Day 69 - The End Of The Year Post :)

What I did this year:
So, here we are. I've accumulated a total of 69 posts on this blog and I'm very happy for that. I originally thought I would only have like 40 but through perseverance and hard work I got a lot done. I was really busy with calculus and badminton this year. I would have to stay over 12 hours at school on Tuesdays back in April and I would frantically have to start working on homework when I got back. I always put off Info-tech for the weekends because that was the only time I actually had time to do that. So for majority of this school year, I had no life. I even had to go to summer school last summer because I wanted to take physics. I am really happy to say that I've persevered through all this. It was very difficult but now I'm done and this summer is going to be insane. For my YouTube, Health and just me as a person. There's a lot I'm going to do.

So, I learned a lot this semester. I focused my Independent Studies on Photoshop and Sony Vegas because I have a YouTube channel which I will definitely focus a lot more on this summer. Doing this course taught me a lot about these two programs because I got to do something I loved combined with getting a pretty decent mark in this class. I learned things from distorting photos to colour correcting videos. There's so much I learned in this class. I also learned about fully animating your own video in Sony Vegas for one of my projects. Overall I learned way too much this semester so if you want to check that out, you can view all 69 posts to see something new every day.

Now I come to the part where I give advice to people that want to take Independent Studies or something related to Photoshop/Sony Vegas. Basically what I recommend is that if you want to take Independent Studies make sure you're ready to put the effort in because it definitely is a tough course. Now if you take it during class hours, it shouldn't be as difficult but if you do what I did, which was take it outside of class but that's the main piece of advice. Make sure  you choose something you actually want to do like more it was editing videos. I know for my friends it was creating games or sprites or whatever their passion was. But seriously, this course isn't for the faint of heart so tread carefully. A piece of advice for the people taking Photoshop or Sony Vegas is that not everything is going to work. Not everything is going to be the way you imagined it and that's what I had to accept a couple of times. Yes, if you put the effort in, it will pay off but maybe not how you imagine it. Example: a video you're creating might not work out well such as transitions or something but if you put in effort, it will be positive in another way. Finally, my main piece of advice for anyone taking this course is to manage your time wisely. If I hadn't managed my time wisely, I would have been done for in April but I did and it paid off big time for me because I'm at 100% right now in this class and hopefully that's how I end it.

I have a 100% in this class right now and that's because of hard work. If you go back to my first post I made on this blog, I have a quote saying "I am going to try very hard to get a 100% in this class" and that's what I did. Remember perseverance pays off and I'm so happy it did. Now for the sad part, the farewell....

Alright, so this is going to be my last post on this blog. If anyone has been following it properly, you would know that I have a youtube channel and that's the main reason I created this blog so it could help me learn things about editing. I am really glad I took this course because it really did teach me a lot and about myself. I want to thank Mr. Bilesky for being a true G with this independent course.
Now I said I would send the link to the video and here it is:

                                         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZaH86KZqDo

Now if you want to keep up to date with my shenanigans, here is the link to that.
My youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrnWXkGNuutMkAFYsQQ_hHg
My Twitter: https://twitter.com/dizasterhero
My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dizasterhero/

That's where you can find me online. It will become very successful this summer and I promise you that. And with that, I'm saying peace.

- DiZasterHero out

Day 68 - Photoshop - Final Project - Montage - Day 5

What I did:
Today, I did my last thing for Independent Studies, program wise. I made the thumbnail for the montage. I am going to uploading it and posting it to my Facebook which I will show you tomorrow. This thumbnail involved taking a picture from the video and editing it in Photoshop. I added a sunburst effect and made  the thumbnail for pristine than I have in the past. You can see what it looks like on my YouTube channel tomorrow. It looks way better than all my other thumbnails in my opinion.

What I learned:
Today, I didn't learn a whole lot about Photoshop other than some simple opacity things. There wasn't that much to learn to be honest because I have basically learned all that I need to for my videos in the future. I did however, add these little yellow features on the thumbnail by dabbing the brush and changing the blend mode to "screen." But to be honest, I knew most of this stuff.  I think that's a fair point to make in that I have created 67 other posts with me learning something. I hope you enjoyed.

