fmx210-3 digital media

 Today was the last day of class, and we didn't present our portfolios, but I'll put my favorite page of it here:  I just really like having both images in the same style and seeing how they both came together. This was also when I was so hesitant at the start of the semester to use Photoshop and now that I'm looking back on it, I realize that I made a pretty cool image right off the bat. I did notice a theme of cool color tones throughout some of my work, but I think it was pretty much killed by my last, bright hot pink image. I will say it is pretty difficult sizing and getting pictures to frame in Indesign without them being stretched or shrunk, but I think I did well at getting them together and looking normal. It was also nice to write about each piece after the fact, since you notice things about them that you might not have before, and you can see how you've grown and learned to work with the different Adobe programs. I didn't include the resume because it di

 This is it...finals time! (That made it seem like I'm excited for this time of year...I'm not). Our last assignment is to create a little portfolio of our work from this semester and write a little bit about each piece. I'm excited to see what I've done put together and to see if there are any themes or reoccurring styles within my work, but again I find myself beefing with InDesign over the different templates they offer. We're technically allowed to use whatever template we want, but all the ones offered aren't fitting my ~vision~ and I refuse to pay for new templates, so I'm going to have to make it work. On another note, I was writing a paper about the movie Everything, Everywhere, All At Once  (yes I did cry while watching and again wile writing the paper), but I came across the fact that the movie and all its effects were put together in Premiere Pro, not some fancy editing software, so I thought that was super interesting. It also makes me realize ho

I was scrolling TikTok the other day, as one does, when I started seeing edits of the latest Avatar movie that came out last year. I had seen it in January, but I realized that I hadn't written a journal about it, so that's what I'm doing today. It's especially fitting because I'm guessing about 90% of that movie is digital effects.  The whole movie is just a massive step up from the first one visually. Obviously the surface level plot is good guys fighting bad guys, but what I think caught most people's attention was the incredible worlds and creatures they were able to create. Every scene, both under and above water, looked so real that you would never think it was all green screen and digitally produced. My favorite moments are when the family first arrive at the ocean village, and start learning how to work and live with the water. This is a still that I think really shows off how well they were able to replicate underwater life.  This honestly looks to me l

 This week our assignment was to create our own kind of safe space in Photoshop (with our own pictures) and play with the hues and color balances as well. This is what I did:  I freaking love this. Like my previous entry, I'm in a bit of a Barbie mood, so I knew whatever I did, I wanted it to end up bright pink. I took a landscape photo from a few years ago at the Morikami Gardens in Boca Raton, and then added some elements that mean a lot to me. In the back, I added some mountains from a picture I took in Red Rock Park, when I took my first solo flight to visit my friend in Las Vegas. The tiny Rockefeller statue in the corner is from this past summer, when my family and I took a trip to visit my dad's side of the family in New York (the original picture is me and my dad taking a selfie with the statue in the back). I also added the planet in the corner, mostly because the colors were already pretty sick, and also because my sister and I have always been interested in astronomy

 Last week, the first look at the new Barbie movie came out, and I absolutely am obsessed with the film and costuming and set design, so I'm going to talk about it here, because movies are digital media too.  I love everything about it. From the way the Barbies and their costumes look on camera, to the little details hidden in the backgrounds of different scenes (hints to Wizard of Oz type plot, homages to vintage Barbies), to the iconic moment where Margot Robbie, who plays the main Barbie, steps out of her incredibly toy-doll looking shoes on her tiptoes, like a real doll... I just think it slays. One thing that has come from these sneak peaks that I think is really interesting is the posters. Obviously, there were a good amount (one for each character in the movie) but the really cool thing is how the internet just took it and ran with it. Immediately we saw different TikTok and Instagram creators making Barbie posters for themselves, their friends, and even their pets or favori

 Today I finally got around to trying the guided meditation sent out in at the end of March, and I don't think it went as it should have. I have tried these types of meditations before, as I used to be an athlete and our coaches wanted us to practice mindfulness of our bodies and how we see ourselves doing our sport, but even then these types of videos and audios never quite worked for me. My mind tends to be thinking of a million things at once, and even when trying to be completely clear-headed, I'll hear a noise within the audio or feel something brush past me that gets me thinking of a whole other thing, and just like that I'm back where I've started. I do sometimes like to use white noise to help me fall asleep, and I know that ASMR videos are very popular to help people calm themselves and meditate, but I think for myself I just have to find other resources if I want to use digital media in my life.