Sketchup House

Process
First off, I made a giant rectangle that would be the base of my house (I don't remember the dimensions). I rose it up 8 feet, then made a line [hotdog style] on the top of my house and moved it upwards another 8 feet. Then, I made the outlines for all of the windows and doors, spending a lot of time trying to figure out where they would go. To make the frames for all of them, I used the tool 'offset'. Since I was in a hurry to put color on it, that's exactly what I did next. Afterwards, I put in a dog for every window :>. Next, I made the gutters on the sides of the roof and made steps for the doors. Making the back porch, which I did after making the steps, was probably the easiest part of the house to make, however it wasn't needed. Lastly, I downloaded some flower and tree models from the 3D Warehouse and put them in to make them look all pretty like.

- Brenna (っ• ◡•)っ

Bouncing Ball Arcs

Not So Quick Note
I really did not intend for this to take that long...I just wanted it to be holiday themed. Unfortunately, Halloween was almost two months ago so posting this in the middle of December probably has no effect whatsoever.

Process
I started off by typing in my name and changing it from text to a picture. Afterwards, I made some arcs to help me figure out where the pumpkin would be falling/bouncing. Creating the frames of the pumpkin falling/bouncing was pretty easy, but the next step is what took me so dang* long. I wanted to make it look like ghosts were coming out of the pumpkin, and since ghosts are usually portrayed as transparent, I set the color of the brush to black and switched it to 23% opacity so that it would look like the ghosts were fading into the background. I then copied the text layer several times and basically did the same thing, except it was fading in instead of out. Lastly, I made all the frames into layers and went from there.

Also...
All in all, I thought that this was a pretty fun project (because of the ghosts :>) but I'm not proud about it being almost 2 months since I was supposed to turn it in. However, I do feel much better about it considering how it turned out.

- Brenna (っ• ◡•)っ

Sketchup: Table and Chair

Quick Note
I was supposed to finish this before the doghouse, but I was so intent on making the chairs look fancy, so it took me longer than I expected (oh well lol). Also, the reason a dog is on the table is because I forgot to put it by the doghouse. :>

How It's Made (please don't sue me)
I'm sure you could easily figure out how to make the floor, walls, and window, so I won't talk about that. There was a lot of use with the push/pull tool, considering exact measurements were needed. The follow me tool was also used to make the skinnier parts of the chair legs. One other tool that had a significant role in this was the offset tool, used to make the tablecloth.


- Brenna (っ• ◡•)っ

Sketchup Doghouse

This is the doghouse I made in Sketchup. It was surprisingly easy to make, but I guess that's what blueprints are supposed to do.


- Brenna (っ• ◡•)っ

(PS: There were a couple other projects that I was supposed to finish before this but they aren't done yet; I'll get them done as soon as I can)

Handwriting Project

To start off, this was made by typing my name and making the text layer into a normal layer. Then I started erasing my name bit by bit, starting from the end. After I was done erasing my entire name, I made the animation using layers as frames, switching the order to make it start from the beginning. This made it look like my name was being handwritten (sorry it's really slow btw).

- Brenna (っ• ◡•)っ

Name/Personality Video

For this project, we had to surround our name with the personality traits that we chose at the beginning of the year...that's pretty much it. :>



- Brenna (っ• ◡•)っ

My Personality Type

INFJ

So the other day I found out that my Myer-Briggs personality type is INFJ, not INFP, which made me really angry because now I share my personality type with Adolf Hitler and Osama Bin Laden when I used to share it with people like Johnny Depp and Heath Ledger. At least not all of the people I share it with are terrible; I also share my type with Tilda Swinton, Sufjan Stevens, Al Pacino, Adrien Brody, and Rooney Mara (who is so cute btw so don't you dare trash her). INFJ means that I am introverted, intuitive, feeling, and judging, and I'm sure you already know what all of these means so I don't have to explain it.

On Point?
For the most part yes. I'm almost always recognized as quiet, and it is really easy for me to cry about something small. Everything I can remember about my type is accurate; there is nothing (that I can remember) that I can't relate to. It doesn't really help me to better understand myself, since I already knew all of these things about myself.

Clarification
I don't really know how I can relate my personality type to how I act in a group, in my family, or basically anything else. That's definitely something I can't explain, I don't know why :<. However, somebody misunderstanding me is something that happens often. I have read that my type compliments people so much that it may sound like that person is flirting with everybody, and I worry about that constantly. About me "having issues" with other people? Definitely. I know someone who is a huge extravert, loud and proud. They argue with other people a lot, always thinking that they're in the right, which really bugs me, not just when I'm around them.

