In mid-April, I did a blog post about 3D Studio Max. In that post, I explained why I liked the programmed how excited I was to be continuing working in it. My feelings really haven't changed drastically since. As I've learned new things, I've only become more entranced in the magic of working in 3DS Max. At first, I could only move around simple primitive shapes like spheres and boxes, but then I learned how to manipulate individual vertexes and sides of shapes to make things like tanks and spaceships. I've worked with modifiers to create futuristic worlds and a meadow with flowers, mushrooms, and rocks. More recently I've discovered how to work with splines, 2-D shapes that can be turned into complex 3-D ones to make things like a table with a lamp, vase, and a cup that you can see below. Then I learned about mapping techniques and texturing models. I used that knowledge to make things like broken eggs, rusty barrels, and a fairly realistic space scene. I can make practically everything now, and I'm hungry to consume more knowledge next year when I continue Digital Design and Animation. As I said in a previous blog post, there are some issues in 3DS Max. Most of them, though, have disappeared and/or gotten less noticeable. I've gained more control over bugs and mistakes, and the program takes less time to start up than a month ago, when I started working in it. In conclusion, I am still enjoying working in 3DS Max.
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Yes, I'm Christian. Yes, I attend church every week. Yes, I support the LGBTQ+ community. For a lot of Christians, these statements are mutually exclusive. I believe that Jesus and God calls on all of us to love and embrace our neighbors no matter what they are or believe. Last week was Holy Week for Christians, featuring Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. Maundy Thursday revolves around Jesus giving his disciples a last supper and foretelling them of his death the next day. The bible scripture surrounding this important event includes chapter 13 of the book of John. Verses 34-35 read as follows: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” To me this obviously means to love everyone. LGBTQ+ people are just like the rest of us and God calls all Christians to love them. Just because I don't know what it feels like to be gay doesn't mean I should disrespect gay people. Some people rely on a bible verse to defend their homophobia. The 26th verse in the first chapter of the book of Romans. It reads: "Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones." This verse is about to Gentiles worshipping gods other than the one God worshipped and believed in by Jews, Christians, and Muslims. The sexual relations mentioned are purely a sexual ritual, not related to loving and caring relationships. If you're a Christian wondering if being gay is unclean and sinful, ask yourself this. When Jesus calls you to love everyone, does he call you to love only certain people?
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“BibleGateway.” BibleGateway.com: A Searchable Online Bible in over 150 Versions and 50 Languages., www.biblegateway.com/ Human Rights Campaign. “What Does the Bible Say About Homosexuality?” Human Rights Campaign, www.hrc.org/resources/what-does-the-bible-say-about-homosexuality As a student, I can easily say that America's public schools are in a poor state. As funding drains, especially in states like North Carolina, they get worse. The main purpose of school is learning what 'they' want you to learn. Schools reward memorization of certain virtually useless material and suppressing creativity. Grades are the only thing that matters in most public schools. Bad grades means it's almost impossible to succeed in life. Tests are solely based on remembering content you're going to forget in a week or two. You have to get the right answer, not a different answer, starving your creativity. Also, most schools have Christian ties. Although I am Christian, separation of church and state is an essential American value. The pledge of allegiance, for example, which I had to recite in elementary school, mentions that we are 'one nation under God.' The Bill of Rights emphasizes religious freedom and that nobody has to believe in any gods. Forcing a habit mentioning religion onto kids's shoulders doesn't feel like religious freedom to me. It's going to be hard to change these, though. I could write a book about saying 'So help me God' when you are sweared into a political office, or the whole idea of having Christian army chaplains in the first place. It's definitely going to be a difficult journey away from religious captivity into religious freedom in the United States, but I think we can make it if we focus on the common good of my generation and the next. Perhaps this has potential to be a free country after all.
