Day 31 - Photoshop - English Project (3) - Refining

What I did:
Today, in infotech, I taught myself how to refine the templates that I created in the previous posts. This involved warping some of the objects that I created. I warped the body and the left arm of the side view of the templates and the body for the front view of the templates. I did this so when I create the actual characters, their faces aren't covered and it looks better than just having rectangles all over the place. It also separates itself from the typical rectangle sprites in a very subtle way.

1. First, I checked out the warp option in the edit section. You go to the "edit" panel and then to the "transform path" panel and go down to "warp."

2. Next, I used the warp tool on the body and the arms.

3. Finally, I moved onto the other sprite I created. This one was the sprite I used to just slightly fix the body of. It's very subtle so you can't really tell but it definitely was worth it.

What I learned:

Today, I learned about refining by using the warp tool in Photoshop. The warp tool is used for slightly editing objects that you have in photoshop. In this case, I used it on the templates I created last class. I learned how to use this tool by just messing around with it. When you activate the tool, you get the option to warp it to your leisure. An arrow appears and you can drag it to wherever you want to warp it. You can concave it or outstretch it. You can even make a rectangle tool become a cape!

So, I learned about the warp tool and this is how it looks when you activate it. It's a really nice tool that I recommend just testing out if you want to mess around

 What I plan to learn tomorrow:

Tomorrow, I plan to start creating the sprites. Although it seems like a simple task, It's not going to be. I have to go back and reread parts of the book to see what the characters look like and I also have to create the eyes and all that. I also need to learn how to make the hair so I will also be doing that in the coming days. But my goal for tomorrow is to start with the sprites. 

Time: 20 minutes

Day 30 - Photoshop - English Project (2) - Sprites Side Templates

What I did:
Today, I made sprites but this time, I created the sides of the sprites rather than creating the fronts again. I mainly did this because the book has scenes of people walking or shooting so the side view will make more sense to use. So, today, I created the same thing as yesterday but just from the sides. This is a template so I decided to make it look like an average person. The steps are right here:

1. First, I created the body and the legs. I made sure the right leg was a little behind the left leg to give it a side view look.

2. Then I made the shoes.

3. Then, I created the arms. The arms in the back were harder to make because only a part of them would have to appear so I had to manipulate the layers so the body would be in front of the arms.

4. Finally, I created the head which also had to be a little behind the body and since it didn't look good when I did it, I enhanced the canvas size to a bigger one so it would like good.

What I learned:

Today, I learned how to create sprites sideways. First, you need to make it look like the sprite is sideways like putting a leg slightly behind the other as shown in the pictures up top. Also, I learned how to make it look realistic but putting the arm behind the body. You have to move the body layer over the arm and hand layer. I also learned how to make the canvas bigger. You have to go to the image drop menu and go down to canvas size and you can make it bigger. I changed my canvas size to 20 width and 17 height. 

What I plan to learn tomorrow:

Tomorrow, I plan to refine these templates that I've created. I know there are a lot of tools that I can use to make these templates better such as the warp tool so that's what I plan to do tomorrow. These templates will eventually be used to create specific characters in the book and that's why I'm making the templates. I want to use templates for the characters and then edit them accordingly to which character is being made at that time. 

Time: 35 Minutes

Day 29 - Photoshop - English Project (1) - Sprites Front Templates

What I did:
Today, I made the templates for my sprites in Photoshop. I explained the project in yesterday's post so if you're not sure what's happening, be sure to go check that out. Basically, I needed to create sprites for my English project and that's what I did. I started off with making templates rather than downloading templates because I want this to be 100% my work.

1. Firstly, I made a transparent background because I'm going to using the template with a backdrop and I needed it to be its own thing.

2. Next, I created the head using the eclipse tool. 

3. Since, It was hard to see the images with the transparent background, I created a body and added strokes to all the layers.

4. Then, I added the legs and shoes. 

5. Finally, I added the arms and hands and named the layers.

What I learned:

Today, I learned some new things in Photoshop. I learned how to make sprites. I really liked the idea of creating these sprites using the rectangle and eclipse tools. I learned how to create these things and about duplicating. Basically what you want to do is make the body be realistic and proportional to the head. You don't want the body to be much bigger than the head unless you're making an overweight character but I'm just making templates right now so I'm  trying to make an average person. I also learned about duplicating and I duplicated the arms and legs rather than making new ones because they would most likely not be the same size so I just decided to duplicate them instead and it worked out well. 

What I plan to learn tomorrow:

Tomorrow, I plan to continue with the sprites but this time I want to make them facing sideways. Most of the scenes in the book have people moving or shooting so I think it would be good to make the sprites facing sideways as well. I'm not sure if I will use the sideways sprites too much but I just to want make them just in case and keep them in stock. That's my goal for tomorrow.

