Animated Life Lessons

What's Up Internet! If you read my last post, you know we from working on an animation project here in room F101. In this newest post, I will go a little more in-depth with my teammates, our story, and how we have been working together. If you want to check out their blogs, see the link list down below. (If I ever finish this post.) I will also link to my old posts about animation, as I forgot to do so last time. Maybe my subconscious was trying to avoid having to relive any old animation projects. Or read my past selves grammar. Any who, (what, where, when, why, how) read on! I'll stop with the

intro. Continue.

To begin, I'm going to explain more of the traits and idiosyncrasies of my teammates and I. As you would know if you had read the last post, throughout this project we will be animating ourselves and exaggerating our traits. Our animation compare's Kyler's blunt, extroverted personality to the quiet, awkward, and kind personalities of my teammate Makena and I. Basically we exploit Kyler's sassiness for humorous purposes and relatable life lessons. We use A LOT of Kyler's patented gestures- the mouth cover, the hand on the hip, the hair adjustment- to exaggerate his personality. In the last post, I explained the faces and gestures I do when stressed/in an awkward situation. I'm glad I'm so weird- it creates endless inspiration for creative video projects. ;)

If you couldn't tell already, our story is going to be pretty funny. It is actually one of our guidelines, meaning that we will be graded on our ability to create a "humorous digital animation." It is fortunate that I have an incredible sense of humor. I'm hilarious. Malena and I have a very similar sense of humor, by with I mean we are both incredibly sarcastic. Kyle meanwhile, puts on a show without even realizing it. Last time we worked together, in a different class, we were with Kasiah, (of course, as me and Kasiah are attached at the hip) and I could have sold tickets. They just took turns biting at each others flesh- verbally, of course. As we are all such funny, funny people, it won't be hard to incorporate that humor into our story, especially since we will be including our own personalities into it. Our life lessons will relate to the other middle-school aged humans because we all go through awkward social issues. Whether that be introverted awkwardness, or over confidence, or a hard time understanding other people, everyone goes through something. Unless they are a perfect human. Which are pretty hard to find to be completely honest with y'all.

You may have realized that my team lacks Kasiah. I know, it's shocking. Why, you may ask, did you abandon your best friend? Throw her to the wolves? No, we aren't fighting, there have been no epic, friendship-ending dance battles, (That is a lie. There are always dance battles. They just aren't friendship-ending) and no, neither one of us is dead. We have just been brutally torn apart for this project. In fact, our teams have to consist of people we have never worked with before. I'm actually okay with this, despite my drama. It gives me a chance to get outside my comfort zone (even though Makena and Kyler are very within my comfort zone.) and hear other people's opinions and ideas. Also, I think I am more productive with this team, because I feel less comfortable with them. I think because we aren't used to working together, that we feel like we need to impress the others with our work ethic. That's how I feel at least. The biggest challenge so far has been working with the puppet warp tool in Photoshop. It is extremely difficult to use, sometimes gluing limbs together, or skewing bodies and faces... sorry Kyler. It also is very time consuming, (gasp) as every time (gasp) you move someone, even a little, you have to create a new layer. Every. Single. Time. (gasp) It's a very frustrating tool to use, and it had me pulling my hair out as we got close to deadline number two. 

Well, that's all for this project internet! I hope you enjoyed reading about the trials and tribulations one faces when animating, (and the relief you feel when the project is over) and that everybody reading this (all three people) has a really great day. Check out the link list below for Makena and Kyler's blogs, and for my old posts. (Excuse the grammar)

Link List... shhhhhh

• Kyler
• Makena
• 6th Grade animation (Pretty Good, if I say so myself)
• 7th Grade animation (This one was so stressful!)
  

Character Development

Hello internet, and welcome back! Spring break is over, and it is time for the fourth and final quarter of the year. Back to life, back to reality. Anyway, we are jumping right into the new quarter with our next project, animation, which although not my favorite, will hopefully end up going a little smoother than last year.  Now, without further ado, I present to you... Character Development.

