I've found the video editing assignments to be really easy, mostly because they're the same ones that I did in freshman year. The story video, which would've taken me a week and a half three years ago, now only takes me a few hours to complete. I've learned a lot in the past three years, not just about Premiere Pro and how it works, but also about editing. Doing most of the editing for the Blackspace documentary last summer taught me a lot when it comes to editing a professional project, and I've gotten some additional experience from the various assignment videos that I've had to make for various classes. Even though my main interest is in writing, I still recognize how invaluable having editing and cinematic experience is, especially for something like self-promotion and marketing. Instead of paying someone to put together a promo video for me, I can just make one on my own, and alternatively if I really wanted to, I could charge people to do that for them once I get a video portfolio together. I think the biggest roadblock for me at the moment is technical difficulties. Things not sending, files corrupting etc.
This channel really taught me a lot when it comes to editing and cinematography: https://www.youtube.com/user/everyframeapainting One of the first videos that taught me how to use Premiere Pro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzO3vrFaPRU
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I'm honestly pretty glad to be doing audio assignments again. Audio is something that I think I'm really good at, and I relish any excuse to open Adobe Audition. I'm able to fly through the assignments because of all of the past experience I have, and because I have Audition at home. I'm really looking forward to the next unit where we get to work with video and audio, and the assignment where we make a trailer is something that's right up my alley. The audio book assignment is something that I'm having fun with to. I've been planning to make an audio book for my short story since the beginning, and the assignment gives me an excuse to test it out with one page. Making sound effects for it is a lot of fun as well, even though I had to download a screaming cat sound in the end. I've done so much audio work that it's become connected with my video and writing work as well. I'm always considering audio timing and music when I'm doing any kind of artistic thing, mostly because I listen to a lot of music, and have been inspired by movies and TV shows that use music and sound extremely effectively.
Summary: Audio is really easy for me because I've been doing it for so long, and it's become very interconnected with everything I do. Things helped me out early on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sjZJ9i_mH0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq6EYcpWB_c (This is the series that got me interested in audio and how to use music in a scene) So for the past few months, I've been furiously writing out a short story. So far it's about 24 pages, and will probably be around 32-33 by the end. When I'm done writing and editing it, I'm wondering if I should print the final product. I wouldn't sell the printed copies, instead I'd print the for the purpose of giving out to my friends and people that I've used as beta readers, but while thinking about that, I realized that I may have the opportunity to get my story published. I think that my best chance at publication would be in a literary magazine given the length of the story, but I'm not sure if publishers will actually go out of their way to publish a short story if they think it's good enough. I've been doing research, and found that there are websites where you can submit a story to try and get it published, and you'll hear feedback for it within two weeks. There's also the option of entering a writing contest since those always seem to pop up around November. I haven't taken creative writing since 9th grade, and I haven't wanted to write anything outside of school since then. I'm not sure where the urge for me to tell stories again came from honestly--maybe the fact that I'm not getting graded on writing a short story is why I'm able to put so much work into writing it. I spend 2-4 hours on a daily basis trying to write through walls no matter how bad I'm feeling, and it's one of the few things that helps to cheer me up, especially when I send an update to one of my beta readers/friends to hear their feedback.
Summary: I want to get published but I'm not sure what kind of steps I should take in order to undergo this process. I'm considering going to a publishing website, entering a writing contest, or attempting to have my work published in an anthology of short stories. Research: http://www.writersdigest.com/uncategorized/how-to-get-a-short-story-published-like-a-pro http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/how-where-to-get-a-short-story-published https://thewritelife.com/where-to-submit-short-stories/ Compared to last year, working in a small group has been a lot easier. This is partially because I'm not the production manager and can focus on what I know I'm good at and not what other people think I'm good at, but also because my group members are a lot easier to work and communicate with this time around. One of the biggest challenges for being the narrative lead is having to constantly ask your other team members what you should put on the written documents, especially if the game you're writing documents for is their idea. This challenge is alleviated somewhat by having responsive team members that know what they want in their game. This makes my job a lot easier since I don't have to guess and assume and try and come up with things on the spot. My only concern doesn't even come from my narrative role, but rather my audio role. I'm concerned that I may not have enough time to find or create audio assets and at the same time put them in the game. I guess that would just depend on how fast we're able to get to the coding stage.
I'm getting sick and tired of the modern first person shooter genre, and it's gotten to a point where I've kind of abandoned it all together. Something about it just feels stale which isn't just limited to realistic military shooters anymore. Stylized team based shooters have become the new fad thanks to Overwatch single-handedly taking the reigns of the sub genre from Team Fortress Two, but there are still so many issues with that game by itself that I can't really muster more than a few hours of playtime anymore. I'm hoping the Star Wars Battlefront 2 will shake things up a little, but considering EA's previous track record both with Battlefield 1 and Battlefront 1, the future is looking a bit dim. In my opinion there should be more casual alternatives that don't amount to just gutted versions of games designed for a competitive audience. I haven't had one of those "only in Battlefield" moments since Bad Company 2 because of how restrictive the games have gotten.
-Modern FPS games are kind of stale and boring -There need to be more fun freeform FPS releases After high school, I think that my primary focus will be on writing a book. Ever since I was a kid, that's something that I've been interested in doing, and no matter what I do my interests always seem to come back to that. I'm also very interested in doing audio-books as well. Doing things like adding music and sound effects to the reading of a book is something that I also find really intrigung. I think that my options for after high school are either to write a book, become a radio host, or become an audio engineer. I've never really wanted to go to college and it has gotten less appealing with each passing day. Not only because of the culture surrounding it, but for the ridiculous costs on the assumption that what I major in will actually land me a job that I want.
Summary -I want to be an author or have a job involving audio and don't want to go to college. If we could switch from unity to UE4, I'd choose UE4 mainly for the blueprint option. Being able to quickly have the program code for you sounds like a godsend, especially since you could always go back and alter the code later, and since computers are less prone to making the simple mistakes that one would inevitably end up making while trying to code. Unity is nice, but the coding can get pretty frustrating pretty fast and an alternative would be very welcome.
If I were to acquire a job in the games industry, I would either go for an audio or narrative position. I choose this because the only things that I'm really good at are telling stories and making music/editing audio, so anything else like drawing or coding would be a living nightmare for me. The knowledge I've gained this year would help me better communicate with my coworkers by how I've learned how to deal with obnoxious group members and more importantly how to shut them down by exposing their behavior to a superior.
After watching some of the videos on Unity, the biggest thing that i can see being a problem for me is the coding, mostly because I feel like I have awful luck and even though I'll do everything right and follow the tutorials to the letter, something unexpected within the program would end up screwing up everything. The thing that I'm most looking forward too would probably be playtesting while actually trying to program the game/
Probably the most important tool that I've learned to use in 3dsmax this year would be the rigging and bone tools. They open up so many possibilities and give you tons and tons of control over your models, even more when combined with the skinning modifier. The second most important tool that I've learned to use would be the live physics tools that allow you to create realistic physics simulations and save you from having to keyframe excessively.
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