For ONW Now This Has Been Hannah Iverson Now Back to the Desk

      For our final project in video, we had to produce an episode of ONW Now. Mr. Cooper split our class into two different groups. Sadly, I was in the counselor's office when that happened so I didn't get to see it go down. I was part of the production team for Jenna's team. Jenna assigned us all different parts of ONW Now to do. I was helping Colin with the intro and outro.  For our intro we redid the Office intro! I really enjoyed it. The outro took me a bit of time to put together because for some reason I couldn't figure out how to get all of the credits even on the screen. The thing I am most proud of is the music in the outro. Man, I am so proud of that. The intro music was to long for the credits so I had to take a portion out from the middle of the song. It actually sounds real! it actually sounds like it was recorded that way! I started a story with Katie Hughes but it didn't come together in time. We had one run-through during Lunch A with a different group's stories and it went pretty well. The the big day came we were all running around getting every last minute detail together. We were all nervous because we wanted it to go well and it didn't help that someone was sitting in our class. The recording went really well! We had one little scare with the swim and dive story, but everything went rather smoothly.
      I learned a lot through this project. Working with a team to create a show you aren't confident you  can make is a big job and requires a lot of trust between you and your team. I learned a lot about working as a team and making sure everything comes together well. I also got to be a floor director for the first time and I enjoyed it.
      I really liked how are team worked well together throughout this project. I also really liked our intro I wouldn't change the way either of those things went for us. If I had to go back and change one thing about this project, I would have done a better job with the Winter Wishes story and I would have actually seen it through.
      I have known for awhile that I don't want to be in convergence journalism and that I don't want to be a journalist, so I found myself wondering what I was drawing from this experience a lot. Working with a team is a very important skill and this project was very helpful. I also know now how to make a news story so if I ever get in a situation where I have to write a news story, I'll know. And that's a comforting thought. Though I did have some fun in journalism, I know i't's not what I want to do. I am definitely looking forward to entertainment.

Turns Out We Got More Done Than I Thought This Year

Over the course of this year in animation, we worked in multiple programs on many different things. We worked in programs from After Effects to Maya. We made inanimate objects and fully developed characters. Here are the highlights.



Let's start back at the beginning of the year. We started off strong by redoing one of the first things we ever learned in animation. The classic Bouncing Ball. But this time, we bumped it up a notch. We learned, for the first time, how to animate in After Effects. Mr. Olson had walked us through it step-by-step and then we got to try it out for ourselves. It took me a long time to get the hang of After Effects and I ended up using my Power 50 a bunch to finish this on time.  I picked this project so I could show where we started doff at the beginning of the year and see how it progressed. I took a long time on this one making the bouncing look at least mildly realistic and I feel like I did an okay job.  If I could go back and change this project I would have made the leaves blowing in the background and the bouncing look even more realistic than it may have already. The leaves are the only reason I called this project Ball In the Fall. It makes sense that they should move.




I included this one not because I wanted to, but because it felt necessary. This snail was-no- is a burden I will carry for the rest of my life. Meet Barold. A happy, care-free Girl Scout who happens to be a mutant three-legged snail. I gave this snail a whole background story. Turns out, animating something with three legs is a whole lot harder than something with two legs. It took me at least ten solid tries to get his legs to look right and right at the tail end I made his leg go the wrong direction. We were supposed to be demonstrating a walk cycle with a creature of our own creation. I don't know what I was thinking, creating this free-loading, cookie-selling snail that doesn't pay his half of the rent. I did learn how to do a walk cycle though, and I was able to later apply that knowledge to an animal I'm actually proud of. I have definitely improved on my ability to make a walk cycle but I haven't learned not to choose projects that will give me a hard time in the future. If I could go back and change one thing about my walk cycle, it would be the entire concept. I would have had such an easier time if I hadn't had to deal with this monstrosity. I know I shouldn't be this hard on him, but I'm just holding on to unnecessary bitterness. Contrary to now popular belief, I did enjoy this project at the beginning. I just got myself in over my head with extra work and I did learn a lot doing this project.

