Week of Unproductiveness

     This week, I, on accident, forgot to work on the project. My project should be done after break. Today, I'm going to show Mr. Odinga what I've got so far, to give him a preview of my WIP. To the rest of you who read my blog, I will try to figure out how to post the video on YouTube and still be able to work on the project. I hope that Mr. Odinga likes what I have in store for him. I will keep working on the finished project, making it as best as it can be.

GREAT PROGRESS

   These last few weeks, I have been making more progress with "[SFM] The Knights Who Say 'Nee!'" So far, I got most of the lines from the knight, who is the main speaker for them, synced with the lips movements from the Scout who is playing that person. I had to record the audio for the video straight from my phone using my laptop's mic, YouTube, and some speakers that were hooked up to my phone. The quality isn't as good as I had hoped, but it's what I have to work with. Overall, I think that by the time we get to presentations, I will have a finished product that I will hopefully show in the presentation.

Bump in the Road

     I tried to do the Knights Who Say "Nee!" in SFM, but the audio won't play. Not even a test sound. I'm going to see if it works today on SFM, but as far as I know, it won't work. I have to keep trying, but I am determined to make [SFM] The Knights Who Say "Nee!" a reality with Source Filmmaker. I'm sure that, provided that the sound works and I can work on my project, the video will look great when it's all said and done. I already have an idea for what the characters will look like, as in what TF2 Character plays what role in the scene I will be doing. The Knights Who Say "Nee!" will be Scouts wearing big, spiky hats, King Arthur will be a Medic wearing something medieval that I find suits the costume the best. That's all I got for now.

New Video Idea

     This week has been somewhat productive in terms of the project. I have a new idea for a video that may bring some nostalgia to fans of British satire. I will be making a video with the audio of a scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The scene will be the scene where King Arthur trespasses on the land of The Knights Who Say "Ni." I don't know how I got the idea, but it came when I was sitting in Mr. Odinga's class. I hope that he will enjoy the video and how I make it. I hope to stick with this project and keep working on it until the video is finished. I realize that for this video, I will have to learn how to lip-sync the characters with the audio, and how to put hats on them for each individual character, but I am willing to put forth the effort I need to make this video happen.

Official Clean Slate

     This week, I did what I said I would last blog, and factory reset my computer. My test to make sure it would all work was to run Garry's Mod, and open it multiple times. My computer passed the test, because I opened up Gmod, the short version for Garry's Mod, probably more than 5 times now without it crashing. So since that works, then Team Fortress 2 should work, and hopefully, I can reopen SFM files after awhile of leaving them. I saved all of my music, including the remixes I made, on my USB flash drive, and I'm gonna try to save the videos I make in SFM on that same flash drive this time.

     Oh, dear technology god, I thank you for giving each and every piece of technology the ability to factory reset. It may have its negative effects, but the positive effects are what most people, like me, care about the most. It gives us the opportunity to start over. It gives us the option to restart the game.

                     Amen.

Not a good Job

     Sadly, I realize that what I told Mr. Odinga, saying that I was going to factory reset my computer, will have to wait till I can get to my dad's house, because I have a TON of music I made that I love and cherish very much. I need to wait till then to reset it so I can put valuable pictures and music on my USB flash drive. I left it there. So sorry to let you down this week, Mr. Odinga... It's not intentional, I swear... I'm not trying to get out of doing the work. This is honestly the first project that I would devote my time to as much as I did these past weeks of doing the project. I will work my butt off this weekend and on until near the end of the semester, I promise.

7th Week of Faliure

     This week has again... been very unproductive. There have been many set backs, but that's no excuse. I think I found out the problem with my Source Filmmaker. I think I will need to factory reset this computer and start from scratch again, installing Steam and SFM again to see if it will work. I know that all of the files that I want to save will have to be moved to a USB drive so I can save all of the music that I made. Even worse, to who saw my 20% time presentation, remember that really short video that was animated using Garry's Mod? Well, my copy has ceased to work anymore. I will have to reset the computer and reinstall it if I want it to work.

New Start

     I have a great announcement to make: After many weeks of thought, I have officially gave up!

