Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Geometric Portraits




I believe that not all facial expressions are universal. According to an article by greatergood.berkeley.edu, most facial expressions are universal. However, there are some that don't quite meet this theme. Popsci.com says that some tribes use expressions differently. They gave different tribes pictures of expressions to identify. The results prove that the preceding statement about different cultures having different expressions to be true. Despite that, most expressions are universal no matter what the tribe may be.


In GT, we are doing a low-poly-portrait. It is a very complicated process indeed. First, you put a portrait into photoshop. Second, You outline the subject and draw triangles over the subject's features (smaller triangles = more detail) with photoshop's line tool. Third, you merge all those shapes to create one layer and put it on top of your portrait layer and put a position lock on it. Fourth, you make a WHITE background layer and leave it on the bottom. Then, you use the polygonal lasso to outline each and every triangle (one at a time) and colorize them. After going through all those steps, you should end up with a finished low-poly-portrait.



I made 3 low poly portraits so far. The first one shouldn't even count, for it was so easy. I just uploaded an image to a website ant it triangulated everything. the only downside is that EVERYTHING was RANDOMLY triangulated and barely anything was legible, let alone my face. The second one (the first one made in photoshop) was much better. The final product was much more precise. Unfortunately, the original photo was taken with a low resolution camera (the computer's webcam to be exact). It was also really bland because I just averaged the colors. The most current one was the best one by far. We got to skip the outlining process which saved a lot of time that would later be used in refining the details of the image. The background was also a unique low poly image in it's own way.

(scroll down for all images)


The easy low poly portrait that was made with the website

The first low poly portrait made with photoshop (the one taken with the webcam) 

The second low poly image made in photoshop (the person in the photo is not me, it is a classmate named Gavin Leins)
This is the ULTIMATE low-poly that was not talked about in the post. This one has a broken glass effect.

Thursday, September 29, 2016

Verbal Landscapes



Nature is a key fundamental element in my life. Nature got me interested into becoming a survivalist, or "living off of the land", as one might say. Nature also keeps all of us alive by providing air, food, water, and shelter. Nature is the base of all life on planet earth. Nature is the starting point on planet earth.

GT class is making me do a nature poem, backed up with slow-mos and time lapses. Creating them isn't as hard as it seems. The filming is the hardest part. You have to put the camera on a natural flat surface And hold still for 10 seconds for slow-mos and 5+ minutes for time lapses. Then, you take the raw footage into a video editor such as Final Cut Pro X (not sponsored). And finally, you go to the re- time editor option and either speed up or slow down the clip.

Every project that we do in this class is bound to have difficult parts. The most difficult part of this project (in my opinion) is the filming of the time lapses. You don't know how hard it is to hold still for 5+ minutes to film a time lapse. It's unbearable. The part that I enjoyed the most was the editing portion. It is quite enjoyable to be immersed in your own work. If you did this, you would know just how fun this actually is.

As you can see, my class really liked my video. Yesterday, my GT class watched every one's videos and voted on scores for the videos. 22.2% of the class (6 students) gave me a 4/4. I met all the requirements but I think it was my monologue that set it off. 3 people (11.1%) in the class voted my video the best in the class. I'm flattered and don't want to object to their decision. 

Friday, September 2, 2016

Poetic Personal Statment



2. BLOG POST: POETIC PERSONAL STATEMENT
Required Images: LastF_Poetic.jpg


It's been a long summer but I'm finally back here to tell you all about poetry. I feel that poetry can be very personal. I find it personal because most poems relate to the poet's life. For example, a black poet during segregation would make a poem about how hard life was (I'm not trying to be racist, I promise). A rich person would make a poem about his or her riches and/or how good his/her life was/is (again, I'm not trying to insult anyone so PLEASE don't take any offense).


As the mind grows more intelligent,
The soul grows more elegant.
Through blood, sweat, and tears, my true wonderful form appears.
Some find it appalling, some find it drawing, some find it inspiring.
My friends help me on my way, to attempt to keep the dark moments at bay.
That doesn't always work though, but the bad times help me grow.
Despite that, I avoid the darkness of feelings, because it's hard to acquire emotional healing.
That is just how my life goes, for that is the path I chose.
Should i change it I think not, don't even give me the thought.


What you just read was my poetic personal statement. Notice how I used rhythm and rhyme to create a poem that actually makes sense. I used rhymezone.com  to come up with all the rhymes that I used in my poetic statement. I also used all of my personal experiences to fuel the words that I used in the statement. This statement is also being used in the first photoshop project of the year. The finished project is displayed below.

My finished and kerned text layer.

My completed sketch layer





The entire finished photoshop project has yet to be added so just sit tight.

Monday, May 23, 2016

Music Video Finale

P3T9 Stayin Alive from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.



