Hear ye, hear ye! Gather thou citizens, and observe ye first structure in Maya! I'm such a nerd...
So here is our first true project in this new program. Before we made this castle, we had a little tutorial project to play around with it, and then we were tasked to make this monstrosity.
How Thou Art is Created
First, we started with the columns. We used the cylinder tool to make, well, a cylinder. Then we made another slightly wider, shorter cylinder for the top. We had some creative freedom, so I used the cone tool to make the spires at the top. Once we were finished with that, we merged it all together and duplicated it 3 times.
Then we made the walls. This part was very simple. First we aligned the columns evenly, so that every wall would be even. Then we used the rectangle tool to make one wall. After that, we duplicated it 3 times and aligned all the walls just right so that the castle is a square from the floor plan view. For creative freedom, I put the little top things on it.
And then we had to cut a door in one of the walls. This is the part I struggled with the most, so it's not perfect. I made a wider rectangle into the side of the wall, and then used a boolean to try to make it cut. Instead of cutting all the way through though, for some reason it cut half-way into the wall and caused some lighting error. I couldn't fix it.
Finally, we colored it. I right clicked everything and selected Blinn. Because of the lighting error, I could not give it a stone texture, and could only make it white, gray, or black. I decided to make is black, and called it shadow castle. Shadow Castle is an evil magical castle. Only when looking at the right angle, can one find the entrance. Hey, when you make a mistake, make it part of the act!
Update on ye 11th of November
I fixed my castle! I somehow made my whole castle disappear by attempting to zoom out, so I started over. Here is a screenshot:
The orchestra at ONW will be going to Carnegie Hall! Of course, this was huge news, and at the same time I had a project for a feature story.
What is a Feature Story?
A feature story is like an interview, which you saw with my ONW 1 in 2000 post. Only, it is a bit more in depth. I had to include a main interview (my good friend, Brenna), and an interview from another source (the orchestra director Mr. Martin). Aside from that, I included b-roll. The difference though, it that this b-roll has natural sound (usually called nat-sound). Yes, I did include Brenna plucking the Mystic Messenger theme. And instead of just two voiceovers, I had to include three (one for the beginning, middle, and end). They are played on the news all the time.
Brenna and Mr. Martin
I interviewed two people: Brenna Regan and Mr. Martin. They both play the violin. Brenna is a sophomore in concert orchestra, and had to audition for a spot to play in Carnegie Hall. The audition is because the stage can only hold 100 people, yet the orchestra has about 170 players. As you can tell, she is very excited. Not every orchestra can perform at Carnegie Hall!
Every 3 years, the orchestra goes on an out of state trip. They haven't gone to New York City yet, and Carnegie Hall had a few open spots for April. So Mr. Martin contacted a few companies, and because he is an great orchestra director, they are able to play there.
Shooting the Video
I had to go to Brenna's house over the weekend, but I didn't have a proper video camera and tripod. I don't know if you could tell, but I filmed this whole video on my phone. It was hard to hold it steady, so the video is a bit shaky. For the interview with Mr. Martin though, I had to get a pass to miss a little bit of 3rd hour. I could've probably gotten a good camera, but instead decided to keep the video consistent. I hope it doesn't bother you too much. As for the lighting, that was a little tricky for Brenna's interview. The room I had to film in was dark, even with the light on. So I had to open up the curtain. It was a bright day. We had just learned about three point lighting, so I tried to incorporate that, yet the only light I had was too intense, so I had to go with the flow.
This made it my most difficult filming session, but I hope it's at least okay. Yet, Mr. Martin's office had good lighting, so there is still that.
I like this video, what do you think?
Two years of video experience can really make a difference. I just recently rewatched Horse Girl Chase, and cringed a little. So I'm glad I am improving.
Edit: 11/10/16
We had to Make a Written Feature Story Too!
Check it out!
How does an average high school orchestra get the opportunity to
perform at one of the world’s most renowned performing venues? Through
devotion, practice, hard work, and even more practice. String instrument
players pull their bows across their strings at anywhere from staccato to
legato, causing rosin particles to fly into the air. They count the beats in
their heads: 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and, faster, slower, keeping up with the
conductor’s baton flying in front of them. They occasionally glance down at the
complex, classical sheet music, to make sure they are on the right measure.
Arms tiring, sweat beading on their forehead, yet they refuse to stop playing
until they are either cut off or make it to the end of the piece.
