Monday, November 30, 2015

Scratch game design

I had to make a chase game in scratch for my G. T. class. That game was really hard to make and the code was complicated. Luckily, I had a separate mindset to impress. The audience was that mindset. I was lucky enough to have a friend of mine play my game while it was in development. After that, I was aware of the bugs and how to fix them. If it wasn't for my friend's preview of the game, the game would have failed.



My game has many complicated features. One of those would be the different sprites. The sprites I picked were generic. I picked a tennis ball, a flower shape, and a bowl of cheese puffs. The main character is a cat. The cat is being chased by the other sprites. The goal is to escape. How,  you ask? You escape by scoring 10 points. You score 1 point every 5 seconds. If an enemy touches you, you lose ALL your points. Notice the timer? If you run out of time, you lose. Meanwhile, in my platformer, there are some different features. In all the levels, there is lava. Touch it, and you lose a life. There is also a timer. If the timer or the lives counter reaches zero,  GAME OVER!!!


My best code was my jumping script. I made my character go slowly up then down. The other impressing thing is the BUGS!!! My most difficult bug was actually in my freedom game. I struggled to use music changes. I ended having to use hidden variables. For example: boss kills and music changes are hidden variables. Those ended up helping me out greatly with the music changes. Unfortunately, the music code is not capable of creating good music. The music in my game is amateur piano. That is all the code can do.


Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Invention Commercial






My team created a commercial for a fake product. Our intentions were to make a convincing, yet fun commercial. We are really hoping that in our critique, the class will laugh. I mean, if they don't laugh, it wasn't funny.
our critique results



Our best "team moment" was overcoming the obstacles in our path. We had to create props and edits in our commercial to make it work. We really had to put our heads together to come up with comedic ideas.Steven had to come over to my house to finish the commercial. I would have had London come over, but he was sick.


All of us had to do different jobs to make this commercial work. I was the guy who worked on the timeline of the video. Steven worked on the effects such as black and white. London worked on the sound effects. The sound effects he used were: explosions, music, and jingles. Unfortunately, the class didn't really like our commercial. If you would look at our chart, most of the class gave us the lowest grade possible. My feelings were very hurt when I saw that all our work was in vein.

Friday, November 6, 2015

Composition Scavenger Hunt




There are many composition strategies in video. I think the most important composition strategy is leading lines. I think that because it is the best way to locate the subject. I mean, you don't want to look for the subject. That's why in leading lines, the lines point you to the subject. 

There are many difficult composition strategies that can make you INSANE when you have to use them. I think that the hardest one to pull off is contrast in content. Stay with me. It can be hard to determine what contrasts the content. For example, a flower on grass is NOT contrast in content. They are both natural flora, so it doesn't work.  

My partners were very helpful in my commercial project. One of my partners were London Barber. London was the narrator for my commercial. He was also the semi-leader. My other partner was Steven Villanueva. He was the camera man in my commercial. He was also the prop manager. Over all, both of my partners were very helpful in the production of my commercial.






Friday, October 23, 2015

Cracking the code

Coding is a special activity. I don't think it is for everyone, though. Coding can be too hard for some people. Other people can use it for EVIL! Have you gotten a computer virus before? Then you know how horrid it is. That is a result of people taking advantage of the coding system. Coding can actually be used to defend yourself. Anti-virus programs are an example of using code to defend yourself.


My first experience with code was in my GT class. We had to play a coding game. We had to drag & drop boxes of code to get a character moving to the goal. It was really fun! After each round, it showed us the code that we used. For example, ()MoveFoward();. It used javascript style code to run.


If I could design any program or game, I would Make an addicting game. Addicting games make a lot of money. Take a look at flappy bird. It was so addictive, many people played it. The creator made millions of dollars! Unfourtanately, it was so frustrating, it was taken off of the app store. I want my game to live up to that legend.


The blocks of code manipulate the play area.


