Semester 1 Review

What Did I Learn?

Technology

     Throughout the semester, I learned how to better use Illustrator so my patterns looked natural and connected together so when putting my pattern onto mockups and a digital layout of my box, it would all fit correctly and perfectly. I have learned so much in the technology department of e-Com. When I was a Freshmen, I could barely use Photoshop, and Premier Pro. I struggled so much, but i eventually learned how to use both of them efficiently. The next year when I was a Sophomore, I hated Illustrator because I didn't know anything. It was if I was starting over again in the learning process. I eventually learned the tools and shortcuts of Illustrator that I now use Illustrator whenever there's Graphic Design involved, even in my daily life. I used to do very small projects in Illustrator that would take a couple hours to about a day, but now I have done so many month long projects in and out of Illustrator that I have the stamina and attention span to dit down and do what I need to get done. My Sophomore year, we did many Photoshop tutorials, and then towards the end, I did a Vector portrait of my grandfather and many other vector portraits. The Photoshop tutorials took minutes, maybe a hour at most. The Vector Portrait took many weeks and hours to do. I had to stay after school to finish the project. I worked so hard and stayed after school so long that my muscles in my hands were sore. While I worked so much in Illustrator, I do need to go back and do some Photoshop work since those skills have been neglected for some time now. 

Collaboration and Communication

     In Graphic Design, I often asked my teacher and the people around me what they thought of my design once I was done. I'd get compliments as well as critiques. I did my best to fix my designs based on the critiques and see what worked best. Everyone around me had amazing ideas to share. In the past, I wasn't very open or vocal about anything. I was mostly introverted, and still introverted to this day. However, thanks to Video and other events outside of e-Com, I am able to fulfill any role needed and am ready to give my opinion or thoughts on something if need be. I am also more open about asking for critiques during random stages of the creating process. I have made great friends because of e-Com not just in the Graphic Design branch, but in the other branches as well. 

     Before I even entered high school, I was very communicative. I always told teachers when I would be absent and e-mail them when I was sick or gone unexpectedly. So, from a professional standpoint, I was communicative, but from a more casual standpoint, not so much. Once I get to know people, I become very open, but team projects were always something I didn't really like. Thanks to e-Com, I have had many opportunities to be open and communicate what needs to be done as well as goof around here and there.

Project Management

      In middle school and even sometimes to this day, I procrastinate quite often, however if I am away from distractions and given "free" time, then I get projects and other things done usually before the deadline. Going through the e-Com program, I have always completed projects and have been aware of deadlines. I have stayed after school for hours sometimes finishing a project. I try to use class time to my advantage and use as much of it as possible to work on a current project. One thing I wish to correct in the future, however, is to stay on task better and not get sidetracked by friends. 

Leadership

     I wouldn't consider myself a leader. In group projects, I fulfill any role that needs to be filled. However, if being a leader or director or head project person is the role that needs to be filled, I'll step up and be the leader. I do have many leadership qualities like listening to others as well as being able to take control of situations. 

Semester 2 Final

Short Film

    

 Project

For this project, everyone in my class had to write a script to possibly make into a short film that would be 3-5 minutes long. After hearing everyone's script and ideas, the class voted for the top five scripts, and then we were assigned onto teams based on the type of story we wanted to do. I wanted to do a mystery story, so I was put on a team that was doing a mystery story.

Challenges and roles

     It took my team and I two weeks to complete. Some challenges we face were our director and one of our actors being gone due to illness. We filmed what we could with me being mostly behind the camera. Another team member, Maleah, helped me behind the camera and helped choreograph scenes. She and I filled in as director when our director was gone. The rest of my team, including Maleah, was acting in the short film, so I had a lot of time behind the camera and recording.
     I was also the editor for my team. I really wanted to edit because it's my favorite part of the filmmaking process. I had to sharpen some shots in Adobe Premier Pro, which is an amazing video editor, as well as color correct some shots, which was fun. Two shots were originally very, very orange, so I tried my best to tone that down and make it more natural. I could have done better with those two shots if i spent more time on them, but sadly, I didn't. I also had to color correct the shots in the chase scene. When were filming outside, it was dark and overcast, making the shots more blue looking rather than a sunny, natural, outside look. I also had to mess around with sound because I forgot to check out a mic. The camera was great at picking up sound, but when I was editing the restaurant shots, it was hard to get rid of the music in the background. I tried my best.

What I learned and Feedback

     I learned how to direct people and makes lines were down and memorized for the next shot, color correct, and edit audio.  Some feedback I was given was to make sure the set is clear and to mic the actors when filming in a loud setting. The original script had two more scenes we were going to film, but due to time constraints and actors goofing off, we couldn't film those scenes. We had half of one of the original scenes filmed, but due to scheduling and people getting sick, we couldn't film the other half. However, the ending to this piece still makes sense and works for what we have. In the end, the final product was around 4 and a half minutes long, so i fit the criteria when editing. I really like this piece despite the bad jokes that were thrown in.

Music Video

    
 The goal of this project was to recreate a music video. My group chose to do Pompeii by Bastille. I loved this song, but because I had to listen to it so much while filming, I'd rather skip it on my Spotify playlist. It took us several weeks to film this due to very bad winter weather. Weather was a major challenge when filming due to filming in winter and filming in Kansas. Another challenge we faced was people showing up on time. Our main actor was always late despite the fact that we had communicated in our group chat several times when and where we were filming. I learned to be patient and deal with people when I was in a bad mood. Some feedback my group was given was how good the eyes turned out halfway through the video, but the eyes at the end could be worked on a bit more. If I could change anything about this project I'd change the actor. He wasn't very reliable when it came to scheduling and showing up, so if i could find anyone else that was reliable, I would and replace the original actor in an instant. Overall, my director was great and so was our editor. The film itself is the best it could have been due to many conflicts.