What I plan to do tomorrow:
Tomorrow, I plan to create my year end post. It's going to be a sad time even though I wasn't technically in a class but it's always sad when school comes to an end. However, there is a way to keep updated with and that will revealed tomorrow. That's my goal for tomorrow's class.

Day 67 - Sony Vegas - Final Project - Montage - Day 4

What I did:
Today, I finished the montage. I added color saturation to some of the clips, added some tones and all that fun stuff. I added the transition that  I learned a few months ago where you can weave the clips together so it smoothly transitions into the next clip. I am pretty proud of this montage with the amount of time that I had. Considering that I had a few final projects for this class, I think I made a pretty decent montage. I didn't really slow anything down because it messed up the entire thing with the sound so I chose not to do that. However, it really does look a lot better than what I created in my first video which was in August of last year.

What I learned:
Today, I learned why the filters weren't working yesterday. It was because there was a setting active which made it so the colours didn't show. It's basically a feature which doesn't allow any effects to show up because it's supposed to be a "before and after" thing. That is what I learned today in Sony Vegas and I'm glad I did because that would've been devastating if I hadn't.

What I plan to learn tomorrow:
Tomorrow, I plan to make a thumbnail for the video. The video is finished right now but I will post the link in my very last post because it seems suiting that way. Tomorrow, I want to create a sick thumbnail for this video.

Day 66 - Sony Vegas - Final Project - Montage - Day 3

What I did:
Today, I gave a cinematic look to the clips. I did this because that's how montages are supposed to be. So basically I added black bars to the top and bottom of the video. I tried giving the clips a filter but the black and white one wouldn't work and I'm not sure what happened to make it not work but hopefully, I'll find out in the next few days.

What I learned:
Today, I didn't learn much. What I did learn was that every clip comes with the maintain aspect ratio aspect so when I was adding the black bars by condensing the video down, it shows that the clip has aspect ratio because black bars start to form on the right as well. That is what I learned in today's class.

What I plan to learn tomorrow:
Tomorrow, I plan to continue with my montage and hopefully learn why the filters weren't working. I plan to colour correct as well and probably do some more velocity shenanigans. That is my  goal for tomorrow's class.

Day 65 - Sony Vegas - Final Project - Montage - Day 2

What I did:
Today,  I continued my montage making. I have a cool idea of how I want to make this montage. My very first video that I created on this channel was a compilation of clips with me talking over them to explain what was going to be on my channel so I think it would be a cool idea to recreate that video but as a montage rather than a commentary. So I plan to put the clips in the exact same order but montage-ify it.

What I learned:
Today, I learned a little bit more about velocity in Sony Vegas. This is something that I have touched on before but very briefly. In a montage, you want to create slow-mo bits so basically what I did was I took velocity and slowed it down for a part of a clip. This is mainly used when you pull the trigger so people can see what is happening and for the dramatic effect. I didn't use too much of it today but I will definitely do a lot more tomorrow.

What I plan to learn tomorrow:
Tomorrow, I plan to continue creating this project. I will learn more about editing the clips together and making clips black and white. I will also add filters to some of the filters and I also plan to "Hollywood-ize" it.

Day 64 - Sony Vegas - AVID Project - 2/2

What I did:
Today, I finished up the Avid project that I started in last days class. Today, I added all the clips and edited them together. Since my group couldn't transfer the files to me through their phones we had tried sending them over the internet and that did not work because the videos got cut off so we created a google drive folder with us in it so we could download the clips. Let's just say the videos took forever to download so I stayed up till 1.am to finish this. Basically, I finished editing the project today.

What I learned:
Today, I learned about how to add the credit roll. Basically, you have to go to the "Media Generators" thing and select "credit roll" and you choose whichever one you want for the project. I chose the first one which has a black background but you can choose to make it transparent. When you select one, it gives you a bunch of options for text and you can do whatever suits you! That is what I learned today!

What I plan to learn tomorrow:
Tomorrow, I plan to finally continue my montage. No joke or anything. I actually plan to finish my montage or at least continue it because it will take a few days for me to finish it. That is my goal for tomorrow's class.

