Subway Surfers is mobile game where you play as a graffiti artist in a subway trying to run away from a police officer. Your goal is to get the highest score by staying alive, getting power ups and collecting coins. You could use coins to buy different characters, power ups, and surfboards. This game came out on May 24, 2012 and was really popular.
One thing I like about this game is the diverse settings and characters. The game constantly changes the setting to new places around the world. As I writing this blog post, the setting right now is Seoul. Each setting has a least one unique character for that setting. The character for Seoul is Mina. A setting may also have a special surfboard for it. The surfboard for Seoul is called Bubblegum. One thing I really hate about this game is the amount of ads that they have in the game. Sure, most mobile game an option to watch ads for rewards but this game has an unskippable ad after every run that you do. This really gets annoying when you want to keep playing multiple rounds. This problem is avoidable if you turn off your internet but I don't want to have to turn my internet off to enjoy a game especially if I have or want to do something afterwards. Another problem is the stereotypical characters. Imagine a high school cheerleader, that's Tasha. Imagine a typical surfboarder dude, that's literally Brody. Using stereotypes for your characters is very unimaginative. In conclusion:
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The movie trailer for the Sonic The Hedgehog movie was released a while ago. The whole internet blew up with negative comments and responses to the trailer. Most comments focusing on the character design of Sonic himself. The internet blew up before when the movie poster was leaked, showing his silhouette. The movie trailer on YouTube currently has 17 million views and over 74 thousand dislikes.
The one thing that I liked about the trailer was it's editing. The editing wasn't too bad. The shots that they used looked good. The special effects they used were great. My favorite part in the trailer is when the villain (whose name I don't know but I'm pretty sure it's not Dr. Eggman) takes one of Sonic's quills and licks it. Now to the most controversial part of the trailer, the character designs. I have to say first that the non-CGI characters are fine. They look good and normal. The CGI characters are the main problem. The two CGI characters are Sonic and Dr. Eggman. I have to say that Dr. Eggman looks way worse that Sonic could ever be. He only shows up in at the end of the trailer but the image of him is clear in my mind. Sonic in the movie looks nothing like he does in any video game or tv show. One of his signature features is the fact that his eyes are always connected in the front. In the trailer, his eyes are separated. His overall body just looks too human like and it's unsettling. In conclusion:
In my past blog post writing, I have written two blog posts similar to this prompt. Since I have to, I will be making references to that posts titled, "3D Max experience" and "Skills From 3D Modeling," "3D Max Experience" tells my first thoughts on 3D modeling and "Skills From 3D Modeling" tells on the first skills that we learned in class. This isn't the first time that something like this happened but I have to do this again.
My initial reaction to the announcement of the start of 3D modeling was disinterest. I did not care for the art of 3D objects or 3D animation. I didn't want to learn this art form but it eventually grew on me. I first thought 3D modeling was just using those standard 3D objects, such as cubes, spheres, and cylinders, to make simple forms. That idea was quickly shot down when we got further into the unit. I have learned a lot of skills in 3D modeling since the beginning of the unit. We learned some more about modifiers. We learned about a modifier called lathe. The named modifier takes a 2D shape, multiplies it, and spins the copies in a circle path to make a solid 3D object. It is very good at make objects like vases, and different types of glasses. Another skill I learned was the use of materials. Materials can allow you put different colors and patterns on different parts of a model so instead of having a simple red ball, you can have a green ball with purple stripes on it. In conclusion:
Since we started 3D modeling, we have learned many valuable skills. These skills vary from making simple geometric forms to complex and natural forms. We had learned to modify and model such complex 3D models from very simple 3D objects. All these lessons from the past quarter has shaped my 3D modeling skills from absolutely nothing to being able create a realistic mushroom from a simple cylinder.
The first important skill learned is the simplest. Primitives are the simple 3D objects that you create. Primitives are base for all 3D models. You can use primitives for simple 3D objects that are made of simple forms. Objects you can make with primitives include: a ball, an ice cream cone, dice blocks, or an orange. These are the type of objects that we used to create our snowmane and our pencil. The next skill we learned was how to mess with subobjects. Subobjects are the components that make up primitives. They include vertices, edges, and faces. Also, when learning about subobjects, being able to add segments along the length, width, or height will allow more subobjects and highly detailed 3D models. With these skills, I was able to create my tank, spaceship, cartoon head, and future world. The last skill we learned was the use of modifiers. Modifiers have a broad range of purposes and can be used to satisfy your modeling needs. A few examples of what modifiers can include: creating noise in your models, allow for the edits of subobjects, and bending of models. In conclusion:
One of our class assignments was to create a 3D tank from a single box. For this assignment, we had a tutorial to follow that showed us how to complete it. I do have to say that the completed tank was a disappointment to me. If I remember correctly, it was our 3rd 3D modeling project but I thought it was going to look better.
The first thing I did was create a new folder in my 3D Models folder. This is where I put my files of this assignment. The next thing I did was open up 3DS Max and pull up the tutorial on each of the desktops. This is where I actually started working on the 3D model. The first step was to create a box. This box is the foundation for the tank and is the only 3D object that I used. The next step was to divide each face into nine different sections. Then, I convert the box into an editable poly which is a very important part of 3D modeling. I selected the vertex option and selected 6 vertices on the top and bottom of one face of the box. I pulled these inward to create the appearance of the front of the tank's wheels. I did this again on the opposite face but instead of pulling in 6 vertices, I pulled in 3 vertices on the bottom for the back of the wheels. I turned to the polygon option, selected the middle section of the top face and extruded it up. Then, I created a smaller section inside of the extruded top and lifted that up. I lastly created a smaller trapezoid in the front side and extruded it out to make the barrel. In conclusion:
This month, we started creating 3d models in 3Ds Max. At first, I wasn't really interested in 3D modeling or animation, it just wasn't what I took the class for. And now, I guess I have enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I liked just messing around with 3d objects and creating 3D models that I couldn't think of creating by myself.
