Animation Outtakes

So lately we have been working in groups to make a animation. We were assigned to use animation as a source to tell a story about what had happen to one of our teammates. My teammates are, Kuumomi Thompson, Lilio Masi, and Sophia Rodriguez. My whole team are very interesting. A couple facts about them is that, Kuumomi is very entertaining by being funny. Lilio is awesome at being friendly and very talkative to anyone. Sophia is... sophia, but in a very good way. She is amazing at almost everything... She is funny, silly, graceful when she wants to, and she is really smart.


Stop-motion animation, or " stop, click, and go," is when theres pictures of movement put together to make a video. For an example if i was walking, I would take a picture of each small movement that I take, that when I put all of them together, it turns into a full walking video. Stop motion animation is to visually give an audience something in animation. .GIF, if don't already know, is a format of a product that lets things be used as a animation. The videos below are both in .GIF format, so that it can be as a video type.

My team and I all agreed that we were going to tell a story about my life. The story is about me having a hard time during dance practice, but then succeed at competitions because of the teamwork from my dance team. The message that we were trying to put out there is that, Teamwork Is Key. Without teamwork, my dance family might not have been able to have won at the competition.

Our Animation Story

So for the past couple weeks, we were assigned another project. We had to go in a group with the people that we haven't worked with all school year, and make a animation. The only thing thats different from this years animation and last school years animation is that, this year we have to make an animation that tells a story of an event of one person in our groups life. We all have thought of what we could do, but everyone agreed that it should be something interesting. So we agreed to do my life. Because I went to a lot of places around the world, we made the story to be about me having struggles during practice time, but when it came to teamwork, people helped me concur my failure, and succeeded when we went to Italy. we was called " Kaylynn Overcomes Challenge."

The lesson or message that we were trying to give the audience is that, teamwork is key. For an example, I had a hard time during dance practice, so my teammates helped me with the routine. If it wasn't for my team, we might have not succeeded in many of our dance competitions.

I think the only worst moment we had as a team is that I wasn't here for the first half of the project. But my group did amazing together when I wasn't in school and especially when I was back. we all contributed to the project and to project ideas. we did amazing with the little time we worked together. All in all if we were grading the teamwork between the teams and not the project, I would give us a 4/4!

Typography Images

TYPOGRAPHY:

If you don't know, typography is when text and a photography comes together. For our next project that I will be talking about is typography. We were assigned this to give and show the meaning in our selves and my picture. Typography can be used with images to make a lasting impact by creating a really interesting image. Typography photography is basically text and words aligned in a way to showcase a portrait and or image. Below is pictures of my middle process of the project:

The pictures above shows when I was doing the process of the typography project.
This is most of text aligning into my face.

My challenge during this project would be the coloring and the gradients on the face, background, and for the text. To overcome this issue I was given help by my teachers examples and the tutorials online. Although, I wasn't able to do the teacher typography, I was only able to do the typography of me. If I had more time, I think I would have made my shadows and light gray areas a different color to make it better.

Because I only did one typography out of three, my best one is my finished ME typography. I really like the words that I chose to put on my face. I also like how the finished quality is well done. For my first time doing this, and that I was the only one in class that had less time and less experiences of the project, only because I wasn't here, it came out pretty good. On the side is my finished ME typography project.

HDR Photography

HDR photography, or High Dynamic Range imaging, is used to make your photos better and more interesting, but it depends on when and how you use it. It adds more dynamic range, the ratio of light to dark, to images and photographs. What I like about HDR imaging is that it makes my photos look like how you and others would see it as by the eye. Also it makes my images more interesting with better exposers and colors all shown.
I think the only thing that I dislike about the HDR photography on my phone is that it takes a little longer to snap the photo. When using the HDR mode on your phone camera, its likely to take a little longer when taking the photo only because instead of taking one snapshot of an area, it takes three or more photos with different exposers. Then, when you snap the photo, it takes a long time to process all the photos into one. Have you noticed that? After the photos are taken with the different exposers, you may go into photoshop and merge all of them together so that they blend into one another. With your edits and changing the saturation, gamma, vibrance, and other options, you just made your finished ordinary photos.

We had to do two images with the HDR photography processes. One was of a landscape and the other is an profile. When taking my landscape photo, I was basically looking for the trees, leaves, and the shadows. I think the only tricky part about what I wanted was that the leaves and leaves were moving. So when I put all of the photos together in photoshop, I had the option to align the photos together, match them up, and then get rid of the movements which are called ghosting. On the right is my landscape HDR photo. For my profile photo, my dad was my model. I asked him to do a pose that he can hold for at least 60 seconds. Instead of doing one set of the photos, I took two different profiles with different angles and a different pose from my dad. After keeping his pose and after I took my 7 photos, everything payed of. To edit the photos in photoshop, it was the same process as the landscape, but instead of looking at the trees, I had to focus on my dad. Under the landscape HDR photo is my profile HDR photo.