What I've Learned
I don't really think I've learned all that much from this, considering I have already learned about a lot of this stuff before we did this. :<

Golden Retriever
We also took the Lion/Otter/Golden Retriever/Beaver test to see which of these animals you are, and I got the golden retriever. It was surprisingly accurate; it said that I am very loyal, I look for security, I have deep relationships with a few close friends, looks for appreciation, wants to be loved by everyone, indecisive, calm, indifferent, and is too soft on other people. That is definitely me ok it's weird.

- Brenna (っ• ◡•)っ

Bouncing Ball Animation

Frame by Frame
As the heading implies, this animation was made with Photoshop using several frames of a similar picture to make the stills come alive. To make it appear to bounce on the ground, I used the animation skill "squash and stretch" to make the ball appear to be very fast and bouncy. To make the ball appear to slow down at the top using the skill "ease-in, ease-out" (there are other names for it too).









More on the Subject...
If you were wanting to learn more about these animation techniques I suggest you look at these pages:

Squash & Stretch --  12 Principles of Animation: Squash and Stretch - IdeaRocket
                               Squash & Stretch Explanation Video
Ease-In, Ease-Out -- Principles of Animation: Ease In and Ease Out - IdeaRocket

"They loved your GPA, then they saw your Tweets"

Summary
The article being summarized is in the title. Basically, this article is about how many (or some) colleges look at students' social media to make sure they're not bringing any trouble-makers. Most of the time, this is done when students are applying for colleges; if they find out that a student is acting inappropriately online, they will most likely not accept them into their college, even if their GPA is great. It's generally saying that students--or anyone for that matter--should be careful about what they post online.

Surprise!
There were quite a few things in this article that surprised me. After all, I never realized that colleges looked through their students' social media pages. After hearing about it, it doesn't sound all that surprising anymore, considering al the rude things people post online. Another thing that shocked me was that of 381 college admissions officers that were interviewed, 31% of them said that they had checked a student's Facebook account to learn more about them; sounds kinda creepy to me :0. One other thing that surprised me was that a student from a college in California reported someone who he had friended on Facebook because of the person's rude comments about others. There aren't that many people who would say something about something like that (there was one other thing I was surprised about but it was pretty much the same thing as the first exclamation).

Okay...?
There were some things I was kind of confused about in this article. The first one I marked down was the same quote that mentioned the college admissions officers. Why would they look up their student's Facebook exactly? Were they concerned about a student? Did they think that someone's personality was fake and they wanted to find out what it really was?? I was obviously confused about that. I was also confused about what was trying to be said in this quote: "But those were rare instances, he says, and the supplemental material didn't significantly affect the students' admissions prospects." What does that mean?? The last thing I was bewildered by was about the kid who reported his Facebook friend; they didn't exactly make it clear whether the reporter wasn't accepted into the college or if it was his friend. If it was the reporter, why didn't they accept him? It wasn't his fault that his friend was posting mean things online.

My Response
After reading this, I would say that I'll be a lot more careful with what I post online, even though I don't use social media very much (I just kinda use it to look at things, I rarely post anything...). I don't really know what else I would say about this other than that I'll be extremely cautious when I post things on social media!!


- Brenna (っ• ◡•)っ

Photoshop Projects This Week!!

This week, we did several projects this week having to do with Photoshop...here they are!

Psychedelic Butterfly
For this assignment, I got to color a butterfly almost anyway I wanted to. I had to use the stamp tool to make it look like it's fluttering its wings quickly.

Compass
Here, I had to copy an image of the ONW compass logo and paste it, then use the magic wand tool to take away the picture's white background. I then had to type ONW in the font Impact. Both of these had their opacities lowered significantly so they would look transparent.

School Gradient
For this project, the type mask tool was used to make an outline of the word NORTHWEST and put in the school colors in a vertical gradient


Raven Vector Masks
Putting the ONW raven in the center was pretty much the same thing used in the compass project, but usage for the interior photographs were a whole other story. First, I had to remove some of the poles and cars that were showing up in the photo of the front entrance. I then resized and pasted the rest of the photos onto the main picture and lowered their opacities. Afterwards, these pictures got vector masks, which allowed me to blend in the surrounding colors with the picture.