Day 63 - Sony Vegas - AVID Project - 1/2

What I did:
Today, I did an avid project for info tech. I decided to do this because right now I am very condensed for time. I didn't have time to edit this and make a montage so I hope this will suffice for two posts while I get myself sorted out. So basically this is a project which involves making a dish for university and what people can make so they don't starve. We named our project "A Very Intricate Dish" and made chicken with parmesan noodles. I edited this project and made it like how it is.

What I learned:
Today, I learned that when you put the clips into the composition, if you have a clip that is behind a clip you are moving, it will move the whole thing back rather just the clip. I'm not sure why it happened for this. I'm not 100% sure if it happens when I make my videos but I will be sure to find out when school ends.

What I plan to learn tomorrow:
Tomorrow, I plan to continue this avid project and learn how to add a credit roll. That is my goal for tomorrow.

Day 62 - Sony Vegas - English Project (29) - The Final Countdown

What I did:

Today, I finished the project. I added the last bit of audio and added a little more to the animation. I also fixed up the sound effects. It turns out the whole video is about 15 minutes long and I am talking for literally all of it. I also added the adagio the the background music and it sounds so nice. I also summarized pretty much the story and I hope I get a good mark in it since I put so much effort into it.
Here is the credit to every single backdrop I used:
https://wallpapersafari.com/destroyed-city-background/
http://metallized.deviantart.com/art/Destroyed-City-221502350

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/156500155770943231/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/432486370437914357/

What I learned:

Today, I learned that the music that is played by the cellist is the Adagio in G Minor (Albinoni). This is the music that is played by the cellist throughout the story but it is never mentioned which version he played so I had to do a little research and I learned that it was this one. That is pretty much all I learned today because I was just finishing some things up. However, there is a mini thing that I learned. I don't know why this happened but whenever I tried to insert something I between things in the same layer, it would push the stuff behind it further back

What I plan to learn tomorrow:

My goal for tomorrow's class is to continue working on my montage. I did one day of the montage back in April but I haven't touched it since and that is my goal for tomorrow's class. I am not sure what I will be learning but I got a pretty cool idea for how I'm going to make it now. It's going to be nostalgic for me :D

Time: 4 hours (including rendering)

Day 61 - Sony Vegas - English Project (28) - Commentary

What I did: 
Today, I added some commentary to the composition. I am about half done but I worked really hard today to do it. I added commentary to a lot of scenes and whenever I mumbled or messed something up, I restarted the whole thing. That is pretty much all I did today. There's not much to it but I am finishing up the project tomorrow.

What I learned:
Today, I learned a new thing in audio section and that is that when I started to add more commentary to the composition, it makes a new layer even though I have the commentary layer selected. It also adds the layer into a "non-solo" mode, So basically, I have the commentary in two different parts and since I haven't made a video in weeks now, I don't know if it's just for this composition or if it's for every composition but I will try to get it fixed.

What I plan to learn tomorrow:
Tomorrow, I plan to finish this entire project. I have add the rest of the commentary and quickly say goodbye to the people watching and then I need to start refining some things. My goal for tomorrow is just to finish up but I will also try to learn something. Not sure what that is though yet.

Time: 1 hour 1/2 hours

Day 60 - Sony Vegas - English Project (27) - Finishing some things up

What I did:

Today, I finished the animations and went back to add sound effects to a few things. This was a really big task but it was worth it because I got a lot of stuff done. I made the rest of the story in Sony Vegas and I added the explosion and gunshot sound effects. Other than that, there wasn't much to do but I wrapped up the story and I tried to get in as many of the things I could. Now, the only things I have left to do are audio and refining. 

What I learned:

Today, I learned about the audio track. I tried to place gunshot sounds and explosion sounds in them but it turns out i had the "solo" option off which makes it not sound anything and the audio track turns black. It took me a while to figure out what was wrong but I messed around with the layer settings and finally figured it out. So if you're not in "solo" mode, the audio track will be silent. I have no idea how I got there but it really was a new thing that I learned that will be helpful in the future. 