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3-D Studio Max is definitely one of my favorite programs I have worked with all year in class. The workspace consists of four viewports in the center of the screen surrounded by toolbars and a simple shape creation menu containing things like boxes and spheres. You can make virtually anything in the program by manipulating basic shapes. One thing I really like is the freedom I have available to use: I can do anything I want in 3DS Max, from making a simple snowman to a complex spaceship (see above image). Also, it's not too hard to get used to. After a week or so of practice, you're already well prepared and comfortable for what's to come. I'm already rolling along in class. However, 3DS Max isn't all sunshine. It takes a nauseatingly long time to start up and, when it does, often doesn't respond for a few minutes. I've experienced exotic mishaps in the application, forcing me to comply into redoing a project. At times, 3DS Max can be confusing and aggravating, especially when you're knee deep in something absolutely grand and you have to start over completely. Usually working in it is tedious and sometimes time consuming. Although I wish 3DS Max was better, it's also not a bad program. It's genuinely fun to mess around making cool stuff. Perhaps this program really is something special. In conclusion, I'm starting to get excited about the rest of the year and can't wait to work more in 3-D Studio Max. Summary
My group worked very hard on our video editing project this week. Max directed and videotaped the scenes, while Quinn made graphics for our facts. Without either of them, our project would be a disaster, but I also contributed a lot. Our progress was slow at first, though: we couldn’t decide on a good topic. We were going to do a project on arming teachers, but my teammates had conflicting viewpoints. After brainstorming for a while, I suggested we could do a project on vaping because we all have friends who do it. It’s an epidemic in American schools and we felt like an anti-vape PSA was a great idea for this assignment. I wrote the script almost single handedly, with Quinn and Max adding minute editing tips. During videotaping, Quinn and I followed Max’s directions and last-minute changes to the script to pave the path to success. While Max was editing videos, I offered suggestions to him while he thought of ingenious ways to shorten our project into the required length. Prior to Quinn making our group’s graphics, I did the research to find the devastating facts behind vaping. We made sure the full video was cohesive and made sense before Max submitted it for grading, and we reviewed each other’s respective blog posts. We were all leaders in this assignment; when someone was struggling the others helped him out. In conclusion, I am grateful I had hardworking, committed group members, Max and Quinn, as well as my work ethic for this project.
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Watch our video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXH6hl2rNW4&feature=youtu.be Recently, a scam surfaced about parents paying grotesque amounts of money to get their children into college. The CEO of a college admissions prep company, William Rick Singer, sold two ways for rich kids to be fraudulently admitted into college. One was hiring professionals to take the ACT and/or SAT pretending to be students. Many test administrators were bribed by Singer of the scandal to let in people who were not students. Since the ACT and SAT tests are so crucial for college, good standardized test takers could give children a free ride to university. This could've been prevented by lessening the importance of the tests for success. The other way students were illicitly being accepted into colleges was via sports coaches. Some coaches, including ones from University of Southern California and Wake Forest University, were bribed into pretending that children were athletes. Parents sent pictures of their kids participating in activities to coaches, who showed them to admission officers. Gifted athletes are much more likely to be accepted into colleges, so Singer exploited this method. To prevent this, colleges should've paid less attention to athletes and dig deeper. This scandal has, however, only shown little of the corrupt American university system. Insane tuition rates, dependence on test scores, and pure athletic admissions have taken a toll on the future of low income, low ACT/SAT scoring, not athletic students. Imagine how many more people would be living the American Dream if colleges focused less on easily misused and unfair ways to be accepted. Hopefully this scandal will bring to life the inequalities of college and how well-off wealthy people are.