I believe I haven't really struggled with anything in 3Ds Max. Mainly because I tend to learn quickly and provided tutorials were clear and easy to follow along on. But, I guess I forgot how to move my screen. I knew how to rotate and zoom in and out of my screen but it completely blanked out of mind. I had spent a lot time just trying to avoid the need to move my screen by rotating and zooming but when it came time to render I had to figure it out. I got some help from my classmate and he told how to do it so all my problems are solved. Working with 3Ds Max has made me more open to 3D modeling. I, again, enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I guess my experiences with the program in class has made me more excited to learn how to make more complex designs and models. Now that I know different techniques of manipulating 3D objects and that it's not just placing 3D objects in a 3D environment, I feel more confident in moving forward in 3D modeling. In conclusion:
This friday, our quarter project is due. We had three options to choose from this quarter. I chose to finish my idle animation because I didn't want to have to work with anybody else and it was already started and I could pick up where I left off. I thought that this would be the easiest project to complete but I ran into a few problems on the way.
The first problem I found was the moving paw. I realized that I had to make the paw come from behind the head and nose, overlap the nose, and go back behind the head. I thought I could make the head a clipping mask but I didn't remember how to do that so I traced over each frame with the pen tool. The second problem was the color. When I was making the lines, I was focused more on the animation than the colors I had to add. I figured I could just color the frames individually in a layer under the lines. This ended up being a time consuming and tedious process. Also, with the way I placed the layers, I had to carefully paint the brown colors in order for it to not noticeably cover the other lines under the layer. I had to do this for the tail and the moving paw. Another problem I had was with the time. I didn't know the time requirements for the project until Wednesday. This wasn't that big of a problem because I could just loop the animation 2 or 3 times. In conclusion:
This Saturday, I went to the Durham Performing Art Center to see my first musical, Dear Evan Hansen. The musical centers around the main character, Evan Hansen, trying to comfort a grieving family whose son committed suicide by pretending that he was best friends with him. The story focuses on topics such as depression, loneliness, suicide, anxiety and social media. The musical uses a lot of color to set moods which is amazing.
In the musical, there is a lot of blue used. It's the main color shown on the promotional poster and it is also the color of the shirt Evan wears. The color is often associated with feelings of sadness. Most of the characters in the musical experience strong feelings of sadness either from dealing with their mental problems, feelings of loneliness, or not being able to be there for your family. During the show, some of lights changed color. Mainly during the musical numbers, though. But, throughout the show the color most used was blue. The first song it was used in was Waving through a Window in which Evan expresses how he often feels invisible and ignored at school. It used in Requiem where the Murphy's are expressing their grief and sadness over their loss. It seems the blue lighting often shows the character's sadness. Other lighting colors such as white, red and pink were used but rarely. The white lighting was used in You Will Be Found when Evan's speech becomes popular and he is finally known. The white was used to represent how he is now exposed. Red lightning was shown during Sincerely Me to show that the words that they were writing were impactful. The pink lighting was seen during Only Us to show the love between Evan and Zoe. In conclusion:
There are three programs that we have used to make animations and videos with: Adobe After Effects, Adobe Animate, and Adobe Premiere. All three programs were easy and understandable for me at least. Each program was different in their own ways and can produce a variety of different content. Adobe Premiere seems to be a great editing program that is easy to use. In Adobe Premiere, there is a space for your files to go. This is similar to Adobe After Effects but you could just drag the files into the timeline. When you dragged the file into the timeline, the image would be weirdly zoomed in which was unusual because the images could easily fit in the provided space. I had the opposite problem with Animate. The imported image would always be bigger than the work space. Exporting in Premiere was exactly the same as exporting in After Effects.
Adobe Premiere has a lot of similarities with Adobe After Effects. Some differences I have noticed is the default setups. Premiere has the settings of the images in the top left corner rather than in the bottom left corner like After Effects. Another difference is in the ways multiple images should be put in. In Premiere, we were told to put the images all on one single layer. In After Effects, we were told to put each image on a different layer and have each image last from the beginning of the video to where it shows for two frames. In conclusion:
This weekend, I picked up my 3Ds for the first time in a while. The game that was still in it was Pokemon Moon. I had already beat the champion in the game and was trying to complete the Pokedex. I have spent the last week playing this game and enjoying every bit of it. I have even made a Google Doc filled with information of the pokemon I need to have.
I'm not sure if this a change they made for the Kalos region, but the Experience share gives experience to your whole party instead of just one pokemon. It made leveling up pokemon so much easier. It also kept my whole party around the same level so I didn't have to take time to level them up individually. I could have 2 lower leveled pokemon in my party and level them up so much faster than if I had to give the Exp. Share to one pokemon at a time. In this game, they added ride pokemon. Ride pokemon are pokemon you can use to interact with your surroundings with. You don't even have to have the pokemon in your party to use them. All you have to do is press Y and select what pokemon you want to use. In older pokemon games, you have get a Hidden machine (HM) and teach a pokemon a move such as strength (to move rocks), cut ( to destroy small trees) or fly (to fly to different Poke Centers you have visited). In conclusion:
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AuthorI plan on learning the skills of Digital Design and Animation this year. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not represent those of Durham School of the Arts or Durham Public Schools. Archives
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