This here is a project I am 100% proud of. For our second project in Maya we had to create a castle. I leaned a lot about Maya here. There was a lot packed in this first project. We learned how to maneuver in Maya, how to manipulate shapes and change their configuration. We also learned how to add colors and textures to the different shapes and, of course, I covered my little castle in gold tinfoil.  I picked this project because it shows how far we came in this program in such a short time. I'm proud of myself for (mostly) getting the hang of Maya quickly. My dad wants me to teach him how to use Maya and I am really excited. I want to start exploring the different areas in Maya and go beyond the basic instructions of each project. I can apply what I have learned to my future projects in Maya. If I could go back and change anything in my project I would add more details to my castle. I have a friend who made her castle taller and put a dragon on it. A dragon! That's so exciting! I am really looking forward to all of our future projects in Maya.

I chose this project because it is our most recent animation project. Mr. Netterville calls it a "polything". We learned about booleans and all about lighting. Mr. Olson was out due to surgery while we worked in Maya and Mr. Netterville came in and taught us. I am really getting the hang of the basics of Maya but if I get stuck on a step it takes me awhile to get back on track.what I learned in this project is definitely going to help me on future projects. If I could change anything on this project, I would redo all of my lighting. I had to have a friend help me fix my lighting and make it look at least slightly correct. We have come very far form the beginning of the year and I'm really proud of her far I have come.

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.

Barold the Girl Scout

Our next animation project was to make a walk cycle. We had to make a creature and give it it's own personal walk cycle.

We started out with creating our characters and I felt the need to make it unnecessarily complicated. Meet Barold. He is a snail with three legs, or, as I like to call him, not something that should ever exist. Being a Girl Scout is his full-time job and he isn't very good at it. His snail roommate (or his snoommate), is sick and tired of him because he doesn't pay his half of the rent. I don't know why I couldn't have just done something with two legs. Getting through the Photoshop portion was very difficult for me. Something about the way my Photoshop is set up is making it hard for me to make things. Anytime I put something over something it has to be in a new layer. No matter how little it is. It gets super frustrating and time-consuming. By the time I got through that step, I was behind. After Effects proved to be even more difficult. I'm not sure if this was clear, but animating a walk cycle with three legs is a bit more confusing to get down than two. I went through about four different styles of walking and animating them before finally just animating the back two legs like normal and having the front one do its own thing. Turn out, I did that step backward and now his front foot drags on the ground all of the time. By this point, I was a day or two behind and I decided that that was a small enough issue and I was over Barold. I had been mad at him for about a week now. I finally understand, in a way, what he's putting his snoommate through.

If there's one thing I learned during this project, its don't stray too far from the original assignment. I decided to add a body part and that was by far the worst idea I have had to put myself through in school. I'm not sure if there is something up with my Photoshop or if its user error but it's bothering me and I don't know how to fix it. There's something wrong with the paintbrush and eraser and it's really confusing me.

If I could do anything differently I would have chosen an entirely different creature. Preferably one with two legs. That would have made it a lot easier on myself and on everyone that had to endure my rants about my three-legged snail. I would, on the other hand, keep the background I made and the over-complicated backstory I gave him. I really enjoyed creating a whole character with a backstory and a motive. If I hadn't made it clear before, Barold here is on his way to sell Girl Scout cookies.

In the next project, I want to do something a bit more simple and not too weird. I think I got the hang of my Photoshop problem so we will see how that goes down. I'm really excited for our next project, though. My friend gave me a sneak peek and it looks like a very fun project.

Zygon the Space Worm

   
     For our second project in animation, we learned something new. We had to make an inchworm in Photoshop and the animate it in After Effects. My worm is named Zygon and he is a space explorer. I've also been working on giving all of my characters wildly extravagant back stories but I didn't get to give Zygon one.

