Reflection Journal - Sound Booth

           Making an audio story from a written story was difficult in a way because I couldn't find some of the sounds I was looking for. I had to figure out a way to put different sound effects together to make the one I was looking for. On the other hand it was easy that way because I was able to get an idea of what I was looking for. Let's say for example I wrote "snake on grass," I would look for a broom brushing on the floor. The sounds are basically disguised under other names since the sound effects sound the same.
          To animate my story I had to first find pictures that corresponded with my audio as well as my storyboard. With these pictures I used Photoshop to cut some parts out and I was done with that. Then once I had the pictures I figured out where exactly to place them throughout the video. To make these picture animate I used keyframes. Keyframes for the opacity to make the picture viewable or not, for position in order to make it seem like over a certain amount of time, the pictures move.
           My scene for the silent movie was pretty easy to work with. Before I actually sat down to work on my project, I was picturing something terribly difficult to do, and it wasn't. My scene involved a lot of footstep sounds. I had running sound effects to slow walks with boots. There were many parts in the scene that weren't that hard to manipulate like metal objects falling and splashing on water.
           To record my 2 foleys I had to go in the room and say what i had prepared, on the mic. I recorded me saying "wake up! wake up! come on!" I also had my friend Shayla say "what?!" on the mic. I already knew exactly where to place the foleys in my video. I think overall my foleys weren't that bad. I realized I could've made my voice deeper on the foley so I switched the pitch of the sound.

Reflection Journal - Sound Booth

            Making an audio story from a written story was definitely not what i expected. Since i had the written story already, I thought the project was going to be a piece of cake. Oh boy was I wrong. Actually I think things would've been easier with a written story after the audio story. I mean you might think I'll just search this sound and zap! But actually you don't always get the result you're expecting. That means type in a different keyword until you find what you want. That's time my friends......that's time!
            My written story was about the main character (Mike) witnessing an alien and a huge rock falling form the sky. Since the alien looks like a threat, Mike fights him and simply walks away. While walking he falls down a hill until he comes to a stop. He gets up and notices the rock and he touches it. Suddenly, BOOM! The rock exploded. Now Mike is left in pain and agony until he dies. My original story was going to be much more exciting with action scenes and more of that sweet stuff but I had to keep it short so I took some parts out. But I also had to take some things out since it was actually very complicated finding the just right sound effects.
            I think overall my audio story isn't that bad. I mean sure it's not a work of art but I'm getting there. Actually, when I first heard this was going to be my next project, I thought it was my time to shine but actually I didn't shine so bright. I think I can pretty much blame it all on not being able to find some sound effects. I needed work on extending some sound clips.
            Honestly when people listen to the story, I have a feeling they'll only get half of it and then they'll fell confused. Once again it was due to me not being able to find every sound clip I needed/would've liked. I think for example the part when Mike walks up to the rock and scratches it, when they hear it, people won't know what's happening. That's not good, but overall, I didn't do so bad.

Reflection on the Importance of Taking Notes

             It's obvious that taking notes is important. So, let's say you have a big test coming up and counts towards 50 percent of your grade. To study for such test you must review your notes. Yep all those notes which you thought were useless, well how's that for useless?
             Let me tell you from personal experience, taking notes is fundamental, for any class! I can also tell you that sometimes I slack on notes. I just get lazy. But then it comes to my mind that I need to take notes in order to pass all my classes for me and to make my parents proud.
             To some people taking notes is a nightmare. Well not to me. Hey if it helps me to get a higher classwork grade then hey why not right??????

