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Reflection Blog Post
I have taken Com210 this semester as my major requirement, I didn’t expect I would like this class in the beginning. However, it became my favorite subject among all the courses I am taking. I have learned a lot of technical skills and essential knowledges about audio and graphics editing and the use of blog posts.
Among all of the projects in Com210 this semester, I like the Audio Story Project the most. For this assignment, we needed to create an audio project telling our own stories. I chose to tell the story about my trip going back to Australia with my family and boyfriend last Christmas holiday. Starting from this assignment, I started to use Adobe Audition CC, it is a great audio editing program that allows you to edit your recordings to suit your needs. I found it interesting and very useful on practical terms because I recorded myself using the recording tool on Adobe Audition, then I cut the recordings using razor tool, I also chose my own background music so it enlightens the mood of my story. It was challenging but fun to edit the recordings, through this project I learned invaluable skills: I learned the basic concepts to audio editing and the overall structure of editing programs. I also learned to put effects to my music to suit the need of the project.
Other than the invaluable audio editing skills I learned through the Audio Story Project, I also got the chance to learn and practice my Photoshop skills using adobe Photoshop, I edited several different pictures about my trip to Australia. Throughout the process I picked up a lot of knowledge from the tutorials regarding the basic concepts of graphics editing such as layers and cutting. I also learned how to apply some of the basic effects to my images and texts, this provided me with countless varieties and opportunities to my posters. These skills opened up my interest towards audio and graphics editing, there are challenging and sometimes difficult to understand, but the sense of accomplishment I felt when I look at my finished work was worth it all.
My dream career would be to become a successful broadcaster or journalist. From my point of view, both of the careers require technical and communication skills. Audio editing skills can benefit both my career as a broadcaster or a journalist. The understanding of how these programs work will provide me with a higher starting point than those who don’t, and increases my efficiency when working around projects that involves audio editing. Photoshop skills will be an essential element for me in the future because as a journalism major, it will be useful for me to know editing skills to edit pictures for newspapers or magazines. However, it would be more amazing if I could get to learn how to change the effects of my video, for example to adjust the sound, the light and the filter. Although this skill is not that much related to my desired career in broadcasting or being a journalist. It is a very useful skill that I am interested in myself. If I learned this skill it would definitely open up my potential career paths and my opportunities.
There were other ways that I found quite helpful while I was completing my projects. For example, I searched some tutorial videos on YouTube that were very useful to me, for example, when I was doing premiere tutorial, I looked for some videos of what is the difference between wide shots and close shots, and how to put recordings and videos together. The videos helped a lot to my project, I would recommend this source of information to all of those attempting for any similar project. My only suggestion for this course is that: sometimes I have troubles doing the project, I found it difficult to use the graphic editing programs. Therefore, It will be better if during one lab session, the TA could show us how to use the programs. It doesn’t have to be detailed, it could be introduction of how to use the programs, what are the tools for and giving some useful tips.
In conclusion, I have gained a lot of experiences and learned a lot through course Com210, it has also became one of my favorite classes I have ever taken. I am looking forward to practicing more technological skills in the future and I am sure what I have learned in this class would be extremely beneficial in my future career.
Final Video Story
For this video story, my idea was to create a video about my college life. As a sophomore at Washington State University, I have been here for almost two years, and throughout these time I started to like this school more and more. Therefore, I would like to share my college life with all my classmates. For this video story, I planned to interview my two best friends Jackie and Sandra, because they are very important to my college life.
First of all, I created a storyboard for my video at a length of 1:30 minutes, I also wrote a script of the interview question I was about to ask my friends and what I was going to say in the video. When everything was planned out, I went to different places to collect pictures and videos to use in my draft video, I then recorded myself reading the script in order to put together with the recording. After everything was collected, I started to edit all my clips on Adobe Premiere. I put the clips in order and numbered them, then I embedded the recordings so that they could go together with the clips. I also inserted background music when I finished editing the clips so it could give my video a more relaxing vibe. The most challenging part of making the video was to collect all the resources, I had to walk to different places to take videos and pictures. In addition, combining the clips and the recordings together was difficult because I had to keep cutting the clips for them to have the same length as my recording. It also took me a while telling my friends about my project and getting them to practice what they are going to say, but we had lots of fun shooting the clips. What I like about my video was the angle of the shots and the background music. I collected my resources in different places, so that audiences took get a better image of my college view. I also shot my video from different angles to grab the viewers’ attention so that they wouldn’t feel bored watching my video.