Driving to the film spot
My group and I have to make a music video for my GT class. As a matter of fact, this is the final project of the year. My group consists of me, Nicolas Koo, and Gillian Altman. We have to do lip-sync segments and storyline. My storyline is about scared little girl who conquers her fears and climbs a tree. As we all might know, my song is "stayin' alive" by the bee gees. So basically, the music video is about living in the moment. The lyrics really match the video. If you don't believe me, just watch the video (above) for yourself.

I don't know what this is
One key part of a music video is a fast edit montage. Other video productions have fast edit montages as well. I would tell you my favorite one, but I never saw any that meant anything. Basically, I would just say that mine is my favorite. Before anyone sends hate mail about me cheating at picking my favorite, just know that I have never seen any montages that were any good at all.

This video is supposed to showcase my best work. We used all the skills we learned throughout the year. We made an intro graphic in our video (does anybody remember my first post, personal manifesto or my second post, motivational poster?). Then, we had to use many composition techniques, just like many other projects. We had to use all those skills to make one, over the top project.
Don't even ask...


The two mins of song (credits below):

Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk
I'm a woman's man: no time to talk
Music loud and women warm, I've been kicked around
Since I was born
And now it's all right, it's OK
And you may look the other way
We can try to understand
The New York Times' effect on man

(34 sec.)
Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother
You're stayin' alive, stayin' alive
Feel the city breakin' and everybody shakin'
And we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive

(58 sec)
Well now, I get low and I get high
And if I can't get either, I really try
Got the wings of heaven on my shoes
I'm a dancin' man and I just can't lose
You know it's all right, it's ok
I'll live to see another day
We can try to understand
The New York Times' effect on man

(80 sec)
Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother
You're stayin' alive, stayin' alive
Feel the city breakin' and everybody shakin'
And we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive

(94 sec)
Life goin' nowhere, somebody help me
Somebody help me, yeah

(120 sec)
Votes for our grades
4.2% of the class really likes our video


I do not own this song. All music 

and lyrics were created by the 
BeeGees. All musical credit 
goes to them. The only thing
we created was the video to go on
top of the music.

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Animated Life lessons

P3T3 Spaceman Locates Brightness from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.


BTS photo


In the previous post, Character Development, I talked about my personal idiosyncrasies I would use in my animation project. In this post, I will talk about my teammates' personal idiosyncrasies That I will take advantage of. First up is my teammate Ashley. She wanted me to use her clumsiness in the animation. Then, there is Alexis. She said to use her shyness in the project. I agreed to both of their requests. It should go okay, but hey; I'm not done yet!
BTS photo


Have you ever been neglected in a friendly environment? That is what this animation is supposed to reflect. My animation is about how I fly to a happy
and friendly planet and get insulted. The life lesson is not to judge a book by it's cover. That is because the girls realize that I am a nice guy. They decide to make friends with me and we live happily ever after.


BTS photo
I feel that my team was pretty productive. We came in at recess (well, I did anyway) and worked on our animation outside of class time. I feel that our biggest struggle was definitely photoshop. The animation was like a huge GIF. To make 10 seconds of animation, you will need 100 frames. Each frame takes at least a minute to make. That made fitting the deadline
Our results
Our story board


Friday, April 8, 2016

Character Development



My finished GIF.



In my GT class, we are going to make GIFs. One important thing to note is that in order to make a GIF, you will have to learn about yourself. I have been doing some reflection myself, and here's what I came up with. I am a smart guy who will strive to do my best. I am a bit of a nerd but I like it that way. I am very quirky at all times, and it isn't always a good thing, believe me. I shall make a GIF based on that. Wish me luck! Believe me, I need it.




I plan to use my quirkiness in my animation(s). I will do that by making my animation as silly as possible. I am thinking of doing a circus act in one of my animation scenes. Ok, now back to my GIF (my current project). I did a GIF where I slide into frame, shake my booty more intensely than possible in real life, then slide out of frame. That's how I used my quirkiness in my GIF.



Figure 1: My arms are outstretched
so I can use puppet warp and the
green screen is to make using the quick-selection
tool easier.
Figure 2: I cut myself out.
Making the GIF was a fun experience. First, someone took a picture of me standing in front of a green screen with my arms outstretched as seen in
Figure 1. Then I used the quick selection tool found in adobe photoshop (btw I'm not sponsored). I used that tool to create a cutout of myself, as seen in Figure 2. I then added a backdrop dragging and dropping the .jpg file from my finder window (you can find the .jpg file in another blogpost). I forgot to mention that I moved myself inch by inch to make my frames. After that, I hypnotized myself by watching my GIF over and over again (it was quite a trance). Anyway, that's all for now, stay tuned for my complete animation; same time, same blog, different post!

Thursday, March 10, 2016

.MOV Film Festival

P3T1 Girls Use Technology from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.