Process

     We started in Photoshop. We had to make our worms and the environment they were in. I chose for him to be in space on an unknown planet. It took me a bit to get the final details on the worm like the SS Zygon and his goggles. Once we were in After Effects we were able to follow a video Mr. Olson made. We had to make the worms move and inch across the screen. It was kind of hard to work with at first because when you moved a part of the worm the whole thing would warp. Eventually, after adding couple other things into the mix. We got the worm to make the inching motion. After we got that down, we could just copy and paste it over. Then, we got him to move across the screen. Unfortunately, Zygon didn't make it all the way across the screen. But, I think he's doing a great job.

Did I Learn? Sure Did 

     This was one of the first times I have used After Effects extensively. I learned a lot about how to make the worm moving look realistic. The tools we had to use were confusing at first, but I think I understand them now. 

Would I Change It? No, Sir!

I really like the way Zygon turned out. It makes me really happy watching him inch along and knowing he is on his little explorer way. But, if I had to change something, I might have made the planet look a little more planet-like and made his goggles look a bit more like goggles. I also wanted to make his fins looks a little more like spaceship's. 

Next Time?

Next time I want to give my character an  extensive back story. I also want to like the colors  I put on it. (Since I'm typing this in the future, I can tell you now that no, I did not like the colors I ended up having to use.) I'm excited to use the skills I learned here on my next project!

Ball In The Fall

 Overview

     For our first project in animations, we had to recreate one of our first ever projects- a bouncing ball. This time, we didn't use Photoshop the whole time. Once we had made the ball, we moved into Aftereffects. I made my ball in the fall. You can tell it's in the fall because there are leaves. I honestly think the bouncing makes it look like something out of a Tumblebook. Since this was our first time in Aftereffects, I had a hard time getting used to it. It took me a good amount of time to catch on to where everything was and how to use it, but I eventually (for the most part) figured out how it all worked.

Did she learn? Read here to find out!

    While working on this project, I used Power Hour effectively for one of the first times. Aftereffects took me a good amount of time to get the hang of, and that put me behind a couple of times. I had trouble getting the bouncing effect just right, and that really set me back. My big takeaway from this project was definitely mastering the basics of Aftereffects. In all honesty, that program is difficult for me. I also learned the effectiveness of good note taking and how to ( in the future ) apply that to animation. 

What would she change? What would she do the same? Who knows!

     If I did this project again and had more time, I would add in clouds that could move in the background or make the leaves swirl in the wind. When I was in Photoshop, I couldn't find a way that I liked to have clouds. That meant once I got into Aftereffects, I couldn't animate anything. I do like the way my ball turned out so I would keep that the same. 

What does this mean for her future projects?????

     Once we start our next project, I think (and hope) that working in Aftereffects will go a lot more smoothly than it did this time. Now that I've used it before, I'll understand it better the next time around. Notetaking will also be a biggie.  I need to take more detailed and helpful notes this time around if I want to be successful in this class. Our next project is going to be an inch worm and I am excited to see how that goes down. 

Fire Safety

  The Project™

     Our first video assignment of the year was to make a safety procedure video. I worked with Andrew Stout and Jenna Daugherty. We made a video about what to do if the fire alarms start going off. We really didn't understand what you actually had to do during a fire so that made it harder for us to storyboard. We had a bunch of directions we wanted to go with the video (like making it in the style of a 50's instructional video) but we went with a simple, straight forward, instructional video. When we got to the second day of shooting, we had forgotten our clothes from the day before. We ended up re-shooting everything. Thank goodness we had, there was no sound from the first day. On the third day, we had a different camera and that kind of messed everything up, just a little bit.  I edited the video at home, so I had a day to help my team members with whatever they needed.

  What I need to fix

   I learned while watching the final cut of my video, that I had a good few things I had to change. There was a pretty obvious continuity error, but we were too scared to correct it. We weren't sure if you could actually open doors during school hours, so, we didn't. I need to fix some of the audio levels so you can hear it in some parts and fix the coloring so it's even. When I was editing, I learned how to crop a video and that was nice to know.