To start off, I'm going to ramble on about myself and my humorous/ relatable imperfections. I like to think I am a generally nice human. Empathy is one of my strong points, and I tend to put others before myself. Failure is one of my greatest fears. I sometimes feel as though I must be perfect in order to be successful, whether that means perfect swim meets or a 4.0 G.P.A. One thing I'm working on is to stop putting so much pressure on myself. I also tend to be very awkward around other people, especially my peers. It's hard for me to talk to people who I'm not really close to, which is probably why I'm very quiet and introverted. Also probably why I talk to myself. Maybe I'm just a better conversationalist than everyone else. (OR MAYBE I'M JUST REALLY WEIRD) I'm also what you would call an overly intense person. It's either no pie, or the entire pie. No Netflix, or binge watching Friends for hours on end. You get the picture.

Throughout this project we will be animating ourselves and exaggerating our character traits. I think I will probably exaggerate my introverted tendencies. My team's animation is going to be a comparison of a blunt, extroverted person-Kyler Arruda Sukehira- to the quiet, introverted personalities of my teammate Makena and I. Kyler is a sassy, sassy person, and we are going to emphasize that, because it makes such a great contrast to Makena and I. A big part of animation is the audio, so we will definitely rely on it to tell our story. We will also use many of Kyler's patented gestures- the mouth cover, the hand on the hip, the hair adjustment. With me and Makena, we will probably stick to interactions between characters. I know that I have several facial expressions and gestures that make me who I am, like my patented arm flail when things get awkward. Another good one is the face cover, in which I panic, cover my face with my hands, and run as fast as I can away from difficult social situations. These will probably help us depict my personality in our video. ;)

So, if I'm being completely honest, animation is not my favorite. I don't know why, we just don't get along. I'm just not very good at animation. That being said, I did manage to complete a working, acceptable GIF, even though I missed the first week back and only had two days to work on it. To create our GIFs, we took pictures of ourselves in front of the green screen, cut them out, and took them into Photoshop. Once we were in Photoshop, we used the puppet warp tool to animate ourselves. Mine comes onto the screen, moves its arms, and exits. As I was short on time, I stuck to the basics, and turned in a GIF that is solidly okay. *Shrugs* I tried.

We've come to the end of yet another post. Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed. Sorry to cut this short, but this post is already late, and I just need to get in posted. Bye!

.MOV Film Festival

Hello Internet! As we approach the end of third quarter, with only a couple weeks left, we have moved on from photography and are switching back to videography! The project that we are starting on now is for the .MOV film festival, a film festival held by a private school here on Kauai. We had the choice to do a sitcom, movie trailer, or animation, and my team will be doing a movie trailer. If you want to find out a little bit more about the festival, particularly if you live on Kauai and want to participate, check out the link list. The title of our movie trailer is Hero Defeats Tyrant, and you can read about it below, and I'll see you at the bottom.

My team's video is about a hero named Veronica who fights a color stealing tyrant. As I am writing this, (I know the continuity of these posts are non existent, as I write them over the course of two weeks) we are still in the preproduction phase, planning out the logistics of our video. The who, what, where, when, why, and how if you will. Our storyboard format for this class consists of the four Ps of story making, (People, Places, Plot, and Purpose) the script of our video, complete with shot type descriptions, and the focus of this paragraph, keywords. The keywords for this piece are unfair, dystopia, color, bravery, and tyranny. Our keywords connect with the audience because I think they embody the purpose of our story, which is to show how one person's utopia might be another's dystopia. I believe the concept of a utopian world, where everything is perfect, is unrealistic, because everyone has a different perception of how their perfect world would be. Whether a society is a utopia to a dystopia really depends on the perspectives of individuals, which is why I think it has been an upcoming trend in the YA fiction genre. Books like the Hunger Games, Divergent, and the Selection are so appealing because we get to see how characters react to their worlds, and how they fight the dystopia. (It also probably helps to have amazing heroines like Katniss and America...)

Our movie trailer focuses on the changes our heroine must go through in order to help restore color to her world. She goes from a street urchin living in an dark, dirty alleyway, to a warrior working to save her world. The purpose of our story is to demonstrate the relation between a dystopia and a utopia, and how that affects the people who live in that world. My definition of a dystopia is someone's utopia gone wrong. Someone wanted to fix the world, but ended up with a place that is wrong, dangerous, and frightening. The first place that comes to mind when I think of the connection between dystopia and utopia is the Community from the Giver. It started out seeming like a perfect world, but ended up being a terrifying, emotionless place, where people are executed for being different, and no one blinks an eye. Our story is kind of like that, where people must fight for their rights, and for their worlds.

