Pivot in Windows Live Movie Maker

For the past few days, I have been working with Windows Movie Maker.  I took my Pivot animation to the next level by adding music, sound effects, and a title and credit slide.  I also added an effect to make my animation look like it was filmed using an old camera.  An issue I came across was putting sound effects in it without messing up the music.  A few Internet searches told me to save the completed animation with the music and then open the new file and add the sound effects.  I also had trouble getting the animation to play on the Internet.  To get it to play on the web browser, I had to install a plugin.

I learned how to add many things to my animation.  I learned how to add title slides, end slides, music, and effects.  I also learned how to time sound effects and sync them to the animation. This can be helpful in the future if I need to do more professional animation.  Making the animation wasn't as hard as I expected it to be.  
  

Pivot Learning Reflection

For the past few weeks I have been getting to know how to use Pivot to create my own animation.  I learned how to animate stick figures and try to make the animation as realistic as possible.  To make it as realistic as possible, you need to move the stick figure ever so slightly in each frame to make the animation smooth as possible.  That was also the hard part.  Trying to model real life movements is difficult and trying to make them smooth is even harder. However, the Internet has a lot of helpful resources that can help with your animation.  Learning how to use Pivot will be helpful if I want to edit videos someday.  Below is the first animation I created using Pivot.  

Lerning Reflection 11/15/13

Last week, my computer class and I learned a lot about Photoshop.  I learned that Photoshop is an application where you can manipulate pictures to the way you like them, create pictures for web pages.  Many people use Photoshop like graphic designers, visual communicators, and ordinary people as well.  I also learned how to use Photoshop's plethora of  tools to create and edit pictures.  There are a whole bunch of tools, I only scratched the surface in photo editing.  It was hard at first to navigate Photoshop, but once you spend a good hour on it, it'll be easy.  Also, I learned how to create my own banner and how to upload it to my own website.  Using Photoshop has been really fun.  Here is the banner: http://steverebollowiki.wikispaces.com/%2520.

11/6/13 Learning Reflection

There are a lot of things I have learned over the past week about HTML.  HTML is basically the language a web browser speaks and reads to display content.  It reads the HTML code and then displays the web page you are viewing.  A web browser does not only display web pages, it can display HTML files as well.  I learned that to make an HTML code, you don't need any fancy application.  you really just need notepad and the Internet if you don't know the tags.  I learned about the tags necessary to create a HTML code that the browser can read.  In addition, I created my own website using the things I learned from HTML.  

While creating my first website, I had some minor issues.  An issue I had was knowing if I typed in the HTML tags correctly.  To resolve this, I would type in the name of the file I was typing my HTML code to in the web browser.  It would show me the translated HTML code and from there I can see where I made mistakes.  I also had a little trouble remembering all the HTML codes, but thankfully the tags are on a website.  The website I used to look up the tags was w3schools.  This past week, I have learned a lot about HTML.

10-17-13 Learning Reflection

In my web design class last week, I have learned many things.  I worked in a group and together we created a presentation on the impact of the Internet. We each worked on a specific topic, I worked on the impact of the Internet on entertainment.  I learned how to more efficiently work with others in a group.  You can work more efficiently by using Google Drive because more than one person can edit a document at a time.  Also, I learned how pirates illegally distribute something for free like a movie, music, and other stuff.  I learned how the Internet impacted the entertainment industry.  It made forms of entertainment easier to get and allowed for a richer experience in video games by allowing players to compete and cooperate with each other from all around the world.  

An obstacle I've encountered was properly citing my resources.  You always have to give credit when it's due.  I learned that http://citationmachine.net/index2.php quickly and properly cite their resources.  Another obstacle that I've encountered was making a good looking presentation.  It can't be too wordy, too flashy, or have too many pictures.  A presentation needs a happy medium between all three.  I had to change up my slides a little bit because they were too wordy and cramped.  Working in a group was a good experience and taught me a few things along the way.

QR Codes

A QR code is something that looks like a bar code that can give you all types of information when scanned.  It was first designed for the automotive industry in Japan.  It can be scanned with a QR code scanner app that can be found on the application stores of all smart phones. Once scanned, the QR code scanner app gives you all sorts of data like personal information and can even send you to websites.  With a QR code, I can place it all over the place where people can see it and scan it.  The QR code would send them ti my blog.  There are many more uses for a QR code, these are just a few.  

 

Industry Podcasts

          Today in class I looked for and listened to a few podcasts about web design.  Two websites that I found good podcasts on are http://www.rookiedesigner.com/podcast-archive/ and http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/topics/podcasts/.  The podcast I listened to on www.uie.com was by Brian Suda and Adam Churchill and the one on www.rookiedesigner.com was by Jake Van Ness and Kitty Florido.  The podcast on www.rookiedesigner.com was about how to manage a contract job and freelance clients. There were two people sharing ideas between each other and saying that to juggle the contract job and their freelance clients, the work between the two should not overlap.  They pool their ideas together and give the listener a lot of information.  Designers should only work on their contract job during the time they are actually getting payed and any other time they should work on what the freelance clients want.  This podcast showed me how web designers juggle their work between contracts and freelance clients.  I learned about how organised they are.  The other blog on www.uie.com was about how designers can display data attractively and appropriately for everyone.  One was asking the questions and the other was responding. They were talking about how to make data look nice for everybody, including people who are colorblind.  Also, how to make data more accessible and interactive.  The speaker answers the questions thoroughly and gives examples.  This podcast helped me realize that what looks good for one person may not look good for another.  You have to find something that is ideal for the general population.  

9-27-13 Learning Reflection

Over the past week, I have learned a lot about blogs.  A blog is a website where a blogger (someone who posts blogs) can share pretty much anything with the Internet.  They can share experiences, ideas, or whatever they want.  Not only can a blog have this, it can have pictures, videos, podcasts, RSS feeds, and gadgets.  I have had some challenges creating a blog.  One was figuring out what to write, another is trying to put the podcast in the blog, and lastly, trying to make it nice looking. 

Welcome Message

Web Design

Web design is the designing and maintenance of websites.  There are a lot of things that go into web design.  You need to have a lot of skill to be a web designer.  I don't know a lot about web design, but I know that you need to be skilled.  Also, I know that a good web designer should make sure their web page is easy to use and looks good at the same time.  Viewers should not have trouble trying to find something on the website.  I have never programed anything in my life or done some site work either.  I'm pretty sure it's hard work to do so.  

From this class, I hope to learn how to design and create a website and how to create a program as well.  What I learn from this class can benefit me in my life because it might help me when I'm at college.  What I learn from thus class can help me get good grades in a future web design class.