Time: 40 minutes

Day 28 - Sony Vegas - Colour Splashing

What I did:
Today, I learned about Colour Splashing. Colour splashing is used to highlight a particular colour in a picture or video. Today, I used one of my Destiny clips and splashed the red colour on my character's arms. However, the clip has a lot of red so that appears too when my character is moving around but you can clearly tell that it was colour splashed. I added the effect from the "Video FX" option and selected the desaturated except for reds option.I messed around with the tools so it only shows where the that specific colour is. That is what I did in today's class. Unfortunately, The video got corrupted so I only managed to get a screenshot of the colour splash and here it is:

What I learned:

Today, I learned about colour splashing in Sony Vegas. I learned about the colour correction (secondary) option aswell. I learned that you can select which colour you want to colour splash by going to the colour range option and selecting the colour you want to use. Then you can bring down the saturation and make everything else black and white yet  keep the colour you selected visible. I learned that there are many ways to do this and there a lot of different plug-ins you can download to accomplish this. 

1. I learned you can go to the Video FX panel and go down to colour correction(Secondary) and choose one of the options to start colour splashing. 

 2.Next, I learned about the whole selecting a range thing. You click "select range" and go over to your video and select what colour you want. In this case, I chose the red on my character's arms.

 3. Finally, I learned how to bring out all the red. You have to go the width and change it up a bit. You can also go to the saturation and change that too.

What I plan to learn tomorrow:
Tomorrow, I plan to move forward with my English project. It's a project for the book: The Cellist of Sarajevo. Basically, our English teacher is allowing us to do a project on this book and it replaces your lowest writing mark. You can do whatever you want for the project so I thought that I could do it for IT. I can get double credit for it and it involves some of the things that I've already done in the class and blog. I plan to make sprites in Photoshop and use them in Sony Vegas "video" with keyframes and all that will commentary over it. I think it would a great idea and  I also get double credit :P It's going to take a while to do so that's why I'm starting in mid-April even though it's not due until June. I will be noting down how long it takes to do each part and recording it here. That is my goal for tomorrow, to get started with the project.

Day 27 - Sony Vegas - Colour Correcting

What I did:
Today, I colour corrected in Sony Vegas. Colour correcting is a feature used to give a video or picture a more vibrant feel. I have colour corrected in the past with my "Hollywood-izing" clips tutorial but it was a simple colour correction and I didn't go into detail nor did I use the same method. Today, I colour corrected using the video event FX feature and it was really simple yet effective. The colour I chose to do was blue so it gave the video a sad feeling even though it's a gaming clip that I've used before. I used the colour curve which is really cool and simple and I also used the colour correction wheels which I learned a lot about. This is an effect which is definitely be useful when I create my montage in coming months because I need to give it a feeling that matches with the music and since the most of the music is upbeat and "rock-y" I will probably have a red or yellow colour for that but when the song gets slow and sad, I will make it blue or something melancholy.

The VIDEO (Right side is colour corrected and left side is regular):

What I learned:
Today, I learned a lot about colour correcting. I learned that you can do it in many ways and just because something doesn't say "colour correcting" it can still be colour correcting such as the colour curve. I learned that this curve is used for brightening and darkening. I also learned about the colour correction wheels and what each of them do. Finally, I learned about the split screen thing, which allows you to split the screen into two parts. The full details are down below:

1. First, I learned about adding the effects.You need to click on your video and select "Video Event FX." After that, a window pops up that shows you all the effects, if you want to add more than one effect, select the first one and choose "add." Then click on the next one, and select "add" and then "OK."

2, Next, I learned about the Colour Curve. It's used to make things brighter or darker. Originally, it is a diagonal line but you can adjust it. Making the top go to very top brightens the lighter colours while making the bottom of the  line touch the bottom makes the darker colours be darker. 

3. Next, I learned about the colour wheels. The colour wheels are used to give the video and different colour. There are 3 wheels "High," "Mid," and "Low." The High wheel will make the brightest colours change to the colour you choose. The Mid will change the mid colours and the Low will change the darkest colours such as black or dark blue. I used this to make my video blue.

4. Finally, I learned about the split video option at the very top of the interface. This splits the video into two sides and the left side is without any effects while the right side is with the effects such as colour correcting.

What I plan to learn tomorrow:

Tomorrow, I plan to learn about colour splashing. This effect is used to highlight only one thing in a video such as a red dress or blue shirt while everything else is white. I think I will also be using this in my montage but It's just a really cool thing that I want to learn how to do. That is my goal for tomorrow's class.

