Scratch Game Design

This game is where two ghouls are chasing Nano. I made this game from the experience I had from playing so much games when I was younger. I started to play games when I was around 5 years old. My brother taught me how to play this one game on his Gameboy. I eventually got better at playing it and I grew up playing video games since. This chase game was based off of this one game when I was around 8. I had experience from playing that game and used for my own. I tried to make one ghoul chase Nano from the beginning then  the other one come out of the corner. This was based off of the game I played when I was younger. It was my favorite game so I thought I should base my game off of this one.

So my first game I made was a Chase game. It was pretty easy because, all I had to do was make the Nano move, respond to the Ghouls and deduct points if they came in contact. The Ghouls was pretty easy too, I basically just made them chase Nano and if the points reached 10 they would teleport to a specific place. The background fit the scene that was happening. Nano was being chased by Ghouls in a dark forest then, when 10 points came around it switched to a happy scene. My second game was a Platformer game. I have to admit it was kind of difficult because, trying to make the unicorn jump took a lot of code. The gravity engine to make the unicorn fall when it didn't touch the platforms was hard. The reason why is because, just taking out at least one block of code could ruin the whole concept of the game. I made that mistake by taking out the block "forever". So, the unicorn only jumped once. The background honestly didn't match what the scene was. A unicorn trying to obtain a blue orb in front of some bushes and a blue sky. Not that exciting. 

My most difficult code as probably the unicorn's code. The reason is because, I had to put a gravity engine, make my unicorn jump and, whenever I tried to make it change to level 2 it never worked. Whenever the unicorn got the first orb, it would switch to the next background then switch back. Another reason why my unicorn's code was probably the hardest because, since I put the gravity engine the unicorn would only touch the tip of the black with one hoof while the other one was not touching black. When I finally figured out what was going on, I fixed the problem. I thought it was funny because, I one forgot one code in the unicorn's code. It was still kind of glitchy but, at least I had something ^-^. 

Invention Commercial

P2T7_Invention from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.

My team's main goal was to at least do some of our clips at school and the rest at my house (Miranda's House). The reason why is because, each day at least one of us can't come. This led to us not being able to film. Until we were able to film on a Wednesday. Well at least me and Akasha were able to film. Raja couldn't come to film because, she had gymnastics. There was some confusion too, Raja was able to come and sleepover my house. That sounds like a good thing but it wasn't. The reason why is because, Akasha couldn't sleep over while Raja could. Now heres the bad part. All of our shots included Raja in them but, some were with Akasha. Somehow we did it but we didn't have time to download it. By that I mean while the videos were loading my grandma exited them out. :( So, we didn't get any film for our video but at least we tried our best. :)

Our best team moment is probably when we were writing the script for InstaSmooth. I believe that was our best "team moment" because, it was the only part of our production when we never fought. What I mean by that is, when we were doing everything else in our film, we fought about what we thought. For an example, Akasha and I wanted to do one thing Raja didn't wanna do. Then the next problem is that when Raja and I wanted to do something or it was just me, none of us agreed with the other. Before that we had to write the script. When we were writing the script we had no problems at all. None of us disagreed with anything. We all agreed with each other and took turns on the script.By that I mean when Raja had to say something she would type what she would say and etc. Same thing with Akasha and me. We would also make each other laugh and it was hilarious.Long story short, I think our best team moment in our production was the script.

During our post-production, it was kind of ok I guess. The reason why I say that is because, we were arguing about who should do what and why. Once we finally worked it out, it was almost time to clean up. So, I put the title for our commercial InstaSmooth. I also did the transition for our title and then the transition for the next part. The reason why I did the transitions and the title was because, I was the only person who knew how to do that. While I did did that, Raja was in charge of what film goes first. We argued about that because, Raja was fooling around the whole time and we weren't sure if she knew how or not. So, after that long arguing "session" we finally agreed that Raja could do it. Akasha was in charge of the music and audio. She would put the audio into the film that best suited it and play it to see if it sounds right. The reason why Akasha got that job because we only went through more arguing. In my mind I was thinking, "Why are we arguing so much? We have everything we need its just that what each one of us wants to do is not the job we wanted." I was so confused so I just talked about our deadline and that we need to work together. Apparently that didn't  work. We ended up not finishing it but, luckily our teacher did some of the work so we at least had something. :)  

Composition Scavenger Hunt

P2T7_Composition_2015 from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.