All of this happens in the orchestra room of Olathe Northwest, as they
prepare for the big day in April: when they will travel to New York and play at
Carnegie Hall. Since the orchestra is so large though, not everyone could play
there. The stage can only hold 100 players, yet the orchestra, advanced and
concert combined, has around 170 players. The 40 players in advanced orchestra
were the only ones guaranteed to go. As for concert orchestra, though, they
needed to audition. Their audition songs were excerpts from “Sentimental
Sarabande” by Benjamin Britten and “Paint it Black” by The Rolling Stones.
Brenna Regan played these for her video audition, and to her surprise
and elation, made the cut. “I screamed when I saw [the audition results] and I
don’t usually scream,” she said. This goes to show how thrilled she was to be
playing at Carnegie Hall.
When asked about what she would do to prepare for the big day: she
replied, “Probably practicing more. I have not been good about practicing.” Now
that she has something to practice for, she will be on her violin all day.
And let’s not forget about the orchestra director, Mr. Martin, who has
lead this group to many medals and trophies. He answered the question, how does
an orchestra make it to Carnegie Hall? “There was an audition process. I talked
to a couple of different travel agencies about the possibilities, and one of
them had a festival,” he replied. So he sent in a video of the advanced
orchestra from a previous concert, and got the incredible reply saying that the
orchestra was accepted.
Mr. Martin also has hopes that the orchestra will not only give an
amazing performance, but also learn about the greatness of the situation. “I
hope students just get a sense of how awesome of an experience, what a unique
opportunity this is to be able to perform at Carnegie Hall,” he stated.
The performance isn’t until April, but already, there is a strong
sense of fear, excitement, and most importantly, hope in the orchestra room.
The second video of the year! Isn't this exciting? It's only September and I'm already getting a lot done. Well, this is probably more exciting to me than it is to all of you, but I'm still happy about it.
I interviewed Lizzie, and then she interviewed me. That's the concept to it. It's basic, but it was still a lot of fun. She had a concept of how it would go in her mind. She showed me a video similar to this one, made by the YouTube stars Phil and Dan (I don't really know them). The concept is a semi-casual interview, one that will stay on topic, yet not bore the audience.
However, it was our technological-unlucky days. We couldn't get a tripod (huge class), and had to figure out the more advanced cameras. In fact, the first day, we had entirely no audio recorded. Because of that, we had to crunch all of our filming into one day. However, we still had to act happy, because that was what our idea called for.
It was still fun though, especially once we got to editing. But I won't jump the gun. Let me tell you the shooting process. We didn't really storyboard this, so we pretty much went around the school and we filmed us having fun walking around. Then my interviewing time came. The first place I chose had bad lighting, and we couldn't figure out how to white balance the camera, so I had to choose the same place she interviewed me. It's a very beautiful hallway filled with windows, so there was absolutely no lighting problem. By the way, I didn't realize my reflection was in the glass until editing. The only problem with that hall though is that people frequented it, even during class. So it isn't quiet. Bear with us, this is a giant high school.
Then the editing came in. I'm getting used to Adobe Premiere. I figured out how to create a title and control the volume of the audio, while not fading it out completely.
And my teacher just came by and complimented the creativity, after showing it to the class. So I guess it was good then. *proud face*
I'm back! See that video? I made it with my friend Lizzie. This was the first video of my 10th grade year. We've been in school for a few weeks now, and we learned some basics with Adobe Premiere. We won't be using Final Cut Pro anymore. From here on it's all Adobe.
Let me summarize the video.
First there is an angry girl. She left her planner at home, but still has to leave class. So she steals her neighbor's planner. This is shown as a fast hand shot.
So she gets up and stomps over to the teacher (A medium shot). The teacher looks up at her, and she rudely slams the planner onto the teacher's desk. A giant red "X" says "Don't do this!" We all know that she definitely was not allowed to leave class.
Then we have a polite girl. We used a wide shot to show her getting her planner out, then a hand shot to show her filling it out. She takes her planner to the teacher, and the teacher happily signs it.
This one is allowed to leave class to go to the bathroom, nurse, etc. An extra wide of her heading towards the door shows that. A green check mark says "Do this instead."
So guys, always be polite to teachers and classmates. After we were done filming and editing, we received feedback from our peers. They said this video was cleanly shot, even though my head was cut off in a couple of shots. Our teacher also said that we may have to choose someone else to play the teacher, because it can confuse the audience.