Class Time

     If I was the editor, I spent majority or all of my time editing the film. I really enjoy editing, so it was no problem for me if I was assigned to editor. I usually took a back seat and filled in any roll needed, but if the director was gone, I filled in that roll and took over. For the short film, we were lucky enough to be able to film during class, which is a rarity for entertainment filming. If i wasn't filming or editing, I worked on my graphic design work and practiced my Illustrator and Photoshop skills. I don't do much outside of class unless my group plans to film. I try to make it to filming, and majority of the time, I do show up.

Strengths and Weaknesses

     I am really good at editing and enjoy perfecting projects. I have improved a lot when it comes to color correction and editing clips. I've also learned where to cut a clip to get it to be more natural when put together with other clips. 

     While I am good at editing, I need to work on sound. I have a basic understanding of how to edit sound, but need to practice more. 

Summary and Final Thoughts

     I loved editing the short film. Overall, I wish I did more editing. I learned how to use equipment properly, how to edit to enhance projects, and how to be a team player on projects like these.  One goal for next year, even though I won't continuing Video, is to continue to practice editing and maybe make a few videos in the future.
     There are a lot of good students in my video class that will go on to do great things. I really enjoyed working with my group for the high school movie trailer and wished we could have filmed more to finish our project. I have made a lot of good memories with this class and I hope everyone goes on to do great things and to do what they love. At times, there was a lot of stress, but eased up towards the end.

Semester 2 Final

Vector Portrait

       For this project, I had to find a high-resolution photo of me, a family member, or a pet. Then, I put the photo into Photoshop, cropped it, and posterized it. Next, I put the photo into Illustrator and started outlining the different colors I saw in the photo. The second to last step was to fill in all the outlines with the colors from the photo. Lastly, I put a gradient behind all my work as a background. This project took me about a week. I had to stay after school and go in during study hall to finish this project. I learned how to use the pen and curvature tool in Illustrator. Some suggestions I had were to make sure everything as filled in and no blank space was showing on my subject. Some changes I made during this project were making sure everything looked correct and all the colors blended together. I also tried to not get so detailed, but other times I forgot, which dragged out the time I spent on this project. Overall, I love this project. I love it so much that I did several more during Spring break to the point I was sick and tired of doing vector portraits. 

Typography

    My next project was typography. I chose several quotes that I liked and narrowed my list down to the top four. I chose quotes that were in French and English since French is the language I'm learning. For this project, it took me about a week or two to complete. The first part was in black and white and the second part was adding color. I faced a couple challenges like making sure the text was big enough to read. I learned how to wrap text around objects and shapes. a tip I got from my teacher was to make sure the text was big enough to read. Some changes I made were color choices. For the TV, I made little squares to form a rectangle and made it look like TV static. Overall, I really like some of my quotes, others, not so much.

Logo Design

     The next project that I liked was designing a personal logo. I had to sketch thirty possible designs and decide on the top five. I also had to pick three color schemes from a color generator where I could lock colors that I liked, and keep generating more colors that fit with the color(s) I locked. I chose to design two different bees, a tulip, a star, and a bird. Some included my initials and over time I got rid of my initials and ended up with a more simpler design. I ended up choosing a yellow tulip with a black background. I learned how to mix and match colors. Some feedback I had was that brighter colors against dark backgrounds stand out more, so I took that advice and used it. Originally, the tulip had my initials on it, but as I said, the initials disappeared after a while. Overall, I'm proud of the logo I ended up with. 

Class Time

     I spent most of my class time working on assigned projects, and when I was finished, I worked on my own side projects. I worked in both Illustrator and Photoshop to continue learning the tools available and how I could use them. I created more vector portraits and photoshop edits of my favorite characters from tv and movies. Outside of class, I created vector portraits and photoshop edits to practice my skills. 

 Strengths

     I am very strong in communicating with people whether it's e-mail or text. I am also very good about getting projects done on time even if it means staying after school for many hours to get something done. I am also good about asking for critiques from peers and my teacher so I can improve my work before I turn it in. 

Weaknesses

     I need to work on staying focused and not goof off when I'm trying to get something done. I understand it's okay to take a break, but I need to stay focused if I want to get stuff done. 

Conclusion

     What I love most about Sophmore year of Graphic Design are the different projects I was able to do and how I could still use Photoshop and Illustrator for one project. What I would change about next year is to add some side projects for students if they get done early with their assignment. For example, to enhance a student's skill in photoshop, if they have finished their main project, give them a theme like outer space or psychedelic and let them create a collage or edit of that theme in Photoshop and either let them turn it in for extra credit or let them turn it in for endorsement hours. One goal I would like to set for next year is to improve my skills in Illustrator and Photoshop. In conclusion, this year was fun with all the different projects I got to do and the side projects I've done. 

High School Movie Trailer

Pre-Production

     My team and I worked on re-creating the trailer to the Breakfast Club, one of my favorite movies. For pre-production, my team and I did the necessary work like storyboarding. We all worked very well together from the very beginning and felt very confident in ourselves and this project. 

Production 

     We watched the trailer and some members of my team knew other students who looked eerily similar to the original cast of the Breakfast Club. All of the people we originally contacted were able to work and film with us in the beginning. We filmed mostly in the library because that is the location where majority of the movie takes place. All was great when we started filming. Halfway through our filming session, we all ate pizza, that someone had ordered ahead of time, and drank soda. We all were laughing and telling stories, but eventually got back to work. We filmed quite a bit more, and around 6 o'clock, the camera, which was on a tripod and we made sure it was on securely at the beginning of filming, suddenly fell and landed on the ground. We picked it up to make sure it was okay, but the battery broke. My team tried to fix the battery as I started cleaning up because I knew there was no way we'd be able to fix it. Nothing worked, so we e-mailed our teacher. Our teacher gave us some tips on how to prevent this in the future and that no one was in trouble due to the fact it was a complete accident and no one intentionally damaged the battery. The actors, the team and I weren't able to film again for the next two weeks due to conflicting schedules. 