     I'm kidding, of course. I have gotten an idea, and I plan to put that idea to good use. I won't reveal what that idea is until either someone asks me in person, or when it comes time to present. Though I will say that the music video idea was an epic fail. The music wouldn't play when posted inside the audio track area. I'll try to work on the music problem, but everything else is going great. Downloading some add-ons for Source Filmmaker as I'm in the process of typing this blog. A picture of a scene in my project will be posted along with this post when I get a screenshot of one when my app loads. So far, I was really happy with how the video was turning out, but I just opened a project that I worked hard on this week, and it happened AGAIN!!! I wish I had seen your comment to my fifth post sooner, Mr. Odinga! I lost all my work!!!!! Now it's time to start again.........

The Clean Slate

     This week has been a somewhat productive week. I have subscribed to a user who does tutorials for SFM, and I get to start my film from scratch, now also because I refreshed my laptop, which basically reset my computer. I got an idea for a video again. I am going to import music to my SFM and make a music video. It will still have some added comedy, but I hope to stick with this one and work VERY hard on it. It will be to a Dubstep song, called Ruffneck (Full Flex), by my most favorite artist, Skrillex. Hopefully, this project won't become corrupt like the last one did. Until next week's post, have a great day and good luck to my friends, Reba, Victoria, and Alyssa, on their projects, and to my teacher, Mr. Nathan Odinga.

Very Unproductive Week

     This week has been a bad week as far as the project goes. I've had play practice after school because I tried out for it. I STILL haven't restarted on my video yet. I will start again tonight and watch videos on YouTube to help with my animation skills with Source Filmmaker. I'm not gonna lie, I need ideas. Someone post a comment in the section below this blog post and give me some ideas for a video to make for my project.

     My first video, as was stated in the last post, is corrupted. I hate having to start all over, but this is one exception. Games/Software that I'm familiar with and know what to do are games/software that I will happily restart. Today, I subscribed to a user who is in connection with steam and does tutorials for Source Filmmaker. Please give me ideas. I need help from my peers.

HUGE DOWNTURN!!!

     I did my presentation for 20% Time today, and I was going to work on the project. I tried opening up the file, and it said: document was not opened because there was an error reading the file. I hope it will read it soon, because it it doesn't, I'll have to start an entirely new production. I'll need to start from scratch.

     On the positive side of the day, the 20% Time Pitch presentation went great today, aside from technological difficulties like my computer not opening things and not going online. People seemed really interested in my project. I'd say that, presentation-wise, that the day was pretty good for me. My teacher laughed at the videos I showed today.

This Week in a Nutshell

     This week and the past few weeks have been a great step in the right direction for my project. I have basically already achieved my primary goal, which was to learn how to animate using Source Filmmaker, also abbreviated as SFM, which is a tag most commonly used in YouTube videos. Most videos made with SFM have very high quality picture and sound, which is something I plan to work on in the times to come from now to the end of the project. I have also set a few bonus goals, like learning how to lip-sync audio with a character, and finishing a video and making it a final product. This project is obviously going to have a few bad products, but with the amount of time we are going to get, I have plenty of time to perfect my product for the final part of the project: Presenting in the style of TED.

     Today, as well, I have created the playlist, on YouTube, that I need to use for my pitch presentation, which will show my school's staff and my fellow classmates what my project could possibly produce.

     Here is the link for my pitch presentation:
                   http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMxZGgPr8YtpDBYG7B5MrYMw0uqr8KByV

Introduction

     Remember the old games that were 64-bit, 18-bit, or even 8-bit games? They used to be the bomb, the best graphics we've ever seen. Now, up to date, the graphics of today's standards are the greatest of all time. Today's graphics seem almost real, except for games that are MEANT to look like a cartoon game, such as Team Fortress 2, the basis of what I'm using for my project, or an old game, such as Minecraft. Some of the great games made by Valve have had some great animations, but how do they do it? That, my friends, is no longer a secret. Most of the games they make use an animator called Source Filmmaker, which I have been using, but to the least of my ability. My project is to learn how to animate like the great company, Valve, using Source Filmmaker.

     The reason that I want to do this project is because of the following:
       1. This is the first project that I get to CHOOSE what project that I WANT to do.
       2. I've seen many people on Youtube make amazing videos of Team Fortress 2 game play and animation.
       3. I'm fascinated by animation, and have tried to do my own, even though they were stop motion animations.