It took a lot of time, but I pulled through!

- Brenna (っ• ◡•)っ

My Logo

Color Psychology
My logo (right) is supposed to convey a fun and happy message with all the bright colors used in it. I was wanting to make it space themed, so I used some of the colors you could find in nebulas, like the Orion Nebula or the Eagle Nebula. The bright colors also represent wonder (to me anyways), which is what we do whenever we see stars in the sky.

Shape Symbolism
The shapes I mostly used in my logo were squares and a star, though the colors make it look like the star is made up of lots of triangles. I made it look like this because, like I said in the previous paragraph, I wanted it to have something to do with space, since my dream when I was four/five was to be an astronaut. I'm still really interested in astronomy, so I wanted it to look like how you would see a star from Earth, but a little more detailed and colorful than it usually would be.


Font Personality
I obviously didn't use the same font as I got in the quiz from the previous post, but in my second choice for my logo (left), there is a slight variation, since I added text to it. I used the font Century Gothic, since it looked modern-ish and had a space feel to it. I chose the name "WORMHOLE" for it because it kind of looked like a portal, and since it is supposed to be space-like, a portal in space usually comes to mind as a wormhole (again, to me anyways).



- Brenna (っ• ◡•)っ

My Type

Pentagram
Today (or maybe yesterday), I went here to find out what font I am. A guy with a Russian(???) accent asked me four questions to find out what my personality is like, which were:

1. Are you emotional, or are you rational?
2. Are you understated, or are you assertive?
3. Are you traditional, or are you progressive?
4. Are you relaxed, or are you disciplined? 

I answered emotional, understated, progressive, and relaxed. They fit into my "personal brand of 'me'" (I'm assuming that means font) because the font isn't too complicated; it's literally made out of dots. 

Color Psychology

Why is Color Psychology in Graphic Design so Important?
Well, color psychology has everything to do with graphic design! Graphic design is almost entirely composed of color psychology. Companies use certain colors to get target audiences to buy their products. Color can even make people feel certain emotions!

Emotional Colors
As said in the previous paragraph, some colors can make you feel a particular way. For example, seeing red on a product might make you feel angry or rushed. Another example could be blue, trying to make you feel sad or calm.

My Opinion...I Guess???
Sometimes I feel like producers aren't really trying to use color psychology; they're just trying to make their logo look cool. For example, take the 2014 Nintendo logo. A lot of people think that gray means peace and balance, but how exactly are they trying to make you feel calm when their games have the most frustrating puzzles ever?? Sorry if I'm getting off topic, but I don't think they really put any thought into their new logo, and I'm sure that a lot of companies have done the same thing. Don't get me wrong, a lot of companies do put a lot of thought into their logo. It just seems like some aren't using color psychology correctly.


- Brenna (っ• ◡•)っ




did I do this right?? (⊙.⊙)

What Is Graphic Design?

Graphic design is more about making something look pretty; it has to represent an idea and make it seem appealing to the public. Having a career in the graphic design business requires creativity and deep thinking. You constantly have to ask yourself questions like, "What could this represent?" "Could people take this the wrong way?" "Would people feel comfortable with this?" Graphic design is all about questions (and drawing...and text...etcetera).

I can connect with this because I, personally, want a job in character design in either the video game business or the movie business. My personal belief is that graphic design doesn't just have to be about designing logos or maps or anything else you would relate it to; sometimes it can (mostly) be about drawing and making that character or scenery look visually pleasing. Even if art block can be a very common thing for some character designers, making a picture out of a scribble can help create pictures you hadn't thought of before.*

Another connection I can make from this is that many logos I have seen from over the years have a special meaning to me, even if they don't for others. A lot of video game logos and console logos can make me think about simpler times (yes, I know that sounds tacky) when I was little, of how I spent my time and how fond those memories are. For example, the Nintendo 64 logo (see above) makes me feel very happy, because the first game I ever played--and my favorite game--was for the Nintendo 64. What I'm trying to say is that graphic design can make you feel nostalgic, believe it or not.


One other personal connection I can make is that graphic design often helps me literally draw out my emotions on paper; it's kind of like a stress reliever and can help me get over just about anything I'm upset about. Or, it can just help me to feel a little calmer and less tense even when I'm already feeling alright (I don't know if this would work for a personal connection or not...).


- Brenna   (っ• ◡•)っ




*sorry if this is in the wrong spot