Wrap-Up Post

Hello,

I took this course because I wanted to learn how to use Photoshop. I had no clue that Audition, Premiere or Illustrator even existed. As for my future career path, I have eight years until I retire from the military and my next career is to be determined. This is my last undergrad semester; so I will be pursuing a graduate degree in either psychology or business management. I think I want to work with Veterans reintegrating into society, but 8 years is a long enough time that my career ideas may change.

My favorite assignment this semester was the Photoshop assignment; mainly because that was the system I wanted to learn the most, and also because I really love photography so creating a project with photos was right up my alley. Illustrator was fun as well; I just am not that talented to create from scratch. Audition and Premiere were eye opening and enjoyable as well, I just don’t see myself making videos ever again if I’m being honest, but I loved working outside of my comfort level and being pushed to create from nothing. Turns out I’m not an artist, but I think I already knew that. 

I don’t think there was anything I wished I would have learned more, again just more of a focus on Photoshop, but after I thought about it; Photoshop is something that I need to learn on my own, and the only way to do that is to dive in and figure it out myself. The first time I opened Microsoft Word I was just as clueless, you know? There weren’t any outside websites that helped, the tutorial videos posted by the professor were all really well done and I was able to follow along.

I wanted to end by thanking all of you for offering honest and supportive feedback during each project. I felt pretty vulnerable at times because I was so clueless with these systems and you were all wonderful! I enjoyed working with you and wish you all nothing but happiness and success in all your future endeavors.

Lastly, Go Cougs!

Thanks, Tab

Final Video

Hello,

For this project I chose to recap our recent California trip with my husbands family. I’d collected photos and video throughout our stay in California and had finished my draft without a much needed narration.

For the final draft I was still sort of lost on the narrative. I knew I needed to say something, anything really to improve this video, but the words had escaped me for the moment so I started on the video portion.

I was given some great ideas about placement, and adding some more photos, so I decided to add more images. Day two and three only had 5 images on the video, so I decided to add some more images from the rental home and other photos taken on our trip at the end of the video.

From there I added the images and then played with the transitions, finding a balance I liked. I also rearranged some of the images from the draft to improve the over all flow of the video.

After I was happy with the order of things and the transitions I tackled the narrative. I recorded it all at once and then used Audition to break it down into pieces, and then transferred them over to Premiere where I put them in the video. I wanted to lower the song so you could hear my voice, but I couldn’t figure out how to do that, even in Audition, so I muse used the razor tool to cut out the song when I was speaking and used the exponential fade as a transition.

Once that was all finished I updated my story board and watched the video in its entirety. Satisfied I had my husband watch it and provide feedback. Satisfied again I finished my blog post, and uploaded my video to Youtube.

Thank you for all your feedback and help through all of these assignments. I’ve enjoyed working with you all!

Cheers,

Tab

Storyboard Final

Video Draft

Hello,

I had a few ideas going into this video project. The first week we had to take footage was spent in California celebrating my husband’s 30th birthday and my mother-in-law’s 60th birthday. We spent the first full day at Disneyland, the second at the LA Zoo, and the third at California Adventure. The last three days were  spent lounging at the pool, recovering from the previous three days. I took quite a few 10-15 second videos while in California, as well as three really long videos of my family wishing my husband a happy 30th birthday.

Once home, and after getting all the footage uploaded, I decided to recap our trip for this video because my blog topic for this class is “myself”; and wishing my husband a happy 30th, though important to me, doesn’t really go with my topic. I do, however, still plan on finishing his birthday video as well.

First things first, after deciding to recap our trip, I uploaded all of the videos and photos into Premiere and then separated them into folders by day. I wanted to start with the first video I took, walking in the PDX airport, because I love that carpet and they are in the process of replacing it and I wanted to have that video to remember it by. From there I used the trolly ride into Disney because that was the first point in the first day, that I had the excitement of going to Disneyland that day. Plus seeing all the excited kids in costume was contagious. From there I just added the photos from the first day.

After the first day was complete, I started on the second and then third day. I wanted to end with the trolly ride again, because my husband rested his head on my lap and we were equally exhausted. I seriously don’t know how mothers and fathers can handle taking their kids to Disneyland. After day three we were done, and we were all adults.

Once all of the videos and photos were in the right order. I started on transitions. I just played with them and found what I though flowed well. I didn’t want to just use one for everything, so I tried not to repeat transitions.

From there I added some text to the video, and went hunting for a song. I wanted something happy and upbeat because that is what Disneyland is all about. I came across The Meedie Organ Player on Jamendo and listened to his album Music from 1912. I finally settled on  the song At Uncle Tom’s Cabin door. He allows use of his song as long as  he is given credit, so I made sure to insert his name and song title at the end of my video. You can view it here: http://www.jamendo.com/en/track/1107871/at-uncle-tom-s-cabin-door-cowan

Once I put the song into Premiere, I cut it down to where it was the same length, and then I tacked the storyboard, which will be at the end of this post. I know that I want to say a few things in this video, but haven’t quite figured that part out yet. I don’t want it to be too cheesy, and I definitely do not want to talk the whole time, but I do want to say something.

So that is where I am at with this draft, I look forward to your suggestions, critiques and edits.