My team consisted of Kasiah (Of Course), and another good friend of mine, Preston. Both of their blogs will be linked below, so check them out. This was a relatively short project, lasting only two weeks. That was slightly stressful, as planning, producing, and editing a video in that time frame is rather difficult, but our final product came out very nice, and we were one of the only teams to turn it in on time. That was definitely one of the most difficult parts of this project though. It was borderline being to short, at exactly 90 seconds, the minimum time frame, but the visuals are really nice, the audio is clear, and I think it gets our point across well. For about the first week of this project, Kasiah was actually off island, and Preston didn't have access to the plan from home, so I shouldered a lot of the preproduction work, like planning and scripting. I was worried, as we had only one available day to film. Kasiah got back on a Thursday, the one day of the week when we don't have Gt, and we

couldn't on Friday, or Saturday, and Monday was the filming deadline. Luckily, Sunday was a perfect day, and we filmed from 10:30 to 2:00. The editing process went smoothly, with only a few bumps in the road.

This was a relatively long post, so I hope you all made it through alive. I love producing movie trailers, it's one of my favorite projects, even though the time frame for this project was a little short. It was great to get the gang back together, as I haven't worked with Preston since 6th grade. I'll link to the projects the three of of us did in 6th grade. I hope you all enjoy our trailer, because I think it's pretty fit. Anyway, enjoy, I love you all, etc, etc. BYE!

(PSSSSTSTSSTSTSTST- links)

Kasiah

Preston

Project Number 1

The Giver

Dystopia

Tiny Spherical Worlds

What's up inter web? Mid Quarter has passed, and to keep my mind off of the grades coming out in a week or so, I spent the lovely three day weekend alternating between writing my 15 page long research paper fro my science project and playing lots of the Sims 4. I actually really enjoyed writing the paper though, my subject is fascinating- transcription factors- and I listened to a lot of Panic! At The Disco. How do you get through projects? Do you have any particular method? I can't function unless I have a large cup of water, and copious amounts of coffee. Anyway, the next project here in GT is a sort of continuation of the great photography quarter. For the last couple of weeks, we have worked on photomontages, so if you want to see that post, check out the link list. Now we will be creating polar and spherical panoramas, another flashback to sixth grade year. (I'll have that post linked as well) Now, on with the post!

To start this post off, lets talk about composite images. A panorama is a composite image that shows a whole landscape, and captures more than what just one picture could. A composite image is an image that is made of several different sources. For spherical panoramas, the pictures you take all have to overlap so Photoshop can recognize where they connect, and match them together into a panorama. From there, you can use Photoshop tools to put them together into a sphere. If you only had one picture, it wouldn't work the same. You can't capture a whole landscape in one photo the way you can with a panorama made of multiple shots.

For our final project, we will be creating two polar panoramas, and two spherical panoramas. Spherical and polar panoramas are basically opposites. When you create a polar panorama, the final images looks like a tiny world of your own. I prefer polar panoramas over spherical panoramas. When you make a spherical panorama, it comes out more like a crystal ball. The only change you have to make in Photoshop to get one instead of the other is flip the photo right before applying the polar coordinates filter. A flipped photo will get you a polar panorama in the end, while a right side up photo will get you a spherical.

All of my panoramas were taken at Kalapaki bay, which is a beach here on Kauai. The majority of people who read this already know that I guess, but that's not the point. What will make my panoramas convincing is the way I use the stamp tool. If the line where the ends of the panorama meet is blurred out realistically, then my finished product will be more convincing. Also, rotating the image so the line is on the side rather than on the top will make it more discreet. Another step would be to use the paint tool on a low opacity to help the image blend together perfectly. For the portraits, where we will Photoshop a portrait of us in so it looks like we're standing on the world, getting the shadow right is the most important part.

So that wraps up todays post, if you want to learn some more about polar panoramas, or see some great examples, check out the link list below. Also, if you want to dig into the depths of my past, I'll link to my 6th grade post. (Don't ask me to look at it, I refuse to retreat into a state of cringe attacks for the next year and a half) Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, thanks for reading, etc. etc.

