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! 

Photoshop Reflection

Overview of Project: 

Starting a new year of graphic design meant starting a new year of tutorials. Our job was to accomplish the many tutorials given to us in order to learn a variety of new skills we will be presenting in photoshop. 

What I learned: 

Over the course of the tutorials I learned many new skills. I learned how to remove branding, move labels, get ride of images, take away items from photos, as well as clean up portraits so they are free of blemishes. I learned to use tools like the spot healing brush, content aware fill, clone stamp, and patch tool. All of these skills helped me to create great images every time. 

Spot Healing Tool 

Strengths:

My strengths when it came to this project were using my knowledge on the different skills. Following the different videos made it relatively easy for me to understand how to use each of the tools and how they would change the picture.  

Weaknesses:

My weakness came at times when my computer would not work, or when the files would already be messed with. Many times I found that the images provided had already been messed with in way that additional  layers had been added and locked, or  I was unable to get the tool to work properly inside of the file opened. The skills itself I did not seem to struggle with, it was merely the computer delays that stopped me the most. 

What could be different/the same in the future:

Patch Tool 

When working in Photoshop next time, the only things I would consider changing is how the videos were made. Aspects of the video were not always the same on tier Photoshop, verses my own Photoshop. As I am not someone who remembers all the shortcuts keys, I found it very frustrating at times to find all the tools needed when it comes to using different tools for things like the challenge problem at the end of this post.
Some things I would suggest stay the same, are all the skills taught through tutorials. Those tools seemed to be the most common, as well as the only ones we will need to use for our projects this year. As this is not a very advanced class, the skills that we used seem to bump us up a bit further than previous years of Photoshop.

Final thoughts/conclusion:

Final Tutorial 

Overall, my favorite part of the project by far was the last photo shown on this post. I was given a set number of photos, and I had no parameters other than to turn it in. It game me my own creative freedom in which I could change the photo however I wanted. I mainly stuck to keeping the photo as natural as possible but by adding in all the landscape, I created a basic piece of abstract. The design of how it is done, draws the views eyes in, which I love about that. I plan on making more things like that in Photoshop as it was the most enjoyable thing I have done in graphic design the past two years. After doing Photoshop tutorials for the last month though, I am officially ready to move on to illustrator!  

                                 

Challenge Photo

ONW Planner Procedures!

ONW Procedures Assignment:

As our first project of the year kicks off, we started with a simple assignment. Our assignment was to create a procedure video showing school expectations as if we were going to give it to them entire school. The video had to be no more than 30 seconds, could not have a voice over, as well as include the 6-shot system. 

Pre-Production

Pre-Production began with the story board. We panned out how our video was going to go, drew pictures, and discussed the ideas with our teammates on how we could get the most information in, in a fun and quick way. After learning camera set-up, my partner and I decided how we were going to incorporate all the rules, as well as the information.

Production 

Production was the most fun part. We used the third hour office aid as our main actress. After finding an empty classroom we began filming our video. We initially started with a wide shot to set the scene. From there we went right into a close-up which was intended to be an extreme close up. As she takes the drink of the water, you can see of the camera focused on the background and not the subject of the video.

Medium 

Close-Up 

Extreme Wide 

     


As the video proceeds on you see the camera panning following the subject around the busy scene. The video does not feature an extreme close-up as it should, and the ending shot does not look the best as we began to pan the camera again. 

Post-Production

After shooting all the clips, we loaded them into Adobe Premiere. At that point we began to edit the video. As this was our first time using Premiere, editing seemed to take much longer than it needed to. Placing all the clips where they needed to go, cropping them to meet video rules, rearranging to tell a story, then adding music before final publication. 

Evaluation 

During evaluation, classmates had given feedback such as how adding music would be beneficial and be more appealing to an audience. The original video did not have music and was perceived as a "silent film". Another comment added was that when doing videos, still shots is all we need - we had a tendency to pan on a couple shots. Finally, we were told that the last part of the video would be better if we had positioned the camera in a different location; the shot looked too busy and made it hard to focus on just the one subject.

e-Communication Reflection

e-Communications Reflections

Throughout the course of this year I learned many new skills. These include skills from all three strains of e-Comm: Graphic Design, Animation/Web Design, and Video Production. I learned to use softwares such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, and Final Cut Pro. Throughout e-Comm we also learned important team building skills including communication and collaboration as well as building friendships. Most of the skills we learned were through demonstration, as well as following videos, and instructions created by our teachers. Many of our projects started out small and as our skills improved the projects became more challenging. Not only did our teachers do demonstrations but other students in our classes would teach and show off new techniques we could all interpret. After many hours of practicing the skills, I became faster and faster and my skills became more advanced. Learning these skills are important because they teach us the fundamentals of advertising, and public appeal. e-Comm has allowed our communication and presentation skills advance. By incorporating creativity and our own design to each project, it made presenting much easier as well as much more enjoyable.