Editing

     I wasn't the editor for our project, but the person who was editing often shared and showed us his progress. One creepy thing that happened during editing was the video we filmed synched up to the original audio of the original characters. This was not planned at all, and we recorded audio while filming to use instead of the original, but we decided to use the original audio instead since it lined up exactly. Another creepy thing that happened was our cast we picked looked very, very similar to the original. My team and i often compared our footage to the original to help sequence the shots, but also to see the similarities. 

Overall

     I really enjoyed this project due to the fact I got to recreate the trailer to the Breakfast Club. I think the difficulties of this project will help me to prepare for the future. Some things I would do differently is prevent the camera from falling so my team could film all the shots in one day. I would keep everything else the same. 

Vector Portrait

Pre-Production

      I didn't want to do a photo of myself for this project and instead do a vector portrait of a family member. I originally was going to do one of my brother when he was younger, but couldn't find a good photo, so I did my grandpa instead. Once I found the photo I wanted to do, I dragged it into photoshop to posterize it, or to lower the quality of the photo a little bit, and cropped it to 8 inches by 10 inches. Once all that was done, I saved it to the school server.

Production

      Next was putting the posterized and cropped photo of my grandpa into Illustrator. I did an organic portrait, which is outlining the entire photo using curves and lines. I learned how to use the pen tool. I used to have no idea what the pen tool did or how to use it and now I can trace anything with the pen tool in Illustrator. I used multiple layers to stay somewhat organized. One layer was for the face, another layer for the neck, one for the ear, one for the shirt etc. etc. At first, I was detailed but got a little less detailed as I went on due to me realizing that some colors I see when I zoom in didn't really appear when I zoomed out. I mostly focused on making sure the major parts of the portrait looked similar to the original. I started falling behind and knew that I would finish when the original due date was announced. I did come into my graphic design classroom for two-three weeks during study hall to get myself back on track. On the third week, I had graphic design, which on this particular day was just about an hour long, study hall, which I came in to work on the portrait, which was about 30-45 minutes long, and finally, stayed after school for an hour and a half to work and finish this portrait. At this point in the project, I knew a lot of shortcut keys to use certain tools, like P for the pen tool, I for the eyedropper tool, Command S to save, Command Z to undo. My muscles in my hand and forearm were a bit tired after working on this project for two hours straight. I then added a gradient background which was blue and green. 

Post-Production

 I am proud of my finished version. I like how it came out and wouldn't really do anything differently except realize that the really tiny details won't be seen in the "big picture". After I finished this project, I worked on a couple different portraits at home due to me getting Illustrator and photoshop downloaded onto my mom's laptop. For now, though, I won't work on anymore due to how time-consuming this type of project is. I love this project and the end results, but after doing four more portraits, I got tired and felt drained from working on them for long periods of time. I will probably do more in the future, but for now, I've had enough. 

 

This is the photo I used as a reference
for the portrait

This is the final product. The vector portrait I made. 

Music Video

 

   

Pre-Production

For this project, my team and I chose to do the song Pompeii by Bastille. We wanted to copy the music video for this song as best as we could, but we deleted many scenes in our video that were in the original because of the location or due to time constraints. We wanted to portray "the end of the world" which is the main theme of the song.
     During pre-production, we went through a couple music videos, and ultimately decided to do Pompeii because we thought it'd be easier to do and manageable. As a team, we decided not to do a lot of what was in the original video, mostly because our video had to be around two minutes and thirty seconds. One of my teammates was the director due to her confidence and assurance in what to do. I carried around and mostly manned the camera equipment, but the director took over controlling the camera from time to time. I always checked to make sure we were following the rule of thirds and the 180 rule. In the beginning, my team kept asking who would be the actor.

Production

     Production was rough. The director wanted to film at a park about twenty-five minutes away from where I live for one of the scenes, but they wanted o film early in the morning because the shot in the original video looked like sunrise. The first time we filmed there, our director showed us around the park and possible areas to film. We started setting up the equipment, and I put the battery in the camera along with the SD card, and tried turning it on but it wouldn't. Filming was cancelled that day. We all planned to film at the park at least four times. The first time was the one I just talked about. The second time, we got majority of the scenes based off of the original video done, but the actor was late. Third time, our actor never showed up due to illness. Fourth time, the roads were so icy that our director spun out twice and both our actor and director had a difficult time driving.
     Continuing on with more production, we also had to film at a "restaurant" with an elderly woman. Luckily, our editor's grandma was willing o let us film at her house and would be in the video. Unfortunately, our director couldn't make it, so I was "director" for the evening, and our actor got lost on his way to the grandma's house. He was at least forty minutes late. We eventually started filming. I felt confident in all but one scene, but we tried doing a couple retakes, but our actor had to leave, so we had to deal with what we got.
     Another place we filmed at during production was at a parking garage.  Everyone was a little confused as to where we were meeting, but we eventually found each other, and started location scouting there for a bit before finally filming. We got what we needed from that location, but we did plan to re-shoot there again.
     Due to the weather, we weren't able to re-shoot anything and lost a couple day where we could've filmed more scenes. Once we started filming, we stayed on track and tried to get as much done as possible. We did goof off  every once in awhile, but we did get back on track right away.

