Day 34 =D

Fifth period in communication technology class was spent on our graphics project. In contrast to the video project, I am finding the graphics project much less stressful. Our group decided to base our characters on an animal theme, with each animal starting with a certain letter of the English Alphabet. I am doing the letters A to F, which range from animals like the Arctic Hare, to the Blue-Footed Boobie (an endangered bird near the Galapagos islands). I actually got a lot of work done on my characters today. I managed to finish drwaing all of them, and have started colouring parts of the animals. I actually enjoy freehanding with the paint brush tool opposed to using the pen tool to "connect the dots". The rest of my group is well on their way with their characters too, and hopefully this project will not be as stressful as the last.

Day 3x11

Most of today's class was spent on learning about the specifics of graphics details. Mr. Tammik introduced us to Bitmap versus Vector images. We learnt that Bitmaps are the common image format (like the ones cameras capture), and are large in size, with rather low resolution. The editing tools used to edit Bitmaps include Photoshop amd paint. The code for a bitmap is very long and complicated because the code records the postition and colour code for ever single pixel in a bitmap image. In contrast, vector images are very small in size, because their codes are mathematical equations that show a program how to draw an image. Vector images are created on programs such as Illustrator, and have very high resolution due to the mathematical equation. The only draw back with vector images is that they cannot be very compliocated like a photo. Once we learnt about the differences between the image types, we were able to get some time to experiment with Illustrator. I was actually able to start a few of my characters. I found the program to be very easy to use.

Day 32

Although we still hadnt finished our video projects, our group had to switch onto our next assignmnet: graphics. Although Mr. Tammik says that the graphics project will be the hardest to finish on time, it seems to me that it will be easier than video, because we are simply creating images on Adobe Illustrator. The first bit of the class was spent on a basic introduction and tutorial to our project and Adobe Illustrator. The project itself requires each group member to create 5 or 6 characters in order to form an alphabet. These characters had to be made on Adobe Illustrator, and they had to be original. The program itself appears rather easy to use, because it is very similar to Photoshop.

Day Thirty one

Today was a largely disapointing day in communication technology. Our group had our quizes on the video project content, and most of us did rather well and above class average. (Above 70 percent). However, once we started on our shots and editing, we found many delays. Since the old camcorder we had used had stopped working, Mr. Tammik had gone out and bought new camcorders, which we had to figure out how to use, while scrambling to complete our shots. This was very annpying. The uploading part of the process was also very stressful. Many of the shots we took were scattered all over the place in the tape, and we wasted a lot of time trying to find the shots. We are still not done our project. Since we will no longer be given class time for the assignment, we will have to work afterschool from now on.

Day 30!

Our video group is really scrambling to get our shots done! Due to the various delays that we encountered, we still had almost half the shots still to do, many of them being the two shot techniques. Mr. Tammik taught us how to shoot many of the 2 shot techniques today (which unfortunately took valuable time away from our working time.)Tomorrow us supposed to be when our entire project is due, but thankfully, Mr. Tammik extended the deadline for submission to next week, Monday. Hopefully our group will be able to finish everything by then. We still have to upload many of the shots, and start editing them to fit the music. Our group my have to start staying after school.

Day 30-1

Today's communication technology class was not very productive. Our video group encountered many problems as we were shooting today. When we had initially set everything up, the camera stopped functioning properly, and kept turning off. We ended up wasting a good 20 minutes fixing the problem. The rest of the period was spent on our shots. We did not get many done, because many of the shots were two-shot ones that we were not sure how to do. The last part of the class was taken up with the capturing of our video. The capturing in my opinion is a large waste of time, becsue we are using a tape instead of a disc. As a result, we have to fast-forward to get get to a spot, instead of simply skippin over scenes.

Day 28:):)

Today was a very productive day. Our video project group got many of our shots done (over half )during the full classworking period. The shots were not as awkward as the day before, but being in front of the camera is still rather uncomfprtable for many of us. Partway through the shooting, Mr. Tammik came out and taught us how to use the dolly. It turns out, to our surprise, that the tripod actually goes ON the dolly (which is basically a frame with wheels). We had originally thought that the dolly was another tripod with wheels that you attached the camera onto. We spent the last bit of the class uploading (capturing) our footage onto Final Cut: the video editing program that we wouldbe using.