I received some comments from my peers in the feedback such as adding a beginning and ending to my video, and also to add a title that names my interview subjects, and also add text that includes the names of my friends when they are introduced into my video. Therefore, I made some changes based on the comments from my peers. I added my name on the covering photo so audiences could know who made the video. I also added the texts of my friends’ names Sandra and Jackie, so audiences could get a better idea of who they are. For the ending of the video, I put up another slide with the text: Edited by Anyi Zhang” with the date, because I thought the ending seemed a little rush in my draft video. Lastly, I added some effects to my background. I changed the volume of the music at the beginning and ending of my video, so music is not longer loud at both points and also give the viewers more relaxing feelings.
In conclusion, I find this project the hardest among all the projects in this course because it combined all the skills and techniques we have learned in this course so far. But I’m so proud of myself for competing this and I had so much fun creating this video, hope I could create more stuff in the future based on what I have learned in this course.
Video Story Draft
For this video story assignment, I decided to make a video about my college life. I have been studying at Washington State University for almost two years, and throughout this time, I started to like this school more and more. There are many reasons I love about my college life, and I want to share this story with my classmates in Com210.
First of all, I created a storyboard for my video and planned the video to have the length of 1:30 mins. I then wrote a script of what I will be covering in the video and made a plan. I interviewed my best friends Sandra and Jackie about their opinions about WSU, and I recorded myself introducing myself at the beginning of the video. I also went to Gortzgen Hall, Regents Hall and some other places to take videos and pictures to use in my video. After all the resources are collected, I started to record myself so that I could add the recordings to the video. After I am done with the recording, I am finally ready to start making my video. I edited my video on adobe premiere. Firstly, I numbered all the videos and pictures to put them in order, and then I embedded recordings to put them together with the videos. It was kind of hard for me to edit the videos and recordings together and it took me a long time to match the length of the recordings with the time. I had to cut the videos or to record myself more for them to go together. The most challenging part in making this video was to gather all the recourses I need. It took me a long time to go to different places to take pictures and videos, and also telling my friends what to say in my video and practice with them, we kept on laughing during recording but it was fun.
In conclusion, I really enjoyed making this video and the premier tutorial really helped, I kept on going back to see if I am doing right. I’m looking forward hearing suggestions from my peers and improve it better.
Video Story raw footage&storyboard
My Storyboard:
| Timestamp | Visuals | Audio |
| 0:00 | Wide shot of Washington State University. After 1 second, title appears: “My college life” | Background music slowly fades in |
| 0:08 | Medium shot of me introducing myself (my name, where I from, what I study and my year). | Music continues and my voice. |
| 0:18 | Wider shot of Regents, a picture of my room and say I have a roommate. | Music continues and my voice. |
| 0:28 | Wider shot of Goertzen’s Hall, talk about my major as journalism, certified as Murrow College student. Closer shot of Goertzen Hall inside, mention my dream job as a radio broadcaster. | Music continues and my voice. |
| 0:48 | Wider shots of me, Sandra and Jackie sitting together, I introduce them as my best friends, they introduce themselves. | Music continues, now with the voice of interviewees. (name, major, year at WSU) |
| 0:59 | Close up shots of Jackie and Sandra talk about their experience at WSU, what they like about college. | Music continues and the voice of interviewees. (what they enjoy studying at WSU) |
| 1:10 | Closer shots of me saying I enjoy time with my friends, we go to events together, hangout, study, workout and party. (some photos included) | Music continues and my voice. |
| 1:25 | Closer-up shots of different photos of us, text layered on top for credits: shot in WSU, 2016/ Anyi Zhang | Music starts to fade away. |
Premiere Tutorial
Final Audio Story
Since my blog is mostly about traveling, so for this Audio story assignment, I planned to talk about my experience of visiting Australia with my family during last Christmas holiday. The reason I want to make this my topic is I love traveling so much and I used to live in Perth when I was little, so Perth is always my second home with all my family members. I would love to share my story of traveling back to Perth with my classmates and hopefully the will like it and want to travel to Perth too!