Editing

     Finally, editing. I didn't edit the video, but from what the editor has told us, they were editing for an hour and Adobe Premier Pro crashed. They luckily saved the project before it crashed but it was still bad. After that, they said Premier kept acting weird and would crash on him about every ten minutes. They eventually got it done, but I could tell it was exhausting for them to edit the video.

Overall

     I got to work the camera quite a bit since I was responsible for carrying equipment around to and from places. My team and I had a group chat so we could communicate when and where we wanted to be someplace. I tried my best to communicate what times worked best for me along with what times I could film. I did become the director temporarily at the grandma's house because our director wasn't able to come.
     If I could do something differently, I could stress the point to my team about showing up early or at least on time due to at least two people showing up late consistently. I'd also do this project during any other season than winter.
    I would still delete all the scenes we originally deleted due to the difficulty of location. I'd also do the same song because unlike other groups, I haven't gotten sick from listening to this song yet. IT's an okay song, in my opinion, so I wasn't ever annoyed when we had to listen to it over and over again.
     For my next project, I'd make sure we pick someone who is reliable and will show up on time for filming to be the main actor. I'd also make sure communication is clear as to when and where to film.
     Overall, this project was a bit stressful due to weather conditions and scheduling. I'm glad this project is done. I am really proud of what the video looks like and how much we actually did. We didn't get the video to two minutes and thirty seconds, but not a lot of groups did. My two favorite shots in the video are when our main actor looks off into the distance with the sun setting and there's smoke blowing out of a building in the distance, and when the Grandma looks at the main actor because her eyes are black due to the magic of editing, which took our editor an hour to do. Again, I'm impressed with how well the final product turned out.

Typography

Pre-Production

     The first steps to this project were finding quotes that were significant to me. I found ten quotes, and then picked four out of the ten quotes to use for my project. All of my quotes were French, so I decided to do this project with the French and English versions of the quotes. The second step was picking fonts. I picked a total of six fonts, however, I did not use one of the fonts in my project. 

Production
      The third step in this project was working in Illustrator. I learned how to use layers, type tool, gradient tool, the tool where I can type around a shape (I forget what it's called), shape tool, and the direct selection tool.

     I arranged my project by making four artboards, one for each of the quotes I picked in Pre-production. I made a different shape for each quote so I could use a reference for what I want the quote to look like. On the first artboard, it was a heart, the second was an eye, third was a tv, and the fourth one was a peace sign. I had ideas for what text to use for the different quotes.

     Originally, our quotes had to be in black and white before we started using color.  All of my quotes had a white background, but I changed two of them to have a black background. This made the two quotes more interesting and stand out from the other two.

     When it was time to move on to color,  I used blue and yellow for my first quote, green and black for my second, different shades of grey for my third one, and two different gradients for my last one. After I finished my first round of adding color, I asked my teacher for any critiques, and she did. I fixed up what she critiqued, and made sure everything looked better with these new changes.

     On my first quote, I added more of the heart shape I made, scaled it down a bit, and changed the color to a brighter blue. I did this process again. In total, I had three heart shapes on my first quote. I also copied the text on the heart and changed the copied text color to a dark gold color, and put the original text over it. Around the heart is the quote in French and in English. I also added a drop shadow to the text surrounding the heart to make it stand out from the page a bit.

     For my second quote, I added a darker green circle to the iris of the eye and added a little white shine. I also fixed the text around the iris.

     Moving on to my third project, I added some texture to the grey squares that made up the pixels on the tv to make it seem more like white noise. I also used the bulge option to make the square of pixels a bit round so it doesn't look flat I later went back and changed the text color to red, yellow, green and blue.

     Lastly, my fourth quote has a purple, blue and green gradient as the background. The text has a red, yellow, green, and light blue gradient. I also bloated the text a bit to add some more direction. For textures, I gave the text a mosaic texture to make it stand out even more.

Final Product

 This is my first one, and I think I did okay. It's cute and simple, but if I were to do this one again, I'd probably pick a different shape. I think the critiques I got on this one improved this one fro being eh to pretty good.

 My second one is very interesting in style. I picked shapes depending on what the quote talked about. The English is very hard to read compared to the French, but the English portion says, "It is with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye"

I chose to do a tv shape for this quote due to how political some tv shows or movies can get. As kids, everything is new and exciting. Eventually, kids grow up and realize that things aren't as mystical as they seem to be. As kids, we watch tv shows full of adventure, and learning new lessons about manners or being kind to others. Eventually, kids grow up to be adults. As adults, there is less emphasis on cartoons, tv shows and sometimes movies, and more emphasis on what is going on in the real world. I used tv as an example to explain this quote. Another reason why I chose a tv for the shape was because when I first saw this quote, the first thing that popped in my head was tv.  I really like how this one turned out.

My fourth and final quote. "Doing is better than saying". I chose a peace sign for this because this quote reminds me of protests throughout the years. Protesters do protests for multiple reasons, but their actions can greatly affect others, whether it's positive or negative. If protesters were to complain instead of doing something, nothing would be changed, dramatically at least. I also chose Gradients for this project just to change things up a bit. I feel like this one is pretty good. The peace sign shape is evident, and the colors work well together. 

1st Semester Reflection

ONW Now News Story

This project was for my school's version of a news program. This project took us a couple days due to principal being busy multiple times. One challenge was, obviously, interviewing the principal since he's always busy, but somehow my team interviewed him. Another challenge was editing. My team wasn't sure who would be responsible for editing, but I was good and could edit pretty quickly. I did stay after school due to the voiceover being sent to me long after I finished the first edit. After I got the voiceover in, my teacher sat down with me and helped me fix the color, graphics and straighten the angles in clips. I didn't get home until 4:45pm that night. I learned to pay attention to little details when editing, even if it doesn't seem like a big deal, it is. The teacher helped me a lot along the way on this project and the end result is really good. It's on of my best edited pieces this semester.