What I plan to learn tomorrow:

Tomorrow, I plan to add the rest of the commentary. I am a perfectionist so hopefully, it won't take that long to add commentary but I know I'm going to be tempted after every screw-up. My goal for tomorrow's class is to learn something new about audio, hopefully how to distort it and everything because I could use that in the future for videos and make them funny. That is my goal for tomorrow's class.

Time: 3 1/2 hours 

Day 59 - May Analysis and June Plans

What I learned this month:
This month, I got a lot of stuff done. I only focused on one thing this month and that is my English Project for "The Cellist of Sarajevo." I got to do anything I wanted for this project but I chose to mix and match with my courses and decided to get double credit. I chose to combine it with my Info-tech class because I wanted to learn new things in Sony Vegas because that's what my Independent Studies course is on.

I learned a lot this month, especially about keyframes! I animated so much this month that it's become second nature to me to go to the "Event Pan/Crop" section and start animating away. This is something that will definitely come in handy when I make Youtube videos. I never used this feature because I was too lazy to learn it while making videos so I decided to do it for the Cellist assignment and oh boy did I learn a lot.

I learned how to keyframing works and what you need to do to make it move. I learned that if you want something to move later on in its lifetime, you need to make it stand still first and then move on to it later. I also learned how to resize, how to inverse and all that fun stuff. Learning about maintaining aspect ratio really helped as well. It taught things about pictures and how they need to be checked off in the settings to fit the video.

The most important thing I learned this month, in my opinion, was a life lesson about managing time. I was very condensed for time in that I had AP calculus earlier this month and I had to manage my time for all my classes. I believe that I did a decent job in managing time for this class even though I really couldn't get to it in the first half of the month due to wanting a break from all the school. However, I counted out the days and I knew that I needed to hurry it up so I definitely managed my time well in that aspect. You can look at my blog and I got the exact number of days I needed which is 19.

I do believe that I learned a lot this month not just for IT but also learning life lessons. This course is also tough when trying to go for a perfect mark and it's even harder when you're not doing it in a class but doing it outside of one. I have to do it alone and I believe this has taught me how to manage my time and not to procrastinate.I've worked very hard on these posts and I hope it shows.
What I plan to learn next month:
Next month I plan to be on top of things. I have graduation ceremonies, prom, etc. in the next few days so I plan to not do anything for the next days but I will definitely make up for it on the weekend. This next month, I plan to finish up "The Cellist of Sarajevo" assignment in probably 4-5 posts. Then, I want to make a montage and have that be my final project for this class. I haven't waited all this time for nothing and I believe having two final projects is a good thing on this blog. I plan to learn how to make a montage in general. I am not going for a specific tutorial because I do not have a whole lot of time but I plan to make it good and interesting. This is going to be  my first montage that I am creating so hopefully in the future, I will have a lot more experience with it. I want this to be good and I will most likely upload it to my youtube channel because that's what this blog started out as and that's how it's going to end. This may be my last monthly post but I'm not 100% sure it is. I will definitely end this blog summarizing everything I've done on this blog. It's going to be a fun ride. See ya soon. :D
- Jimmy

Day 58 - Sony Vegas - English Project (26) - Dragan's Motivation

What I did:
Today, I finished Dragan's next chapter which also involved a car. This time it pauses and picks up Emina and goes on forward. I made Dragan move back and forward to show that he's thinking. This is a major chapter for Dragan in that he learns a lot about himself and what he wants to do next. This chapter leads him to make the decision that he needs to pull the man in the hat off the streets in the few chapters. It shows how much this war is affecting him and that's the reason I wanted to do this.

What I learned:
Today, I didn't learn much but it's coming toward the end of the month and I've already done this a thousand times so I hope this won't make me lose marks and I know it probably won't. What I did learn was that the maintaining aspect ratio also affects the tops and bottoms of the image. It happened with the car but when I put it in the composition and tried to move it down, it started to disappear because I didn't check "maintain aspect ratio." That's what I learned today.

What I plan to learn tomorrow:
Tomorrow, I plan to make the May analysis post. I plan to talk about what I've learned and what I plan to learn in the future. That is my goal for tomorrow's class. I will go into detail about what my plans are.