First of all, I interviewed my boyfriend two questions about the trip to Australia and collected audio recordings of myself and him into a folder. I added all recording files and placed each recording on its own track. I changed the position of my recordings to put them together by using the move tool at the top toolbar. I deleted some of my recordings by using the razor tool next to the move tool, but for the small part, I just used the move tool to drag the last bit of the clip inward. When I’m done with the recording, I clicked on “mute” button on the left side of my recording track to listen to only one track each time. I used razor tool to remove my pauses and some unnecessary words to make it sound better. I found my music on http://www.orangefreesounds.com”, since we are not allowed to download copyrighted music, I found this website where we could download music for free and it is also permitted for other uses. After I am done choosing the music, I dragged the music to a new track. I then moved the music to the beginning of my project, so that I could hear the music before my recording starts.
I noticed some problems in my draft after reading through the feedback from the members in my group. First of all, I noticed my story seems a little rushed and the speed of my talking gets even faster about one third of the way in. Secondly, the quality of my voice and the volume changed before the second part. In addition, I didn’t introduce myself at the beginning of the audio. In order to make this project better, I did few changes to the draft. I realized there is no way to change the quality of my previous recordings, therefore I did the whole recording all over again. I then used razor tool to cut the recordings into different parts. I fixed a lot of pauses and redid some of them because I was speaking too fast or I didn’t pronounce the words clearly. This was the most challenging part of this project because I had to listen to my recordings over and over again, find the right spot and cut it, redo it, connect them together into the final piece. I also adjusted the volume a lot because I needed to make sure the interview’s sound volume is the same as mine. I adjusted the volume by moving the yellow line down to make it lighter, I also added sound effect to my background music, so it has the fade in sound at the beginning and end of the music. I did it by clicking the top left square and made an arc to make the sound go lighter. Lastly, I added some sentences to introduce myself at the start of the audio, so the listeners could have a better idea of who I am.
In conclusion, I really enjoyed doing this project, the audio tutorial and group feedback were very helpful, I kept on going back to the tutorial videos to check if I’m doing right and I made lots of changes according to the suggestions. I finally achieved this and I am so proud of my final piece!
Draft Audio Story
Since my blog is mostly about traveling, so for this Audio story assignment, I planned to talk about my experience of visiting Australia with my family during last Christmas holiday. The reason I want to make this my topic is I love traveling so much and I used to live in Perth when I was little, so Perth is always my second home with all my family members. I would love to share my story of traveling back to Perth with my classmates and hopefully you guys will like it and want to travel to Perth too!
First of all, I interviewed my boyfriend two questions about the trip with me and my family to Australia and then I collected all the audio recordings of myself and him into a folder. I added all my recording files and placed each recording on its own track on adobe audition. I changed the position of my recordings to put them together by using the move tool at the top toolbar. I deleted some of my recordings by using the razor tool next to the move tool, but for the small part, I just used the move tool to drag the last bit of the clip inward. When this part is finished, I realized my recording is too short, so I decided to record myself a little more. When I’m done with the recording, I clicked on “mute” button on the left side of my recording track to listen to only one track each time, which is my new recording. I used the razor tool to remove my pauses and some unnecessary words such as “hum” “so” to make it sound better. After editing all my recording into the right position, I could finally add the music to my recording.
I found my music on http://www.orangefreesounds.com”, since we are not allowed to download copyrighted music, I found this website where we could download music for free and it is also permitted for other uses. After I am done choosing the music I want to use, I added the music file to my project, dragged the music to a new track. I then moved the music to the beginning of my project, so that I could hear the music before my recording starts. In order to make sure that my sound effects could blend well with my other recordings, I adjusted the volume by moving the yellow line down to make it lighter. Later on I realized I need to change the effect of the sound to make it blend in better, therefore, I faded the sound by clicking the top left square and made an arc to make the sound go lighter. I also did this at the beginning of the music.