Well, school ends next week, and because all I have left are finals, I guess I'm practically a sophomore now! Well, for the final project, I got to team up with my classmates: Harrison, Luke, and Bryce. What we had to do was create a product and present it to the teachers and all of e9. This concept was inspired by the TV show "Shark Tank". This was our product:
The Future Inc. Teleporter
Don't get too excited now, we didn't have to actually make it work. We made the product presentable and made it with paper. It looks like a wristband with a big red button in the middle. You press that button and you can teleport! And of course, our team was called Future Inc.
Our Progress in this Project
Okay, first we brainstormed our product. The company name would come later. All of us were quite creative, so we came up with other outlandish ideas. My personal favorite was the person creator (I think it was called that), a device to clone real people or make fictional characters literally come to life! We ended up with the teleporter though. We then had to come up with ways it would look and work. We thought about things like a phone app, a ring, and even a chip imported into one's brain. But finally we chose a bracelet, because that seemed like the easiest way to present it. We then chose the company name "Future Inc." and our motto: "And you thought Airplanes were Fast!" Our advertising was done through comedy, as you can see with our awesome commercial:
Of course though, with those reviews, you would probably be scared of this teleporter. Whatever, it's just a school project. We also did an animation in Sketchup, a logo, and a website (I am sorry because I cannot find these). Then we just had to present.
Overall
We worked well together. We were able to compromise, divide work, and get it done! However, we did have a few issues with communication. We didn't really talk about what we wanted to convey with the video and webiste. But overall, we did a good job.
Well, this is the last you'll hear of me for the entire summer.
For our Graphic Design Final, we photoshopped some pictures for school spirit. These took multiple days, but they were quite fun to be honest. Some of the tools were new and hard, like the clone stamp, but I still managed to finish *sweat drop*.
Project 1
Here is the first! It was the easiest for me. All it involved was cropping a picture of our school and adding a picture and text as an overlay.
Project 2
Like I said, the clone stamp tool (which I used for the fluttering effect) was a bit of a challenge. Although I liked this other tool that I used to color the butterfly: the magic wand tool. It only took me one day to complete it, and the colorful butterfly is very beautiful.
Project 3
Okay, I will admit that this one was harder that I thought. I don't like the type mask tool, because it is just too diffucult. Just when I think I had it, my teacher pointed out that I spelled: "Norththwest". Then I had to start all over, ugh. My favorite part about this though, was the gradient tool. It's so easy to use, and very pretty.
Project 4
Here is the one I just finished, and I'll admit it was my least favorite. I don't know if you can tell, but I'm not fully sure it was supposed to look like this. The only part I enjoyed was cropping the image, because that was the only part I was sure I was doing right.
Wow, there's only a quarter left of school until I'm a sophomore! Time is flying, and we were given a web design project for our final. Unlike last time, when we wrote about ourselves, this time we wrote about Invasive Species. Most of the project was easy, because we watched instructional videos on how this is done. The only struggle I had was when I was trying to rename all 6 pages. It somehow completely messed up the html and I had to start from an entire video previously. Lesson: ALWAYS SAVE BEFORE YOU DO SOMETHING YOU'RE NOT SURE IS GOING TO WORK! You always have to pay attention to the html too. If you type in a semi-colon instead of a colon, it's going to get confused and not do what you wanted it to do. Well, I bet you guys are all excited to see what this website looks like. So here are 3 screenshots I took.
The Home Page
So as you can see, this just introduces the website. We had a word doc to copy and paste from, so everyone's home page says the same things. We also embedded a video from YouTube for each page. To do that, you get the embed code by right clicking the video and selecting "Copy Embed Code". Then you paste it into your html code where you want it. The links at the bottom our the sources for what is said.
Asian Carp
This is one of the invasive species. You may have seen videos of these fish flying out of the water and hitting something of someone (Ouch!). The logo remains at the top, but instead of the larger logo, we put an uncopyrighted image of the species. The headings are "About", "Impacts", and "What Can Be Done". These are self-explanatory on what they describe.
Emerald Ash Borer
This is another one. They are known for digging into the trunk of ash trees and killing them.
The other three invasive species are Zebra Mussels, Purple Loosestrife, and Africanized Bees (also known as Killer Bees). These are all in the state of Kansas, brought from other countries across the world. Because of their lack of adapting, they do these crazy things.
