Reflection Over e9

This blog post is dedicated to reflecting over what has happened over the past first year of my time in e-Comm. It will be long but it's good to reflect over what has happened, especially when you learn as much as I have in only a year of high school.

What have I learned?

Over the past year I learned many things about how to create digital media, such as videos, websites, animations, and graphics.In regards to animation, I learned first, how to use Photoshop and how to set it up for animation, and then I learned different techniques of animation. In video, I learned how to take different shots properly, and then edit those shots to make a video that looks nice and makes sense. We did web throughout all four quarters, and in web I learned how to use Dreamweaver to make html and CSS codes to make a website that has a good color scheme and doesn't look like a mess of poor coding. In graphic design, I learned more about color theory and how different elements of design work together to make something that looks nice.

How did I learn this?

I learned by listening to my teachers when they were giving demos and writing notes. I used my notes to help me along when I eventually got to make my own project. When I forgot how to do something, I could just look at my notes to help me figure out how to do something.

Why is it important?

This is important because these skills will help me through my next three years of high school and eventually help my in a computer career if I should choose one. These skills are also nice to have if you just feel like creating something, like I really like to use Photoshop to make different things like phone backgrounds and gifs.

What are my strengths and weaknesses?

I feel like my strengths lie in using Photoshop, whether it be for animation or graphic design. Photoshop was just made really easy to use, unlike Illustrator , which I feel like it was almost made to work against you, I'm so bad at it. I feel like I do an alright job in web design stuff, and video was never really my favorite thing.

What am I doing with what I have learned?

Most of what I do with these skills involves making edits and gifs in photoshop. I like to do this for things like different video games and T.V. shows and post them on websites like Tumblr and Twitter, or Facebook if I feel like showing my stuff to my family. (I'm not on Facebook, like at all.)

What would I change?

I would kind of like to change how we're taught. Sometimes teachers will sit there and demo for the entire hour and have us take notes, and it's just about as boring as watching paint dry. I appreciate being able to take notes, but maybe we could work WHILE the teacher demos, and take notes as we go, so maybe we have something more interesting to do? It's hard to figure things out because not everyone learns the same, but these are just my opinions.

In conclusion,  I really enjoyed my first year in e-Comm. My favorite part of e-Comm has to be working with Photoshop, since it's so easy to use and you can do so much with it. I feel like I've learned a lot, and that these skills will be useful in the years to come.

e-Comm Final Project: Product Creation

Color Vision Logo

Over the past several weeks we worked in groups to come up with a product and make graphics (logo, business cards, coupons, etc.) animation, website, and commercial to advertise our product

What was our product?

My team's product was a pair of glasses that allows people who are colorblind to see in color. Our team name was Color Vision, and we all worked together to make different attributes of our product.

Where did we excel? 

I felt like my team did best on our graphics. We each worked on different graphics, while I made the logo that would go on each of our different kinds of graphics.

Glasses made in SketchUp

Where did we struggle?

I felt like my team struggled the most with communication. We had group members that were gone often and we neglected to communicate that we would be gone, which made our group a little behind.

Things I would change or do differently:

Our group's commercial

I would really like to have the option to choose our groups; I didn't know a lot about the people in my group and being a shy person, I didn't open up a lot to them which I feel was a disadvantage.

How did I improve?

I feel like, despite being incredibly shy as previously mentioned, I did become a little bit better at working in groups. I have never liked working in groups because I'm one of those people who likes to have things my way, but I had to deal with that and go with other people's ideas.

The Orthogonal Cube

Orthogonal Cube

A super cool shape

The orthogonal cube is a super cool shape because it's so simple, yet incredibly iconic. It's sleek, an easy to make.

I'm not just going to talk about a shape, though

I really want to talk about the e-Comm. program and how incredible it is. In e-Comm you lean a ton about how computers work and different careers involving computers, such as animation, graphic design, web design, and video.

You start out in one of those strands, with web design put in throughout the program, and learn about that strand for a quarter, then move on to the next after that quarter.

Computer skills are important

You really learn a lot in the quarter you have with each strand, and sometimes you use skills from one strand, and apply them to the next. Even if you don't plan on going into a career based around computers, these skills can still be useful to know. Maybe you're making a business and you need to design a website, or a logo. Maybe you need to make a commercial for your business with an animation in it. You can also use skills from video to make that commercial.

Don't take special programs for granted

These programs are so helpful. From e-Comm. to Animal Health, all of these 21st Century programs can help you find a career, or provide job experience. It's smart to get into a class or program that provides real life experience and skills, because in the long run, you really will find those skills useful.

Famous Logo Creation

Re-creating famous logos

Our most recent project was to find one of our favorite famous logos, and find a tutorial to help us create it in Adobe Illustrator. I chose this tutorial to help me create the well known Google Chrome logo. The tutorial went through several steps of drawing shapes with the pen tool, copying them, rotating them, and filling them in with different colors

My Chrome logo

My Chrome Logo

My version of the chrome logo ended up looking like this. The tutorial used colors they found were close to the original colors, but I had the original logo on my art board with my version, and I was using the eyedropper tool to get the correct colors. Mine isn't nearly as detailed as the original, though. Mine is mostly flat colors, save for the shadows where new color begins, while the original has much more shading.