(Extra Bit)
Sorry if this post sounds a wee bit tired, I'm an emotionally drained sponge right now after the science fair. I love you all, thank you for reading!

(Psssssssst- LINKS)
Beginners tuTorial ;)
Advanced tuTorial ;)
Image Search
Old Blog Post 1
Old Blog Post 2

Hockney Style Joiners

How are David Hockney’s photomontages different from yours
B: Explain how images can send positive or negative messages
C: Describe the message you intend your audience to see (final)
Upload Images: School & Final Photomontage

Hello internet! After a wonderful three day weekend spent avoiding writing an essay until absolutely necessary and playing a ridiculous amount of Sims, I am back at school, enjoying the week or so of relief from report cards coming out. (4.0- Thank you very much) That leaves me just about two or three weeks until the stress of mid quarter progress reports. (The stress cycle continues) Yay school. Anyway, if you are a third year G.T student, and have been forced to read this since the beginning, (Sorry) then you probably have seen my old post about photomontages. Not to mention the fact that you probably did that project. Also if you are a G.T student, you know that we are doing photomontages again. If you are not a G.T student, and have no clue what I am talking about, then I will try to explain as best I can later in this post, and I'll probably link to someone who can explain it better than I can. I'll also link to that first post about photomontages, so we can all enjoy the lackluster and humorless writing (ramblings) of young fetus Maddie. Enjoy!

To start off, lets give a quick explanation of photomontages. A photomontage is basically a picture created through the assembling of several overlapping images. If you've heard of David Hockney, a British artist, then you might have seen some of his work. He was actually the creator of photomontages, first called joiners. I'll link below to some of his work. There are a few differences between his work and the photomontages we are doing here at KMS. For one, because of the limitations of technology at the time, his art is done by hand, carefully placing every photo. Our photomontages are put together in Photoshop, all editing and assembling done digitally. We've done two photomontages, not counting the little practice one. One was a portrait done here at school, (Can you guess who?) and the other of a meaningful subject at home. Of course the only reasonable subject was my cat. Meow.

Now that you have a basic understanding of our project and the whole concept of photomontages, let's move on to images and symbolism.

Images are powerful things, and can send messages without words. Whether that message is positive or negative depends on the artist or creator. When you view an image that strongly portrays an emotion or a message, you feel it. Certain things cause different reactions for different people, but a great piece of art makes you feel something. That's what I believe the meaning of art is- something that makes you feel something, whether it be music, pictures, paintings, etc. Everyone is different, so everyone might have a different reaction to things. Artists often have deeper meanings to their work- that's what makes them great artists.

For my final piece, I am using my cat as a subject. When I am finished, I want my piece to portray some of the feelings I get from being around animals, specifically my own. I feel safest and happiest when I'm in my house, and it wouldn't be the same without my cats there. It's the best feeling when you're lying in bed and a cat jumps up and sits on your feet. Unless if you were allergic to cats. Then it probably wouldn't be the best feeling. In all seriousness though, the goal of my final piece is to showcase the feelings of quiet happiness, of calm, of the quiet life cats lead, outside the rat race of humanity. Or it will look like an orange cat exploded on a black background. Depends on the eye of the viewer I suppose. We'll see.

So, to wrap things up, thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed. Check out the links below, to a site that explains photomontages a lot better than I do, a lovely post that will likely bring on a serious cringe attack, and some examples of David Hockney's work. Seriously though, I just reread my old photomontage post. There are actual shudders running down my spine. I will never be the same. Anyways, sorry the actual content part of this post is a little shorter than it usually is, turned out to be a really long week, and I find it slightly harder to over achieve when I'm exhausted and stressed. Who would've known? Any who, check out the links below, thanks for reading, etc, and have a wonderful day!

(PSSST- links)

• What even is a photomontage?
• Fetus Maddie. (I actually really like my old Photomontage. Huh. The writing, not so much.)
• The lovely David Hockney

2016 Aspirations!

Hello everyone! I hope those of you who're back from break had a great one, and those of you still on break... lucky ducks. The first week was fairly busy, as Christmas rarely allows time to breath. However, as soon as Christmas was over, I assumed the browsing position, and didn't move for the next ten days. (I actually was genuinely sick for awhile, so it wasn't complete laziness) Anyways, now I'm back at school, writing blogs and essays, and trying desperately to prepare myself for high school. Shmeh. Well, before I fall to far into a school induced panic, lets get on with the blog post. (There will be time for an existential crisis later.)