Time: 50 minutes

Day 57 - Sony Vegas - English Project (25) - Kenan's 3 types of people of the round table

What I did:
Today, I made the last biggest chapter in the book or at least what I would say is the biggest chapter. I created Kenan at a broken building trying to get water and I also had a few people there that died from the explosion. I also added something new to this and that was a car. I had the car drive into the screen, have a guy get out, then get in and leave again. I also had made the screen shake when the explosions were happening to show the effect of them.

What I learned:
Today, I learned about the tinting and adding it to a flash. After you go to flash transition second, click yellow flash and you have the ability to change the flash to a different colour through the tint option. You can make it black for a fade effect or blue for an airplane going into the sky effect but I stuck with yellow because that's the colour of the explosion. I also learned that you have to keep in the margins of the "Event Pan/Crop" section if you are making something go up and down because if your thing isn't in the margins, then it will show black instead.

What I plan to learn in the future:
Tomorrow, I plan to do the next chapter in the book. We are finally done chapter two of the book and we can move onto the rest of it. I plan to do most of Chapter 3 over the weekend and not really document all of it since it's not as important as the first 2 chapters. I will highlight the rest of it though. Tomorrow, I plan to do the next chapter and hopefully learn one last thing which I do not know about before the monthly post I make. 

Time: 1 1/2 hours

Day 56 - Sony Vegas - English Project (24) - Arrow's Job is done

What I did:
So, I actually didn't realize that Arrow's big chapter is right before  Kenan's so right that's what I created today instead of doing Kenan's. He will be next day. Today, I created the epic scene of the Arrow taking down the enemy sniper. This involved me switching backdrops 3 different times. It starts with the Cellist. Then goes to Nermin. Then finally back to the Cellist. This was just time-consuming but it's one of the 3 biggest chapters in the book so it's expected. I also created another death so that was fun. 

What I learned:
Today, I learned something that I've been really curious about for a long time. I've always wondered how many YouTubers add the zoom in effect for one second and immediately zoom out for the rest of the video. It's used for comedic effect and I've always wondered how to do it. Today, I learned that they use keyframes. Basically what you do is split the clip where you want it zoomed in and then split it again where you want it to go back to normal. Then, you take the split part and you go to the keyframe section and zoom it into where you want it zoomed. Then you have your zoom in effect!

What I plan to learn tomorrow:
Tomorrow is the day I plan to do Kenan's thing. I know I said this yesterday but tomorrow is actually the day where I do Kenan's story. It will involve a new explosion that I plan to learn so that's my goal for tomorrow. I will also learn how to add sound effects and etc. I want this to be done perfectly. This is the last biggest chapter of the story and after this, everything should be shorter. I should be cruising in the next few days. 

Time: 1 1/4 hours

Day 55 - Sony Vegas - English Project (23) - Rip In Peace, Cat in the HAT

What I did:
So, today, I made Dragan's most important chapter and this chapter involves death and people getting shot. I made a bunch of people run across the screen and some of them got shot so they would get turned to one side. I did not add the hat falling off the guy yet because I haven't created the sprite with the guy without the hat. yet but I will do that on my own time because it truly isn't anything urgent right now. I also viewed my rendering of the 8-minute video yesterday. I did this because I wanted to test out if it rendered properly and behold, it does. :D There have been times where it hasn't rendered and hopefully everything goes well. I would like to finish this project a few days before the due date because I want to see how the whole product looks.

What I learned:
Today, I learned that if you're in the "Event Pan/Crop" section, the timing at the markers does mean anything and that the program can be giving you a wrong time. What I'm saying is that, when you enter the keyframe section, it has time milestones in the timeline but those milestones don't represent that time at all. I learned that if you want the exact time, look in the bottom right corner of that tab and precisely put your thing in that place.

What I plan to learn tomorrow:
Tomorrow, I plan to create Kenan's most major chapter. Today, I finished Dragan's most major chapter and tomorrow is Kenan's. It involves explosions and cars so that should something new that I work on. I will definitely learn something about explosions tomorrow. Whether that involves making an explosion tomorrow or just making a different kind of flash but that is my goal for tomorrow's class.