My GT class is doing a filming project. My team (Christina Kaiwi, Me, Gillian Altman) is doing a sitcom. The plan has many keywords that are supposed to have meaning. My keywords are computer, first time, humorous, bickering, teaching, cooperation, and challenge. My sitcom is about how I teach two girls about computers. All those words relate to their struggle.


My sitcom is about how two girls struggle to use technology. After listening to their tutor, they greatly improve. My sitcom has an implicit message. That message is that you always have to listen to your elders or in this case, tutors. The purpose of my sitcom is to show how people can improve after getting good advice.

My film team faced many challenges filming this sitcom. I think our biggest challenge was the editing. One of our teammates (who I prefer to leave nameless) filmed vertically. We are dealing with the speed bumps that placed in our film. We are having trouble deciding what music to put in and how to do this project. We are having a hard time agreeing with each other.

Those are my behind the scenes pictures!

zzzzzzzzzz

Friday, February 12, 2016

Tiny Spherical Worlds


Composite images are a good way to make polar panoramas. Many people ask "why do you need composite images, isn't 1 picture enough?" To answer that question, NO, 1 pic is NOT enough, and I will tell you why. The photos look better as a planet if they are merged via photoshop. Trust me, for I have to do this for my GT class. Plus, it's easier to skew if you have multiple images.



There are two types of photoshop panoramas. They are polar and spherical. Polar panos look line you created a miniature planet on your image. A spherical panorama looks like you created either a snow-globe, or a tunnel. I find that ironic, as I think it'd make more sense if spherical panos were the planets and the polar panos the tunnels. That is just my opinion. There is probably a good explanation for the naming, but I am unaware of it.

HenriquesA_Pano1

HenriquesA_SchoolPolar

HenriquesA_SchoolSpherical
These worlds look unreal right? WRONG!!!(hopefully). I take my time to make these worlds look as realistic as possible. When my portrait is in the frame, i'll add some shadows to make it look realistic. I strategically took my photos so the atmosphere of the world would look realistic. In the tunnel ones, i'll add some darkness so that it looks like a real tunnel. I am sure that the finished product will look very convincing.
HenriquesA_Polar2
HenriquesA_Sphere1
HenriquesA_Polar1

HenriquesA_Sphere2

Sunday, January 31, 2016

Hockney Style Joiners

David Hockney is a great pop artist. He is known for Photomontages. In my G.T. class, I had to create photomontages too. His work is different from mine. Mine is about people, places, or feelings. His are about people, places, and things. Things and feelings are different. His "things" maybe are feelings, but I do it differently. I'd take a picture of a tree while he would take a picture of an airplane. Notice a difference of mood? I'd do happiness while he'd do passage. Those are the ways our photomontages are different.

My final photomontage

Images often send messages. Those messages could be either positive or negative. Photos are positive when they display happy thoughts or moods. Photos are negative when they show sad/angry thoughts or moods. People usually display positive images, but some do negative images. David Hockney does both. I only do positive images because I want my audience to think of me as a positive thinker. Others only do negative because they want their audience to think of them as negative thinkers.



Image result for david hockney photography
www.canadiannaturephotographer.com
I want my image to display an implicit message. My photos are of pillows so I want my photo to scream relaxation. It also says something about me. It says that i'm the relaxed kind of guy. That's what I want out of my image. To have those hidden messages. If it doesn't, chances are I didn't do it right. It is bound to be wrong if it doesn't have the wanted meaning. Either that or messages are an opinion thing. I probably don't even know the meaning of meanings. All I want is for it to mean relaxation.                                      
My school photomontage of my partner.
Christina Kaiwi is the name of my partner

Thursday, January 14, 2016

2016 Aspirations

It is a new year. I'm so exited!!! There are 5 goals that I want to accomplish in 2016! The first goal I want to accomplish is marathon training. I want to get fit by running at least a half marathon. I can only do that by training. the second goal is that I want to volunteer at one major organization. I already went to the orientation at the humane society. Goal number 3 is that I want To take schooling more seriously. I will probably get straight A's on last quarter's report card. Objetivo número cuatro (spanish) is that I will take more care of my animals. I hate the goats but I shouldn't. Goal nummer vijf (dutch) is that I want to be nicer.

I really want to focus on that marathon goal. I really am fat. Running 26.1 miles will help me lose my blubber. I will even get to meet the mayor, which is a pretty decent bonus. It will take me all the way till September, when it starts. It will be difficult, but I'll manage.
#kmsgt_tree

My first step is already complete. I recently read a book about good training schedules. My second step is to train up to an intermediate level, which the book tells me I need to be at. Then I shall do my best effort to train my whole body to prepare for the marathon. That includes running, biking, swimming, lifting, and any thing else I can think of. Wish me luck as I train for the marathon!
#kmsgt_window
#kmsgt_doorknob