Semester Reflection

1. What are your areas of strength in the content areas you learned this semester?

My area of strength is probably creating art in Adobe Illustrator and in my sketchbook, as well as creating 2D animations (since it's basically the same thing). While I am not one for shading my art and I don't draw realism most of the time, you can't deny that the things I draw are very well-drawn and brightly colored. 

2. What are your areas in need of improvement?

Probably web design. I'm not too good at making complex websites, and, as mentioned before, Dreamweaver hates me. 

3. What did you love most about this semester?

For 1st quarter, what I loved most was the sketchbook drawings. They were always fun. For 2nd quarter, what I loved most was definitely the house animation. Not only did it give me a chance to be nerdy and weird, but it gave me a chance to do ridiculous things like put Eridan in a koi pond. That alone was worth it. 

4. What would you change or do differently? 

Nothing, really. This semester was amazing!

5. What is your overall take-away or learning this semester?

I learned so much about how to animate and draw things in Adobe Illustrator. This will definitely come in handy, since I am planning on making a web series in my free time, but shhh! That's a secret. 

6. What's one goal you'd like to set for next semester? Final thoughts?

To ham it up in Video Production next quarter, and just keep doing what I do! As for my final thoughts, all I can say is I'm so glad I got to join this program!

Web Design: A New Adventure!

My website's home page.

Look familiar?

This week we ventured into the new and undiscovered world of web design. We used Adobe Dreamweaver to create a website where our projects would be showcased. It took about a week to complete. I used my time in class to work on my website- except in the instances where Dreamweaver was not working, in which case I just looked at memes. Speaking of which, the biggest challenge I faced was Dreamweaver itself. At times, it would not cooperate, not allowing me to work on my website. But, that problem was soon worked around.

I have learned how to make websites using Dreamweaver, and also that DREAMWEAVER IS NEVER YOUR FRIEND. IT MAY SEEM LIKE IT'S ON YOUR SIDE BUT IT CAN TURN AGAINST YOU. 

Despite this, Dreamweaver is fairly simple.  Making a website on Dreamweaver is a piece of cake (provided it's WORKING) and my final outcome was very professional-looking. And since I am downloading the entire Adobe suite onto my laptop at home over break (since I asked for it for Christmas), I will definitely use Dreamweaver for all my website-creating needs.

Maddie's Magnificent Movies!- My 3D House

Welcome to Chateau de Madeline!

Recently we learned how to create houses in SketchUp, a computer program in which you can create 3D animations. I created a white house using 3D shapes and models, and painted it using the textures provided. Then I chose to add some extras. The first thing I did was I included me (the woman with the paint) and my husband (Mettaton). Then I put a cherry tree (my favorite kind of tree) in front of our house. Afterwards I included a dog house, and I put a model of a puppy in there. Then, I started getting nerdy. I made a garden of Fire Flowers (from Super Mario Bros.) on my lawn and had Nepeta Lejion (my favorite character from the webcomic Homestuck) guarding the flowers, or perhaps simply frolicking in the garden. I put Kirby (from the Kirby series of video games) on the back porch, as there was not much there, and finally, I made a koi pond and put Eridan Ampora (also from Homestuck) in it, since in the comic he is a sea-dwelling troll. 

I learned how to use SketchUp 3D and how to make 3D models of things using it. I also learned that SketchUp has a vast model database for all your nerdy needs. And lastly, I learned that Eridan Ampora sitting alone in a koi pond is the most glorious thing I have ever created. 

What can I take away for next time? Well, I now know how to build structures in SketchUp, as well as how to inhabit them with Homestuck characters. This was a very fun project! 

My Elevator Pitch

I'm an e-Communications student at ONW with a creative spirit and a tendency to think outside the box. I am skilled at visual arts, writing, and using computers. People have told me that I am "very talented", "very creative", and "artistic", and my Confirmation group leader said I had a "deep connection with others and with the world". I'm an optimist who is always willing to have a good time. I am inspired by video games and animated movies, and how creatively they use graphics and animation. I now want to use my creativity to affect my school and make the world just that bit brighter.

Maddie's Magnificent Movies!- 10 Words Animation 

This week we made our 10-word animations. We were supposed to use timelines and keyframes to make our words fly in. I chose some of the words from my 10 words that you can see on the side, but some of the words were not included among those 10 (such as "imagination" and "gamer"). I also was supposed to choose a background photo, and I decided on a space background because I love outer space.