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Bibliography Yan, Holly. “What We Know so Far in the College Admissions Cheating Scandal.” CNN, Cable News Network, 15 Mar. 2019, www.cnn.com/2019/03/13/us/what-we-know-college-admissions-cheating-scandal/index.html Adobe has made lots of different programs for digital artwork, film, and more. Adobe Premiere, Adobe After Effects and Adobe Animate are the programs for film editing, animation, and motion graphics I've worked with so far. After Effects is the most straight forward program to create MP4 animations, while working in Animate is easiest to make animated gifs. Premiere can make animations, but it's a lot easier to use it to edit and compile videos. However, I don't have very much experience in Adobe Premiere. I do have a fair amount of experience in both After Effects and Animate. They have more tools than Premiere, and therefore a wider range of things you can do in the program. Animate is different than its motion-based brethren in that its working space is similar to Adobe Illustrator. It consists of an artboard with options to draw objects and add pictures. Premiere and After Effects have a layers panel, a space to work out timing, a list of files in the program, a toolbar, and a space for the current product to be displayed. I prefer Animate's model because I'm much more comfortable with a working area like Adobe Illustrator. On the other hand, I'm probably going to shift perspectives with the experience I will gain the remainder of this year in video editing using Premiere. The lack of being able to make many transformations and a small toolbar makes me frown, but I don't hate Adobe for everything. Adobe was brilliant in the idea to have similar working areas across programs, making it much easier and more enjoyable to switch between programs while still getting the same content.
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Fortnite isn't your average game. It's undoubtedly the most popular video game on the planet right now, and it has been for probably more than a year. Every day, more and more people play the game. The game is designed to pull you in, with rotating challenges to unlock exclusive cosmetics, adding new guns, and changing the map every few months. Some people are unhappy with Fortnite because they believe it has changed too much. Lots of players who have been playing since the beginning see changes in the in-game map, available weapons, and more as negative and view the early game as the best version of it. They remember the game as one thing and know that with each update it becomes more distant from their dream Fortnite. Nevertheless, many of them keep playing it. I'll admit that early Fortnite is better than the current state of the game, but I keep playing it too. When somebody kills you while you are in the middle of doing a challenge, it's infuriating, but I keep playing. Many people get extremely mad after being killed by a poor player, yet they keep playing. Also, people get angry over Fortnite because their game lags and freezes, leaving them to be killed, yet they keep playing. Millions of other people still play it even though they've been mad. Most players, including me, will come back for more. Every successful video game has been addictive. How do you make a popular game without it being so addictive? You can't. Fortnite will never lose every player because it steals your interest, your time, and your life.
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Animation is a super popular form of film, game, and art. It's ubiquitous in the modern world because lots of people love it. I also really like animation. Most animations use exaggeration to make them seem more relaxed and less realistic. Sometimes, however, especially in newer video games, graphics are animated but are extremely life like. However, many of these games are meant to look exactly like real life. In Madden 19, a well known football video game released in 2018, football players and coaches look almost as if they were actors in a movie instead of animated characters in a game. Nevertheless, your average animated short film or clip would look ridiculous. Imagine a hyperrealistic Simpsons episode. Imagine how creepy that would be! I strongly dislike anime, but it's not the only kind of animation. There are many different types and genres of including everything from documentaries to comedy shows on television. Animation also lets young children learn and stay interested in a movie, educational video for school, or something completely different. Animation is fun, for kids and adults alike. Also, it allows the audience, however old, to enjoy a film or game without taking it to seriously. Many animated movies like Toy Story and Finding Nemo carry a deep underlying message that is masked with a lighthearted tone so younger audiences can enjoy it. Without animation, today's film industry would be incredibly less successful and society would miss out on all the great animated films of the past eighty years. Entire childhoods would be torn apart and countless hours spent watching cartoons and playing video games would be spent watching reality television shows and playing board games. I am so glad that animation exists and I believe that I couldn't live my life without it.
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Video games use a plethora of different techniques to make them addictive and constantly interesting. One part of game design, however, is for when nobody is not actively playing the game. Idle animations are the animations that play while the user is not actually doing anything in game. These are made and put into the game to enhance the interest of players and add atmosphere to the game environment and the characters. There are many unique idle animations, such as characters taking a nap or eating breakfast with no user interaction at all. To professional game developers, idle animations mean extra effort was put in the game to make it real and something meaningful to remember. Countless numbers of games include idle animations, including the super popular game Fortnite. Recently, Fortnite added an idle animation of your character inspecting his or her gun if you stayed still long enough. It was a clever addition to the game, but it's far from the best idle animation. My favorite is probably one from Rayman 2: The Great Escape. In the animation, the main character, Rayman, stands still for a second and then rips his torso out of his body to dribble it like a basketball. After a few seconds of dribbling, he puts it back where it belongs, inside his chest. I like it so much because it's not too complicated and fancy. I think that an idle animation with too much stuff going on would be really distracting and not be fulfilling its purpose. On the other hand, some level of absurdity is needed to keep it interesting. It wouldn't be much fun without going beyond some boundaries. In conclusion, idle animations keep games interesting and add a special touch to the game. I adore them and hope they live on to the future of gaming.