Reflection# 4 Photoshop

               The vector tools are very different from the brushes. One, the vector tools only lets you create shapes like a custom shape, circle, or even a rectangle. Two, while using vector tools and you choose a color, the color automatically fills in the shape. Now with brushes, you manually paint inside the object you drew. To re-create my drawing, I used all different shapes. I used the rectangle tool, the sphere tool, and the custom shape tool. Although, I used the rectangle and custom shape tool the most.
                I think the shapes were more effective on my drawing. Don't get me wrong, the brushes were useful but the shapes made the outcome of my project much more professional. Using the brushes, made my drawing look like a child drew it. Now with the shapes I was able to choose from a variety of effects in order to add them to all my layers. I must admit, with these effects "project 4" looked really good.
                The most difficult thing about working with vector images is getting the size of the shape, just right. That's pretty much what made me slow down during this whole project. Luckily, I quickly got the hang of transforming the shapes. Once I mastered this, I was easily able to scale shapes and rotate them in order to make the drawing look more professional.
                Overall (strength-wise), both my images were pretty strong. I believe that even though my picture from Project 3 was strong, Project 4 came out on top due to its great effects and colors. At the end, both of the pictures worked great together to make my final image.          

Task 2 Reflection # 3

             I chose this person/celebrity because I'm just simply a fan. Music is everything to me, and Tyga (the rapper I did the lab on) is om my list of favorite rappers. I just have a lot of respect for Tyga and that he's doing his thing in the music industry.

             I didn't finish putting all the images in the cutout. But I did get to put 4. I remember choosing 2 pictures which were mixtapes of his. I chose those because they were 2 mixtapes which I thought were great. The other picture I used was of his clothing brand, "Last Kings". I chose that picture simply because the clothes is what's in style right now and is something I definitely wouldn't mind wearing. Especially because he's an excellent artist and i support him.

             I was able to make the silhouette work by making a pretty good selection. I tried my best to make it look perfect. One word I used to trace "Tyga" was YMCMB. This is sort of like the clique Tyga is under. Another word I used was tatted. I picked this because almost his entire body is covered in tattoos. The other word I used was "Last Kings" since that's his clothing brand. The last word I used was SWAG. I used this word because that's exactly what Tyga has, swag. It's the way he dresses, the way he carries himself.

             Everything worked for me. The only thing that probably caused me a little trouble was remembering to choose 8 pictures. I think we had enough time in class to finish it, it's just that I got stuck on a step and it took some valuable time away.

Reflection 1 - Scripts and Storyboards

           While writing my script it only took a couple of steps. To make a script, first I watched a video called "Tony vs Paul". Using the computer, I took screenshots of scenes of the video. After this I wrote about what happened (specifically) in every scene. I think I did well in writing what happened in every scene. I do think I could've worked harder on being more specific about what went on in each scene. Therefore, my script wasn't detailed enough. I thought it was pretty easy writing a script based on a video.
            When creating my storyboard I took more screenshots of the different scenes and and camera views. Using these screenshots I wrote about what was happening in each screenshot. I did take pictures first and then put the text in. I selected my images every time the camera view changed or the protagonists moved on to a different setting. I had about 40 images since I didn't get to finish in class. Since I think I should've had more images then I don't think it was an accurate storyboard for the video.
             My strengths during this project would have to be the way I was specific about every screenshot I took. Even though, I could've had more images, with the few i had I was very specific. I learned I need to improve at spending my time wisely since I did the exact opposite. The only question I have is, How would I know a scene just ended or began?

How technology will impact our future?

Dear Journal Entry,
In Computer Fundamentals (this semester) I learned a lot. I learned from creating tables and power point presentations to placing posts on my blog. These skills will definitely help me towards achieving my long term goals. In order for my dreams of careers to come true, I need to know these basics of computers.
     Technology is important when you're an FBI agent which is the career I want to pursue, because it's hard to investigate without a computer. A computer can hold a huge amount of data which is necessary. To be a Forensic Scientist you need to store digital fingerprints in a computer. Therefore, Computer Fundamentals is truly helpful.
      In the future I would like to learn about photoshop. I have always been intrigued by this subject. I also want to learn about taking apart a computer and putting it back together. For the rest of my high school years I would like to follow the apple academy. I'd like to know more about apple and I think the apple academy would be helpful.