Scratch Game Design

Coding is very hard. Coding is very very hard. I have created a game from "Scratch" though, in "Scratch". Now I'm not saying my game is going to be the next Mario. I personally like my game even though it has a lot of bugs. I just couldn't figure out how to get the frogs to stop moving when the knight did. Not a lot of people played my game to give me feedback to improve. I tried to make it like a game where you had to chase a bunch of frogs running away, so that's why their movements are random. Their movements aren't random though. They move according to how you move the knight, but they don't all move the same way.

I definitely got better at coding the second time. I don't know everything there is to know about code, but I did get better. Now I actually know what most of the blocks do, achievement accomplished! I still have some bugs in my second game, like how you automatically lose sometimes when you start. I just figured out you can just press the flag twice though. I haven't yet figured out how to fix it, but I probably will... Eventually. Also, you might have noticed that after you lose all of the characters stop. Unlike my first game. I also have a preset timer in the first game, but a variable timer in the second. For those of you who have no clue of what I'm talking about here is a link to help you.

The best code I wrote was the crabs code in the second game. His code is all one giant block, with C Blocks inside of C Blocks inside of more code and more code. The last part of the code, with the purple and yellow blocks repeating, is my party room. You can get there by beating the bonus level of my game. How I made it was I had a lot of different backgrounds, that are filled with only one color, and switching them every 0.01 seconds. I still have some pretty big bugs I still need to fix, but I had a lot more than I had before. I overcame my most difficult bug fixes by asking the people around me. I mainly just viewed other peoples games in progress and if I saw something that I could incorporate in my game I asked them how they did it.

Invention Commercial

P1T4_Invention from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo

We finished our invention idea! In my opinion our main goal was just to make a great, funny commercial. I think we did pretty good, and in the end we got class best! Our entertainment factor was off the charts and everything else was good as well. When we first started our project we knew what we were going to do, but not how to make it. Also, we only had about one and a half weeks to complete this project, so we filmed it over the weekend. I was personally getting anxious when other teams were half way done with their filming in school and we hadn't started. In the end though we pulled through and won best in class by a landslide!

The best team moment we all had together was when preston came out of the closet. We had to film and film again that moment so many times just because we had kept laughing every time he came out of the closet. Now I am mentally scarred from that moment, because it was my closet he came out from! Even on the critique day some people went up to me and did the motion of opening a closet door. I would have to say it was the best moment filming so far for this class. We also added another moment where I asked Preston "but wait aren't ornaments only used on christmas?". Then Preston shoved my face away and said "Silly Boy".  We added a lot of funny things in our video, like when Preston was running away because technically he did sneak into my house.

During the editing stage of this project Raiden and I did the main editing, while Preston searched for a song. Editing wasn't too hard for us. It only took about two class periods for us to get this all done and exported. I thank the plan for that, without it we would have to figure out where everything went. I guess Mr. Sanderl was right, the plan actually does help you. Preston was searching up the song for the team because in our very beginning shot, which we didn't add in, Preston was singing the song that you can find in our video. At first we were thinking of just leaving Preston's "amazing" singing voice in, but then we found the actual song. There wasn't much to do after that other than place the clips into the right place and add some voice-overs if needed. Raiden and I placed the song as well, but it didn't take very long. We didn't use any sound effects from iMovie so it was easier on our part.

Composition Scavenger Hunt

P1T4_Composition_2015 from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.

The more random votes the worse

Oh hi, didn't see you there! We are now in groups of three people and in my group are Preston and Raiden. We did a composition video about several different techniques. The composition techniques were Birds Eye, Ants Eye, Low Angle, High Angle, Flat Angle, Macro, Ground Level, Forced Foreground, Point of View and Eye Level. I think that the most important composition technique is leading lines, even though I didn't use it in my composition techniques video. I think leading lines are the most important composition technique because they lead you to the subject. We took a survey in class which showed us two images side by side and we had to state whether or not they had the technique or not. Without leading lines your eye would be taking in the whole picture without seeing what the artist really wants you to see.

The most difficult composition technique, in my opinion, is ants eye. I think that is the most difficult technique because it's just so hard to get that low on the ground to make it just low enough so it's not a low angle, and angled just right to not make it a ground angle. I think ants eye can be used more because it is an unusual angle. The film producers use unusual angle all the time because it keeps the audience's' attention.