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Couture, Joel. “What Makes a Great Idle Animation? Devs Share Their Favorites.” Gamasutra: The Art & Business of Making Games, gamasutra.com/view/news/318163/What_makes_a_great_idle_animation_Devs_share_their_favorites.php https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/1025f63355780ce26ff925e9ab4a31f3-650-80.gif Animation is a staple of today's society, but once it was a small factor in the world. It started out very simple with a couple of inventions to mimic motion. Zoetropes are made of pictures spinning inside a drum with a series of slits to look through and see what looked like a brief movie, serving as a basic version of animation. Kineographs, or flip books, are books with a slightly different picture on each page, and when flipped create a sense of motion. As amazing as these two techniques are, however, they are primitive compared to modern society. Gertie the Dinosaur, made in 1914, was arguably the first frame by frame animation ever, incorporating a unique character and a simple plot. It was revolutionary at the time, just like 1928's Steamboat Willie. Steamboat Willie had a plot, characters, and was a frame by frame animation, but it had synchronized sound. If someone fell, a crash would be heard. If someone whistled, whistling would be heard. These films electrified audiences, but animation was still taking its first baby steps. In 1995, Toy Story was released. It was the first full length computer animated film, making way for today's plethora of animation and changing the world forever. Toy Story also gave way to big actors being voices of animated characters and old the world that animated films didn't have to be musicals. Without these films and inventions, we wouldn't recognize the world. In conclusion, animation has come a long way to become what we know today.
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Messer, Lesley. “'Toy Story' Turns 20: How It Changed Animated Films Forever.” ABC News, ABC News Network, 22 Nov. 2015, abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/toy-story-turns-20-changed-animated-films-forever/story?id=35281890 Animation, Film | January 19th. “The Disney Cartoon That Introduced Mickey Mouse & Animation with Sound (1928).” Open Culture, www.openculture.com/2012/01/steamboat_willie_disney_introduces_mickey_mouse.html “Gertie The Dinosaur - Film (Movie) Plot and Review.” Film Reference, www.filmreference.com/Films-Fr-Go/Gertie-the-Dinosaur.html There are four main types of animation, but I prefer 2D Animation.Traditional or Cel Animation is the oldest and simplest type of animation, using clear plastic cels and hand drawn images. Stop Motion involves capturing a picture, moving something slightly and taking another picture. CGI and 3D models of characters are a part of 3D Computer Animation. However, I am most interested in 2D Computer Animation. It is made by creating lots of objects only a little bit apart in Adobe Illustrator, saving lots of pictures with only one object visible and putting the images into Adobe After Effects. Changing the timing and positioning of the pictures in the animation is necessary as well. This type of animation can be extremely tedious, but it is not as tiresome as Traditional and Stop Motion Animation. 3D Animation is cool because it's more realistic, but it comes at the cost of taking the time to pose characters and models. 2D Animation's unrealistic feel can give off a nice vibe, and the production of objects is fairly straightforward. I would not have very much experience in 3D Animation, while I would in 2D Animation because most of the work is in Adobe Illustrator. I have spent the last couple of months in class working with the pen tool, the mesh tool, the direct selection tool, and other tools in Illustrator to ensure my success. Time management and not spending too much time in class messing around will also help me do well in animation. I need to apply my creativity well and focus. In conclusion, I have enjoyed the little I've done in 2D Computer Animation.
