Throughout this entire year that I've been in Digital Design and Art 1, I've acquired many skills from many different software's and overall increased my knowledge of technology. The first thing I'd like to talk about is how I've been able to learn so much in Photoshop. Photoshop I think is the one software that I'll continue to use primarily throughout my life. We've been able to use so many different Adobe software's but I think that Adobe Photoshop is the one that kinda combines all the good things that the others have, and put it all into one. Photoshop has an insane amount of applications and is fairly simple to use. The thing about Photoshop that is so great is how it has such a learning curve. Even right when you start out and don't understand 90% of the interface, you still have a lot at your disposal. Even if you only know how to just use filters or how to just use blending, you still can do so much with what you have. Another piece of software that I really enjoyed using because of how simple yet useful it is, is Premiere. If I ever create a video for anything, it is super simple to make that video a whole lot better by using Premiere. Adobe Premiere can let you adjust audio levels, add background music, create new transitions and a lot more. Overall, one big takeaway I've received from this class is simply how I have adapted to understanding the interface of basically anything in a more precise manner. Before my year in Digital design, whenever I would look at a complicated interface such as Photoshop, I wouldn't know how or where to start. Now that I've been able to use many different software's throughout the course of a year, I am much more able to understand the interface of any website or software with much more ease. This year in Digital Design has been amazing in how it has thoroughly developed my skill and knowledge of digital history, software and animation. Summary -
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I think that a really nice aspect to any game is having a very good online mode. Some more modern games that are entirely online have shockingly bad servers in perspective to how much income that company makes. I think that having bad online servers and not matching people with proximity based connections really just messes with how the game functions. For example, in very precise intense difficult games where you need to play with precision and timing, having bad servers and input lag just ruins the entire experience, leaving people with just wanting to play the offline. I think that a lot of big companies tend to spend all of their budget towards cosmetics and purchasable items instead of putting that money towards making their game better overall. There's nothing more frustrating than crashing when you're about to win or dying simply because the servers have an immense amount of input lag. I think one thing that should be emphasized is having separate servers for those with Ethernet and those on WiFi. I think that a lot of games and companies don't encourage their players to get a better connection, and in the long run, ends up creating a laggy experience for everyone, not just those with the good connection.
Over the last year I've been using razer peripherals for my computer such as the Razer Mamba TE Mouse, Razer Mamba Firefly Mouse pad, Razer Mamba ChromaOrnata Keyboard. These different pieces of junk all have so many problems with them and they are dramatically overpriced for the quality that you get. One thing that's really nice about these is how high quality they feel for the first month or two, but then the problems begin to arise. The first thing that I've had a problem with so far is my mouse. Some problems that have occurred are the tracker just completely cutting out, and tracker jumping all around my screen. What I mean by the tracker jumping is basically whenever I lift my mouse off the mouse pad the pointer will jump from one side of the screen, all the way to the other. This makes playing any game completely unplayable with this garbage. Razer offers some software for their peripherals which actually just make them work way worse. The calibration makes the mouse jumping 10 times worse and also creates typing problems with the keyboard. The problem with the keyboard isn't the build of the device, similar to the rest of their peripherals, but it's how the utility interacts with the computer. The computer will sometimes randomly not read an input on the keyboard. Some problems I've run into with the mouse pad however, are entirely build flaws. The first week of having my firefly mouse pad the tracking and gliding of my mouse was super smooth. After that, the build starts to wear down. My mouse pad is so unbearable to use my mouse on at this point of which my mouse just scratches across the surface of it. After having all these problems with peripherals that cost me a grand total of 170$, having them for only a year, I have to already replace them all. I DO NOT RECOMMEND BUYING THESE PERIPHERALS.
Throughout the fourth quarter of my freshman year here at DSA, I've been working with 3d Studio Max in my Digital Design and Media class. I've expanded my knowledge and understanding of how the interface works, how to manipulate objects with more ease, and I've simply become quicker at working with this software. Some things that I have noticed that I've gotten better at are things like understanding what all the tools do and how to not accidentally move an object way off to the side and then not be able to find it. The image above is an example of my work where if you compare it to some of my work from the beginning of this quarter, it's much higher quality and looks way better. Some things I still mess up in 3d Studio max are knowing and remembering keybinds and remembering what each modifier that I currently know how to use does. A tool that we just recently learned how to use is the line tool. This tool works in a very similar way to the pen tool in photoshop, illustrator, etc. This tool allows you to create your own custom shapes with somewhat ease. Some issues that I ran into when using this tool is knowing what to draw with the line that would work well with the lace modifier. For example, for the cup I created half of it, and then used the lace modifier. If I were to try and draw the whole cup with the line, it would make a jumbled mess that doesn't look anything like my intended shape. Conclusion-
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AuthorMy name is James Gerondelis, I am 14 and in the 9th Grade at Durham School of the Arts. This is my first year of Game Art & Design. Archives
May 2019
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The views and opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not represent those of Durham School of the Arts or Durham Public Schools.
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