I think Leading Lines is the most important because, leading lines is difficult to do. For an example, a lot of people in my class chose lines that aren't from the photographers point of view. To make that last part easier to understand, basically the lines have to start from where the photographer is taking the shot. So, take a road for an example. The photographer takes a picture of the road. There would be leading lines in the picture because, the road got smaller in the distance. If you were to draw something at the end of the road, the road will show leading lines to the object you drew. My last reason why I think leading lines is the most important is because, a lot of us struggled to show leading lines in that form. For my team, I don't know if we did a good leading lines of what but, at least we did something for that subject :) .

I think the most difficult is probably forced foreground. It is the hardest because, you have to focus the camera on the object right in front of the camera. Sometimes the camera will focus on the object in the background. For an example, when someone forces and object to the camera, it will sometimes focus on the person. We can use forced foreground for other things too. In movies you can see forced foreground when someone in the background in talking to the person closer to the camera. The camera will first focus on the background then the object in front of the camera.

My teammates are Akasha and Raja. We had some problems at first but, we eventually got the hang of trying to film our shots. One of the ones we had to do was leading lines which you can see below. We also had some problems on reading the information about the composition. For leading lines we used a window cill for our leading lines. Akasha was in charge of transitions and music. Raja did the editing for our shots. She put them together and did the audio. I did the titles and our B-roll filming. I liked my teammates we all helped each other. 

Cracking the Code

I think everyone should learn to code because, coding counts as learning something. For an example, I played a coding game and learned how to code. I enjoyed it very much and would love to play more. My second reason why I think everyone should learn how to code is because, coding can also increase your computer skills. It can increase your knowledge on computers and can also teach you how to program. My last reason why I think everyone should learn how to code is because its fun. You get to drag and drop, type, or move the object. There can also be many other ways to code such as actually making a game.

The first time I coded was fun. At first I thought since it was lesson 1 it was going to be easy all the way but, I was wrong. After about lesson 12 or so, it got harder and I had to take my time to make sure I didn't miss anything or did anything wrong. I wasn't mad at the fact that it got harder. I was actually fine with it and I loved it. When I realized that it got harder for me I was kind of happy that it wasn't easy all the way. I had fun the first time I coded and I hope to do more in the future. :)

If I could design any game, I would make a game something similar to pac-man but with a twist. In stead of making the ghost chasing the pac-man, it would be the opposite. Instead of pac-man, there would be an animal hunting for prey. So, the ghosts would be turned into the prey for the animal. Then, you could control the animal and hunt for your prey! As you pass the levels, the prey will start to be come bigger and try to chase you. There will also be difficulties and levels and etc. That's the kind of game I would design.

                                   

  

Comedy Writing

Sense of humor is important because, without humor your audience could get bored and might not like your performance. Your audience also might give bad comments about the joke. For an example, they might say that the joke was boring, not funny, not humorous or even awkward. Humor is important because, humor makes your comedic monologue or your joke funny. Another reason why it is important is because, humor is the reason why a joke is a joke it's hilarious!

Tip one, you have to make sure your joke makes sense. It also has to relate to something that matches the joke. Tip two, your joke has to have HUMOR. You can see humor above :P Tip three! Make sure your joke is appropriate for your audience. You wouldn't want to be talking about anything offensive or inappropriate. Tip number four! In a joke, don't talk in the same voice the whole joke. For an example, a robot voice is the same voice. You can make your voice high or low and make it squeaky or weird. Last tip! Number five! Just have fun! In iMovie you can add transitions and sound effects. You could also edit your clips.

I think my comedic monologue is funny because, who doesn't do chores for money. Say you mom tells you she will give you $50 at the end of the week. When she gives you this so called $50 you dramatically flip out because it's only $49. Then you try and call your mom at work and she says that's all the money she has right now. You then flip out again and say "ok" and don't do chores anymore. That's basically what mines is about. I think it's funny because it happens to almost everyone who does chores.

My Humorous Monologue

DuarteM_Comedy from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.