My greatest strengths in e-Comm are video editing and web design. These two strands are also what I find most enjoyable because with web design it is a step by step process and with video editing it's as if you are putting a puzzle together when trying to figure out which shots look good together, along with how to edit a video. Some of my weaknesses in e-Comm include graphic design and animation. I enjoy graphic design and animation but when it comes to designing something that is visually appealing, or ‘attractive’ to one’s eye - I struggle to come up with a design a think would be good enough. Although I video and web design, some of my favorite projects were done in Graphic Design.

After my freshman year in e-Comm I have decided I would like to go into convergence journalism. I will be using my presentation and public speaking skills in front of the camera, and my video editing behind the camera. While my web design skills will not be put to use much more after sophomore year, I know convergence will be what I enjoy most. Personally, I love every aspect of the e-Comm program. We are offered fun and exciting teachers who allow us to use our own creativity to determine our grade. While sometimes I with the projects would be very precise on exactly what we are to do, I do enjoy the creative freedom. Aside from the lack of specificity, I would not change a thing.

In conclusion, this is a program I would recommend to anyone who is interested in design, or being a new anchor, or anyone who is interested in the digital arts. This program made my freshman year very enjoyable and I do not regret joining even though I had to completely start over coming to Olathe Northwest. e-Comm has so much to offer and it is the class I will always look forward to every year.

Final Blog Post! (Freshman Year)

     Looking back on this year, I see how much I have done in just a short 9 months. It seems like just yesterday I was a little freshman, unaware of what I was getting myself into joining the eComm program. Through out this year I have made a whole group of new friends and memories that I could not have been more thankful to have.

     As my final project for freshman year, we did a group collaboration to invent a product we thought would be useful to society as a whole.

Our team Cognito Co. created the app 'Tutor Tool'. 'Tutor Tool' was designed for students K-12, as a homework aid. With this app you are given an advantage that you do not get with any other homework app: You get to connect with an actual online tutor on-top of all the other benefits.

     The strongest thing out group did together was collaborate as well as take charge of our own individual parts. We all worked to help one another improve, make our portion more presentable, as well as professional. Once we all found what we did best, we had an easier time bringing our project together which is what helped us most in our presentation. 

     Our group seemed to struggle a lot with how we all wanted our graphics, video, and website to look. We all felt that this project represented us which made it harder when things did not look the way we wanted it to, or certain graphics did not match what they needed to. 

      Next time a group project comes up, the planning will need to be done first. In the long run, we found it is more beneficial because then time was not wasted with each piece having to re-plan what we are going to do. If I could change anything with my group, I do not think I would. I very much loved our product, as well as my team. We had endless laughs even though we would argue over what took place with some aspects. Through this project, our friendships grew stronger with one another, and we all learned helpful skills from one another. 

    Through this project I noticed my graphic design skills greatly improved - this was something I personally thought I struggled with most. The colors, the design, as well as the "comfort" look of our graphics were what I felt as if I improved on most.

When creating the App face, I wanted to keep it interesting, but simple and smart. As you can see the app face reflects all these characteristics as well as a very clean, and 'modern' appeal. Not only did I create the app face, but I also did the website which happened to be my favorite part.
     In conclusion, this project was very unique and I very much enjoyed it. I can not wait to see what e-Comm has to offer me next.

Six Shot System

        This was our first project of quarter 3! For this project we had to demonstrate knowledge of the "Six Shot System". This consisted of Extreme Wide, Wide, Medium, Over the Shoulder, Close-Up, and the Extreme Close-Up. For those video we used Grace Jurczak and Abby Contractor in their second out Drawing 1 class. They were creating a 'zentangle' circle and these shots show their practice sketches. This project over all was very easy for me because my knowledge of 'Final Cut Pro'   is more advanced than a "first time user".