  When I redo it 

   If I could go back and do this video, I might have tried to find a way to get shots of us actually going through the doors. When editing I would fix the audio levels and the coloring. I will get a chance to do that today because we have to re-edit. When filming next time, I will try to focus on making sure all speaking is loud and clear so the audio doesn't need to be tweaked as much. I was glad we were all on the same page the whole time, though. (For the most part.)

For next time

     I had a lot of fun and I felt like I learned a lot about the people I work with and how I work with them. I am proud of the video I made and am ready to make it better.

     

Final Blog Post

Quarter Four Project

      For our final project we had to create a project a product and sell it. Our product was called the Lingua and it was a microphone that could  translate languages in real(ish) time. We had the entire quarter to work on it. Our group wasn't the best at staying on task and thoroughly making sure everything was done.We were put into groups based on our animal personality traits and our Myers-Briggs type.  We all didn't agree very well and we got off topic easily.  By the end of our project we had almost gotten everything done, except for the website.  None of us were very confident in our website building abilities, so we put it off for as long as we could. When we would go to work on it individually, we wouldn't really know what to do. Needless to say, the website was the hardest part of our project. I learned al to about working in a  group with people who are hard to get along with and people who aren't always on task. I learned a lot about trying to keep people on topic, working, and how to scream on the inside.

Presentation  

     When we were presenting for the first time, we were told to memorize, finish our website and not bash other companies in our presentation. Throughout the quarter, we had am mini rivalry with another group called the "Speaker". We would both continuously hate on each other in a fun way. by the time presentations came, we both had each other in them in some way or another. In our presentation, I gave myself the honor of bashing on their product. I was going to take it out, but they put my name in their video. When we had to show our video and website, neither were finished. Well, we had a video, but it was a seven second clip of Evan fake falling over the railing. No product, no addressing what we were selling, no nothing. We pulled up a save second clip and showed it to the class. At least by the time we had to actually present, we had a real video and a mostly finished website. 

Opinion

     I enjoyed working on the project, but I didn't like our actual product. After we had chosen our product, we found out that i was already a thing. And at that, the real product was better. It's not fun working on a project that you aren't proud of. But, we did it and and we finished it. 

Time Management 

     For the first quarter, we weren't the best with time management. As a group, we weren't always on task. It took us a long time to finally get our 3d animation done and we had one person doing the 2d animation and we didn't see it until we were finished with the rotation. I feel like our 2d animation could have definitely been stronger. Our 3d animation he'd too much going on in the background for us to see the actual product.  I tried my best to keep everyone on task, but we argued and got off task and it was hard. We got through planning our video fast, so in the men time we planned our shots out quickly and had time to write up a second commercial. I liked the idea for the second commercial better, but the first one was easier to do. The shots we got for the commercial weren't very good and it made it really hard to edit. I stayed after school times and i came in in the morning for a week straight. I have the programs at home so I can take the projects home. I should learn how to bring home all of the stuff instead of just the file like I did. 

Strengths and Improvements

     I would say my strengths are in editing and keeping people from fighting. That actually came in handy a lot because we fought often. I was able to straighten people out and make sure we weren't yelling. 

     I could work on not getting off task when other people are and working through other people's distractions.

     My favorite part of this semester was basically the idea of this project. We all got experience making a product and having to have pride in it and selling it. The hard part was not actually having the pride required to sell your product or be proud of it. If I could go back and change things, I would change our product in a heartbeat. W had had ideas for other things after that that I like a lot more than what we ended up doing, like tattoos that last for a year or change color. After this semester I learned that it's important to be proud of everything you create and do. I would have enjoyed the whole process just a bit more if I had like our product. One goal I would like to set for next year is simple: be proud of everything I create. I honestly cannot believe that the year is already over and I we are going to be sophomores soon. I am very excited for e-Comm next year. 