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New York Film Academy. “5 Types Of Animation: Finding Inspiration In All Styles.” Student Resources, Alumni | New York Film Academy, 4 Apr. 2018, www.nyfa.edu/student-resources/5-types-of-animation-finding-inspiration-in-all-styles/ Digital badges made in Adobe Illustrator showing levels of progression in two Adobe Photoshop tools During the past few weeks, I have transitioned from Adobe Photoshop into Adobe Illustrator, and I have already written one blog post about which program I prefer. Now that I have more experience with Illustrator, I can plunge further into its pros and cons. As I mentioned in the previous blog post, it is extremely difficult to make something photorealistic with Illustrator. At first, I disliked this, but now I've realized it can be good in its own way. You can make a cartoonish, light, but still great piece of artwork. Logos, cartoons, fonts, fashion design, and video game design include some of Illustrator's uses in the real world. A lot of games that don't have realistic graphics use Illustrator to make the visuals of the game instead of Photoshop. There are many different tools, and some of them are, of course, better than others. The pen tool takes a while to get used to, but it can make a plethora of shapes. It is extraordinarily useful in making things in Illustrator. The mesh tool is also practical, as it easily adds a gradient effect to a shape that can be controlled by the user almost effortlessly. However, I'm not at all fond of the direct selection tool. I get it confused with the normal selection tool, and I'm not sure if it has anything drastically better than its twin tool. I think that the people who work for Adobe should consider changing this tool to make it more applicable and different from the selection tool. I would certainly benefit from it, and I assume other people would as well.
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For most of the first quarter of school and part of the second quarter, I exclusively worked in Adobe Photoshop for school projects. Now, I have begun to use Adobe Illustrator for a couple of projects. They are two similar programs, but they each have their own unique features. In Illustrator, you can't edit online pictures, which is a drawback in my opinion. However, you can easily make shapes and cartoonish artwork, which is fun. In Photoshop, you can't easily make those, but you can edit pictures. Illustrator is more widely used for artwork and logos, while Photoshop is used for photo editing. I can't define one as the superior because they do different things. I prefer working in Photoshop because it seems more magical and realistic. You just can't place your head on the body of Thanos in Adobe Illustrator. Also, Illustrator is a vector program, meaning that there are no pixels, so the program doesn't support JPEG format. If you export it as a JPEG, then the image changes from vector to bitmap, and it can lose some of its original effect. Photoshop naturally converts to JPEG, so no effect is lost in the conversion. Overall, there are some cool things that you can do in Adobe Illustrator, but they don't compare to the fun I have in Adobe Photoshop. There are obviously pros and cons to both programs, so don't go thinking any application is perfect. Nevertheless, I would still almost always choose Photoshop over Illustrator because you can do most of the same things and more things in Photoshop.
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Adobe Photoshop is a magical program that can do everything from distorting images to adding unrealistic elements to a photograph. There are many tools and techniques that can be used to create things in photoshop, but I prefer one in particular. Some tools are the clone stamp, the spot healing brush, the text tool, and the eraser tool. An extremely useful tool is the magic wand tool. It is great for removing backgrounds, transferring images, and much more. However, it is not the most helpful tool. Techniques include a variety of things, including strategies to consider and other tools. The liquify technique is very fun to mess around with, but it is also not my go-to choice for usefulness. In my opinion, the best tool is the brush tool. Although simple, it is magnificently useful and helpful. It can be harder to do certain things with the brush tool than other tools, but you can still do them well. Therefore, if many other tools didn't exist, the brush could potentially take their place instead of having a new tool. The brush tool can paint backgrounds white, color sections a certain way, and even create a whole new vibe of the image. As I mentioned above, the liquify technique is fun to use, although it is not always useful. I would place it as my favorite tool or technique to use because it can distort images so easily and give anyone a good laugh. The brush tool and the liquify technique are definitely great things to use in Adobe Photoshop. They can change an image drastically and help contribute to your final goal.
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AuthorHI! I'm a 12th grader and on this page, I will blog about me and what I'm going through, both in Game Design class and in life. There are a mix of required blog posts and personal reflections, which you can sort, among other things, below the disclaimer and archives. DISCLAIMER
The views and opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not represent those of Durham School of the Arts or Durham Public Schools. Archives
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