Raccoon Postcard Reflection

Assignment -

Our assignment for graphic design was to create a raccoon featuring leaves and or berries. once this portion of the project we were to demonstrate knowledge of Illustrator tools and create an animal of our choice. Finally upon completion of the project we were to turn in a 4x6 postcard to send off to have professionally printed. 

Creation -

As you can see in the screenshot to the left, We followed step by step instruction to complete the original raccoon. This seemed to be the hardest part of the assignment because this was our first Adobe Illustrator assignment of the year. Once the raccoon was created, we were able to create an animal of our choice. I chose a baby bunny which you will have the opportunity to see later in the blog post. After the bunny was done, I decided to make an easter postcard. I added many of the elements - eggs, easter basket, the raccoon, the bunny, and flowers for an additional touch of color. From there we created our own typography. We found a font and or took our own handwriting and created a design for the post card. Mine says 'Happy Easter' on the very top of the card. I made sure the color I did the typography in was a color that went well with the entire postcard.
Once everything was created, we uploaded them to Behance and made a blog post which you are currently reading! 

Final Thoughts -

This project I had a lot of fun with. It was a lot of work, and I will admit I had to take some of it home with me but overall it was my favorite project so far. I love being able to show my creative side in my own assignments, and this defiantly gave me that freedom. To the right you will be able to see the original raccoon and berries, and underneath that is my postcard. Finally you see my hand written typography, and that concludes the raccoon project. 

The Ins and Outs of Your First Audio Story

Our Assignment:  

Our second assignment in Video Production this year was an audio, news story. Our requirements consisted of 60-90 seconds, strictly audio, voiceovers, sound bites, and underlying sound effects. Our main goals for this assignment was to compose an audible story that sounded well balanced and a clear story with a beginning, middle, and end. The story was to be shared as a new segment for ONW-NOW called '1 in 2000'.

Pre-Production:

In Pre-Production we were assigned partners to do a story on. I had the privilege of working with Claire Damewood and her love for the musical arts. We were to write 21 questions to ask in the interview which allowed us to get to know who our 'ONW 1 in 2000' really was. After coming up with 21 questions we did a brief run-through of the 5 W's.

• Who was my story going to be about?
• What was the purpose of the story?
• Where would the video be shot to sound most appealing that related to the story?
• When would the story be due? 
• Why we needed to have some many components? ie. Audio Levels, Net/White Noise, Sound Effects, ect. 
• How long would the video take to make/export? 

Production:

When production began, I took Clair to the practice rooms so I could hear her play. She demonstrated Fur Else to me. From there we went to the Flex theater, and we began her interview. We made it quick and only went thought about 15 of the 21 questions. We were able to shoot all of Claire's interview in one day which was really reassuring. The video was not done as a full string, it was done in sections of 5 questions at a time in hopes Claire would really elaborate on her answers, which she did!  

Post Production:

Post production was the most complicated part of this project. A strictly audio story when you know almost nothing about Audio Channels, Audio Gains, and balancing the sound bites, voice overs, and effects to sound all level. Needless to say, I had a lot to learn. Watching lots of videos, reading tutorials/how-to's were the most time consuming but once I knew what I was doing it became very, very easy.
This picture here will help explain the process!

Every small blue clip you see with an audio channel on top and underneath is what we call a Sound Bite. This is Claire speaking. The singular audio clip is my voice over. The green underneath is what we call the Net Noise. It is the artificial background noise to create the scene. Adding it all together you get a final product, which is my audio story you can listen to right below!
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-hHW14cOS0hZUxfZmw2MTY3UXc

Final Thoughts/What I learned: 

One take away I have from this project is don't underestimate how easy audio can be. Learning how to do audio is actually a difficult task and it is something I have to take time working out throughout the year. After having the class listen to it, the thing I needed to change most was when I have two of Claire's soundbites play back to back; audio levels matching at those points are crucial! Outside of that one error, I thought my video was great. For my first audio story I was surprised at how well it seemed to turn out, and so was the teacher!