Thanks,

Tabitha

Storyboard

Storyboard

My video draft is posted here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su6zG6BBnuY&feature=youtu.be

Premiere Tutorials

Premiere Tutorial One:

Premiere Tutorial Two:

Thanks,

Tab

Raw video footage

Here is my raw video footage:

Part one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VAcLcojY3E&feature=youtu.be

Video two: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amhHfrQfwaw&feature=youtu.be

Audition Final

Hi Friends,

Oh Audition, I was so excited for this lesson because I’d never used Audition before. I chose my love story with my husband because my theme for this class is myself, and what better way to celebrate our love than by telling our story.

For the draft portion, I simply cut out the “ums” and “ands” from the interviews I conducted with my twin sister and husband. I wanted my draft to be pretty raw because I wanted feedback as to which avenue would best suit my audio story since I’d asked a few questions to each of them. I want to thank you for your feedback it helped me in narrowing down the final storyline. I had to record a few more lines for the final, as well choose a song for the introduction and the ending.

The song I chose to use for my love story is by Nyloc Rex, his song Songs of World Peace is available for free, and legal for personal use here: http://www.jamendo.com/en/list/a126329/songs-of-world-peace. His website is https://www.facebook.com/nylocrex. I chose this song because I think it is beautiful, as all love stories should be. Plus I totally support world peace too!

As suggested during feedback I removed some of the unnecessary long pauses, and I took out two of my sisters comments because they didn’t really tie in with the final story. As for what I did in Audition, I faded out the introduction song and faded in my personal introduction. I also faded out my ending, ad faded in the ending song. I also played with the volume in an attempt to make it constant throughout.

I am pleased with my final story and happy with my progress with Audition to this point. There is still a lot to learn and I plan on using this program in the future.

Thank you for your time!

Tab

My song is posted here on Soundcloud if the link below doesn’t work.

Audio draft

Hello,

When it came time to conduct the interviews for the raw audio assignment I was nervous. I wasn’t entirely sure what avenue I wanted to go down for my audio story so prior to the interviews I wrote down five questions for both of the people I interviewed. I interviewed my husband Marcus first, because I decided that our story would be my topic. I then interviewed my twin sister Sarah, because besides my husband she’s the most important person in my life. She lives in Albuquerque so I had to FaceTime her and then record my computer for her interview.

After I uploaded the interviews into Audition I played them both, because during the interview I wasn’t really listening to what they were saying because I was actively involved in the conversation. So it was interesting to hear it back.

From there I set out my audio story. I knew that I would have to re-record myself in the story as the narrator because I wanted to include my own answers to the questions asked during the interview as well.

To give you a brief history of my husband and I. We met originally in 6th Grade. My family moved in the middle of the year so I was the “new girl” to my class, and Marcus just so happened to be one of the boys that welcomed me with open arms. Fast forward to 9th Grade and it was time for Tolo, and I wasn’t planning on going until I realized that all my friends were going so I decided to ask a guy that I knew 100% would say yes. That guy was Marcus. Shortly after asking him, he and I both were nominated for Tolo court, and then crowned prince and process for our class. After the dance we went our separate ways for the remainder of High School. Six years later were were reintroduced through a mutual friend and have been together ever since.

It was sort of interesting listening to his take on the story because I wanted him to be all mushy like “I always knew it was you”, but it wasn’t and I love his honesty even though my ego was a bit crushed, because back in 6th grade I played MASH, and we “totally” got married.

As for what I did in Audition, I loaded each interview and then separated each question so I could go through and remove the “likes”, the “ums” and unnecessary pauses.

From there I played back what I had left from the interviews and then devised what I would be recording to bring the two interviews together into a story. Which took more takes than I ever thought it would.

As for the final draft, I think I need a closing statement to tie it all together and I think I need to play with the volume levels so it is all the same. Because some times I’m louder than Marcus and Sarah, as well as mixing the levels so the transitions are more smooth.

Thank you for you feedback and I hope you all had a wonderful Spring Break! Sarah and I are spending our 30th in Vegas!

Cheers,
Tab

Raw audio files

My twin sister’s interview

My husband’s interview

Thanks,

Tab

Audio Tutorial

Counting out of order

Counting in order

Interview

Thanks,

Tab

Final logo

For my logo draft I wanted to use a book of some sort because my blog for this class is called “Our-Cliffnotes”. I also wanted to incorporate the blog name, as well as my husband and I’s names in case I decide to continue this blog after this course. I liked the idea of using this logo somehow in the future.

This was my first experience with Illustrator so I wanted to keep my logo concept realistic to my skill set, all the while staying true to what my original idea was.

To create the left side of the book I used the rectangle tool. I used six rectangles in total for the left side. For the bottom two layers I used a white to black gradient to showcase the shadowing and the pages as well as the hardcover you’d see with any opened book. To create the right side I simply copy and pasted each of the six rectangles, rotated them 180 degrees and placed them accordingly. I didn’t want each side to be 100% exactly the same because a books symmetry changes as you are reading it, but I wanted it to be balanced.

As for the text, after reading my peer reviews I decided to remove the initials I created through the pen tool and just used the same font I used for “Our-Cliffnotes”, which was Zapfino.

To keep things together after each change I grouped all of my layers. Once I was happy with the overall look of my book, I added a drop shadow to create the shadowing for the book.

I then tried to add some color like Emma had recommended. I tried different shades of gray but just reverted back to my original coloring because it looked cleaner this way.

I know that my technical proficiency with Illustrator is minimal, and that I didn’t utilize Illustrator in its entirety, but I am pleased with what I was able to accomplish; and I like my final logo way more than my draft.

Thank you for your feedback, it really helped during the final review process.

Thanks,

Tab