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

Day 51 - Sony Vegas - English Project (19) - Nermin is one creepy guy

What I did:
Today,  I did the Arrow's next chapter which involved her going to her commander and talking to him (Btw he is really creepy). So, today I decided to finish that chapter. It involves also switching scenes to the cellist but it was fine because I already used the cellist before and he wasn't really that hard to incorporate into the animation. I also gave the Cellist a Cello this time around because this is the first point where we see him playing his cello. I used the same background where the cellist saw the people killed because that's where he plays his cello. 

What I learned:
Today, I learned about the arrow thingy in the "Event Pan/Crop" section. It's to the left side and it gives you options when you click it. You have the options to move it freely, side to side or up and down. These options can help you make sure that you stay on track and you don't end up moving the character around too much. I also learned about the keyframe second layer. If you look at my keyframe pictures, you can see that I have placed down keyframes into a lower layer as well. I learned that they do not do very much. I accidentally put a keyframe down into a lower layer and it didn't affect the composition at all even though it should have because a character was moving during that time. That is what I learned today.

What I plan to learn tomorrow:
Tomorrow, I plan to do Dragan's next chapter which involves a new character who is pretty major to his story arc. There's nothing major that happens in the next chapter other than Dragan almost getting shot so I do not know what I will plan to learn tomorrow. I am about more than 25% done this project in Sony Vegas and I am making very good timing. I normally learn something new every day so it will come to me what I learn tomorrow

Time: 1 hour

Day 50 - Sony Vegas - English Project (18) - Kenan's Stroll

What I did:
Today, I finished the next part of "The Cellist of Sarajevo." This chapter is definitely one of the longer chapters but it doesn't have a whole lot of character interactions or dialogue in it so it made it easier because I just have to briefly explain some of the thoughts he's having and the interactions will basically be easy as well because they're nothing too complex. In this section, I had to change backdrops because Kenan walks a lot so I changed from a destroyed street to a bridge area. The bridge area isn't supposed to represent the bridge but is supposed to represent the area where Kenan is at. I also gave Ismet a beard because he has one in the book.

What I learned:
Today, I learned that you if you want a character to start at the beginning again while animating, you should add the same sprite to the composition rather than trying to animate it back to the beginning because it will not end well.What I mean is that if you start a character from one side and make him go to the opposite and when you're done with that, you want it to go back to the beginning. It's better if you just add another sprite and animate that one rather than trying to use the same one because it will mess you up in that the sprite will go back across the screen and start from the beginning. Maybe there is a way for you to use the same sprite to animate it from the beginning again but it just seems easier to add another one in.

What I plan to learn tomorrow:
Tomorrow, I plan to continue with the story. I am making very good time and since I still have  9 posts to do this month, that means I will get through 8 more arcs for the characters this week which should put in well into chapter 3 or maybe even finished it. My goal for tomorrow is to complete Arrow's arc. It involves a small room and it's a pretty short chapter so it shouldn't be too hard. I don't have much to learn tomorrow, but I'm sure I'll find something because I always seem to do. :) Today, I learned something which I was not going for but it happened so that's my goal for tomorrow.


Time: 1 1/2 Hours

Day 49 - Sony Vegas - English Project (17) - Kenan's Expedition start and Dragan's totally not stationary for the whole book

What I did:
Today, I finished Kenan's chapter by making Mrs. Ritovski and also putting the milk cartons on Kenan. I know it sounds stupid but in the book, Kenan must go and get water for his family and he ties 6 milk cartons to himself so he can carry them. I also used a lot of keyframes for kenan to signify his knocking. I made a jumping up and down gesture to show his movement like how someone would do to a cartoon to show them doing something. This caused me to make a lot of keyframes. I also started and finished Dragan's first chapter as well. There wasn't much to it other than two people running across the street but other than that, there wasn't much to it.

What I learned:
Today, I learned how to make something shake and no, it doesn't use what I mentioned yesterday. The shake from yesterday did not work out in that no matter what you choose as a layer, the shake will affect the whole thing rather than just the object you have selected in a layer. So, I went full on manual and used keyframes to do it. Every few milliseconds, I put down a keyframe and moved the character up or down depending on how I wanted it to look. That's what I learned today and I'm not sure if I'll do this for every shake or if I'll only do it this one time. It does take time and I'm kind of running out of that.

What I plan to learn tomorrow:
Tomorrow, I plan to start chapter 2 of the book. There are 4 chapters but the chapters do get longer from here on out. I plan to do a chapter a day for each of the characters and hopefully I can finish chapters 2/3 by the end of next week and chapter is pretty short so it should be quite straight forward. Tomorrow, I will be learning how to do more things in Sony Vegas for this project. Hopefully, I learn a lot more than expected but that's my goal for tomorrow. I do not have a definite thing that I want to focus on but hopefully I figure it out.

