Good Thursday!
This morning I arrived at 9am, pretty early! With 30 minutes spare, I completed the work "Zoetic Zoe" sent back for me (U22A4) and had updated the files in the student write area. As a result of Unit 22 I had resulted in a distinction as well as in U10. Thank you to both the "Amazing Adam" and "Zoetic Zoe" for this.
When the first lesson began, we firstly all partaken the weekly quiz made by the "Amazing Adam" as Connor P was still ill. Instead of a quiz it was more of a recap questionnaire where we had to spot the odd answer out and reason it. In a total of five questions with eleven marks, I got four (surprisingly as I had used other answers and gave a completely different reasoning - however it was different from Adams). In the end, Edward L got the lowest of one along with Gabe H, by playing the rock paper scissors game it resulted in Gabe H's win and Edward L's loss. On the other hand, the winners with six points each were Brandon B, Ben C, Euan J, and Matt B. At first Matt did not want to take the risk but after a small encouragement he ended up winning - what luck! Congratulations to him for his second time using the dual monitor. Regardless of this, I believe this different approach to the quiz was remarkable and shows a diverse way of "quizzing" things as it can help test our knowledge and practice key terminologies as a refresher from older units. I would like more of this as I believe most of us enjoyed this.
Afterwards, we all started the third assignment of our current unit where we had to design and animate our animations directly from the brief. Alongside this, we also had to document key points by doing screenshots and explaining the reasoning. I have decided to take a screenshot of every five seconds and go into more detail (smaller screenshot) so I can cover everything at an appropriate pace. Furthermore, at the end of each hour (or session) we had to document down our review of what went well, what went bad and what could be improved in general. For me personally, in the first session I firstly created any necessary assets to help prepare my animation. During this time I have also created a good folder structure for easy access to this. Assets I have made and obtained include: icons, text, music etc. I believe the "Amazing Adam" reminding us to do the review and his notes is a good way of keeping us on track. I thoroughly enjoyed this.
In the second session I had started to produce the final animation. As I am learning Adobe Flash as I work on my assignment I will indeed find it difficult and meet obstacles along the way. Common struggles I have are understanding the interface overall as software's from Adobe are professional and are huge. However I quickly got to grips by trial and error, self teaching and by asking other students around me. During the start of the production, I got my assets and designed the level slowly. I ended up finishing this earlier than expected and therefore I started to actually animate my assets within the animation banner (this helped me later on). Then it was lunch.
Consequently after lunch, everyone continued with their work. I started to animate my character moving towards the first collectable point (diamond shard asset). Moreover I also made the main logo and 'score' text appear by fading and fading out. I learnt this by YouTubing the tutorials and this has helped me immensely. With the knowledge of this technique I was able to help other students. However, half an hour later I and the "Amazing Adam" went to the learners forum meeting for 30 minutes. Within this time we joked about but we also spoke about improvements, feedback from peers etc, some things we talked about were awards for the end of the academic year; improvements within the facility; and proactive activities and events etc. It was an interesting and fun time, it is a shame both level 2 students did not attend this meeting. The chairman has been switched from me to Jack, a level 3 extended student.
Upon returning to class it was then the second break for everyone. I was permitted to continue working as I was 30 minutes behind, however it was not too bad as everyone was working slowly at their own pace. During this time, I began and ended up animating my character jumping over the first obstacle (spikes). By then I had gotten more used to Flash and the ways of its functionality - I believe this to be a strong upgrade for myself. As I worked on my animation throughout self-study time, Catherine asked if she could scan my work (sketches) for the Develop newsletter I assume. I agreed and it shows that the tutors and staffs around are acknowledging my work. I am mega proud and it encourages me to work to an even harder level as it is showing progression of success (my dream).
Overall, today was another incredible day - as expected at this awesome college. I am thoroughly enjoying this unit just like any other and believe I will reach the upcoming deadline as I will work at home as well as in self-study time to improve my animation quality. Recently I have also obtained two distinctions overall from previous units. I am very happy and excited to gain more in future as it helps boost my self esteem. At the time being, I now have one merit and four distinctions. I need one more distinction and four more merits to reach a D*D - my predicted grades. However, I want to try and aim for distinctions as I will work hard.
Edit: Me and Adam M and Ben R spent the break fixing the football table.
I cannot work on my animation via home due to no Flash CS6. I have CS3 and it is incompatible.