This was the first time we were supposed to use the timeline format instead of frames, and it worked well. I learned about keyframes and how to use them as well as how to make things fly in without doing every last frame.

Next time I will continue to use the skills that I learned here, and perhaps make them not fly in so quickly. All in all, I'm glad with how this turned out.

Maddie's Magnificent Movies!- Bouncing Ball II

The sequel, now with arcs and Lemmy Koopa.

After our previous animation involving bouncing balls, we were tasked to do another. We were supposed to use arcs and anticipation, as well as squash and stretch. First, we drew out the path. The path was erased in post. Then, I copied the ball 24 times (yes, I counted) to create the bouncing arc and the rolling offscreen. Along the way, I added squash and stretch to the ball. After that, I had the character Lemmy Koopa from the Super Mario Bros. games fall onto the ball and roll offscreen balancing on the ball (as Lemmy is typically portrayed doing). I made sure to add squash and stretch to him as he fell. Finally, I added the title and fadeout effects, and I was very tempted to put the title in Comic Sans. However, I decided not to put the title in Comic Sans, for obvious reasons. 

During this lesson, I learned how to use arcs and anticipation. I also learned how to add a title card, which will be helpful down the line. Also, with the addition of Lemmy and the repeated copying and pasting I had to do, it felt just like the "animations" I would make as a kid, except a lot more fluid than my old animations MS Paint slideshows. This further cements that I will use Photoshop for my future animations.

I think I did quite well. While it does have that little white-border glitch at the end, it DOES look better than what I tried to make on Adobe Flash a while ago, and looks MUCH better than my MS Paint slideshows.

Maddie's Magnificent Movies!- Bouncing Ball Animation

Up and down it goes....

The Process

Over the past few days we have created our bouncing ball animations in Photoshop. I did not know you could animate in Photoshop, so it was a new experience for me. We had to create a ball, use gradients to make it appear 3-dimensional, and use squash and stretch and layers to make it bounce. Then we made them into animation frames and created a GIF out of it.

What I Learned

First of all, I learned how to use Photoshop. I have never used Photoshop before, so it was fun learning to use it. I also learned the principle of "squash and stretch", which is used often in animation for falling objects: objects are stretched before hitting the ground to show speed, and squashed when hitting the ground to show impact. 

What I Would Do Next Time

Next time, I'd probably do everything in the same way, and from now on I'm probably going to animate in Photoshop for my web animations on YouTube, as it's less infuriating than Flash. I had a lot of fun with this project and can't wait to see what else we do in Animation!

Social Media and College

Yesterday, we received a grim reminder: never post regrettable things on a social media account that has your name attached to it. These days, more and more colleges are looking up their students on the internet, and will see any embarrassing or offensive blog posts that you post online. This is most common in smaller colleges that don't have as many people applying.

This was not news to me, as I had heard this before. I have never revealed my full name online, and while I have stated my real name is Madeline/Maddie, let's be real: there are a ton of women and girls named Madeline in the world, and even more people are named Maddie due to it also being short for Madison. Most of the time online, I refer to myself as Mercury or Merc, and while I have shown my face, you can't exactly Google a face. However, I did realize that this was a big deal. There are people that get denied from colleges, fired from work, etc. because of social media, and while all that's on my Twitter is memes about Nintendo and, let's face it, no one is going to check my Wattpad, it's still something that keeps me in line and causes me to think twice before posting.

Maddie's Amazing Art!- Handwriting

Would you smooch these ghosts?

This week we learned about handwriting and typography. We were supposed to make a postcard with our name on it.  The name logo was supposed to be Halloween-themed, so I made mine black with a full moon in the background and ghosts floating above my name. I then used the rectangle tool to create my name. My one pet peeve was the "D"s. D is a very curved letter, so trying to make a D out of rectangular shapes was very hard. And to make matters worse, I have two D's in my name. Lucky me, ha ha ha! While it was hard to make the letters exactly how I wanted them, I am very pleased with the finished product.

That's a lot of Maddie Lodge.