Time; 1 1/2 hours

Day 48 - Sony Vegas - English Project (16) - Kenan's Startup

What I did:
Today, I started Kenan's story. Unfortunately, I did not get to finish it due to having two tests tomorrow but I wanted to get something out today. today, I started some of the parts of Kenan's story. I had to use a lot of keyframes for Kenan's movement because in this chapter there is a lot of stuff which does not have to be shown but can be shown through sounds which I will add this weekend. I also added the part where Kenan's wife comes in and talks to him but I have not added any commentary yet because I want to get the animation out of the way first. I want to get the hard stuff out of the way so I can cruise after that by doing the commentary. I also couldn't find a house backdrop so I decided to use a destroyed neighborhood one because that gives a feel of being at home and I don't 100% need it to be the exact location. 

What I learned:
Today, I did not have time to learn much stuff but I did get started on beginning to learn something for tomorrow's class. I learned where to go to get a shaky effect. A lot of the tutorials I've watched say you have to download a plug-in but I've learned that you really don't and that's what I'm beginning to learn I hope this doesn't deduct marks from mark but I plan to learn all of it tomorrow. I learned today that you have to go the "Video FX" panel and go to "Sony Film Effects" and then you go to the panel with the effects. I also learned that you need to add a lot of keyframes if you want to move someone and have them stay there and then move them again. You have to add still keyframes before you make something move or else the for the entirety of the object's runtime, it will be moving to its destination.

What I plan to learn tomorrow:
My goal for tomorrow's class is to finish Kenan's chapter and to finish Dragan's chapter as well. Dragan's chapter is pretty short just like Kenan's so it should be pretty smooth. I also plan to finish learning how to make the screen shake, I'm going to use this on characters or the background. The characters will shake when they are "speaking" and the background will shake when there's an explosion or something. That is my goal for tomorrow.

Time: 50 minutes

Day 47 - Sony Vegas - English Project (15) - Arrow's escape

What I did:
Today, I finished Arrow's first chapter. My goal for every single post starting now is to get through at least one character's chapter every post. I created the falling of the soldier that gets shot by Arrow and I also made the flash to show the shells and the shot that gets fired at arrow when she tries to escape the building. I would still like to add a shake effect to this arc because of the mortars striking but I have not found a plug-in yet.

What I learned:
Today, I learned more about the animation tool. In the composition today, when Arrow was supposed to be coming out of the building. She went slow when going down but sped up when running. I learned how to do this by using keyframes. Since the amount of time for her to be going down takes longer, I gave her more time to do it but when she's running, it goes really fast. I have become a lot better at doing these keyframe things because I have used it so much in the past few days and I've learned a lot about it.


What I plan to learn tomorrow:
Tomorrow, I plan to create Kenan's arc. The first chapter is relatively simple for Kenan so it should be pretty easy. Tomorrow, I also plan to learn how to install a plug-in into Sony Vegas so I can give my characters a shaky look when they're scared or are talking. That is my goal for tomorrow's class.

Time: 50 minutes

Day 46 - Sony Vegas - English Project (14) - The Cellist's Plan and Arrow's Fury

What I did:
Today, I made a lot of progress towards my English Cellist of Sarajevo Project. I finished up most of the Cellist's arc and have now moved onto Arrow's. I did not fully finish the cellist's arc because I need to add one more thing which I do not have yet but that will be discussed later. Today, I created soldier sprites that I could use to have stock characters. These soldier characters were used for Arrow's story because they are getting shot at by Arrow. I positioned Arrow at the top because it shows that she has higher ground like she did in the book and I put the soldiers on the ground where they were. I also gave her a rifle and angled it so it looks like she is aiming at the guys on the ground. I also gave the Cellist is goodbye by having him walk off screen.

What I learned:

Today, the main thing I learned was how to create a gunshot effect. The way I learned how to do it was by downloading some stock "footage" effects of gunshot effects and putting them in the composition in a layer above your weapon. Then you have to go and click on the compositing button in the layer the gunshot is in and change it to "screen" which allows only the gunshot part to be shown because the black parts get screened. Then I angled the shot so it looks like it is coming out the rifle. 

What I plan to learn tomorrow:
Tomorrow, I plan to finish Arrow's first chapter and begin Kenan's Chapter. Kenan does not have a lot of things in his story so I might just finish that tomorrow as well. I do not know what I plan to learn tomorrow but I guess we'll find out. Some of the things I learn when I make posts are things that come when I am doing the thing and not actually going to learn anything. Like if a glitch happens, I know what occurred to make that glitch and I will prevent it in the future.

Time: 1 1/2 hours