Advanced Feature Piece

This project was to do an advanced interview by including varied shots and natural sound. This project took my team a couple days, giving me the opportunity to get a lot of B-roll. A challenge along the way was the audio didn't record so out entire interview with Mr. Johns was silent. I told my team the best option was to do a voiceover for the entire thing and the teacher said to add light music under the voiceover. Feedback I was given was to make sure to audio is on while recording. Overall, recovering from a major setback like this is an accomplishment. This project is one of my better works.

Time

When I wasn't needed, I made sure assignments were turned in and we had made sure my team had everything planned out and ready to go. There were some days where I did nothing due to everything being ready and assignments were turned in. When I finished early I made sure everything exported correctly and uploaded to Youtube the way I wanted it to. Outside of class, I'd watch movies and notice the different cuts and shots in movies and tv. I would try to name the different shots, but it happens so fast, I can't name them in time. My strengths are communication and editing. I try to be as open and on page with everyone on my team wile remaining flexible when it comes to ideas.  I can improve my skills in leadership by being more vocal about the project and what my team should do. 

ONW Now

 My role in the ONW Now news piece was editor. I edited the clips of the video, voiceover, color correction, straighten shots, added graphics and transitions in Adobe Premier Pro. My team did a story over the new laptops every student got at our school. I learned to pay attention to detail even if it seems insignificant.

Summary

  What I loved about this semester is the amount of editing I got to do. If I could change what happened about this semester it'd be making sure the audio is on when recording. Overall, I learned how to straighten clips, correct color, add graphics and proper transitions. One goal I'd set for next year is to be more efficient and notice small details.

Final Thoughts

 While video has been fun and I enjoy editing, there were several times this semester where I was really stressed out and had to stay after school a lot to finish projects and assignments. I hope next semester will be less stressful, but I don't plan on enrolling into video next school year due to the stress I experienced. 

 

ONW NOW

A good broadcast story should contain at least one interview, B-roll that pertains to the story or what the interviewee is referring to, a good voiceover/script and good editing.

When my class was doing the Sophomore version of *ONW Now, i sat in the room where people could control what was being recorded for video as well as transitions and what would play next. I didn't do much since I edited my team's video for ONW Now while everyone else went to the recording booth to get jobs for when the entire thing would be recorded. 

A strong news broadcast should contain good leaders, proper preparation, and strong teamwork skills like communication. The anchors have to be prepared to read the teleprompter and make it sound natural instead of if they were reading off of a screen. Those in the recording booth have to have good communication skill and prepare for technology failure and have to have a plan in place. The microphones have to be checked to make sure they are working and on. Set director have to have good listening and communication skills to be able to take orders from the recording booth and to pass directions onto the anchors. 

*ONW Now is my school's version of a News Station. Every week, they make a news broadcast about different things happening around the school. They also produce daily news videos, but ONW Now is the news that most students see and is produced weekly. 

1st Semester Review

"Nature Man"

   This project was one of the first Photoshop Projects I did in my Graphic Design class. This project was to Photoshop a man, image was provided, into anything we wanted. The rules were the face had to be visible and use adjustment layers. I don't remember how long this project took me to complete, but longer than I thought. Some challenges for this project were deciding what I wanted to do. Originally, I was going to do a horror type edit, but decided to do a galaxy/alien edit instead. I had a a difficult time gettin the suit right, but figured it out in the end. I learned how to use adjustment layers and opacity as well as the quick select tool. Some feedback I got was the lack of blending modes. I didn't use any, in fact, due to my nonexistent experience with blending modes. To this day, I do think this edit is one of my best. 

Photoshop Challenge 2

 This project was to find 5 photos or more, use a photoshop filter, adjustment layer, and a layer mask to create this edit. It took me a couple days, from what I remember, to complete it. I learned to use color balance/adjustment and how to layer photos together. Some challenges I faced were trying to make the gravestones look natural, getting the fox's orange color to stand out, but blend it, and for the statue/ghost thing in the background to be faint but noticeable. Some feedback I got was the gravestones looked a little distorted and the fox would look better if it had a shadow underneath it. I didn't make any changes to it since I turned it on to my teacher due to my satisfaction with my work. This project isn't my best work, but i do like the aesthetic it has. It's interesting.  

Pop Art 

 The last project will mention is my pop art project. It didn't take me that long to complete, but i did have a difficult time getting the subject's hair blue due to all the little strays that were too small to color. I learned how to change backgrounds and change the color of a specific object. The feedback was it looked a little choppy, and I have to agree. I had a difficult time with the quick select tool in this project. Also, I could have used a better color scheme. I finished the main part of the project and didn't know what to do for the background, so I just guessed as to what to do and hoped it looked good.  I already knew what I wanted to do when I put the photo in photoshop, but I was still learning the ropes of everything, and ended up with a decent piece of work. In my opinion, it's not bad, but not one of greater works. 

Time

 When I would finish a project, i would work on photoshopping celebrities into random characters from popular media. I stopped after awhile due to how bored i got after awhile. I then moved on to editing characters from the same movie on one photoshop document. I did do some more serious work as well, mostly doing edits for my parents. One was editing photos from their trip to Eureka Springs into a panorama collage like my Paris one. Another project was to put a photo label that my dad sent me to put on one of his friend's shirt in a photo. I think over time, the more serious the project, the better I performed and my skills improved as the year went on. Outside of class, i started an arts and crafts project where I used photoshop to create images of my friends' favorite tv/movie character or celebrity with their favorite quote. I did this for eight of my friends and will glue each image to a piece of watercolor paper with their favorite color painted onto the watercolor paper.  

