AB sequence project: 2 location video

In this project, I learned about transitions from one area to another in a video sequence. To show this, we had a girl working on homework, before she got thirsty and has to get a quick drink from the water fountain. The water fountain is actually a hallway away from the classroom, but when filming, I used footage only of her leaving the classroom and arriving at the water fountain with none of the walking in between simply because it's not necessary and boring to watch someone walk down a hallway. The passage of time can be warped to keep the audience interested. It's these concepts that I will apply to future projects.

Collaboration means working together to produce something good, and I think I've accomplished that with my partner. We were a great team and were easily able to bounce ideas off of each other. For example, in the video she took of me reading, I gave her the idea to have a shot of the clock so the viewer understood why I had to leave and go into the classroom. And in my video, she was able to help me a lot with where to put the camera for the best shot, something I'm not always so good at figuring out.

Soccer Hobby

In this project, we used a six-shot system to make a short video of someone else in class performing a hobby they enjoy. We had to make it out of multiple clips. The first shot I have is called and Extra Close-Up (XCU) and focuses on his hands performing an action- putting down the ball. My second shot is called an Over-The-Shoulder (OTS) where he prepares himself in kick. The third is a Medium Shot (MS) of him running towards the ball and then there's a Wide Shot (WS) of him kicking which I experimented with speed on. The last shot is an Extra Wide Shot (XWS) of the ball flying towards the goal and making it! While I already knew how to string videos together from the last project where I did a Broadway mash-up, this time I was actually the one filming and had to work with the limited footage. I had to string together the shots in the best way. These six shots each have their own uses in certain situations and will be helpful with any future video I make.

Highlight Video

The Highlight Video project involved finding five Youtube videos that we could clip and strong together into one full video. It was supposed to be about something we love or a hobby- so I chose Broadway! I started with finding some footage of the classics- Lion King, Wicked, Les Mis...Then, I went to find promos from my favorite shows that are newer and more contemporary- Pippin and Bring It On. I also added some Tarzan footage in there, but had to end up taking it back out. That was the hardest part: cutting my footage. There was so much i wanted to use but I had to have exactly a minute.

The great thing about using promos was that they were made as an advertisement so they already featured the best parts. I ended up using them the most, while the Wicked clip went from five minutes to five seconds. I'm very proud of how it turned out.

Web-design project

In this project, my e-Communtications class was assigned to make a website with Dreamweaver. While I've done coding before and enjoy it, making a website was very new to me. We followed the instructions given to us in four parts when we made this site so the style and production wasn't up to us, but we were allowed to be a little more creative with color. I chose a light blue from the sky in the picture shown. Everything I did in this project was very new to me. While I've used coding, some of the codes used in this were different. I really enjoyed learning about them though and learned many things like how to easily link, create headings, add styles. Just about every step in this was an unfamiliar, but welcome, experience.
Because I was figuring things out as I went, it was harder to meet the deadline and I usually found myself just a few steps behind my classmates, but was able to get it done in time without starting over and with little trouble. Next time, I'd like to experiment with these designs- add gifs, colors, my own creativity! I might need more practice before I'm ready to go at it on my own, but I think- with a little help- I could create something really interesting. When that time does come, I'll incorporate most everything I learned through this project- especially that which involved adding colors and pictures. Without this project, I'm sure my style would be very bland and amateurish with no set design, background color, or contrast. In general, I'm just glad this project taught me so much. It's an interesting process that'll help me in any future career i choose to pursue, whether that be acting or P.R.

Dreamhouse Animation

 In this project, I was supposed to make a 'dream home' using Sketch-Up. I began with a city of glass but found it  too complicated and unrealistic, so i switched to a more realistic dream home idea. I decided I wanted a porch and minimal foliage, with a small overhang. After I made it, I experimented with materials like bricking and roofing. It was in the editing stage when I decided on the transparent fence. It pulled the project together more. While I'm well-versed in Sketch-Up, I learned quite a bit while making this. I had never tried a fence before, found a new, simpler way of making the roof, and adding animation to it. I wasn't aware Sketch-Up allowed you to do that and I can't wait to look into it more later. I met the deadline easily and had time to add stairs and more details inside the home. I would like to know how to do a railing for next time because I spent a lot of valuable time trying to experiment with that. I'm most happy with my offsetting and will definitely incorporate that in future projects as I've done in the past. For the next time I use Sketch-Up, I'd most like to remember how I pushed my roof up easily. I had known a more complicated way of doing it, but it took too much time and I'm glad to have found a simpler tool. All in all, I wish I had done more with the porch because that one chair looks really lonely even though i didn't want to put too much there. Looking back, I also wish I had put lights on the underneath side of the overhang. It would've been a nice detail to feature and it would've given the overhang a more productive purpose.

Animation Overview

The last steps in my animation process involved using iMovie to get sound effects, smoother changes, and title screens. I had to separately download some some music but most of the tools I used were provided by the iMovie program. I added the sounds of sword-fighting, medieval music, and record scratching (for a comedic effect) among others.While it took a lot of adjusting to get it to he right time and speed, I'm happy with how the video turned out.

My Animation

My animation is about a knight who falls in love with a princess and attempts to impress her with a beautiful flower. But, just as she is about to accept his gift, a dark knight rides in on a horse and wins her affections. He drops his flower and challenges the dark knight to a duel (left). The princess watches and, for a time, it seem the dark knight might win. However, the light knight is more crafty than he thought and he ends up winning the love of the princess. Angered, the dark knight goes in for a killing shot but the princess sees and steps in front of the light knight. She saves his life, giving her own. Thankfully, there's a lighter end to this dramatic tale.

Many of the techniques I used were thanks to my last quarter with Mr. Olson in graphic design. I was able to do something that might've taken the whole hour more quickly and efficiently. I used the delay between transitions to my advantage most so I could control the length of each slide and I used the 'wipe' effect so their reactions were timed better. I learned how to group and lock things so it was easier to move them without changing everything up.

I received great critiques from my classmates and took them to heart. I was told to add more background (castle) and to make my transitions easier. They loved the story and thought the sword fight was very cool. I was able to implement what I've learned most during that so I was glad people appreciated it.