Project 

CSS And CARP Design

     To finish out the quarter we did another web design project. We had to use Dreamweaver again and this time we had to change up a poem and make it look nicer with CSS and CARP. Hint hint to the title of this blog post. This project felt a lot easier than the last, but maybe it's because I don't remember it too well. The original file looked a lot different than the end project. At the beginning, it just looked like a white screen with a dog and a poem. By the end, it looked like a real website with a background color and a title and everything.

     C- We showed contrast with the black background behind an almost white box holding the poem and dog.
     A- We used alignment to Show the title (which was in the middle) and the normal format for poems which is aligned to the left.
     R- We showed repetition by using the same colors from the dog multiple times throughout the website.
     P- We used proximity by keeping everything close together but far enough apart that you can easily tell where everything is and what it goes with.

   
      Even after this project, I am still not the biggest fan of web design but I had fun and I learned a lot about working with CSS and CARP. For starters, I learned what CARP stood for, meant, and how to use and demonstrate it. I relearned how to use Dreamweaver and how to write out code. I don't think I want to work in Dreamweaver again, though.  But, I did enjoy it.

Name Logo

     Since we started learning about logos, we had to create our own personal logos. We spent a lot of time talking over everything a logo should incorporate and how to keep it simple and precise. I spent a lot of time sketching mine out and I wasn't sure what I wanted to go with.  Out of the four that I had, I ended up choosing one that had half of my name upside down because I thought it was the best out of what I had.
     Little did I know how hard that would be to recreate on Illustrator. It took me about two class periods to work on and finish it. My logo ended up having a fade in all of the letters to make them stand out a bit more. I did not use the colors I had initially wanted to use because they didn't work. I wanted to logo to a lot more woodsy and whimsical than it turned out to be.

     I don't really like the way my logo turned out because I had wanted something pretty different. I like it as a logo, but it really isn't what I wanted to have. If I had had a lot more time and much more advanced graphic design skills, than maybe I would have been able to pull it off. 

A Bird, A House, A Flower

For our next assignment, we had to show variety. We had to make either 20 birds, houses, or flowers. First we had to sketch them all out and then we had to recreate one of them in Illustrator.You had the choice of using color or not.
For my sketch, I drew 20 birds. I drew them all around a tree and a bush because I didn't feel like just putting them in squares or something similar. It was strange having to draw 20 of something but make sure they were all different. I still feel like I could have had more variation in a couple of spots but I like my birds. I recreated a lot of my birds from different pictures. You could add different tags to make the search more specific. That helped  lot with adding variation to the birds.
I recreated one of my easier birds in Illustrator. It looks rather lumpy, but I like it that way. I started drawing it really big on accident, but I just sized it down when I finished. I have been told that if you changed a few small little details it looks a lot like the original Kansas University Jayhawks logo. It's a fat, chubby, lumpy, blue bird with skinny little bird legs. I only used the colors blue and yellow, if you don't count black.
I really like my bird. It's not the best done bird in the world, but it's my bird and I honestly think t'd kind of cute. Frankly, there are a few thinks I would change, but I am going to keep it the way it is. I think I am going to name it Sampson, he looks like a Sampson.

Color Wheel

In graphic design we had to recreate a color wheel. We learned about the names of the colors. Well, not like yellow and green, but secondary and tertiary. We learned about different color schemes and which colors could go with which. We also learned how to tell which colors went with which using the names. In our color wheel, we had to show where each color went on the color wheel with brown in the middle, showing how when the colors mixed it created the one in between them. We also had to put the colors in different shapes to show which ones went with what.

My Personality Type

Yesterday we took the Myers-Briggs personality test.  My personality type was INFP, which stands for introvert, intuitive, feeling, and perceiving.  They are people who strongly believe in their values and beliefs and try not to judge people too early. Some famous people with this personality type are William Shakespeare, Audrey Hepburn, Hellen Keller, Kurt Cobain, and John Lennon.

I think this personality type describes me pretty well. A part that was very accurate to me was the fact that they reserve their most authentic thoughts and feelings for people they know well. The part that was a bit off was the  fact that they try to find new outlets for self-expression. It helped me understand a bit more about the things I do in and out of school. I have friends who are each personality type and I think it is good that even though we are all such different people we can all get along.