One of the edits I made for my friend.
She loves video games!

This is another edit I made for a friend.
She and I are in marching band!

Eureka Springs. This is one of my better edits

Stand By Me is one of my favorite movies,
so I created this panama. 

Strengths and Weaknesses

 I have strong time and project management skills as well as communication. However I lack in leaderships skills. Graphics Design doesn't have a lot of the traditional "leadership" roles, so it's been a bit of an adaptation. However, I always ask other for advice, and ask the teacher for help when I can't figure out a solution to a problem. I do turn in projects on time and make sure I am doing what is necessary to be on track. 

Summary

 What I love most about Graphic Design is the projects and how many we do. However, back to blending modes, I'd do a project where it was just blending modes as the main focus. Overall, the takeaway I had of this semester is to enjoy the projects and to do it how you feel like doing it while completing all the requirements. A goal for next semester is to continue side projects as well as keep up with schoolwork, which wasn't a problem this semester. Overall, I had good projects and poor projects, but none of them were terribly bad.

Behance

Below is a link to my Behance where you can check out more projects I have done as well as some other cool projects done by others:
https://www.behance.net/katiebarry8d65

Written News Story

"Recently at ONW, students received laptops from the District. The laptops are Dell, but mostly Microsoft-based. These laptops are planned to last for a couple years so students need to take good care of them. The school hopes the students will be more successful with these laptops."

The way I wrote my news story was based on what I already knew from getting the laptops. The teachers and tech administrates gave students advice and "how-to"s on taking care of laptops and making sure students are safe and secure.

What I like about writing a news story is being able to have some freedom with how to present information. There are many types of leads News Anchors use to get the audience's attention. For example, on lead an be what a person said in an interview and build the story based on that beginning. Another lead is a Staccato lead. This lead is usually three short sentences to create action and interest. An example of this is if the story was about baseball; "The ball is pitched, the clink of the bat, coaches yelling "Run"".

I still need to work on making the story "bigger". I need to work on stretching the story out a little more to fill up more of the video portion of the project.

I would still try to keep the story short and concise, making sure I get the point across. Stories should be short and concise with room for what the interviewee said, however, it can't be too short.

I would still interview my principal at my school, but try to get the interview done earlier. My team had a difficukt time trying to set yup a time to interview the principal.

I will try to be concise and to the point on my next project when it comes to writing one, but making it a bit longer too than what I have.

In he end, writing news stories isn't my cup of tea, but has helped me get to the point in a lot of my work.

Advanced Feature Piece

For this Video project, my group decided to interview Mr. Johns, the new Web Design teacher in the e-Comm program. Our story was based on his experience so far at ONW and how he ended up where he was now.

In pre-production, our team had a harder time finding a subject for our story. The person my team was originally going to interview didn't want to be interviewed, so we decided to interview Mr. Johns. For scripting, I wrote down the questions to ask during the interview. I came up with a good portion of them, if not, majority. As for assigning roles, I quickly volunteered to work the camera because I haven't had a chance to work it yet. During class time,  Mr. Johns as kind enough for us to film B-roll. I made sure to record a lot of random clips of Mr. Johns and the class. Apparently, I was too good at my job at filming B-roll due to the fact that the file with all clips wouldn't upload to the class server. Editing was a struggle due to the realization that no audio was recorded including our ten minute interview and natural sound.

I found a way around the failed recorded audio and suggested to my team to record a voice over for the entire project.

Putting together the clips and sequencing it all was fairly easy. I got that part done quickly.

My approach to this project compared to the last interview I did was make sure I recorded enough B-roll because I felt like in my last project, my team didn't have enough.

What I would do differently would be make sure to make sure the audio is recording and maybe not record as much as I did, but still a good variety of B-roll.

This experience was more interesting because of all the various shots I tried to get. It did, in my opinion, made the final product more interesting and satisfying to finish.

Overall, this project and some bumps here and there, but, in the end, turned out just fine.

Watercolor Transfer Printing Process and Experience

This project was based on a printing process we learned earlier in graphic design class where you transfer an image to a different piece of material. This process is called a Transfer Print.

     1. For this, we used watercolor paper, used watercolors on the paper similar to the colors in the image we chose and let it dry.

     2. Then, we used Mod Podge on the image we chose and put it on the watercolor paper with the paint already dry.

     3. Next was using a Squeegee, which is a tool used to get rid of air bubbles in the image when glued onto the watercolor paper.

     4. After gluing, we let the image dry to the watercolor paper.

     5. After everything was dry, we used water to get rid of the excess paper on the image to reveal the ink from the image. The image was still present, but it looked as though it was printed onto the watercolor paper.

The project was easy and fun. Although, there were some days where I would forget to stop working on my Adobe Illustrator project and work on the Printing Process project. I think I did a good job, this being my first time. I did do two of them because my teacher said if we decided to do two, the best one would be graded. I also did two because the two images I chose I thought were the best-photoshopped projects I've done.

One thing I will do better next time is making sure I don't rub too hard on the image because, as it is obvious, some of the ink was rubbed away during the water process (step 5). I think Alien Man was better compared to my fox/forest one because less ink is missing and is cleaner. I would also recolor the watercolor part due to how faded the background looks.

I would use the sane images if I did this project again just because I think they're my best work and I really like them compared to my other projects.

Feature Story

This project was to do a feature story like on news channels. My group decided to interview a student at my school due to the clubs and activities he did.

