In Game Design we were given the opportunity to make a 20 minute countdown clock that would be displayed in between the different light “acts” at the Napa Light Festival during December. The instructions were to create a 20 minute countdown clock made up of light on After Effects. To get ideas for my clock, I created a pinterest board (Countdown Clock Pinterest Board). It was interesting to see what other people had done and there was a lot of cool things to see but in the end it didn’t help me come up with any ideas. Once I found out that the clock could be holiday inspired I came up with a few ideas and sketched them out. In the end I decided to go with the hot chocolate mug idea because it seemed feasible and I liked it more than the other one. I found an image of the hot chocolate mug that I had envisioned in my mind and brought it to illustrator. I wasn’t really looking forward to working in illustrator because it is something I struggled with last year. I spent a few class periods struggling with illustrator and I had to watch a tutorial but I figured out how to trace my image using the image trace tool which traced it for me. Once I figured out how to trace my image it was challenging bringing it into After Effects but I figured it out and traced it with the lightsaber plug-in and the pen tool. Also, I didn’t know that I didn’t have to trace numbers for the time so I ended up tracing a bunch of numbers in Illustrator for no reason. I figured out that I could just make a text layer and apply the saber effect and keyframe it. Since I had struggled with illustrator before and spent a few class periods on that step alone, the majority of the class was ahead of me in the process and I didn’t have too much time left to keyframe it. Instead I googled alternative ways of making a countdown clock on After Effects and the first few tutorials/websites I found used the timecode effect. I spent a while messing around with it but came to the conclusion that it can only countdown 5 minutes and I needed it to be 20 minutes long. I went back to finding alternative ways to do it and that’s how I found out that I could use expressions. I went into the source text property of a text layer and pasted an expression I found online. I had to edit the duration (clockStart) and change it from 300 to 1200 because that’s how many seconds are in 20 minutes. Here is the expression I used: rate = -1; clockStart = 300; function padZero(n){ if (n < 10) return "0" + n else return "" + n } clockTime = Math.max(clockStart + rate*(time - inPoint),0); t = Math.floor(clockTime); min = Math.floor((t%3600)/60); sec = Math.floor(t%60); min + ":" + padZero(sec) Once I put the expression in I tried figuring out ways to apply the lightsaber plug-in on the time but I couldn’t figure out how so instead I had to comprise and make the text neon instead. In end I realized that all the big plans I had before weren’t very doable and the simpler I made it the easier and less complicated it became because keyframing the time dripping down and the steam would’ve made it tedious. I’m proud of the end product and all the new things I learned in the process of this project.
0 Comments
In American Studies we started a project called the Land of Golden Opportunity. We were instructed to create a children’s storybook with a partner based off of a book of our choosing (from the selection provided) that included all of the components that a book has. My partner, Makenzie, and I read the book Daughter of Fortune. It takes place during the Gold Rush following the main character, Eliza Sommers, who follows her lover to California. Using our shared passion of writing and our creative abilities, we were able to transform a lengthy 399 page book containing several adult themes into a children’s book. Due to the time crunch––this without a doubt, was a very difficult project. Originally, my partner and I wanted to get our book professionally bound and printed and were very excited to write our storybook. Unfortunately, we were not given enough time to execute our plans and could not do what we had originally wanted to do. Also, the illustrations were difficult for us due to our limited artistic abilities. All of our illustrations were done with acrylic paint because it’s very saturated and the brightness of the colors made the illustrations pop and look like what I envisioned a Chilean city would look like. Using acrylic paint was challenging because it was messy and because of the amount of time we had to complete it, we weren’t as neat as we could’ve been had we more time. Through this process, I learned how to cite sources using MLA format, how to think of a quick fix when a mistake or something gets in the way, and how to format a google doc so that everything is centered and looks like the page from an actual storybook. I learned that immigrating to the US was not as easy as it is now. People were rude and unaccepting towards certain races and laws were put in place discriminating them in an indirect way like the Foreign Miners Tax of 1853. It put a tax of $20/month on foreigners and made it difficult for them to mine because a lot of them couldn’t afford that. This was indirectly targeted towards Chileans because Chileans were known for being avid miners. Also, they were treated unfairly by Californians once they arrived. The majority of Chilean immigrants stayed in San Francisco in a small area called Chilecito or “Little Chile”. This area was attacked by a self-appointed militia group called “The Hounds”, who robbed and attacked Chilecito. I am proudest about the historical content and the illustrations because I put a lot of time and effort into perfecting them.
|
AuthorHibah Shafi is a Senior at New Technology High School. Archives
May 2019
Categories |