If you read the title of this post, or if you are in Mr. Sanderl's class and are reading this because you have no choice, you probably know that this post is about my 2016 aspirations. I'm required to have five different goals for this paragraph, so lets see what we can come up with.  First, I think I would like to work on my crushing social anxiety, which is a real limitation on my life. I mean, I am a functional human being. (Sort of) Its just that sometimes I forget how to interact with other humans, which is inconvenient for someone like me, a person with a sense of humor and opinions. Most likely why I feel so comfortable on the internet as opposed to IRL. My second 2016 resolution would have to be to write and draw more. I really love to write stories and make art, but I haven't been doing those things very often, so I think this year I'm going to try to finally finish the sketchbook I've had forever, and to maybe try and fill up my endless piles of composition notebooks. (I hoard journals) The third great goal of 2016 will be to try and not overthink things to much. I tend to be slightly obsessive. My fourth goal would have to be to control my anxiety better. To often I find myself stressing out over things that I can't change, or things that haven't happened yet. Working on this will help me take advantage of my life, and live every moment to its fullest, because YOLO. (I'm using it ironically, please don't kill me) Finally, and this one is probably going to sound a little silly, at least compared to all of the giant phycological and life changes I say I'm going to try and make, but I really want to stop biting my fingernails. It's a problem. A few years ago (le, when I started middle school) I began to chew my nails as a way of dealing with stress, which is a very ineffective way of handling things obviously. Since then my habit has spiraled into a mess of broken, chewed fingernails and shame. But thats all going to change this year. So, that about wraps up my hefty list of 2016 aspirations. If you are so inclined, leave a comment below with your "resolutions." (I should also work on better transitions, because I seem to use So, and Anyways a lot.)

The goal that is most important to me would probably have to be goal number one, because I really feel like when I start high school next year, I can start clean, with a fresh slate, which I'm excited about. (I mean socially, not academically- Losing my academic street cred is going to be a little hard to take.) Now, I don't mean ditching my old friends and study habits. I just mean make new friends, expand my social horizons if you will. The only problem with that is it involves actually talking to other human beings, which is something I currently struggle with. I plan to take it slow- for example, think over my words before I say them, so I don't blurt out Happy Birthday in a panic. (I've actually said that in response to welcome back. To my Math teacher. Oops) Maybe someday I'll work up to conversations with strangers, reading things in class without panic attacks and tears, etc. But until then, I've got my lovely group of friends to support me, with whom I have many fascinating conversations.

In order to ensure succeeding in my lengthy list of aspirations for this sparkling new year, I plan on first of all pace myself, and not try to make huge changes overnight. If I try to just snap my fingers and automatically become a socially functional human being that writes and draws, doesn't overthink things, is totally chill, and doesn't bite her fingernails, then I'll probably crash and burn within a good 5 hours. But if I start out slow, like saying hi to the new girl I keep seeing around the pod, or keeping a journal around me, or tapping my fingers overtime I want to gnaw on them, (which will probably become a habit in itself) then eventually, I think I can evolve. I can also try writing down things that are stressing me out, to avoid overthinking situations I don't have to. (See what I did there... Two for one) Overall, I'm just going to do my best to stick to these changes, because I know making them will  be worth it in the end.

So, that's all for today, if you want to read some more about why New Year's Resolutions tend to fail, or how to increase your chances of succeeding, check out the links below. If you want to read about some other fascinating NewYear's Resolutions, or more information/other perspectives on the projects happening here, check out the sidebar links. You will find a large collection of student blogs like mine, so go read! By the way, the pictures are photo assignments, where we are giving a random object and need to photograph it. Just thought I would explain since there's no mention of them anywhere else in the post. Okay, bye!

Pssst- Links!

• Why New Year's Resolutions Fail
• How to Stick to Your Resolution

(One last final tidbit- If you are into Youtube vloggers, check out Danisnotonfire's New Year's Resolution videos. They're really good, he's really funny, and they tie into what I'm saying, but this is a school blog, so I don't really want to link to Youtube. See you later!)