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:
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 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:
Recently, we had an assignment to create a looping animation of a monster eating something that was flying into its mouth. We were given a four part tutorial to follow that basically took us through the steps of making each part of the animation. The process of the animation wasn't hard at all but it did take a lot of time to complete.
The tutorial itself was alright but I didn't really like the guy who made them. He would always make these weird sounds during the video especially when he was working on the mouth. He also could have edited one of the videos better. In the third video, you can hear some sort of shifting noise and then he starts the video. It just bothered me a little. My monster turned out fine. Some parts of it weren't animated the best but I really just wanted to finish the assignment as soon as possible so I didn't make it better. But I do have to say that the eyebrows on my monster were the favorite thing to do because they turned out the best. I thought I really conveying a lot of emotion through them. If you look at my creation, then you can tell that I definitely could have improved some parts of it. One part includes the hairs. I think I messed up the position of all of them. I think the places they move to don't fit the motion of the body. Some of them don't really move as far as they should. Also, one of hairs near the bottom twitches in the animation. In conclusion:
Animation is one of the thing that everyone now has grown up with. As time has gone on, new, cheaper types of animation have been created. Today cartoons are mainly 3D animations and 2D animations. Traditional animation is rarely seen today in cartoons but it's where animation started. 2D animation and traditional animation can look very similar but are very different.
Both traditional and 2D animation are two-dimensional. Both are made to look flat and are not in a three-dimensional plane with a z-axis. Both animation techniques can be done on a computer. Traditional animation can be drawn on the computer with a drawing tablet. The individual parts of 2D animation are made on computers to begin with.They require the same pre-production steps. All animation first starts with a storyboard, that is usually drawn on paper. Next, the animatic is edited together. It usually just the storyboard but with the sound effects and voices edited in. There are many differences between these two types of animation. One difference between them is the way the types of animation can be made. Traditional animation can be made on paper and painted onto cels or drawn in a computer software. 2D animation can only be made on computers. Also the type of software used on each animation is different. Traditional animation would use bitmap programs to animate while 2D animation would have to use vector based software. Some traditional animation software include Adobe Photoshop and 2D animation programs include Adobe Animate and Adobe After Effects. In conclusion:
Morr. “The 5 Types of Animation - A Beginner's Guide.” Bloop Animation, Bloop Animation, 13 Jan. 2019, www.bloopanimation.com/types-of-animation/. Mendoza, Rey, and Jr. “Design Talk.” 2D Animation, Blogger, 23 Feb. 2012, http://reymendoza.blogspot.com/p/2d-animation.html?m=1 Plague Inc. is a mobile game that allows players to name, create and design a pathogen to then kill every human on earth with it. The game has things that can slow down your progress. These things include political news, climates, cures, and much more. The game overall is very fun and engaging.
The color choices for the game are very understandable. The main colors used is red. The thumbnail of the app, the background of the setup, and the upgrades you can buy are all red. They all make sense. The color red is often associated with warning signs. It also symbolizes danger. The goal is to destroy humanity so danger is a well related feeling. In the game, you can choose from many different types of pathogens, such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites. Each type has a special ability. Viruses can mutate symptoms more frequently. Fungi can release spores to infect a new, uninfected country. This is makes sense because these pathogen behave differently compared to one another. The game has things that can slow your progress to the goal. There is a cure that is started when the disease starts to become dangerous or life-threatening. It is usually led by the country you started the disease in. Other countries begin to shut down their outside transportation such as boats, airplanes and their border. This can lead to this country not being infected at all and ruin your game. There are also natural setbacks such as climate. If you start out in a cold country, such as Iceland, then it will be harder for your disease to spread to hotter countries, like Saudi Arabia, without dying. In summary:
Adobe Illustrator is a vector-based drawing program that allows users to create logos, cartoons, etc. This week, we started to use this program for the first time. It's going to take me so time for me to get used to using but I'll soon enough get the hang of it.
The first time opening up the program was overwhelming. There are so many tools on the toolbar. Also the thumbnails for the tools are very small so I couldn't really see them. I also had trouble using the shape building tool. It's so easy to use which led to me accidentally making shapes over and over again. I found it hard to find certain things. I did not know where to find the color swatches but I did end up finding it on my own. Sometimes I think I need to go explore the program to find some new tools and techniques. I still don't how to make line intersect or overlap. That part is confusing to me and I don't know what to do. All the things you can do with text in the program are amazing. I wish I could have been able to do them in Photoshop. You can make the text go in a spiral or around a rounded rectangle. It is a lot easier to size the text in this program that in Photoshop. In Photoshop, you have to highlight the text and type in the size number but here you can just click and drag a corner to you liking. 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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