Week 1: Visual Storytelling Summary
This wraps up the first week of assignments, it was a huge learning curve for me. I still feel like I’m missing something, we’ll have to wait and see if I did. What I took away from this week was letting my creativity let loose, i struggle with perfection but sometimes art does not have to be so perfect. There is beauty in everything to some extent of course. The hardest part for me was navigating WordPress, this is a new realm for me. Towards the end of the week I downloaded the app and it was a bit easier for me. The frustrating bit was figuring out the submission of some assignments. I had difficulty submitting my visual assignments on the site. I could not figure out WordPress to RSS feed into the DS106DC site. Aside from that I enjoyed taking time out of my day and letting my artistic side free. It felt refreshing since my job is strict with no sense of creativity. I am looking forward to what the rest of this course brings!
Links to assignments
Week 2: Intro to Design Summary
After wrapping this week’s lesson, my key learning experience was composition of design. There are many aspects of compositions, each one of those dictates the feeling a viewer has on your design. By combining different elements, we as artist can elevate our designs. The process starts with being more thoughtful and methodical.
The hardest part of this lesson was the design blitz. My thought process did not grasp the techniques at first. I had to take a step back and use what I learned from The Vignelli Canon. On the other hand I found using Word Press to be easier than last week. It took countless trial and error with semantics to accomplish my tasks.
Going back to the design blitz, I was frustrated with my first take. I completed the work but once I put it into my website I realized I did it incorrectly. I was confused with the overall intent but after countless reviews I came to understand it. This week I enjoyed the design assignments. I was able to create these pieces and tell a story with ease. Taking what I learned from this week, I am excited what the next lesson with bring.
Links to Assignments
Week 3: Intro Audio Storytelling Summary
This week came to an end with an abundance of music playing while completing my assignments. Audio storytelling differ in a lot of ways from visual storytelling. But in many ways they are the same.
My favorable portion of this week was using music to express an idea. I love music and I find music as an excellent outlet for expression. Pairing music to tell a story was something different for me, as I only use it to convey feelings. I enjoyed using music to tell my stories, it gave depth to the stories.
The assignments this week was difficult from previous, since it was audio heavy. I found creating my own audio to be the hardest part of this week’s assignments. As much as I like music I don’t have the talent to create music on my own, I’ve tried many times in the past but failed. This lesson took me out of my comfort zone, but the most frustrating aspect was being limited by tools. After a struggle I was able to complete the assignments. My takeaway is to properly research assignments in order to execute them in a timely manner.
Links to Assignments
Week 4: Introduction To Video Summary
Tired, sleepy and exhaustion are my current thoughts as I write this summary. This was grueling as I waited for the weekend to do my classwork. I’ve looked at my classmates pages and taken inspiration for my assignments. I even use their pages to evaluate my work, and gauge what works or doesn’t.
I took a few days to complete my animated trailer, this was new territory for me. I’ve done digital drawings before but making a sequence like such was more complicated than expected. From the drawing of each scene to the editing this was the most difficult for me to complete. On the other hand I found it easy to find inspiration for my assignments. With a busy weekend I already had a plan of what to do and how to execute it.
This week’s assignments were received with a mixture of frustration and enjoyment. I found that editing videos can be frustrating. Every placement of a video is crucial and if not carefully place can disrupt the video. The most enjoyable since I had an actual entertaining weekend to document. From recording bands and taking photos with my friends to compiling into a video, this was most enjoyable.
Links to Assignments
Week 5: Final Blog Post
The cultivation of this final assignment was a true reflection of past assignments. There were so many lessons learned from these past 5 weeks, which was tied together with this project. For one I found it truly easier to build my story with a clear understanding of why the story is being told. I took Ira’s insight on using building blocks to weave a story together and built my final assignment on that foundation. After I figured my character I gave him a purpose which lead me to other smaller stories that allowed me to strengthen my character.
My take away from this was to be creative in all aspects. Failing is apart of creativity, from my first submissions to now I felt like there was a huge growth. I was able to learn from past assignment and took what worked and improved on it. Using various different platforms was a challenge at first but I feel a lot more confident using them now.
My project had to be this final one, it allowed me to use different mediums and tell a well rounded story. If I could take the class again I would do more research on what applications were used. That way I could study the, before to make it easy for me to use. Overall I am truly pleased with this course and with the product I’m delivering.
Assignment banks used