In any group setting, if I am not the leader, I try to be as useful and helpful as I can.  I basically try to be a right hand man and do whatever needs to be done. usually when the role I am given matches up with my personality type the project goes very smoothly on my end and it gets done. I it does not, the project takes more time and focus and tends to get slightly frustrating, But, it all gets done the same. I have been told many times in the past that I am a "people person", but I certainly am not by any standards. It takes me awhile to get used to, warm up to, and  be able to talk freely to people. I know a girl that used to talk out of turn a lot and it really got on my nerves. We got in trouble quite a few times and I got tired of it. We aren't very close anymore, but now the I think about it, our differentiating personalities might have played a key role.

We also took another personality test. this one told us what kind of animal we were. I got an otter and a golden retriever. The otter is someone who is very sociable and good at making friends. I am not really sure how I got this one because I am not really either of those things. The golden retriever is very loyal and not big on big changes. I feel I relate a lot more to the golden retriever than the otter.

Over the course of this assignment I learned a lot about who I am as a person and what that means for what I'm doing, where I'm going, and how I'm going get there.

First Time With Illustrator

After finishing our first sketch, we moved into Illustrator. We learned how to use the shape tool, the pencil tool, and the shaper too. For the first project, I made an owl. We sketched it out first so we knew what we were doing. I used smooth lines and stars, for texture, to make my owl. Even though it doesn't look like an actual owl, I like to believe its recognizable. I used mostly gray colors, but I gave it yellow eyes and a red bowtie. I sued curvy shapes and made sure it filled up the space. I didn't add too much depth, but I wanted it to be that way. I did, however, make the wing and feathers a darker gray then the body.

I had a bit of trouble getting used to Illustrator, as moving to a new platform isn't always easy. We watched video tutorials to learn how to use the tools, but it tok a bit to get them to work the way I wanted. Whenever I tried to use the eraser, it would add lines where the eraser had gone over. Once I finally got the hang of it, it wasn't too bad. I tok awhile trying to get the body done, but everything went by a lot faster after that.

For the next project, we used the shaper tool. We had to recreate what we had seen in the video to get used to using it. Mine was giving me a hard time because it wouldn't erase certain lines I was trying oh so hard to get rid of. After awhile I just turned it in as is. I had time left over, so I decided to recreate the Colorado flag, because a step in the process reminded me of it. Though that one seemed easier, it still gave me a bit of a hard time. I couldn't seem to get the lines in the background to go straight across, but I got them as close as I possibly could.

Its been two weeks since we started using Illustrator. Im happy to say that I am starting to warm up to it. I has a very simple design the makes it good for beginners and experts to use. I am excited to see what the rest of the quarter has in store for us in graphic design and what the rest of the semester has in store for us in e-Comm.

First Graphic Design Project

     For our first project in graphic design, we were supposed to draw what graphic design meant to us.  I drew the fist thing it reminded me of which was the apple logo and apps. In my drawing, I had the apple logo in the middle with a bunch of apps surrounding it. I was going to have them fade in, but I remembered too late to add that in. I simply used the colors that were in the logos, but i would have liked for them to be brighter and bolder.
     I used color throughout my entire picture, except for where I didn't have any apps. There wasn't much texture to the picture, but I think that the way the closed pencils look against the paper counts. I made the apple logo the biggest and made the apps smaller, demonstrating size. I used the apple logo and squares with rounded corners for shape. I used spacing by putting the apple logo in the middle and putting a bit of space between it and the apps around it. I had a bit of value in my picture, but would have had more had I gone through with my plan to have the apps fade in and get bolder as you moved away from the center.
     I am very proud of what I was able to make for my first sketch. We had a prompt that was very linient and you could take in any direction you wanted. Sure, there were some things that I could have done or added in, but I think the work I have done is great. I really enjoyed the process of thinking of and sketching out your drawing. I am looking forward to the rest of the quarter in graphic design.