What did I do this for?

We are getting ideas for our own logos, currently, and to get some insight our teacher told us to get ideas on logo creation from tutorials. We need to be able to use Illustrator better before we get started on our own logos, so the tutorials help us find new tools and commands to help us use Illustrator more easily.

e9 Promotional Video

What is this?

Recently in class you project was to make a promotional video for the Freshman class of e9. It was really fun because we got to go film around the school and in other classrooms so we could film friends that weren't in out own class!

What is it meant to do?

This video is meant to be shown to eight graders coming into e-Comm next year, and also their parents at an open house night where eight graders can come to learn about e-Comm. It was meant to be fun, for the eight graders, and informative, for their parents.

What could I have done better?

I feel like I could have gotten a lot more filming done. I had to reuse several clips, making it repetitive. Sometimes I could use different parts of the same clip, making it a little different, but other than that it's not that hard to see.

What do I like about it?

I really tried to edit the video to the voice over that goes along with it. Some parts acted kind of as a queue to start a new clip that fit with what our narrator was saying, which really helped edit it.

What's next?

This is likely our last project in the video strand of e9 for the year, and I will be moving on to graphic design soon. Video was really great because filming was a fun way to see the school, and editing was cool because we got to mess around with music and make a video that meant something.

Chase Scene Video

What is this?

Our most recent project in video class was to create a chase scene using the 6-shot system and it had to be between 60 and 90 seconds long. I chose to make a funny video where a girl was miding her own business and happened upon a horse. The girl was scared, and ran away. The horse chases after the girl because it want to be friends, but the girl keeps running. Eventually the horse cuts the girl off and they shake hands. The girl then betrays the horse, but the horse gets its revenge...

What did my classmates have to say?

I was given critiques by my classmates. I was told that the music really helped the story be told throughout the video. Relaxed music in the beginning, up-beat cheery music during the chase, and so on. The music fit what was happening.

Plot twist!

Most people were not expecting the girl to reel back and punch her new found friend. This helped give the story a more dramatic feeling, which was amplified as the horse scrambled up to get its revenge.

Wow, that's a long scene.

My classmates also mentioned that the scene where the chase made its way up the stairs was very long. I agree with this, and to fix this I could have filmed that scene in several parts, one at the bottom, and another in the middle of the staircase.

What do I think of my work?

I am quite proud of my work on this project. Yes, it could have been better, but for my first project, I thought it was well done. I had a partner who used the same film as me (we were told to do this) and she did an excellent job as well. I think our class is well taught, and that we all do good work. 

The 6-Shot System

What is it?

The 6-Shot System is a way of deciding what to take a shot of when creating a video. Having these shots can really help viewers know what is happening in a video, and what your subject is doing. Without these, the video might be somewhat vague, and will be lacking in story.

Types of shots used

The 6 different shots you want you use are: close up of the hands, close up of the face, a medium shot, a wide shot, an over the shoulder shot, and an extra wide.They do not need to be shown in this order. Each of these will be explained below with a picture to provide and example.

Close up of the hands

A close up of the hands is used to show detail in what your subject is working on. What tools are they using? How do they use them? These questions are typically answered with a close up of the hands.

Medium shot

A medium shot can be used to show the subject, and their project. While other shots are good for just showing the subject, or just their work, this one is good for bringing everything together in an understandable way. This shot should be taken from the hips up.

Wide shot 

Wide shots are used to show the subject from head to toe. They show who the subject is, and a little bit of what they're working on.

Over the shoulder 

And over the shoulder shot is not intended to really show how the subject looks, but the subject's head and shoulder should frame the photo, as shown above. This can be used to see what they're working on with a view over their shoulder as if you were standing right behind them.

Extreme wide shot 

An extreme wide shot should give a view of the subjects working environment! The subject can still be seen, but they're not the main part of this shot. Everything around them is the main part! Sometimes you can see other people working in this shot as well.

Close up of the face 

A close up of the face is used to show the emotion of your subject. How do they feel about what they'r working on? What are their thoughts. In this picture, my subject looked like she was thinking, but not wracking her brain trying to figure something out.

Now what?

Now that you know the 6 different shots typically used in making videos, it could be easy to make a video of your own now. Be creative! Keep in mind that you don't have to use these in any particular order.

Animation of My Ten Words

You may have seen the ten words on the right side of my blog. They may seem rather strange, but they were meant to be words that describe me.We recently finished another animation, where we were supposed to animate these ten words and our name. Though this time instead of a frame animation, it was a video animation! Video animations are much different from frame animations. You don't need a frame for every single movement in the animation, but instead you only need a frame for each thing you want to move. You need to create key frames, and between each key frame in the animation, the object will do what you have set it up to do. I think video animations are a bit more confusing than frame animations, but they're both not very difficult to create.

Squash and Stretch

Squash and stretch is the first principle of animation, and is used to show weight and give flexibility to an animation.

It can be used in something as simple as a bouncing ball, or it can be used to make human facial expressions seem more exaggerated. An important thing to remember about squash and stretch is that the volume of the object doesn't change. If something is squashed vertically, it should become wider horizontally, and if something is stretched vertically, it should become thinner horitontally.