It's pronounced "Single-Oh-Ten"

      For our big 2D project in animation, we had to make a story with multiple angles, incorporating everything we have learned so far. We went from Photoshop into Aftereffects. I put mine all together in Premiere before uploading it.

      For my animation, I decided to make a secret agent panda named 010 who saves the world. I was originally going to name him 008 but my friend Lindsey suggested the name and I laughed so hard at it I had to use it.   My original idea was to have the panda foil the bad guys plans of taking over the world using a super computer by unplugging it. A lot of people told me it was too similar to Peter the Panda from Phineas and Ferb, but I liked MY panda and it was too late to turn back.

      Working in Photoshop took a lot longer than I had expected. I learned the hard way that you can re-use layers in Aftereffects and took time drawing out everything. When I had drawn my first shot and moved on to the next one, I realized that I would have to draw a city from an entirely different angle. I ended up pulling a picture off of Google and adding in the graffiti and trashcan. I think what I struggled with the most in Photoshop was getting my bear to look ok every time I redrew him. He had multiple outfits and angles and that was a challenge to get right.

      I had two friends in my class film the videos that are in it. The first one is Lindsey and she is meant to be the person who gives secret agents their missions. The second one is Mario and he plays Barry the Bad Guy. We went out into the hall during class to film it and he memorized it the day of. I really liked the idea of having real videos in with my animation so I rolled with it.

      Aftereffects was also a bit of a struggle. I had a really hard time getting the puppet pin tool to look at least decent and making sure I had everything I needed in my project. I often had to go back in and change the original Photoshop file and that made things pretty difficult a couple times.

      I am honestly happy/ I've come to terms with the way my final project turned out. I think I would like to do this again but I have to learn how to manage my time better and not choose story lines that get me in over my head in work. But, this bear will hold a special place in my heart as my first feature-length, million-dollar, blockbuster film.

Hard News Story- Jazz Festival

This Friday is the Baker University Jazz Festival. Both the Jazz Lab and Jazz 1 classes will be attending. They will be playing five pieces.

While there are “a few technical things that we need to clean up, we’ve really improved over the course of the year,” saxophone player Lucie Roberts told us. The Jazz Lab class has been meeting during fifth hour everyday this year and has worked heavily on articulation and the fundamentals of jazz. Jazz 1 has had frequent 7 a.m. rehearsals and came in one weekend for a “jazz party” where they rehearsed from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

There will be 18 total groups from all across the area playing at the festival. They will get to play for adjudicators and clinicians and find out what else will be played. This will help them “prepare for the heart of the festival season which will start in March,” Mr. Davis, the band director, told us.

This festival will kick off their season and help them prepare for the winter concert in December, the Pittsburg State and Drury jazz festivals, and, for Jazz 1, their chance to perform at the State Music Educators Convention. Then, at the end of the year, the Jazz band will open for the Glenn Miller Orchestra.   

ONW Trip to France

     For video we had to make a feature story outside of the classroom. My group, Jenna, Tate, Maddie, and I, decided to do our story on the upcoming trip to France. We interviewed the French teacher Mrs. Baldridge and Andrew Ost, a French 4 student. We interviewed them in two separate days during Power 50 and got most of our B-roll during class.
     This project came at a bad time for me because it came during show week. I didn't leave the school all week until 8 and I took a half day on Friday.  After that I spent way too much time playing catch up and getting back on top of everything.
     This is the first project for us where we all have to write a written version of the story to go along with it. I haven't done that yet, but this will be my first time writing a full story.



   
     This summer the ONW French department will be traveling to France.
They will be traveling to Normandy, Mont Saint Michelle, the Loire Valley, and Paris. They will also be taking a day out of their trip to sit in the classes of a French high school.
"[When] you have a group of students who share a common love, it's awesome to share that with other people." Mrs. Baldridge, the French teacher told us when we talked to her. Some of the group members met for the first time at Worlds of Fun for the Haunt.
French student Shelby Cope , who went to Worlds of Fun, said, "it broke that 'get to know you' phase of the trip that we would have had to go through if we didn't hang out before."
The students will be departing May 29 and returning June 13.

While it is too late to join this summer's trip, you can get involved in French now! Contact Mrs. Baldridge or your counselor for more information about joining French.

A Day On The Farm (with the cast of FRIENDS)

     Our net project in animation was a multiplane animation. We had to have four separate layers in Photoshop and take it into After Effects for animating. I chose to make mine a farm with animals and trees.

     Multiplane animation is when numerous layers pass the camera at different speeds depending on their distance and location. the first ever multilayer camera was invented in 933 by Ub Iwerks in Disney. The invention of these cameras made tracking scenes much easier and more time-efficient. It also made the animation look more realistic.

     In Photoshop, we had to make the four separate layers to animate. My back layer was just the background with the sky and sun. The next one had trees and hills. The next layer had a barn, pigs, and horses. My front layer had a fence with cows. The hardest part about this project for me was drawing in Photoshop.  I had to draw in farm animals and that isn't something I am good at. Still, I like the way it turned out in the end and I'm excited to get to use this on our next project. I named it A Day on the Farm With The Cast of FRIENDS because I named every layer the way they named FRIENDS episodes.