Day 26 - Sony Vegas - FINAL PROJECT - Montage (1) - Music

What I did:
Today, I started my main final project for this school year and that is to create a montage on a game known as "Destiny." All the things leading up to this will be included such as the photoshop tutorials that I did back in February and especially all the Sony Vegas stuff that I did last month. So, today, I began it. I will be working on it for the next few months along with my English project that I also plan to do on this blog. The first things I did was a select a song for the montage - I should say music because I don't want to get copyrighted so I'm going to stay safe by using just music. The "song" I chose is "Fire Cross" by Luiza. It's a Final Fantasy soundtrack. Then I added markers to the areas where the music pops out or just a nice spot where a transition would be nice. This effect is used to sync the gameplay with the music so the montage isn't just full of clips and music. That is what I did today to get started with the creation of the montage. Since I have around 2 more months until the end of the school, I thought I should choose longer music for the montage so I chose what I mentioned above. Normal montages are around 3-4 minutes, however, mine is around 6 minutes due to the music which means I will need a lot of time to do this.


1. This first thing I did was add music to the composition.

2. Next, I put markers where there was a pop or nice area to make a transition point with the music. 

What I learned:

Today, I learned a few new things in Sony Vegas. First, I learned that you can mark your timeline in Sony Vegas. Basically, you can either have the video playing or just jump to a certain part and hit the "M" key and it marks that area. I learned that this is used for transitioning or aligning the pop with a gunshot. The next thing I learned is that it doesn't matter where the audio layer is. Normally, I have the audio layer under the video layer because I thought it would just be a black screen because the audio doesn't have a video but it turns out it doesn't matter. As long as there is a video layer, the video will show above the audio. 

I learned that hitting "M" lets you make a mark on the timeline. I listened to the music and hit "M" along the way because I needed to know where the key points were. Some were spread apart because in the music, there is a melancholy tone to it near the middle and then it picks back up at the end so I decided to do it this way. 

What I plan to learn tomorrow:
Tomorrow, I plan to learn how to learn more things in Sony Vegas. I'm not sure if I'll continue with the montage although I do have some clips that I can add to the composition but I think I might learn some new things that I did not about before. My goal is to continue with the montage throughout the months but tomorrow, I want to learn something new in Sony vegas.

Day 25 - Sony Vegas - Cinemagraphs :(

What I did:
Today, I attempted to make cinemagraphs in Sony Vegas. The reason I say "attempted" is that it didn't work out very well. That part will be explained in the "what I learned" section though. Today, I made cinemagraphs from stock footage I found on youtube. It was Royalty Free Stock Footage so it's fine if I use it and you can find the video here. I used Sony Vegas because that's my main video editing software but it turns out that there might be something wrong with my settings or I was doing something wrong. Sony Vegas is a great software for editing videos and doing voice-overs but there was only one tutorial I could find that involved using Sony Vegas for cinemagraphs and it can be found here. So here's what I did:

1. First, I added the video clip in.

2. Then, I needed to take a screenshot so I could put in a layer under the video and add mask to it.

Finally, I added a mask to the image in "pan/crop" mode and outlined the part that I wanted to be moving during the cinemagraph. 

What I learned:

Today, I learned to never do cinemagraphs in Sony Vegas. It was probably a sign that there weren't many videos on how to cinemagraphs on Sony Vegas. Sony Vegas definitely isn't made for cinemagraphs because it doesn't even have a save as gif option in the save settings. It's mainly for editing videos and not for making gifs/cinemagraphs although it is possible. I learned that the mask tool did not work for me and I'm not sure why that is. When I tried making the mask and applying it, it did not work and the video did not change one bit. This was also an issue back when I tried using keyframes back in my keyframes post on Sony Vegas. Although the failed attempt of making a cinemgraph in Sony Vegas, I learned a lot about it.

1. First, I learned that you need to take a screenshot so it can be used as a mask and bottom layer when you go to the "pan/crop" section.

2. Next, I learned that the dark parts when you make a mask are the parts that won't be moving while the parts that stay the same 

3. Finally, I learned that there isn't an option in Sony Vegas to save as a cinemagraph so you need to use third-party softwares like virtual dub which will let you save a gif.

What I plan to learn tomorrow:

Tomorrow, I plan to learn how to make cinemagraphs in After Affects. It will take a few days since the tutorials are very long. I especially want to learn how to do this because I think it's a really cool effect. It definitely won't be benefiting me in the long run because it's a gif but I think it's a really neat effect that I can have fun with. So tomorrow, my plan is to create a cinemagraph in After Effects. I apologize for not posting regularly but I'm taking calculus and playing badminton at the moment so I don't have a whole lot of time to post on the weekdays but I always manage to get my posts in. 

EDIT (April 15, 2017):
Tomorrow, I plan to continue learning new things about Sony Vegas and maybe even start on my final project. This change of heart comes from realizing that I do not want to do anything with cinemagraphs. I want this blog to be about things that will benefit me in the future and all the things leading up to this will. I am a video creator so I want to learn things that will help me with that. One of my final projects is going to be making a montage and I think I will start that tomorrow and continue to work on it for a few days until I have collected enough information to start my English  project. Tomorrow, I will learn more things about Sony Vegas.