In conclusion, I really enjoyed doing this project, the audio tutorial is very helpful, I kept on going back to the tutorial videos to check if I’m doing right. The most challenging part of making this audio draft was to adjust the sound and the volume. Because I did my recordings at different time, my voice sounds different, therefore I had to keep moving the yellow line up and down to make sure my voice sounds the same. I am so proud of myself for making this and hope you guys like it!
Raw Audio Footage
For this Audio assignment, I am planning to talk about my experience of visiting Australia with my family during last christmas holiday. The reason I want to make this my topic is I love to travel and I used to live in Perth when I was little, so Perth is my second home with all my family members. I would love to share my story of traveling back to Perth with my classmates and hopefully they will like it and want to travel to Perth too!
Audition Tutorials
Final Logo Project
I always wanted to have my own ice cream shop since I was a little girl. Therefore, for this logo process, I decided to design a unique logo for my own ice cream shop. The ice cream on the left represents the purpose of the shop and the texts on the right is creative since scoop could mean “scoop of ice cream”, so it is easier for consumers to understand. the logo is colorful and lovely but not too complicated, the combination of the pink heart and blue texts gives customers a sweet and warm effect, so it may attract more customers. I searched ice cream shop logo on google images, and it gave me many ideas of how to create my own logo. From my point of view, my logo effectively represents my topic and function of the shop and it also has my own name in it.
For the process of making this logo draft, first of all, I set my logo sketch drawing as background so I can clearly see the shape and texts of the logo, I clicked tool and selected pen on top of the left corner to sketch the shape. I sketched the shape and texts of the logo so it would look exact the same to my original logo sketch. After that, I removed my background and left my sketch along on illustrator. After these steps, I used marker and pen tool to adjust the shape and line a little bit clearer. I also adjusted the positions and curves of the logos to make it look better. For the apple on top of the ice cream, I just simply used the shape tool. And after I finished with the shapes and words, I made sure that they are all closed shapes so I could use the tool paint to color them. One of the difficulties I encountered making this logo is that it was pretty hard to use my laptop to sketch the shape, so the logo isn’t detailed enough. It took me a long time to sketch the shape of my logo because I want the size and text could be exactly the same to my original design, therefore, I adjusted a lot and did it for few times.
After reading through the feedback from the members in my group, I found the suggestions very helpful for me to improve my Logo Design Project. I received suggestions such as to remove the purple heart after the word “Scoop” and redesign the light blue line to form a heart shape around the text, to change the background color, to modify the font of the text to create a stronger visual effect. For example, to “Bold” the text in order to create a thicker line for the words, and strengthen the contrast between the background and graphic pictures. I made some changes according to the comments. Firstly, I did a new logo sketch draft based on all the suggestions I received, I took a picture of it in order to sketch it on illustrator. After I am done, I inserted this picture as background on illustrator, I sketched the new shape of the logo. I changed the ice cream border over my text to a heart shape and removed the small purple heart altogether to make the logo bigger to attract more audiences. At the same time, I decided to strengthen the contrast between my background and graphic pictures, because right now my background seems a bit empty as the background color is a simple white color, so I want to paint it with some other colors in order to create a contrast to my logo. Therefore, I used the color tool to insert pink into my heart to make it brighter. I tried to make my texts bold in order to create a bigger contract, I used the text tool and changed the character and text. However, the heavy black color was too dark and thick to match my design, therefore, I didn’t change the font of the text. I used more colors into my logo to make it brighter and more colorful. In my opinion, it is always good to play around some colors and to make contrast in order to give the audiences more visual effects and to make the logo more appealing to gain attentions. For these two logo designs, I avoided small text and greatly different proportions. I didn’t use any images for this logo, and I made sure this logo could work in both large and small sizes.
In conclusion, I had so much fun creating this logo design project. I always wanted to have my own logo and now I have made it! In the meantime, I learned how to use illustrator to create the logo. It was very hard to sketch the shape, adjust the line, and to redesign the logo and decide what color to use, but I did it based on the useful suggestions from my classmates and what I have learned in the illustrator tutorials. Pretty sure I will be using my illustrator skills again to create more fun stuff in the future!
The Com210 Blog 