PhotoShop once again, and made my sky a nice light blue with an almost white gradient toward the horizon. I added a sun as well, which I colored pure white and added a nice outer glow. I picked a nice muted green for the ground, and made a hilly foreground layer. I repeated the process two more times, the green getting slightly lighter as it got closer to the sun. After I had my ground and river drawn in, I moved onto foliage. Well, trees. I drew my nice pine tree with the brush tool, using individual strokes for each branch and pine needles. It took 45 minutes. But they look beautiful. Then I just copy pasted them a total of about 120 times, filling out each layer, getting progressively smaller the farther back. I also added Christmas decorations to one single tree at the end. I was done.

With PhotoShop.

Into AfterEffects I went, and I set up the positional key frames I needed for each layer in about 5 minutes. I went to export. That’s where the trouble began. No less than SIX times I exported the clip, and every time I went to open the QuickTime file it said “could not open”. Each rendering takes 15 minutes, and after the first 5 times I realized my resolution was set to 10000 x 1080 pi. So, I bumped it down to a reasonable 1920 x 1080 pi. Guess what, though? It still didn’t work. I gave up, and just had to show it from inside AfterEffects. This is why I don’t have a video.

Still my favorite project so far, though.

Interview of Mario Bustos

Mario Bustos Interview



The Task

In e-Comm we had to film and edit an interview of a person in our group. The most outstanding event that we came up with was Mario Bustos reaching black belt in Taekwondo. I drew out the outline for how we would film, and Lauryn wrote the 22 questions needed. We recorded the intro and outdo in the classroom. Then, we went out to the gym, recorded about 13 minutes off footage, stayed after school to finish asking questions. 

Editing

I headed over to Premiere Pro and started editing. After two days, my files got corrupted. So I started over. I used many different title screens and fades to try and make my video look good. Next time, I'd like to not take this as seriously, and take a more comedic approach. I did learn how to crop and add second media over existing clips, though, which is extremely useful.

Overview

For two weeks, I worked hard on my new project. It was to draw your own character, import it into PhotoShop, clean it up, and then put it into AfterEffects to animate it. This was something new to me - scanning my drawing into a computer file.

PhotoShop

First thing I learned to do was how to scan something using the cool machine in our classroom. After that it was 2 tries of trying to import that fresh PNG file into PhotoShop, which I realized on my second try that the reason it looked so blurry was because I was on a quarter view. Yeah. After that hiccup I was back to stuff I already knew how to do: using the paint bucket, wand tool, brush, etc. from my time in Microsoft Paint.

AfterEffects

After about 4 days of polishing my character, who I based off of Sackboy from LittleBigPlanet, I imported him into AfterEffects. Oh. Ohoho. I spent twenty minutes trying to figure out why he was importing so blurry, until I asked my teacher for help and he pointed out that I was on a quarter view. Again. After THAT hiccup I was again back to what I knew how to do: using rotation, anchor points, and position to make Sackboy walk across my screen. When I first used the null object tool to move him across the screen, I managed to make his footsteps line up perfectly with his walking speed on the first try. He started in the middle of the screen, though, but I was too scared of messing up my accomplishment, so I just made him fall from the sky to let him land in the same place.

That was something I could have definitely done better, along with a background that was actually made by myself. I do think I did well on actually drawing my character, though. We're gonna be starting a new project very soon actually, and I can't wait to see what it is.

Wiggly Worm

Overview

Once more, a daunting task was assigned. Last week I finished my bouncing ball. This week, I finished my inchworm animation. As you can hopefully see, I have gotten better at Photoshop. We made the tube shape of the worm on PS, along with our background layers, and imported everything into After Effects. 

Learned

From there, we used a new tool - the Puppet Pin. I messed around a bit with it, tried to use the starch tool, failed at it. Solved the problem by just adjusting the pins instead. After making the worm arch its back a sufficient number of times, I headed on over to the Null tool. That was new. I learned how to move the worm according to the pushes of its body, and after 2 hours I finished the animation completely.

This has been my favorite project I've done in Animation so far (including last year), and this week we'll start working on a walking animation. Should turn out to be quite the challenge.

Jumping Ball

The Task

Like last year, our first task in animation was a bouncing ball. Except instead of only using Photoshop, though, we also got to try out Adobe After Effects for the first time. But, we did pay attention to detail a lot more.

Overview

Instead of having to make 40+ layers for a 3 second animation, we instead made one separate ball layer in PS. Then in After Effects, we used movement keyframes to animate it. I have a pretty basic understanding now on how to squash and stretch using AE, but I still need to work on the whole speed thing.