Time: 1 1/2 hours

Day 54 - Sony Vegas - English Project (22) - Kenan is still on his stroll + Render Test

What I did:
Today, I made Kenan's next chapter which wasn't very action packed. The main thing that happened was him crossing the bridge. There wasn't much that I had to do that I haven't done before other than adding in some characters and moving them. From here on out, we are more than 50% done the story. I also learned some keyframe things today which can help a lot in the future. I am also becoming very comfortable with keyframes and animating. Practice makes perfect.

What I learned:
Today, I learned something new about keyframing. This could've been learned many classes ago but I wasn't that familiar with keyframing so I didn't really know much. Basically, if you put a keyframe somewhere, and you go to the composition to see what the effect is, if you're not on the exact spot the keyframe is, it will not show you the final position of the object. This has messed me up multiple times because I always go to the middle rather than the end so when I apply the keyframe, the character might be off the screen and that's how I want it. That's what I learned today.

What I plan to learn tomorrow:
Tomorrow, I plan to learn about the timing thing in the keyframe section. It's basically how the timing works in that section. I can explain more tomorrow. I plan to create the biggest chapter of Dragan tomorrow. It's the part where Emina gets shot and it basically shapes the rest of Dragan's story arc. That is my goal for tomorrow. I will also explain the results of the render test. 

Time: 1 Hour

Day 53 - Sony Vegas - English Project (21) - Arrow's Resolve

What I did:

Today, I finished another one of the longest chapters in the book which is Arrow's chapter in which she must protect the Cellist. I did a lot of stuff for this chapter. I added an extra gun, inverted it and made it shoot at arrow while the cellist is performing. I also gave the cello of the Cellist a moving up and down effect to make it show that he's playing. After Arrow gets shot, I made her turn to her side because she noticed that she was going to get shot at and immediately ducked. Then, I ended the chapter. It may not seem like a lot but a lot of effort went into this one especially. 

What I learned:

Today, I learned about inverting an image.What I'm talking about is making the object face the other way. For example, The gun that arrow uses is facing the to right but I can now make it face to the left by inverting it. This is pretty easy to do in photoshop and it's also pretty easy to do in Sony Vegas. To do this in Sony Vegas, you have to go to the "Event Pan/Crop" section and put completely go to the arrow's and click on one side, and bring it in towards the middle and out again to make it face the other way. It's really quite simple!

What I plan to learn tomorrow:

Tomorrow, I plan to continue to with this cellist stuff and hopefully finish Kenan's next chapter. It is a pretty short chapter and doesn't have much in it. There isn't anything new to learn tomorrow but like I said, I always find something so hopefully, we will. Right now, I am about under 50% done with the book so we should be wrapping things up here in the next few chapters. Then, I plan to refine the whole project. 

Time: 1 3/4 hours

Day 52 - Sony Vegas - English Project (20) - Dragan-Tails reunites with Emina

What I did:
Today, I finished Dragan's chapter. It introduced a new character, Emina, who is actually very crucial to Dragan's story. I used the same backdrop because Dragan's whole story takes place at that intersection. I introduced Emina by having her approach Dragan. I also made Dragan move fast when he was supposed to be running toward the other side of the intersection and also when he gets shot at. There wasn't much else I did today because this chapter involved a lot of talking rather than action.

What I learned:
Today, I learned about maintaining aspect ratio and how you have to do this every single time you put an image into the composition. If you do not do this, sony vegas will not allow you to move the objects to the sides to be visible but after you uncheck the maintain aspect ratio, you can freely put the character wherever you want. I already knew about this but you have to do it for every single image. I also learned that you don't do this for videos because the videos will already lock into place. I'm not sure why this is but I think it's because Sony Vegas is video editing software so the pictures must be made compatible while the videos already are. 
What I plan to learn tomorrow:
Tomorrow, I plan to do Arrow's next chapter which may actually be her biggest one. It involves her setting up to kill the enemy sniper but actually, it gets turned on her and there's a pretty intense scene that occurs. Tomorrow, I plan to finish Arrow's next chapter. Tomorrow, I plan to learn about inversing. Basically, what I mean is that I want to turn a picture into its reflection. I'll explain more tomorrow.

Time: 45 minutes