The next thing we did was another sketchbook design, but this time involving our name. First, we were supposed to sign our name and notice any characteristics. For me, my signature is always very large, has big loops, and almost never is the dot on an "i" a dot (instead it's a star, a heart, a planet, a flower, etc.). Then we had to write 10 adjectives that describe us. I chose quirky, enthusiastic, goofy, punny (loves puns), clever, artistic, talented, dramatic, gamer, and, of course, weird. I then had to do my name in 3 fonts that describe these personality traits. I chose Press Start, Star Jedi, and Funstuff. Press Start is by far one of my favorite fonts, designed after old-school video game text. As a gamer, I find myself using Press Start a lot as a font for headings and such on my personal computer back at home. Star Jedi is based on the Star Wars logo, and I have been a fan of Star Wars for many years. It's also very large, symbolizing my exuberant, goofy, and sometimes even obnoxious personality. And Funstuff is a very quirky and artistic font, and I love how it is designed. Then I was supposed to design my name in a special way, retaining the quirks that are "me". So I wrote very large with lots of big loops, which is something I tend to do. Also, because I love Nintendo, I snuck my fandom into my signature- the dot on the "i" in "Madeline" is Kirby on a Warp Star, the dot on the "i" in "Marie" is a Super Mario mushroom, and the "o" in "Lodge" is a Pokéball! And of course, since there was a lot of space left, I finished it off with a self-portrait.

Presentation

Over the past few days I learned about presentation. We learned several presentation tips, including  speaking loudly but not yelling, speaking slowly and clearly, smiling and making eye contact, being succinct, being engaging, and not pacing. 

Then we watched presentations by Bill Gates, Bjorn Lomberg, and Jamie Oliver. Bill had amazing eye contact, Bjorn had great facial expressions, and Jamie had fantastic posture. All of these were great presentations and I gave them very good scores.

Finally, we presented our sketchbook blog posts to the class. Most people were nervous, but since I enjoy performing in plays, I was not scared at all. I had a very loud voice and was excited about my work. I spoke fast but had a good attitude, and my teacher gave me a 9. I was very glad to do that presentation and it taught me quite a bit.

Maddie's Amazing Art!- The Sketchbook

This week we were asked to use our sketchbooks for the first time. We were supposed to illustrate what graphic design means to us. Now, to me, graphic design is about creativity, artistic expression, and creating something recognizable. And what's more recognizable than the world's most famous feline herself, Hello Kitty?

My sketchbook drawing.

Now, when I was first deciding what to draw, I looked up "logo" and looked through the results. The Hello Kitty logo was the first that caught my eye, and with my love of Japanese media such as Hello Kitty, I couldn't resist. So I recreated the Hello Kitty logo to the best of my ability, and decided if I did the Hello Kitty logo, I need to draw Hello Kitty herself. But then a thought came to mind- since graphic design is about creativity and artistic expression, why not make her an artist? 

So I sketched Kitty in a smock and beret, painting a picture. (The picture she is painting is a still life of three apples, because it's said Kitty weighs the same as 3 apples, and the apple is a symbol of the Hello Kitty franchise.) However, I was dissatisfied with the amount of empty space around Kitty, so I decided to draw other works of art that she had presumably made. The first thing I did was a parody of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, quite possibly the most famous painting in the world; however, instead of a woman, I drew a cat. (Hello Kitty probably has never seen an adult human in her life, since her world is populated by anthropomorphic animals, so I'd assume she'd use one of her own kind as the subject for her painting.) The rest of the artwork she has made are parodies of famous pieces of art starring her and her friends: a parody of Sandro Botticelli's The Birth Of Venus with Kitty as Venus and Tuxedo Sam, Chococat and Keroppi as the people surrounding her; a parody of the Greek Discus Thrower statue with Kitty as the discus thrower; a parody of Grant Wood's American Gothic with Kitty as the farmer's wife and Dear Daniel (her love interest) as the farmer; and a parody of Edvard Munch's The Scream starring Kitty as the person in the foreground with the shocked expression. I finished it off with a sign saying "Kitty's art studio: A place to get creative!"

I personally love this artwork and how well it drives home the message of creativity. That's what graphic design is about, after all. So go out there! Make your masterpiece! And don't be afraid to get creative!