For my superimpose photo I took my dad form my profile picture and my landscape HDR photo together as one and put in a word that relates to the picture. Below is my superimpose photo.

Movie Trailer Critique

Hey guys, its been a couple weeks since I've been blogging, hope everyone had a wonderful winter. Before the winter break, in class we were assigned another project. It was a movie trailer. We were in groups of four, my teammates were Maya Clark, Aedan Betts, and Seth Kostelecky. We had an idea that our movie would be about overcoming your fears, since the movie audience would most likely be first graders. Our movie is called " Getting Over It." Although we had some ups and downs with contributing all of our ideas as one, we still was able to finish it and we all agreed that it was ok. It was all about teamwork.

The project requirements were to have the finished trailer to be at least one and a half to two minute long, five scenes in the trailer with the actors, voice-acting scripts for the voice overs, and text layovers for the title and other words in the trailer. We also needed effects in the trailer to make the viewers more interested in the movie so that they would like to watch it. The effects were to make the different angles in the shots we took and take them from good to GREAT! We also had another project that was involved in the movie trailer which was to make a movie poster to sell out the movie. Each person in my team had to come up of their own poster and then we had to vote on the best one. My movie poster didn't win though, but to me I think it looks pretty good. To the right is my movie poster that I created.

After we all agreed that our movie trailer was able to be sent to our teacher for our critique session, the whole class watched it and voted for the best trailer in the class. Based on the results of the critique session, I agree with the votes because our trailer wasn't the best but we did our best cooperating with each other so that we were able to finish and turn in our finished movie trailer. In the process of finishing our project, my team and I learned that with teamwork, cooperation, and with everyone all in it together, we finished everything on time. We did our best!
To the left, is the critique polls from my class.

Book Art Project

In the first quarter of the school year we were assigned to make a book art project. This book art idea came from Isaac Salazar, the person who created book art. The process of making the art is to fold each page of the book into the shape or word you want. Because this project is supposed to be apart of visual literacy, we were to come up of a two to four letter word. My word was " pray."We printed paper with the word on it and had lines on it to show where we had to fold the paper to and the shape of the fold we were to do. Every time we created a fold we had to mark where we left off so that we don't skip or redo a line. When we first started it became a little confusing but after a while I got used to it. 

For my book, I had to fold sixty-four pages for "p,"  thirty-five pages for "r," sixty pages for "a," and forty-eight pages for "y," but to finish the entire word in the book, I had to fold two hundred and seven pages. I chose this word because if I keep this book, I can remember to always pray and talk to god everyday. The font of my word, carter one, relates to my word because the font looks kind of inspirational, so I chose it. My intent of the project was to inspire, move, and to motivate others especially myself.

When I finished my book art project, I thought it came out pretty good. I liked it, it was pretty ok. I think the only thing I would do differently is to choose a different word so that I could be more challenged, with the word that I already had, it was a little to easy. If I were to do this project again, I think the word that I would like to do would either be " dance," or a word that has more than five letters. The book that I would create the word in would be like a dancing book with cool moves or any book that has to do and relate with the word I will be using. Doing this project was really fun and I would recommend it to all art classes or for free time project at home or even at school.

Below is my finished book art project and the process of creating my word!

Proactive or Procrastination?

To me I believe that I am proactive. I think that I am proactive because when we are in teams for new projects in my yearbook class and there is a group that is falling behind, I take charge and help them go through their situations. I also am energetic, and driven into working hard and learning new things.

The level of my productivity relates to my amount of free time because on most of my free time I would be working and studying for quizes and also I would use it to practice on things in school and also for other activities that I am active in.

I think that if I could change my work habits it would be to work even harder on my free time and when others are not looking, because I know that even though I am productive, it still isn't enough. I would change it by taking my free time ability a little higher.

My Visual Poem

Above is my finished Visual Poem! Please watch and enjoy!

This past week, we had to turn in another video that we created in G.T. class, but this time, instead of having groups, we made this project individually The project video is supposed to be a visual poem. My poem video is about entertainment such as dancing, singing, acting, ad watching things. It is called " Show-Time. " The visual film of the poem impacts the the video because it gives the viewer more information, like if they don't understand the poem.

The special effects in my video helps the video go from good to great by giving more interest into the video and gives better transitions in between films to the next. Also it gives a cooler mood to the viewer, especially with the effects that relate to entertainment.

I am satisfied with my finish product. I love the way that I got to successfully put everything together without help and it worked out great. I think if I had a little more time getting more b-roll or films for my visual, then it would of been " off the hook! "

Following is my Visual Poem Plan. Where I planned out everything.