I have learned a lot on this project. I learned how to make a joke funny and, how to make people laugh. I have also learned A-roll and B-roll. Sure this project was easy but it had some hard parts in it too. I had to learn how to make a joke. A joke can be about anything you want it to be. I mad mines about chores and why I WANT to actually do them. I also learned how to time my joke. That part was hard because, you don't want to get your time wrong. I also had to make sure it was between 30 and 60 seconds. A-roll wasn't hard either. I just had to record me saying my monologue. All thats left to do is B-roll. I honestly don't know why I waited till' the last second to do this. Even after I got the camera, I waited till' 11:00 to do B-roll. When I finally uploaded my B-roll, I felt better about my grade. I learned to always do things on time!


Ok. Now that you know what I have learned and what I experienced, it's time to talk about what padding is and why it can be crucial. Padding can be crucial because, if you pad your clips too much there can be a big pause in your video. Padding can also make your clip have no noise and can cover your clip. If these are not the answers I'm sorry I couldn't find the meaning.


To be honest, I think I could do better with my movie. I could add sound effects and also transitions. There is a lot of things I could have done. There was also some strengths too. My clips were pretty good and my voice was loud enough for everyone to hear. Everybody had some strengths and weaknesses in their joke too. I thought my weaknesses was my shooting of the clips. Well to be honest I did wait till' 11:00 at night to do all of them. I should have asked someone to help me in the day. Well as long as I got the project done I should be fine. Thanks for reading my blog!

Motivational Poster

In Gifted and Talented or GT, we are working on a Motivational Poster. I had some challenges and, easy parts too. The first thing we had to do was make a text layer. The first text layer was my quotes. The second, my manifesto. After setting up the layers came the kinda fun part. Kerning. Now, kerning is to practically change the sizes, shapes and, font of the word or sentence. After that long period time of kerning I was finished I was very proud of myself. Once I finished, I needed to add my pictures. I was absent so I couldn't add color to my words or pictures. That was pretty much it :)


Now comes the hard part... telling you how I did it. The way I did my Motivational Poster was trying to do things the easiest way possible. But no. I followed everything I was suppose to do. It turned out amazing. First off, I made a Photoshop document under my name in the finder. After finishing that, I opened up my Photoshop document and made the first layer. My quotes. When I finally finished trying to figure out how to work the TYPE tool, I started typing my quotes. Then, I copied and pasted my manifesto into the document. All I needed to do next was kerning. Let me just tell you now, it took me a long time to kern. Plus I was absent and went home sick the same week. Well, after the kerning, I added pictures. My portrait and #gtsym 1,2 and,3. I had to then drag them into my Photoshop. Figure out how they would fit and BAM! The pictures was finally arranged good! After adding my pictures I, combined my pictures and my words and they.Were. AMAZING! I was really surprised by what I did, I'm not kidding. Let me just tell you this... BELIEVE AND YOU CAN ACHIEVE!


The biggest challenge was probably kerning. I thought that kerning was the biggest challenge because, you have to figure out how all of your words are going to fit on one page. You either had to make it bigger, smaller, wider, skinnier and so on. When I finished with kerning, I felt like something was missing. I needed to change the FONT. Once I've done all of that I was finished. (I missed two days of GT so basically I didn't add color to it.) That's it from me! For now... ;)

                                                        

Personal Manifesto

Hello everyone! These are five UNIQUE facts about me, Miranda. My favorite food is randomly bacon and whipped cream with chocolate syrup ;) My personal place I would like to go to is probably Barcelona. I've been there last year and I loved how they dance. After school I love to hang with my friends and, my dogs to play Marco - Polo in my yard. Recently I got the chance to go to Toledo, Ohio. It was really fun because the hotel had a shop just for candy and, it had a waterpark inside and outside the hotel. The last UNIQUE fact about me is that I love to sleep ( most of the time ). Sometimes when I'm bored, I will either sleep or eat.


Be thankful. For the past, present, and, future. I know it sounds odd to be thankful for the future. You are probably thinking, " If I don't know what the future is going to be, how could I be thankful? ". Well, what I mean is be thankful no matter what. If you had a bad day today, it's not the end of the world, it's not the end of life either. If someone hurts you today, be brave and stand tall. Don't let anybody bring you down just because, your too short or, you're a smart kid. Be yourself and give everything you do the best you can.


This manifesto might apply to you because, some of the examples in the paragraph above have happened to me before. It happens to real people around the world and in our school. I had to learn to be thankful and, I had to be brave and stand tall. I have to give everything the best I can.