Harrison's Big Ol' Blog of Nerdom

I placed Duke in the video game Payday 2 for my "Where in the World is Duke?" project. I did this because my favorite character to play as in the game is also named Duke, and so I thought it would be cool to see another Duke in that world! While I have done something like this before, it has never been so clean. I feel working on this project helped me better hone my skills in placing items in new backgrounds. Overall, I found this project fun and would enjoy doing something similar again!

This semester I earned three badges: the YouTube Badge, the Blog Beginner badge, and the Avatar badge. I did not earn as many as this was a poor semester for me, but I'm proud of what I did accomplish. Each badge in some way shows a time I did do what was needed, and I feel pride for getting any at all. While none of them were exceptionally hard to get, some were time consuming and did require work. Overall, while my collection isn't impressive by any means, it still fills me with some sense of pride.

Working on a storyboard has helped me appreciate them more. Originally, I thought it was a bit of a waste of time. If they were doodles and not decently more detailed, I would've understood them, but for years I thought storyboards had too much detail to the point that its original purpose was a little lost. However, having made this one, I totally see why there's still a fair amount of detail in a storyboard. Without those tiny details, a scene can't truly come to life, so they are necessary. I think working on this was great for giving me a better perspective on the purpose a storyboard serves, and I would gladly do one again, knowing now how helpful they actually are.

Getting to draw this avatar was a blast! While I have drawn in the past, I've never been good at using a mouse to draw things. I typically would, at best, draw utilizing line tools in basic ways at a slow pace. However, working on this avatar allowed me to get faster with my line tool and to create more complex shapes. Designing a stick figure with such detail allowed for both simplicity and complexity in design, which I enjoy as well. I think this project as a whole exemplifies how any project, no matter how small, can be big and important to your development in the digital media field. I feel as though working on this improved my skill, and I'm glad with the end result!

So I made an animation for the first time, and it's actually really cool! I've never made a gif before, and never knew how easy it was with online resources! Drawing each frame and compiling them, I thought it would look much worse than it does, but it actually looks really good. I realize now how animation, while it can be an extreme challenge if you want extremely smooth animation, can be an easy field to start getting into. While it takes a while to get really great at it, the fact that you can get into it at such a low level encourages me to try it some more. Overall, this project served as huge motivation for me, and I'm glad I got to do it!

Making these valentines gave me some insight into how hard coming up with a design can be! The only one I feel satisfied with it the one based off of the tutorial, and even that one I messed up! I've worked in Photoshop before and know the tools, but it's just my lack of good design that keeps me back. I will have to work on it, but this was an eye-opening exercise!