Finished News Story

This passed project in G.T. we had just finished and turned in was for either a porfile or a news story video. My teammates and I decided that we wanted to do a profile story about someone, and chose to do it on me and my family, The Drake Ohana. The people who have contributed in the project are of coarse, my group, Hailey Gokan, Leslie Acoba, and Sydney Nice, then of course my family who were in the video, Emmsley-James Drake, Michael-Alan Drake, and Mike Drake.

The final of the video turned out great! My team and I all agree that we really enjoyed the video and also filming everything. Although there were some little bites here and there that weren't as perfect, it was still really good.

When we had to show it to the whole class, the audience had to give some feedback and critique the video. The critiques were all true and were really halpful for our upcoming projects for the future. Some of them were: " there could be more sequencing... " and  " great job love the natural sounds and b-roll shots... " To the right is the results for teh best overall video in our class.


  To the left is a screenshot of the vote results! Our video is the T4: Drake Fire Knife Tradition.

Real World Report

Here are students from Kawaikini, 

a K-5 Hawaiian immersion school and took home

first place in the singing portion of the competition.

The story that I read about that is a world wide report is of Hawaii and how children are keeping our culture alive. Kids of Kauai, Hawaii were able to compete in the Mokihana children's/youth music competition. The K-5 children from the Kanuikapono school were honored by respecting and honoring the last Queen of Hawaii, Queen Liliokalani. Although they just won 2nd place, the practices and the love that the kids put into their music for the queen paid off. Kumu Pua Kamealoha Gomes was thankful for the kids for keeping and knowing their hawaiian culture. Many of the parents of the children were also thankful that their children are bringing back the hawaiian languages in the songs, learning them in school and enjoy seeing it continue. Many elders were also pleased to see them to because when they were younger they learned it to and are just so grateful to have the next generations to lead the way for the culture and traditons to stay alive.

The issue is that when Liliokalani was reined Queen she was forced to let go of our traditions and culture such as languages. Because of that a lot of natives were challenging the people from the America, the american people stepped down and let us keep it. But it never left, it stayed in their hearts. Becuase of that many elders taught their children and grandchildren the cultures, then that generation taught the next and so on and so forth. So now we come to the present day. We are now teaching the generations such as the Kanuikapono school to keep the culure ALIVE!

Many people should start to care becuase this is our culture and it talks about the past. when I was born I was raised to entertain by dancing my traditional dances like hula and tahitian. many people don't realize that its not just entertainment, its ways that we honor our hawaiian gods like Pele- goddess of wind, lightning and volcanoes, Kāmohoaliʻi- god of sharks, and Hi'iaka- goddess of the hula and the daughter of Haumea. So the more that I see the generations learning and honoring the gods the more I am grateful. Please understand that we, hawaiians want to keep our culure and traditions.

Click here for the website: LINK!

Lessons Learned

So far for our Hiki No project about the Drake Ohana, the most intresting part of the project to me was the work that we've got with the different angles and how we are able to work together as a team.

I think the biggest road block our team have had that we have handled so far was the schedules that we have after school. It took a long time to diside what day, time, and where we were going to do my brothers interview, because when I was available, then the other people in my group werent available that day, but then we just got it settled and everything worked out perfectly.

I think the most valuble part of filmaking is to be ready and prepared for anything such as camera not working right, mic. isnt working, mistakes of shooting and any mistakes of anything. The filmaking process would be at its best if we all look at the small things before shooting anything because the small things can make a BIG error for the video.

HikiNo Behind the Scenes

For my groups project idea, we are planning to do a profile story about the Drake Ohana, Mike Drake, Michael-Alan Drake, Emmsley-James Drake, and Kaylynn Drake( me and my family) about how and why we do fire knife dancing. The story is about us passing down the Samoan tradition and culture from generation to the other.

When the camera isn't rolling we will be discussing more things about how we should set the other shots for the other camera shots. There is no time for wasting time.

To help my team I can give options that I think would make the video even more better, I can help set up the cameras, and just see if they want me to do anything for them. The more we encourage and be there for each other, the more we will be come more of a team. Teamwork is everything!

The Expirement

Hey guys! In my G.T. class last week we had an assignment to explore one of apps that we have on the class computers. Its called Photoshop. We had to make up anything we wanted to do without any rules and information on how to use photoshop but it had to be appropriate.

Instead of just doing one project in Photoshop, I did three. Two of them were from what I new already and the other one was an animation that was tought to us by our teacher because he wanted to teach us a new way to explore Photoshop. On my first project I made a blend of four different photos into one photo. Then I grabbed another photo from the internet and then touched it up in photoshop. Finally I put the two photos together and filled in the rest of the page to make it better. This is my first finished project form Photoshop below to the right:

Back To School

Hey guys! It's been a while since I've got to post stuff. Well, as you know now, I just got back into school at Kapa'a Middle School again and I am in my last year there. So far, my favorite moment in the beginning week of school would be meeting my new classmates that transferred from their school before coming. I made a lot of cool new friends.

