Reflection Blog

Hello everyone! I cannot believe that this semester is over. It went by so fast and has been an amazing journey. Now before I saw goodbye, I will answer all the questions related to these past few months.

What was your favorite project(s) during the semester? Please explain why.

After some deliberation, I think my favorite project has to be my logo, though Illustrator was my least favorite program to use. I hated it. My logo was my favorite project because of all the technical work the went into creating it. The initial sketch, using the pen tool to make all the little pieces, and assembling it into the logo for my website, was very fun, even though it frustrated me. It was the one that made me really think and I had a lot of fun making it.

What skills did you learn in the course that you believe you will use in the future?

Because I am a writer and I make graphics, I think I learned the most from Photoshop that I will use in the future, more specifically, the wand tool. It makes everything easier when I’m trying to separate images from each other. And also the magnetic lasso tool. It is very useful when I want to combine a array of pieces from other photos into one.

What coursework or career path do you see in your future? What skills or projects from this class may be influential in your chosen career path?

I want to be a novelist and an acquisitions editor at a publishing house. Skills I’ve learned in this class that could be helpful is all of them. Because my topic was centered around my book, I’ve already used all the skills in this class to help me on my writing journey and it will make it a lot easier to incorporate now that I have the skills. For example, Photoshop helped me with being able to create better book covers, Illustrator helped me with the creation of a logo for my website, Audition helped me mimic what a potential writing podcast would look like, and Premiere helped me with piecing clips together that I could use to make book trailers. All of these programs have helped me with my future career and I’m very thankful for that.

Is there any skill that you wished you would have learned in this course that you did not learn? If yes, what skill is that?

Only one. With Photoshop, it was hard to navigate the layers in terms of the hue/saturation feature and being able to only affect certain layers without disturbing the others. I wish we had learned how to effective use the layers.

Did you find any websites or resources from outside the class material that were especially useful?

No. All the resources from class, especially Unsplash, were very helpful with the creation of my projects.

If you have any other thoughts, comments, suggestions, etc., please feel free to add them to your post.

I want to give a huge shout out to my TA, Leticia. She is a wonderful, understanding person, with amazing taste in anime. She was very helpful and she was one of the greatest TAs I have ever had. I wish you all the happiness. 🙂

Well, that’s all I have. It has been an amazing semester and I really enjoyed this class. Thank you for the experience. Bye!

Final Photoshop Project

Final Illustrator Project

Final Audition Project

Final Premiere Project

Final Video Draft

Hello everyone! Wow, I cannot believe that this is the last project for this course. It was super challenging to complete but I think I made my final project into a great wrap up for this semester.

As some may know, my topic is about my topic is about my novel and I thought it would be fun to show my process of getting a novel started to sharing it with the world. My process is different from other writers, so I would advise, if anyone is looking to write a novel, to take the video with a grain of salt.

I originally wanted the format of the video to be trailer, but now it’s more of a documentary. I wanted to introduce myself to the public about my writing and I thought this would be the best way to do it. When I was coming up with the clips for the video, I tried to think about my actual process for writing a book and filmed little, short clips of my doing that.

A main problem I had with this video was the audio. Originally I had audio for this video, but two problems occurred: 1, I couldn’t hear the audio when I was editing and trying to make the audio louder didn’t help at all and 2, when I tired to listen to the audio on my phone, so I could match clips with the audio and include it hoping it could be heard, the audio was really muffled and it was hard to make out what I was saying. I was able to fix it for this final one and add music as well, which is great.

One thing I enjoyed about my video was the way it was shot. I included many clips of my writing stages and it was very fun and interesting to see who they would line up in the draft. I especially enjoyed the clip of me typing my story. It was fun to film because I had to set up my camera on a tower of books beside me to get the shot. But when it came to my feedback, I realized I still had work to do. Some things that came to me and my peer’s attention, was the lack of music and narration. As I mentioned above, I had audio for the video but it was both muffled and couldn’t be edited when I went to edit, which was a problem. Some things that was also brought to my attention by my peers was how some of my clips didn’t fit to frame (which is odd because I distinctly remember fixing those clips so they wouldn’t do that) and that the quality of the video was poor; it was blurry and it was hard to read the text. I’m glad it was brought to my attention because those weren’t areas I wasn’t planning of fixing but I did. However, in terms of fixing it to fit the frame, I’m not sure if it will work out this time as well, but fingers crossed. As for the blurriness, I tried my best to fix the quality and hopefully it is easier to read and watch.