Tuesday, September 29, 2015

My Humorous Monologue


HenriquesA_Comedy from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.







I had to do a comedy video for GT class at KMS. I learned many things from that experience. I learned: how to import into Imovie, how Imovie works, ant how to pad clips. You will need to know all of these things in order to succeed at a comedy project. If you try to do this kind of project, you will need all the help you can get. I wish you luck.

Filming my clips was hard. One very important thing was pad. Pad is essentially a few seconds of film time after you start, or finish talking. This is a safety measure. It makes sure your words don't get cut off at the beginning or end. Pad can be easily deleted in editing. In Imovie, you can do that by clicking and dragging the edges of the clip.

I had some strengths and weaknesses. My strengths were my visuals and my sound effects. My weaknesses were my filming and background noise. I could have improved my editing skills. My filming could have been less shaky. Over all, I have many regrets. I am so sad that none of the class found my video funny. That was just plain offensive.




















Friday, September 18, 2015

Comedy writing







   A sense of humor is an important character trait. Why?. Well, a sense of humor expresses who you really are. When you tell a joke, your personality shows up in said joke. For example, if you joke about something the other person finds "hard to take", your joke will show that you barely care about their feelings about the topic.


  Comedy writing can be very stressful sometimes. Because of that, I will give you 5 tips on how to write comedy. Sarcasm. Being sarcastic can stir up some laughs, especially when it's obvious.
B-roll. B-roll are visuals that go along with a comedic monologue. Great for video.  Gestures. Gestures make over 50% of laughs. They add extra "ommph" to your monologue.  Monologue. A short, yet comedic story works very well. Empathy. Put yourself in the audience's shoes. You don't want to be the only one laughing.

  I came up with a joke monologue for GT class. I literally repeated a funny moment in my life. That moment was when I called my 5th grade teacher mom. I also shared my feelings about the incident. I used sarcasm in my thought process, so my joke could have one strong punchline, and one weak punchline. The strong punchline was calling Mr.M mom. The weak one was my sarcasm in my thoughts.

Friday, September 4, 2015

Motivational poster.








I had to do a motivational poster for my GT class at KMS. It was pretty tough. I had to use 2 text layers, 1 for personal quotes, and 1 for a manifesto. I also had to use 4 image layers. 3 of which were symbolic images about me. The other one was for a portrait of myself.I had to Kern my text and balance my images. I also had to use a triadic color scheme in my poster.


  Those requirements were hard to overcome. Here's how I did it. First I did my text layers.I copy pasted it from my other post.Then I put in images by using picasa web albums. Then I made my text noticeable with a triadic color scheme.

I managed to complete the assignment on time. My biggest challenge was to Kern my text. Most of the time, it didn't even work. It was on the second to last day that I decided to Kern the line below the one i wanted to kern; and it worked! Next time, I will make a "blanket" of text. Below are some screen shots of my work in progress, as well as my finished product.
my text layers.
my finished project.
my image layers.

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Personal Manifesto.











There are 5 interesting things about me. I love milking goats and I am a school nerd. I am a farmer and a gardener. I do things that are way outside my comfort zone. Those are my interesting facts. I am Alexander.

Happy is healthy. Work before play. Smile.Live to love .Live 'n' learn .People who procrastinate

are people that are late. Look inside you. Live your 1 life in style. Learn education instead of procrastination. Know what's best. We are made of dreams. Dreams are made of us. You are the only you there is. Know, not think. Don't hate, love instead. Do work. Don't be lazy. Be active. Exercise. Don't get in trouble. Be nice. Repel bullies. Listen to your elders. Stay to love. Learn from mistakes. Don't be the bad guy. Know when to stop.

What you just read was a manifesto. A manifesto is a public declaration that creatively shares personal beliefs or ideas. That manifesto holds all the life lessons that I learned over the years. Maybe you could learn a thing or 2 about life with this manifesto.


(symbols that represent me)