My team was made up of Raiden, Preston and I. In our composition technique video we all did everything. For example you see everyone at least once in our video. You can hear all of our voices as well. Some people did more than others though, like how you saw me in most of the shots. Anyway, since we all did everything we all did editing. Preston did the main editing, getting all of the shots on the board, Raiden labeled the shots on which composition techniques were showing and I did the transitions. The project was pretty easy overall, it took us about 2-3 days to complete it and if you're a film maker out there you know that's nothing. Well, that's all for know folks!

Cracking the Code

I think everyone should learn to code at least once in their life. You don't have to learn code as of now but it would benefit you a lot in life. Now that the world is revolving, and technology is advancing, we need to learn about the new world so we don't get left in  the dust. More and more jobs are involving coding and computers, and anyone who doesn't know how to operate a computer will be left without a job not knowing what to do. There is this really cool coding program our teacher showed us, and at the very end you get a special certificate and a basic knowledge on coding. The program is basically a game and it's really fun! Can you crack the code in less than an hour?

I aways liked coding, I found it to be a language within its own that you could use any language to access. My first experience with code was last year in my science teacher Ms. Bandsma's class. It was the same program as this class and another one called code combat. I thought it was really fun because we got to play around in the class and have a great time! At first it was difficult because at the time I couldn't think outside the box as well as I can now.

If I could design any program or game I would get really creative. First of all, I would want it to be an app because then people could play it anywhere. I would base it off a game game called Anger of Stick. In my game you would be a stick figure running. I'm so original right? In my game, though, you could run, walk, slide, jump, punch, pick up weapons and use them. The plot behind it is you are a spy during World War 2 and you were captured, but you escaped, and you want to get back home. Soldiers are firing guns at you and you have to jump and slide to dodge them. You have a hunger bar so sometimes you would have to walk to regain hunger. I think I want my game to be leveled, so there would be fifty levels (one for each state in the United States) continuously getting harder. All in all I just really think it would be fun just to design a game! Leave a comment below and tell me what game you would design and check out my classmates blogs and see what they said!

My Humorous Monologue

WeinerH_Comedy from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.

These were the results for my video

Okay, first of all HERE IS MY VIDEO CHECK IT OUT, and my joke plan is at the bottom but I didn't use all of the jokes. I also didn't include my list of what shots I was going to use so you guys can check it out for yourself! We are doing the comedy monologue project and I have learned a lot from it. For instance I have learned that I am a very big procrastinator. I still got my work done on time, but I admit I didn't do everything I could have done. I also learned that checking out a camera early is crucial in this project. In our class we have a camera sign out station, where we can check out cameras to do our projects. Without the early camera you have to rush to do your project, and me being a procrastinator, can't do that. Another thing I learned was, that it's really hard to come up with visual shots for comedy, and ever harder to film the shots without making them look awkward. Well, one of my shots was about being awkward, but that one wasn't awkward! Well I tried to make it awkward.

We learned a term this year called padding. Padding is when you add around five seconds before you do anything in your video. So, if you were recording a humorous monologue script before you say anything wait about five seconds so if you want to have silence for the first three seconds you have it. (Hmm wonder where I got the idea of a humorous monologue?) You also need to leave padding so that parts of your speech doesn't get cut off, incase the camera man starts the recording after you start speaking. For example if you said "I like fluffy bunnies", without padding it would probably sound something similar to this "like fluffy bun" and I don't think your intentions were to compare anything to a fluffy bun. Over all I think padding is a simple task to make your life easier and editing even easier.

Here are the project requirements!!!

Yes!! 4/4

I think my best strength is making it bad. I know that might sound funny, but today I had two people walk up to me and watch my comedic monologue and say "Hahahahah it's so bad that it's funny". I tried to make it funny, but it was turning out really bad, so I just rolled with it and made it even worse. I don't mean worse as in nothing there but just voice overs, I mean worse as in it looks like a bad editing job, cheesy jokes and really corny visuals. For example I had a scene that had the joke "Doesn't everyone love computers, hackable, glitchy, ruin your eyes computers?" and I had a video of my looking at a computer, slowly turning around with cross-eyes. So, I took a small clip off of it and made it have a black and white effect so it flashed a black and white image for a second. So, if you are reading this right now and have not watched my video but planning on watching, and get scared easily, watch out. My weakness would be that once I have the camera I don't know what to do with it. I don't know what shots to do or what angles to get.