Animation

It took me quite a while to get all way to animating. But when I did, I almost wished I hadn't. I had to fiddle around with all the different key frames and arcs and stuff like that, but when I finally got my ball's path plotted out, I had to figure out squashing. Then stretching and rotation. I'm still not too happy with it, though, mostly because I couldn't figure out a way to manually adjust the easing of the ball myself.

Procedure Video

ONW Procedure Video

Our first video project was a simple one designed to let us take the new video cameras for a test drive. Mine turned out awful. Three months out of practice, I was unable to spit out something I'm proud of. We decided to show the students how to be the best Raven ever.

We came up with a list of FIVE need-to-know items about ONW:

Secret shortcuts between hallways

Bathroom that almost no one uses

Out of the way staircases

The auditorium

Special drinking fountains for bottles

We didn't really storyboard at all, besides listing those five musicians-haves on paper. I was the camera man, though, and we managed to get a hold of the school mascot hat. We filmed all of our scenes in the span of 80 minutes, ending up with about 5 minutes of footage. Unfortunately, we got hit with the 30 seconds-only rule. So we lost over half of our clips.

We edited our own clips, and mine turned out alright, I guess. I definitely could have done better if there wasn't a time restriction. I would've made better transitions, an easier to follow flow, and actual audio. I did like all of the shots we got, though, so I'd keep those. 

Honestly, for the next project, I hope we get to pick our groups. I feel I could do a lot more with people I've worked with extensively before.

e9 Final

My fourth quarter project was quite the beast. The end goal was to create an imaginary product with a design team, and create graphics, animations, and even a video commercial for it. Overall, it took us about 2 months, I believe. We started out very well in graphic design, where we had the good fortune to be able to come up with our product idea - the Magic Pack. Our graphics were easily created, as you can see:

Our animation that Katie, Nick and I worked out smoothly, as I am quite proficient with SketchUp, after creating a three-story house.  Katie isn't bad either, as she's the one who made the surrounding campsite. Making something appear like a cloth backpack was different, but a welcome challenge:

All was well and good. Until we hit web design. Now, no one in our team could honestly say it's their strong suit, but I, myself in particular, am pretty much lost without a step-by-step tutorial. Which we had, but then we lost it. In the end it all worked out though, after much trial and error, and we managed to cobble together something presentable.

Over the course of production, I did have time to practice new skills, like listening to others, not being bossy, and how to work with difficult people. I also got to exercise my video editing in our YouTube commercial, which we recorded as a group, but edited individually ourselves. This was mine:

After our presentation, we were approached by many of our peers, who told us they had enjoyed ours the most, and it filled me with a sense of pride, but also trepidation, as if I'll have to do even better next time. But then again, I still have much to learn, so I have much to improve.

This whole time spent working was definitely not time wasted, I think. I do believe that I managed my time well, as my team and I were fully prepared to present at the end of fourth quarter. When we finished recording our video a little late, I stayed after school for three hours each day, for three days. I was determined to make a  good commercial I would be proud of, and ultimately, I am. This has brought me to realize that my strength is definitely video and film, and I will continue to grow in that area.

My weakness, though, is without a doubt web design. My solution is to stay as far away from that as possible.

This semester, my favorite parts were definitely creating a 3D house in SketchUp, and filming and editing our commercial for the Magic Pack. However, I would like to change how my group is still slightly awkward together, though that can only be fixed by constant exposure, but I fear that we won't be seeing all of us in e-Comm next year. Next, I will significantly improve my ability to film and edit, and how to incorporate animation into it. I have the next three years to do it.

What Have We Done

Once again, I write. Last blog I told you I had joined up with a specially operated squad. I am here to report my - our - success. we came up with our product the Magic pack. We then designed various logos and graphics for it as well.

This is our product logo for the backpack with infinite space

Our company was name Company Inc, and this logo took a lot longer than it should have

This was our coupon, still looking slightly evil

Our ad, enticing you to buy our product

As you can see, we put some good effort into our graphics, and basically just grew as individuals. We were all friends by the end of fourth quarter, and I hope they stay in e-Comm for the next couple of years with me. Maybe we could work together again.

Being In a Tee-am

Last week, like always, I went through something relatively new. I was apart of a team specifically designed for maximum efficiency. I was the sole "beaver" of the group, but we had 2 "otters" and one "lion" as well as an unknown. I am kind of the leader, but I think it's more of a shared position. We went through about 25 potential team names, like KC Zoo, We really want a good grade please give an A, and Monsters Inc. The last one was copyrighted though, so we just went with Company Inc. in the end, after a vote for each each name.

Then we went on to decide what type of product we wanted to showcase. The first brilliant suggestion by one of my fellow teammates was a 'cold microwave', which would could cool down, or even freeze food in the same amount of time it would take a normal microwave to heat something up. then my brilliant contribution was 'hot ice', mostly in jest. the idea was that it could keep drinks warm, like coffee, or hot cocoa. After some deliberation and determination, we all decided on introducing a backpack that's infinitely bigger on the inside, immortally named the "Magic Pack", aimed at travelers 18 to 33 years old.