My Favorite and Least Favorite Colors

My favorite color is green. In the famous words of Paige the Notebook from the popular Web series Don't Hug Me I'm Scared, green is not a creative color. But to me, the color green represents beauty, nature, and purity. It awakens childhood memories of playing in the woods under the canopy of emerald leaves, or trekking through the jungle during our vacations in Hawaii and Jamaica. It also reminds me of the earth element, which I associate myself with, and my favorite gemstones, emerald and peridot (the latter being my birthstone). Many foods are also green, and my favorite green foods are pears, white grapes, sugar snap peas, and watermelon. I also have green eyes, so that may be why I like the color green so much. Who knows?

My least favorite color is brown. Brown is a color that always struck me as dull. Maybe it's because plants usually turn brown when they die. Maybe it's because when the leaves turn brown, that means winter is coming, and that's a bad thing because I cannot stand the cold. Maybe it's because rotten things are usually brown, maybe it's because my mother's house is full of dull colors and I just got bored of them, maybe it's because brown is the color of dirt and filth, or maybe it's because brown is such a dull color compared to other colors. That's not to say I don't like brown. Brown can look good in certain situations, and being someone with brown hair I am obligated to say so. Still, of all the colors, brown is my least favorite.

Maddie's Amazing Art!- Adobe Illustrator

What I created for the shape project.

This week we learned about shapes, colors, and how to use Adobe Illustrator. The first thing we did in Illustrator was create shapes. First, we were taught about color theory. We learned that, for example, green makes us think of freshness and is used for a lot of cleaning products as a result. Red, on the other hand, is eye-catching and gets people's attention. For my shape project, I went with a yellow-green color scheme, giving it a bright and sunny look reminiscent of citrus fruits. I overlapped my shapes together in a zigzag, linear fashion. And, in the end, it did end up looking very appealing.

This graphic design I created is the cat's meow!

After that, we were encouraged to be creative and make a picture with Illustrator using the shape-creating and shaper tools. I decided to make a cat, as cats are my second-favorite animals (second only to snakes) and my favorite thing to draw. I was debating with myself over what color to make the cat, but I finally decided on a black cat. Instead of going for a realistic approach (which I often do when drawing cats), I decided to do a more simplified and cute design reminiscent of the Japanese kawaii art style. I used a half-circle for the body, triangles for the nose and ears, paintbrush lines for the eyes, regular lines for the whiskers, ellipses for the legs, and several combined shapes for the tail. After that, I created a background for the cat, involving a green rectangle for the grass, a dark blue rectangle for the sky, a white circle with a smaller blue circle on top for the moon, and multiple stars using the star tool. I am rather proud of my cat, as it looks appealing and very adorable. I am very glad that we got to learn how to use Adobe Illustrator, because so far I am loving it.

Maddie's Amazing Art!- Sidewalk Chalk

Me (in the dark blue jacket and green pants) and co. sketching out our flag.

Our e9 e-Communications class did a sidewalk chalk project. We were all supposed to choose a color and symbol that represented us. The color I chose was orange. Orange represents joy, creativity, energy, and fire. It's not my favorite color (that would be kelly green), but I've always thought orange was the color of my soul.

We were also supposed to choose a symbol. The symbol I chose was the astronomical and alchemical symbol for Mercury (), my favorite planet and my favorite element on the periodic table. It represents agility, friendship, communication, movement, and intelligence, all things that describe me or that I value. It's also associated with the snake (my favorite animal!), the turtle (I'm a huge fan of Bowser and the Koopalings, who are based on turtles), the lily (my favorite flower!), and the signs of Virgo (my sign!) and Gemini (my best friend's sign). 

Adding a splash of color!

Brainstorming went smoothly. We all knew what our symbols were. and one girl decided we should put them all together, which symbolizes collaboration. We all sketched out our respective symbols, and when the day came, we drew them all on the sidewalk. Then we each got a section to color in. For my orange section, I wore down 2 pieces of orange sidewalk chalk and my hands were covered in orange dust afterwards! Our symbols were colored white and outlined in black, and the other girls chose (clockwise, from orange; see picture above): blue, representing tranquility and honesty; yellow, representing the Sun and happiness; black, representing power and mystery; and purple, representing individuality and regality.

When it was completed, all of us were extremely proud, and many said we did a fantastic job. The collaboration went well, and I even made a new friend in Niki (right, pink shirt). This was truly a successful project and I hope we can do something similar in the future!