When it came to the actual revisions, I didn’t change any of what was already edited because I liked the way it looked. However, as mentioned above, I did include audio narration to my video as well as some piano music I found on freesound.org.

This project was really fun to create and I am sad that it is my last one. I hope to take all that I’ve learned in this class and continue to use these programs in my everyday life.

Thank you for coming on this journey with me! Bye! 🙂

Music used: https://freesound.org/people/ShadyDave/sounds/325611/

Final Draft

Draft Video Story

Hello all! This project was super fun to do and I can’t wait to tell you all about the video that I created. 

As some may know, my topic is about my topic is about me novel and I thought it would be fun to show my process of getting a novel started to sharing it with the world. Now, just to shower you with some knowledge, though I am trying to get this book publishing through a publisher, a good way to have your book build traction and an audience, you would serialize it, which means putting out a chapter every so often for people to read, engage with, and give feedback. Now with that out of the way, I’ll explain my video.

The format of the video is a trailer. Basically, I wanted to introduce myself to the public about my writing and I thought trying to emulate a trailer, about myself, was the best way to go about it. When I was coming up with the clips for the video, I tried to think about my actual process for writing a book and filmed little, short clips of my doing that. 

I started with my bookshelf to jumpstart the exposition and moved my way through my steps of getting a novel ready for the public, which is shown by the ending clip of my book (as a draft right now) on a site called Wattpad, which is a website where aspiring authors, like me, can share their work. 

A problem I came across while editing, which I hope will be solved for the final project, is the audio. Originally I had audio for this video, but two problems occurred: 1, I couldn’t hear the audio when I was editing and trying to make the audio louder didn’t help at all and 2, when I tired to listen to the audio on my phone, so I could match clips with the audio and include it hoping it could be heard, the audio was really muffled and it was hard to make out what I was saying. That’ll be something to come back to for the final project. 

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my explanation and are excited about what my video talks about. Enjoy the video and I’ll see you in my next post. Bye!

“Life As A Writer” Draft Video

Raw Footage + Storyboard

Hey all! This is my raw footage and story board of me talking about my process when writing a book and having it all come together so I am able to share it with the world.

Establishing Shot

Writing in notebook shot

Reading shot

Researching shot

Pinterest shot

Outlining shot

Typing shot

Wattpad shot

Narration

Storyboard

Premiere Tutorials

Here are my tutorials from the Premiere Adobe Software.

Final Audio Story

My topic is about my novel, so for this audio project, me and my critique partner had a discussion about developing our ideas into an actual story. Because the actual discussion was an hour long, it took me a while to figure out what to do with it and I decided it would be smart to insert the recap so all the points would still be shared, but the time would be shaved down considerably.

When I was first thinking about the formatting of this project, what inspired this format of my audio story were some of my favorite writing podcasts, including Writing Excuses. They have a sit down talking style so I thought it would be a good idea to do that for my own project. Because I wanted to make sure I could record this in one go, I had talking points and a basic script written out so me and my partner wouldn’t be as tongue tied. It was a really fun experience and I was able to make headway on my novel which is great because my goal is to finish it by the end of the summer. Unfortunately, as stated above this was too long for the final project so I had to do a lot of shaving in term of the time. The most frequent tool I used was the razor tool, which is a tool that you use to cut out unwanted pieces of audio, to make sure there weren’t any annoying sounds or too long of pauses in the audio. I also used some sounds to create a fun intro to the audio story, which I got from freesound.org . The two I used was a typewriter sound, because it was about writing and it seemed fitting, and an upbeat techno recording which I thought would add a nice good feeling to the audio story.

In terms of feedback, one thing that was said was that it would be smart if I introduced myself and I agree (kind of ridiculous that I didn’t already do that). One thing that was also mentioned was that I should explain what the book is about and why I wrote it. The problem with that was that there was not have enough time left on my audio to add that and still keep the time limit so I decided to forgo that. Another thing that was mentioned was that I should make my transitions smoother so my ideas flow better and I agree, they would. Nothing was said in the feedbacks that I didn’t agree with and there is nothing on my own that I would’ve thought of without the provided feedback so I hope I am able to turn my audio story into something great.

With the final result, I decided to add an intro and an outro. The into is just me introducing myself, the class, and the project. The outro is just me giving a send off. I also decided to split my background music so it would play in the beginning and in the end of the audio. I think that this audio project turned out great given the limitations. I wish that the final project was longer because there were so many other things I wanted to include but I am proud of what I was able to create in two minutes.

