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.