Tiny Spherical Worlds

New project! Our latest projects in G.T. are called polar & spherical panoramas. Part of the process is to take individual pictures which are kind of overlapping from left to right. Then, in PhotoShop, you would have to put them together. You might be wondering: What's the point of taking multiple images when I could just take picture? Here's why. After taking your pictures and putting them into PhotoShop, you have to bend them in all the different ways in order to get a correct, good-looking final result. You most likely would never be able to do that with just a single picture.

During the making of this project we had to make two different types of images. A polar panorama and a spherical
panorama. The process is pretty similar, but the outcome is very different. In a polar panorama, the bottom of the horizon line (usually land part) is in the middle and resembles a planet. While a spherical panorama looks more like the complete opposite. Where the top of the horizon line (usually the sky) is in the middle and the land is around the edges.


While making these "tiny worlds" my biggest concern is making them look as convincing and realistic as possible. After making your panorama look like a tiny world, there will always be a line where the panorama begins and ends. After that your goals would be getting rid of that line by using tools like the stamp and smudge tool. It also helps to rotate the image when you are finished. Then, if your line doesn't look very convincing, moving it to the bottom or side doesn't make it the center of attention and it's not as noticeable.

Hockney Style Joiners

School Photomontage of my Friend, Emma

Our latest project in G.T. is photomontages, similar to the the well known ones by David Hockney. He has his own techniques that make his photos great, but I also have my own techniques. My photomontages are pretty different from Hockney's. His photomontages have a certain style that make a lot of them look like paintings, where mine look more realistic. He definitely takes more pictures than me. When he puts them together, it does make his photos look bigger.

There are a lot of different types of emotions that can be attached to art. Most of the time, images can send out positive messages. It can show the viewer an obviously happy situation, or even a more complex situation with a subliminal message. But there can also be negative messages attached to images, which can be sent out in the same ways as positive messages. Then again, a message attached to an images can always be based on entirely how the viewer sees it.

Final Photomontage of an Orchid

While finding subjects for my final photomontage, I had to keep in mind what the viewers would think and what message I wanted to send out to them. While taking my pictures I was thinking about how there's just this one beautiful orchid as the focal point. And it got me to thinking about how much it can make people think. When people see a single flower in a photo, they can stare at it in awe. Just like one person can make a bigger impact. One person can make a bigger difference in the world. It may not be the clearest message, but it's there. 

2016 Aspirations

It's finally 2016! That means it's time for me to set some new goals to become a better me! Here are my top 5. One of my top 5 goals for 2016 is to get more involved with photography. When I first got my camera, I was really happy with it and used it a lot, but lately I haven't been taking as many pictures as I would like. I love photography and want to be more involved. My second goal is to try to be more confident. For the past few years, I haven't been very confident in myself and would like to change that. My third goal would be to procrastinate less on things like school work and chores. Procrastination gets me really stressed out when a due date comes up. My fourth goal is to stress out less. A lot of times a overthink things and it takes all the fun out of a lot of things. My last goal would be to obtain a healthier lifestyle. It's important to stay healthy and could help me later on in life so that's something that I would like to work on.

My most important goal to me would be obtaining a healthier lifestyle. Eating healthier and going out and exercising more would really help me a lot. It would really make a lot of stuff easier for me and even boost my confidence. I'm really looking forward living healthier and feeling a lot better about myself. It would also be really good for me to start living with a healthier mind too, not just my body.

Just saying that I want to live healthier is easy, but I have to try hard to take the steps to make sure that I really do succeed. I planned out practicing living healthier with my parents and we all agreed to do this together. I'm going to start planning out my meals and even find new meals that are healthy. I plan to go out and exercise more. I don't only want to start living a healthier life for just my body, but my mind too. I want to start being more optimistic and looking on the bright side of things. In the past, I have stressed out a lot over little things and it really isn't good for me. So it would really help me to work on relaxing every once in a while to sort things out. Hopefully I can succeed this aspiration and start living a healthier life.

Scratch Game Design

                        

One of the latest projects in G.T., as you know, is coding. And we had to make a chase game and platform game in a cool program called Scratch. This program is great for beginning programmers and coders. While making these games I had to keep in mind how the people playing my game would feel while playing it. If the game was glitchy and didn't work well, it probably wouldn't make people feel very good and they wouldn't like it . I had to make sure the games ran smoothly. While making the games, I made sure that the coding made the character move and jump smoothly. I made sure that the game worked so people could lose and win.

Best Code

The first game we had to make was a "chase" game. The player's character had to run away from another sprite or character for a certain amount of time or while doing something in order to win. I made my game so that the bananas ran away from the monkey... in space. It's a little random, but it's still a chase game. The second game I made was a platform game with two levels. The objective in the game is to get the orange ball to touch the green squares and if you touch the second green square, you win! If I were to chose I would have to say that the platform (second) game is my favorite. It still have a few things I need to fix, but it's still my favorite. But that's just my opinion. How about you play the games and find out which is your favorite? All you have to do is use the arrow keys to move.