My group and I came up with twenty-one questions to ask. These questions built on each other, which means the questions weren't "yes/no" questions. I came up with some questions as well as my group members. We originally were going to film in the library, and we did, but we forgot to turn on the microphone that was in the camera, which is a Panasonic AC90 camera, so we had no audio. So many groups made the same mistake my group did, so we were all given an extra filming day. By the time we filmed again, with the microphone turned on, we couldn't use the library anymore, and found another space. After filming was done, it was time to edit. We all used Adobe Premier Pro. I asked the student we interviewed if he had any footage of the clubs/activities he was in. He gave us the clips and used them as B-roll.

For editing, I divided the film we had from the interview based on the club mentioned in the question. I had to delete majority of the footage from the interview because the video had to be one minute thirty seconds maximum. Throughout the process, I learned how to "color code" clips so I knew which clip was which. I changed the colors frequently so I wasn't bored with the colors I originally chose. This kept me organized throughout the process. I did edit the audio levels so everything was clear and even. I also added transitions to enhance the project and to hide very little mistakes. I also added lower thirds text at the beginning so the audience knew what or who was on screen.



If I could redo this project, I wouldn't mostly because I'm not interested in convergence journalism, or news stories based video, I did have fun with this project, but it wasn't my cup of tea. I would add more voiceover, but I'm not good at writing scripts for this kind of video work. I would also fix the way we filmed the interview. The camera angle wasn't straight at all throughout filming, so I had to fix that too.

I would still interview the same person, film in the same space, and use the same editing software and clips if I had to to this project again.


 

For my next project, I will make sure that the camera angle is straight, and that the built-in microphone is on so audio is captured. I will also make sure to add more voice over and write a better voice-over script.

Overall, this project was interesting. It was fun, but not my cup of tea. Editing was bit more difficult than any other project I've worked on for Video. This project was a learning process, and well worth the time.

Printing Processes

What are the Printing Processes?

The three main printing processes are Relief, Intaglio and Lithography. These processes all include a transfer of ink from a certain surface to paper. All of them have a different process which I will explain in detail. 

Relief

use a block of wood or a piece of linoleum

Use tools similar to a woodcutter would if working on wood 

Tone the block with Indian ink wash or wash of a jet black film. This works on linoleum but isn't necessary

Use Iron Oxide or Carbon paper transfer that has your design already on prepared

Transfer the image

Decide on if you want to use White line, which reveals the image through thin white lines, or Black Line, which is removing majority of the wood to reveal the image. A balance of boh is usually used.

Roll ink onto the block

Place in Press

If done by hand, use a baren, which is a tool used to transfer the ink from the block to paper, ad apply gentle pressure all over the paper on the block.  

 carefully pull the paper off of the block and check to make sure the image transferred.

Intaglio

prepare plate  by cleaning it

apply a ground to the plate which acts as a nonacid 

smoke the plate by placing it upside down

scratch away the ground to reveal the metal

etch the plate for fifteen minutes

submerge plate in a bath/pan of acid

clean the plate again

wipe the plate with ink 

hand-wipe the edges 

put chalk on your hands and brush over the surface

set on press

use a dampened sheet of paper

print.

Lithography

use a lithographic stone like limestone to draw on

use Lithographic materials/pencils/crayon to draw on stone

remove grease with sandpaper or razorblades if needed

Once drawing is finished, use gum arabic and rub all over stone

Use rosin and Talc to establish drawing

Apply acidified gum arabic  or TAPEM

apply more gum arabic

use cheesecloth to buff in 

use lithotine 

use aphaltem

apply water to clean

rub ink with an ink roller over the image

apply dampend paper

press. 

repeat adding ink to stone and press four to six times. 

Which one would I do?

I'd do lithography because I don't know much about wood or metal and I think stone would be a similar surface to paper since I draw a lot. I think these processes have some influence in contemporary design. 

ONW Procedures

     Over the past couple of weeks, I worked with a team to film a "how to" video related to our school. For example, how to use the lunch line, how to get into the school if you're late, dress code etc. My group decided to do "how to use the elevator". At my school, if yo are injured, and can't walk up the stairs, you can get a key from the nurse that grants you access to the elevator. We talked to the nurse to see if she was okay with lending us a key and if we could film. She said it was okay, and so we began. All my team members had the same basic idea for what we should film and do for our video. I had a pair of crutches and an ankle brace that fit me at home that I brought to school to use as props. I played the injured person in the video, and another person on my team played the person helping me. For editing, we all used Adobe Premiere Pro which is fantastic for editing and putting together videos. In the end, I think I did a good job with my video. Our camera was having technical difficulties at first, but we got a new one, and all is good. I would fix the white balance in some shots and well as leveling the shots by using the tripod. I would also reshoot the scene coming out of the elevator because one of our members decided it'd be funny if he was in the shot, but we were running out of time to film due to camera issues, so we just used what we had. All in all, this project was fun and I would do it again in the future if given the chance.

Multi-Exposure Panorama

   

     Going to Paris, France was one of the best trips I've ever had. The culture, language, food, architecture, people, and geography are all things I love. The photos I used in this collage were from the second level of the Eiffel Tower. 

     It was on a Sunday. Toby and my grandpa decided to visit Sainte-Chapelle, which is the most beautiful cathedral in my opinion. Then, we walked around a bit to visit the Luxemburg Garden, which is bigger than huge, and got some gelato at the best gelato place in Paris, Amorino. 

     We then decided to visit the Eiffel tower, and my grandpa and I got in line to climb up the stairs to the second level. We had to take two little breaks to catch our breath due to the amount of stairs there were.  When we reached the first level, we looked out at the view, but there was a fence blocking some of the scenery. 

     My grandpa and I continued up the stairs and finally reached the second level. There were hundreds of tourists looking out at the beautiful view of Paris. I was fortunate enough to capture some photos. The view was amazing! It reminded me of that scene of Ratatouille where Remy sees the beautiful view of Paris. 