So far, Adobe Audition is my favorite program to use and I might use it in the future with all I’ve learned from it. This was a great experience and I am both happy and sad about the last project of the semester.

Links for freesound.org:

https://freesound.org/people/tams_kp/sounds/43559/

https://freesound.org/people/ispeakwaves/sounds/384932/

Draft Audio Story

Since my topic is about my novel, for this audio project, me and my critique partner had a discussion about developing our ideas into an actual story. Because the actual discussion is an hour long, I decided to make this project about the recap, after we had discussed all the talking points. What inspired this format of my audio story were some of my favorite writing podcasts, including Writing Excuses. They have a sit down talking style so I thought it would be a good idea to do that for my own project. Because I wanted to make sure I could record this in one go, I had talking points and a basic script written out so me and my partner wouldn’t be as tongue tied. It was a really fun experience and I was able to make headway on my novel which is great because my goal is to finish it by the end of the summer. In terms of using Adobe Audition, I didn’t use too many tools to get my draft done. The most frequent tool I used was the razor tool, which is a tool that you use to cut out unwanted pieces of audio, to make sure there weren’t any annoying sounds or too long of pauses in the audio. I also used some sounds to create a fun intro to the audio story, which I got from freesound.org (links down below). The two I used was a typewriter sound, because it was about writing and it seemed fitting, and an upbeat techno recording which I thought would add a nice good feeling to the audio story. Overall, doing this project was really fun and not as time consuming as I originally thought it would be. I’m excited to get my feedback and mix it again until it sounds perfect.

Freesound.org sounds I used:

https://freesound.org/people/tams_kp/sounds/43559/

https://freesound.org/people/ispeakwaves/sounds/384932/

Raw Audio Footage

For my audio project, since my topic is my novel, I sat down with my critique partner and we developed both of our new stories from ideas to an actual storyline.

Explaining the idea

Developing the idea

Audition Tutorials

Counting (Out of Order)

Counting (In Order) Tutorial

Interview Tutorial

Vox Pop Tutorial

Final Logo Design

Hello all! It’s that time again: explaining my mind to you for a grade.

When I was first coming up with an idea for my logo, I knew I wanted it to be a drawing that I had drawn myself to keep it authentic and 100% me. So, I took to my sketchbook and combined two of my favorite pieces: a sleeping girl who was crying stars and a girl with a septum piercing. Unfortunately, I do not have pictures of the original sketches that I derived the design from but I do have the sketch that I used to base my logo off of.  

Original Sketch

After all that, I went to illustrator to make my drawing more real. Now, in the drawing, my shapes were more curved to try and convey the human face as realistic as possible but, alas, I am no master of the curvature tool and only managed to use it when it came the septum piercing on the nose, otherwise, the curved shapes had now become sharp. However unexpected the end result, I liked how the more curved shapes had turned sharp. It was really cool to see traditionally curved shapes more geometric and I’m glad I didn’t try to change it. And I also added a design element from those treacherous tutorials: the banner. I like how it adds another element to the design and gave me a place to put my name without looking out of place.

Draft Logo

Now came the feedback. My peers, my lovely TA, and I all had the same ideas: color and get rid of the frilly embellishments around the moon and at the bottom of the banner. One of my peers also suggested curving the banner upward to maybe make the banner into a smiley face but as the tone for this logo is to reflect my writing, that handles not-so-happy themes, I thought against it. I also decided to have my author name lower case as a stylistic element as most of my titles and bios are lower case. Lastly, I wanted the moon to be smaller and up a little higher where I think a forehead would be, because I wanted it to be viewed as kind of a birthmark/tattoo. I edited two versions of the final logo project, one in black and white and one with color, where the moon and my name are a navy blue and the stars and septum piercing are a yellow shade I created myself:

• 

  Black and White Logo

• 

  Color Logo

I decided to go with the black and white logo. The reason behind this is because I wanted to keep my logo simple and neutral. The primary plan for this logo is to go on my author website where there will be a lot going on, so I wanted my design to reflect me but not overcrowd the rest of the website. But also, the plan for this logo was to go on contact cards and bookmarks to hand out to potential agents and for people who may want to read my book, it would be easier to create something to hand out if the logo wasn’t so, “in your face.” Also, style-wise, black and white is a classic look and I didn’t want to sully it with potential bad coloring.

And, voila! My logo is finished and beautiful and I can’t wait to stick it on anything and everything that has to do with my writing. I hope you all enjoy it too!

Final Logo