There was a lot of code (for me) in each game, but my favorite would have the be the code I made for jumping in the platform game. It was one of the harder ones for me to find out, because trying to get the ball to move and jump smoothly took a while. When making the platform game I realized that the ball wouldn't go back to the same place when the player lost. It took me a while, but I eventually figured out that I had forgotten to make a couple lines of code. This has been a difficult but fun project so far and I can't wait to see what we get to do next in coding.

^ Freedom Game ^

Invention Commercial

My G.T. class and I have recently finished a project. In this project, the main goal was to invent a real invention and make a commercial about it. The commercial had to be serious. We were allowed to have humor in it, but nothing sarcastic. The invention had to be something that could really work and not something that obviously didn't work. While planning, filming, and editing all students had to keep in mind that this commercial should make the audience feel that they can't live without the product. During critiques, the class decided whether or not the commercial showed what the invention was, how it works, and how good or bad the entertainment factor is.

There were a lot of great team moments while planning filming and editing, but my favorite would have a moment during the editing. Editing was the easier part of the project. In the beginning of the commercial you can see that my teammate Emma McGinnis falls in slow motion. During editing we decided to put it in slow motion to add more drama. When we slowed it down we realized that the sounds get deeper and slow down too. When we first heard Emma make that sound, we laughed for 10 minutes straight, but we decided to keep it in as a hook so that the audience is immediately entertained.

After Emma, Tessa, and I finished filming all we had left to do was editing and turning it in. Since we put all of the footage onto Emma's computer, she did most of the editing while we helped on the side, but after we got all the basic things into place Tessa and I helped, gave tips, and adjusted somethings. I was actually surprised by how well the commercial turned out. I was also surprised when our commercial got second place for best commercial in class. My team and I are proud and happy with what we made.

Composition Scavenger Hunt

My G.T. class has just recently gotten into groups of three to learn, find, and make videos about composition techniques. In order to make the video we were given a list of composition techniques to find around the school and describe them and what they are. There are lots of composition techniques out there, but the most important one, to me, would have to be rule of thirds subject/scenery. I chose this because the rule of thirds technique shows a lot of simplicity, but it's also interesting and eye-catching.

Out of all the composition techniques, I would have to say that contrast in content is the hardest to do. I say this because when filming you would have to take the time to find a place or thing that stands out from the rest. Like finding a different colored fruit from the ones that you have laid out. It's not impossible, it's actually kind of easy, but I'm just saying that it's the hardest one of all the ones that I've been taught. It just takes more work and searching than the others. I can use it more by possibly practicing it during G.T. projects or even during my own time when I'm making videos. I think it's a really great composition technique and should be used more often.

I can't do this project alone with so many techniques so everyone in my class has been divided into groups of three. My teammates are Emma McGinnis and Tessa Jensen. They are both great teammates who are easy to work with. Emma is very determined and creative. She makes sure to work done, but keeps it fun at the same time. Tessa is also really good. She comes up with great ideas and is good at keeping everybody on track when we start getting off topic. While making the video everyone kind of rotated on jobs. I would hold the camera a couple times, then Emma, then Tessa. I would talk on camera, then Emma, then Tessa. Everyone participated and that made it a lot easier to finish and end with a great finished product. 

Cracking The Code

A while ago my teacher asked all of the G.T. students what they would like to learn during second quarter. There were a lot of replies that said coding. Now, it's second quarter and we have just started an intro to coding. I don't think everyone should HAVE to learn coding, but it's a great thing to know. Everyday technology becomes more advanced and coding is a big part of that. I think that learning code depends most on what job you plan to get. A job based mostly on computers can be a lot easier when you know code. Especially if your job is to pretty much code. While doing the introduction session I got this nice little certificate, too.

I have actually worked with code before the intro session that we did today. A couple years ago I heard about coding and did some research on it. It really caught my interest so I decided to find a website to learn about it. I started practicing more and more everyday and it really helped to understand technology a little more. I learned how to make websites, video games, and even learned about how it helps to create computers, phones, and video games. When I started it was fairly easy, but as you learn more about it can get complicated. You just have to stay determined and focused. My first experience was fun and just a little complicated.

If I could design any program or game I would probably design a game where you play as someone who gets into all kinds of different situations. They can be something serious like a kidnapping or just a trip to the grocery store. Every choice that you make in the game would shape what happens throughout the situation. Certain choices can get you in trouble or other situation may get you something good. Making a game has always been something that I wanted to ever since I thought about the idea for this game and learning coding could really help with that.