      A few months later, school starts and I'm in Graphic Design. I've finished many projects and side projects and our ext project has to be a collage of photos we've taken. I decided to use the photos from the Eiffel tower because of the beautiful view. I did edit the original photos to give it more of an "old-timey" feel. I started putting it together by lining up the photos with the Seine river and go from there. I used the eraser tool probably one hundred times as well as many layer masks. Overall, I think I did Paris justice in capturing it's beauty and essence.  

Pop Art Design

The Process

     I started by selecting photos of my partner and chose the one I thought I could work with easily. I decided to use the primary colors for the subject and secondary colors for the background. I did put in some yellow arrows to add some normal shapes and to create more of a "pop art" feel. I was mostly inspired by Roy Lichtenstein, who used a lot of primary colors. I used a lot of color balance to change the colors of the subject aw well as some gradients for the background and for the glasses. I had a little trouble with the gradient tool due to my lack of experience with it, but i eventually figured it out.  I did have some trouble with the hair and glasses because the hair had little details that I couldn't include and with the glasses because i used a gradient on the glass part of them. Overall, I enjoyed this project, not my favorite, but one I enjoyed. 

The Project 

"Nature Man"

      This assignment was to Photoshop a man using either the provided photos or our own and edit him using the photos. The goal was to keep his face visible

The Process

Here is Alien Man. My edit of the challenge

     At the beginning, I was going to do a horror themed edit, but I didn't find any images I liked or thought would be interesting, so I ditched the idea, and decided to make it Outer Space-galaxy-star themed. I found a lot of different images of stars and planets as well as some alien themed photos as well and compiled all of them together and created Alien Man, at least that's what I titled it once I saved it. I didn't use the photos provided because they photos of mountains, trees, tree roots, hence the name of this blog, "Nature Man".  

      I used a lot of layer masks to edit all of this together. It wasn't difficult, but it was a lot of "rinse and repeat". Every photo I added had to be resized, erase the unwanted bits, make sure it looks "natural" etc. I I really enjoyed this project, and I highly recommend doing this challenge to anyone with basic photoshop skills. I used a lot of the skill from the previous lessons and incorporated them into this project. There were some days where all I wanted to do was work on this project. 

Finished Project

     I'm really happy with the way it came out. It is interesting and weird, but I think it works. I have shown some of my friends and they all seemed to like it. I did finish early because I came in during lunch to work on it because of how much fun I had working on it. Since I finished early, I had extra time to make another edit on a different photo. Same rules applied but it was whoever we found on Google. 

The Extra Edit

     This extra edit was especially fun because it is of a video game character from a game I like. The game is called Undertale and the character I chose is Undyne. I think . I did a pretty good job. I didn't do as much detail as my last edit. For example, I didn't edit the clothes, hair or background and instead, focused more on the facial features. Again, this edit was for fun, but I still think I did a decent job. I did forget to edit some things like the earrings, and forgot to add some eyeshadow and gills to the character, but I think it's still recognizable. 

Photoshop

What was the project?

The whole purpose of this project was to learn about photoshop, its tools and how to photoshop different items and people. 

                       Lesson One

     The first lesson was on content aware fill, which is deleting unwanted items out of a photo or backgr
ound. I had four different photos that I had to photoshop and it was simple and easy to do. I really enjoyed learning this simple trick and it will help me in the future. Originally, this photo to the left had many unnecessary items and blemishes, but thanks to Photoshop, I easily got rid of those unwanted blemishes and objects and made it what it is now.

Lesson Two

     Patch Tool is a variation of lesson one. I learned that Content Aware Fill won't always work fr getting rid of unwanted objects or items. The Patch Tool is a good substitute to get rid of bigger items such as t-shirt logos. I had a harder time making the shirt look more natural, but for the lesson, I did a good job.

       Lesson Three

     While getting rid of unwanted items is all good and an essential lesson in Photoshop, knowing how to make the rest look natural without the unwanted item is also necessary. That's what Clone Stamp and Healing Brush help you do. I thought I did a pretty good job on this. The goal of this project was to get rid of a clothing tag on the jacket near the arm and pocket of the right side of the photo. Overall I did a pretty good job, however I did make one, very little minuscule mistake near the pocket, but from afar, it isn't noticeable.  I did enjoy learning this skill and will need it in the future.

Lesson Four

The objective of this Photoshop lesson was to get rid of unwanted background items. Tis lesson was called Clone Stamp and Patch Tool. We used the clone stamp from the previous lesson as well as the patch tool from lesson two and combined them to erase a pole in the background. We used the clone stamp to get rid of the section near the guy's head as well as the entire pole, then used the patch tool to make the sky more natural. I enjoyed this lesson more than the previous lessons. This and lesson one are my top favorites. 

Lesson Five

Lesson Five was using the spot healing brush to get rid of blemishes and make the skin smoother. The photo was already in black and white and originally, the boy was covered in dirt and just had some blemishes here and there. Thanks to the spot healing brush, it was easy to get rid of the dirt spots and blemishes. This lesson was okay, I did enjoy it, but not one I'd want to do every week. 

Lesson Six

Out of all the lessons so far, this lesson was the most complicated and least liked by me. The goal was to make a collage out of three photos of a girl modeling. As you can see, I messed up on one of her faces. I had to go back to different sections of the lesson and repeat many things because I would make a mistake and have to delete a layer. This was the hardest out of all of them and took me many days, almost a week, to complete. This lesson was complicated and harder than the previous lessons so it makes sense as to the amount of time I had to spend on it, but that doesn't mean I enjoyed it. All in all, it was a good way to combine every skill previously learned as well as some new ones, but not one I'd do again.