My biggest challenge so far has been getting used to the new class schedule. I think the the D.O.E. (Department Of Education) changed the bell/ class schedule because the teachers need more time to teach the students and give them the lessons they need to get a higher and better test scores.

This year, the way that I can be successful for this school year would to become a better community contributor and an complex thinker. I feel these options could help because then I could learn from not only my mistakes but my classmates mistakes by being an effective communicator and I can involve into solving problems.

Composition Techniques

In the beginning the school year in 2013, my G.T. class and I had a class project called composition techniques. Composition Techniques are used for photographers and people who wants to film or take pictures of something. These techniques helps them grab interests in the viewer and makes the footage look more interesting. We were in different groups and had to show what some composition techniques there are. There are a lot of techniques such as, leading lines, contrast in content, unusual angles, framing, and more, but the one technique that is mostly used for films and pictures is rule of thirds.

Here are some composition techniques:

This picture was take with leading lines. The person in the 
picture is Wailana Makepa.

This picture was taken with an unusual angle. That person
in the picture is me, Kaylynn Drake!

Five Tips For

During the beginning of the school year my G.T. class and I had to do this video project called " Five Tips For..." My group, Wailana Makepa, Iris Murakami, and I, chose to do "Five Tips For Dancing Better." This project was really fun, but I think if we had a little bit more time it would have been "off the hook." If we did have a little bit more time I think the video would have been 10 times better. Like what my teach, Mr. Chris Sanderl, always says, " make it go from good, to great!"

Tip #1 Always add a facial expression no matter what!

Tip #2 Always have a good posture!

Tip #3 Always make your moves big!

Tip#4 When changing your moves and position in your routine,
try to make it look natural!

Tip #5 And remember....... ALWAYS HAVE FUN!!!

Words of Wisdom

The latest project I have done in my G.T. class was the " Words of Wisdom" project. We had to be in a group of 3-4 people and I had 2 partners, Wailana Makepa and Sydney Nice. We all chose to interview my grandpa, Jim Drake, on why family bonding is so important. Our interview video is called " Mr. Jim Drake Encourages Family Bonding." My partners and I completed this video by reshooting, and getting together with him more than once. We had some stumbles and some up and downs because either we needed more B-Rolls and more footage of him and his family. We learned that when ever we do this again, we should do as many B-Rolls as we can and that " there is no such thing as to much B-Rolls. "Our words of wisdom is important because you might not be able to see your family all the time plus it won't be too much longer, they will be getting older, and won't be able to come see you as often as they do now. Just have to enjoy while you can."- said by Mr. Jim Drake.

Here is my groups " Words Of Wisdom " project. Please watch!

Final Photomantages

These are two examples of my photomontages. We made these photomontages because we learned about David Hockney's wonderful art works. We had to take multiple pictures of a location in a couple perspectives and put them together to create "Joiners". My first one, on the left was one of our practice ones which was taken at my school of a trash can with an beautiful hall way with amazing trees in the background. The other photomontage that I made was of my brothers truck with the beautiful sky and his really cool stickers that he created and put on his truck. After taking the pictures I put my raw, unedited, photos in Adobe Camera Raw and edited them. Finally I put them together and organized them in a way that made sense in Photoshop.

Practice Profile Story

In my G.T. class we had to make a practice of our profile stories. We practiced with our teammates and chose one of us to interview of what they like to do. My partners and I, Sydney Nice and Wailana Makepa, chose to interview me dancing because of how much I really enjoy dancing.

The purpose of this practice profile story is to learn and get used to the way we have to do our official profile story which is the profile story about " Elder Words of Wisdom."

The video below shows my team's practice profile story. Please watch!

Profile Project Progress

For the Profile Project that we are doing in G.T. class we had to choose one of our older relatives out of all three of our partners family. My partners and I chose my grandfather, Papa Jim Drake, for our project. We chose him because one of my partners grandparents aren't on this island and my other partners grandparents were to busy and weren't able to get with us.

We interviewed him at his house and shot many B-Rolls of him and his family members. We also went to the beach to show how he spends his little time with his family members when they can. Our project is about how Papa Jim encourages his family and shows how much he loves his family. The hard part about this was the shots and how we had to get up close and then medium shots and then the wide.

During this project we had the hardest time trying to get with each other because we all had something to do after school. I think one thing that my partners and I could've done better was work as a better team by helping each other more than usual. Lately we just did our rough cut critique on our videos and these were our critique scores from our class for audio, visuals, story, and the quality of the video.

To improve the video we will be reshooting a lot of the B-Rolls, fix and re-due the voice-overs, and make the video make more sense by making everything in the right order and make everything together with the story. Hopefully everything will be awesome and interesting to the viewers, but I know in my head and soul that WE CAN DO IT!