e9 Quarter 2 Reflection

My Strengths

    With this semester, I think that most of my strengths were in the graphic design area. For me, I felt like it was something that I've always wanted to try and when I had the opportunity to, I think I caught on pretty well. Over all, though, I think that I managed my time well with all of my projects and did an alright job with most of them. For the SketchUp project in animation, though, I think this seemed to be my favorite one and I think that I was successful in creating my house in the end.

Improvement

    I honestly think that with improvement, I could try to do a lot better and learn more with animation. For this quarter, we had to do a bit of it, and I think I struggled in that area the most. I had a many difficulties, but I had help so it turned out alright in the end anyway.

What I Loved Most

    I think that this semester was alright and I learned a lot from this class. What I loved the most about this semester, though, was the SketchUp house that we had to create for a project in animation/web design. I had used SketchUp before in middle school and it seemed to be a fun project to create. The outcome of the house was really cool and I think that's what I liked most about it.

What I Would Change

    From all of my projects, I think that there's a lot I would change with each of them. I would try to take my time and ask more questions whenever I need help.

Overall Take-Away

    I learned a lot this semester in e9. I think that the most important thing that I learned about this program is that it takes a lot of effort and time to be successful in what you're aiming for, and that it's not easy at first, but learning along the way can extremely help. I also learned that I'm probably not the best person with animation, but it was still cool to create those projects.

Final Thoughts/Goal

    With all that I've gotten to do and learn in e9, I think that my overall goal is to better myself in the areas that I'm struggling in. Even though I won't be in e9 next semester, I think that with whatever time I can take, I'd like to try to improve myself with those specific struggles, just so I can learn more about it all. My final thought about e9 is that it's a great 21st Century program and it has a lot of areas for a variety of people that can enjoy it.

SketchUp House Animation

Process

      For this project, we first started out learning how to use SketchUp. I have used the program before in middle school so it was all review to me. To find the house we'd make, we went to a website that showed house plans. I picked one that I liked with a fairly simple roof and began making the base of it on SketchUp. Then, we raised it up and made a roof. We made the windows, doors, decks, stairs and all the other details. Then, we painted them all. It was helpful that I wasn't trying to make my own house, but using an already made house plan. After that, we went to the 3D Warehouse on the program and picked out some trees, plants, and cars for our house. I decided to use all 3D items to make it look more realistic.

What I Learned

    With this project, I learned many new things I didn't know about in SketchUp when I was in middle school. I learned how to use items from the 3D Warehouse for my house, animating with the scenes, and using light and shade to make the house seem more realistic.





What I Would Do Differently

       This project was fairly difficult but it was interesting to do. I did have some struggles throughout the process, such as having problems with the roof and windows. If I could do this project again, I'd probably like to choose a larger house and try to challenge myself with it. I'd like to make it seem as realistic as I can. It was a fun project, so I'd see myself wanting to do this again.

Ten Strengths Animation Video

Process

     For this project, we gathered our ten strengths from our blog and set them into an animation. We first started out with making all of our words. Then, we found a picture and made each of our words a color from that picture. We fixed the fonts and the sizing and then it came down to the video timeline. We had to have our words coming in or fading in, in any way using keyframes and tweens. I set a couple words with tweens and a couple with keyframes. Then, after watching it over and over again, I fixed each of the words and added a fade in/out from black. It was almost perfect until I saved the animation. I went through a couple struggles relating to the size and such, but I ended up going with my original saved video. As much as I tried to fix it, the video would end up with more problems. So, I just used this one.

What I learned

     From this project, I learned about how to use the video timeline, keyframes, and fading in the separate words. It was confusing to me at first, but I finally understand how to use them all.

What I Would Do Differently

     The project, overall, was interesting, but if I had to change anything, I would obviously fix the problems that showed up with the sizing of the video. Besides the black space around my animation, I think it turned out pretty nice. 

Arc Animation Project

The Process

     For this animation project, we took what we learned from the last bouncy ball animation and put our knowledge into this arc animation. I started out with making the two balls; one with a happy face and another with a mad/uncomfortable face. When we made copies of the balls for them to bounce in the shapes of arcs, we set up a guide to help us. Once I was done copying the balls and adjusting their size and shape to make it look more realistic, I added an ending to let the viewer know the animation was over. I had the ball get closer to the screen then disappear quickly using the transparency tool. We each also made a title layer and a black background for the beginning and end of the animation. Finally, I set the layers into a timeline and perfected the timing and more to finish my project.

What I Learned
     
     Since we used our knowledge from the past project, there wasn't many new concepts our class learned about. But, we did learn about arcs in animation and anticipation. When objects bounce in a direction, they create arcs when they do. For anticipation, it creates tension and or excitement since the viewer knows that something is about to happen.

How I Think I Did

     Overall, I think I did alright. It may not look the best, but I think it was nice to see what I could do from the other project. The only thing I would absolutely change if I had more time is the ending. It was supposed to be creative and all, but I think that I was just having a hard time coming up with something like that so I stuck to this. But this project was an interesting one and I enjoyed creating it. 

Bouncing Ball Project

Bouncy Ball Process

     This week, our class each made a ball bouncing in the Photoshop program. First, we started out with making the background layers (blue sky and green ground). Then, we created the ball for our project using the shape tool and made that any color we wanted (but not too similarly close to the sky or background color). Next, to put a source of light that would affect the ball's dimensions, we added a circular gradient to it. We duplicated that ball layer eight more times and set each layer lower than the one before to indicate that it was falling. Then, we added the squash and stretch effect to make it seem more realistic. We took those layers and added them into a timeline and also copied them so the ball would bounce back up. Finally, we saved it with a GIF format to make sure the bouncy ball was animated.

What I Learned

    During this project, I learned many things. First off, I learned what "squash and stretch" was. It was a concept that is used in animation to make the objects moving appear realistic. When objects fall, they get stretched out. And when they hit the ground, they're bent and such. Then, when we got into Photoshop, I learned how to make different shapes, how to set up a timeline for the bouncy ball, and much more.

What I Would Do Different

     If I could redo this project, I'd do a couple of things differently to improve it. First off, I would make the gradient of the bouncy ball more realistic. When I was doing the project, I found it difficult for some reason to get the gradient to look better. Also, I would probably want to add clouds and such to the background, just to be more creative. I think that I could improve this greatly if I got to do it again.

Colleges and Social Media

     Yesterday, the beginning of Quarter 2 and Animation/Web Design, our class all read an article about students and what they post on their social media, and how it can affect their college admission. The article gave some examples of the situation, explaining why many admission officers felt the need to learn more about each student by searching for †hem online, and seeing how they behave on social media. When they've found disturbing content on it, some of those students have been rejected from that college. Not all officers prohibit the practice and gave their reasons.
     With this, I don't really agree with the practice, but also, in some cases, I highly agree it's necessary. First off, as this was mentioned in the article, some people have a tendency to be copied on social media. They have random accounts fooling people, pretending to be the person they say they are. And if the real student is getting searched for anything negative on their social media by college admission officers, I think it's extremely unfair considering it might not be them and just an imposter.
     Again, I do in some cases think that searching students' social media is a must. I know (and have seen) many people being blatantly racist, homophobic, sexist, etc., on their social media, and get fired from their jobs when people notify them. With that, I honestly believe it should be necessary to deny some people's college admission. As it says in the article, colleges want good people in their community. I think it's best for them to reject people making comments such as those and notify them about it.