Comedy Writing

We now have to make a comedic monologue in our class, but first let me tell you what a sense of humor is. A sense of humor, in my opinion, is the most important character trait. Whenever you are feeling down and someone tells you a funny joke, you just can't help but start laughing. A laugh can bond together random strangers, or lighten the mood in a really tense situation. If we didn't have a sense of humor as people then, yes we would work a lot more efficient, but we wouldn't know how to enjoy ourselves. We wouldn't know how to have fun and "joke around", literally. Well I guess if you were born into that world you wouldn't know about laughter or humor, unless you were in one of those movies where you were traveling through different dimensions. Then, you would have to find a world with humor and laughter. Anyway, it would just be depressing if you were born into a world without laughter.

Five tips for writing a humorous narrative are, creating original jokes, choosing the right expression for the joke, timing, how you tell it and being yourself. Creating original jokes is the best tip someone could give you because you never ever want to tell a joke that's already been told. Choosing the right expression can get difficult at some jokes so establish the mood first, then make a funny face relating to the jokes mood. Timing can also be difficult, but just try to string up jokes that have something in common. You can also tell the joke in a funny voice to make it go from funny to hilarious! Lastly, just be yourself because no one likes a try hard in general, but if you don't try it all the joke might fall short.

My comedic monologue ranges from bad puns, to "sophisticated" jokes. My monologue is all about an everyday life of something, whether it be man, muffin, baseball or baseball mitt. In this project you could choose whether you did a whole comedic story or a lot of little one liner. As you can see I went for the one liners, mainly because I have no good stories to tell. If you do comment down below, I'm always in the mood for a good laugh. Here is my monologue!:

So, one day I met two muffins who were best friends, they could talk to each other, and they agreed with each other! So one day they were hungry and the first muffin said “I’m hungry where should we eat?” and the second muffin said “I know, Starbucks!” So, they were eating at starbucks and the first muffin said “mmmm this is delicious what is it?” The next muffin said “I don’t know, but it kind of looks like… YOUR BROTHER!!” *Gasp*

Doesn’t everyone love computers, hackable, glitchy, ruin your eyes computers?

I never got why everyone in middle school needs a boyfriend/girlfriend. (Really shocked/annoying voice) Wow I want someone to stare at and not say anything to as well!

I also never got why people like to eat junk food. You know the kind of food that makes you sick, and unhealthy, (starting to drift off) the kind of food that is tasty, and flavorful and convenient and… (Snaps out of it) Huh I’m kind of hungry. Eh I’ll just have some potato chips.

You know what really bugs me? Misleading titles. “Hey look there’s an article in the newspaper titled bugs endangered! Wait this article is only about technology starting to get rid of errors.”

and what is it about people always saying “oh you’re so cute” or “oh my god look how handsome you are”, yeah this is my natural state, I already know I’m beautiful

What did the mitt say to the baseball “Catch ya later”

I think my jokes are funny because I based them on reality. Okay, maybe not all of them are from reality. I still based most of them though, and most, if not all of them are relatable to you. Yes reader you. Take a look at them and see. 

Motivational Poster

The expectations of our motivational poster are four images. Three of them are symbolic images that represent you in some way, and the other one is a picture of your face. We also need our manifesto in our poster and our personal quotes. Our text should also be kerned to make it so that there are no spaced without text. We also need a Triadic Color Scheme which is one color with two other harmonious colors on the color wheel, to make the image more visually pleasing. Last but not least we need Blending options and Adjustment layers. We basically need to adjust some of the setting to our text, make an outer glow, bevel and emboss, drop shadow etc.

I did my whole poster just using photoshop. Don't get me wrong though photoshop isn't easy, but it has a lot of power if you use it right. What I did was, take all of my photos ( the three symbols and my portrait) and put them underneath my manifesto and quotes. Then I kerned my text, and picked my triadic color scheme. I used some layer adjustments and color balances in order to turn my pictures a different color to match my color scheme. I then, changed the opacity of my text so you could see the images with my text.



My biggest challenge in this project was definitely kerning the text to make it fit the page. At first I didn't know that your text had to cover the page, I thought that you had to leave room for your images to fit in. I forgot that we could turn down tho opacity to make the text see through, but hey, this is only the beginning of the year so don't blame me. I think I could improve by listening to the teacher a bit better. Also, by asking the teacher what to do, when I need help with the project. I don't think I did so bad though, I got a 3/4, which means I only missed one thing.