After that, our team had to design a logo fro the product itself. We made it in Adobe Illustrator.

As you can see, it's more on the simple side, but simplicity was exactly what we were going for. It took us a bit to line up the swirls of the infinity sign, but after that it was just smooth sailing for us.

We even have our own slogan: "Be surprised with the size". Not the most original, but it fits. After that, we presented ourselves and our logo to the class. We dressed in black, so that made us automatically formal, and we had already decided who was saying what beforehand, so it went smoothly. We had clear voices, good posture, and good explanations of our processes. At the end, we managed to get a 10.

CSS and CARP Design

Once more I delved into web design, no clue what lied ahead. Because I didn't really pay attention to the intro. But, thankfully, I am extremely skilled at following detailed instructions, so I was able to actually complete the website. Two websites, actually. I linked them together, and the only difference is the absence of a layout on the second one. It's the raw version I guess.

As you can see, this is the best website to ever grace the  ungrateful internet















Contrast is used in the sharp colors tan and brown against an off-white background.

Alignment is shown where the poem lines up with the side of the page, and dog with the top part of the body paragraphs.

Repetition is where the colors are basically the same ones.

Proximity is used in how close the dog is to the poem, and the title to the sub title.

My First SketchUp House

For the past 2 weeks, all I have been doing was SketchUp. Building a 3D house from scratch, to be exact. We went to a website that had photos and floor plans of different kinds of houses, and everyone in my class picked one. In a burst of poor judgement, I chose the biggest house on there I could find, which was 37ft by 43ft, and 33ft tall, with the chimney another 5ft. 

It started out as just a rectangle on the ground, then raised up to 33 feet. Then, 10 hours of hard work later, I was done.

After my first experience with SketchUp, I can honestly say that I really enjoyed editing on there. So much so, that I'm going to download it on my own PC and put to use all the skills I learned.

Myers Personality Test

We took a slight deviation from animation last week, and we looked into our innersoles once more on our path of self-discovery. Except this time instead of relying on our ego, we took a more scientific approach and undertook the Myers Personality Test. As it turns out, I am an INTP:

This is quite accurate not gonna lie. I am now officially a robot. Or a cat. 

Then I went to a different website, and clicked on my personality type, and the website told me more about myself.

My favorite one is number three, where it tells me I'm more likely to have substance abuse problems in the future. Well, good thing the first one also says I prefer thinking over social interaction.

People have not misunderstood me at all in my 5 years of life, because they had websites like these for reference.

10 Self-Describing Words I Put Into A Video

Back in my first quarter, toward the end of Video, we were tasked to find ourselves, and the very being of our person. But, the challenge was that we had to use 10 words. I ran out of ideas at two, so I just pulled up a list of compliments from Google Images, and slapped a respectable list together, as you can see to the right over there.

Last week we revisited those introspective minutes, and channeled our pride and personality from our fingertips, through the keyboard, and into Photoshop. Once there, our very souls trudged through typing out the words, arranging them on a background, and picking out the colors. Once that was done, a timeline was created and edited only through sheer force of will.

And finally after sixty grueling minutes, a product of unprecedented love was born, and it is twenty seconds long.

Thats me

Seems about right.

New and Improved Bouncing Ball

My last post I showed you my first computer animation. It wasn't very impressive, but it was something. This time, I return with an even better version of it. A red version. 

Now if that isn't enough to convince you, I am honestly confused. But I guess I can go into further detail. 

We started with making the background from three separate layers -the ground, the sky, and a path to follow. Eventually it would be deleted. Then I underwent the painstaking process of making about 30 layers of bouncing ball. It took a while, but eventually the basic animation was done. Then, I added an introduction frame, and an end frame.

This was the finished product:

Overall, I am quite happy. But I do need to start getting more creative.

The Making of The Bouncing Balls

I am back once to regale you the tales of my youth. This time I created my first GIF file. Nothing fancy really. I was tasked with creating a bouncing ball as you could probably guess. My class used PhotoShop for this, and we learned how to use the different layers, color tools, and the Timeline function.

I didn't know that PS let you animate things, so that was new. Also I learned how to animate it so that's good. Other than that, I didn't really learn anything new as I had done lego stop motion for three years a while ago, so you could say I have experience in animation.

Anyway, here is the finished product:

^ This is the snowy ground ^

I liked how easy it is to just make a simple animation, an I had lots of fun making this. What I'd do differently next time, I would like to add in some more details in the background, and more gradients. Hindsight is good.