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-
I think that difficulty in video games is a topic and concept that is really underwhelming in many different modern titles. I think its great to have games like dark souls and sekiro are great because they're targeted towards more hardcore players who are looking for a serious challenge. On another hand I think it's great to have games such as kirby's epic yarn which are targetted towards a younger audience, but I think that the amount of resources and time that they put into the game is completely unnecessary for what they're making. I think retro nes games have it perfectly. They have incredible difficulty but they're not impossible to beat. Take nes wrestling for example, it has a really simple move set, but mastering the style of game play, strategy, and timing are a much different realm of difficulty. I think a big mistake is allowing the player to choose their own difficulty. In most games when it's too easy, its completely boring. Too hard and its you give up too quickly.
One of my favorite retro games that I've ever experienced is Punchout for the NES. I feel like this game really hit the nail on the head with a memorable cast of characters, smooth controls, and an amazing amount of difficulty. In Punchout you play as little mac, a small fighter who has to go through many divisions to rank up against much bigger opponents. The game starts you out in an easy match against glass joe and then hits you in the face with Von Kaiser who is a much faster and unpredictable opponent. I think when the game really starts to scale though is when you face up against soda popinski. This guy is really difficult. He's about three times as big as you and his punches knock you down almost immediately. His punches come out in a very unpredictable pattern and are extremely hard to react to. I think one of the things that this game does perfectly is how unlike NES wrestling (which is another amazing game) it has a much more memorable style of play and cast of fighters that you face.
Over the past couple of weeks, we've been working in 3ds max over several different projects. I've currently made a snowman, a pencil, and a tank. Some worries that I have about moving forward in 3ds max is how I currently only really know about 10% of the interface if even that much. Some problems that I've run into is simply how power hungry the software is. My computer has crashed in 3ds max at least 10 times and it takes forever for it to even start up. Another problem I have is how easy it is to mess up and object. If you have the extrude tool accidentally selected when you're trying to mess with your object, you can very easily mess up your object by dragging it excessively with even the slightest mouse movement. Another worry I have is that I don't think I'll really ever be able to make my own object without a guide given online. It seems so impossible to manipulate an object with enough precision and accuracy. With my current state of experience, I think that I could create some simple objects on my own such as a cup, or fork maybe. I hope that moving forward my level of expertise greatly increases because I kinda feel like I actually don't know anything about the software. Hopefully, after I learn the interface to a greater depth, I'll know much more about how to edit my objects in a more efficient manner than what I currently know. Conclusion -
One of my favorite current mobile games is Brawl Stars by Supercell. The reason why this game sticks out to me in comparison to the other supercell games is how it's very fast paced and requires a lot of thinking. The game includes 4 different game modes slots that rotate daily. The game modes that show up include showdown, heist, bounty, gem grab, and brawl ball. My favorite game mode out of all of these is Showdown because you can play either solo or duo and you go against 10 other people in an arena that's shaped like a square. Once the game starts you need to find chests to get power cubes from them that increase your brawler's health and damage output. After 20 seconds a poisonous fog starts to close in around the arena, constantly shrinking towards the middle of the stage. The fog forces camping players to move in and compete with the others that are alive. The game has various different selectable brawlers that each have their own specific moveset that is fitted around their playstyle. Bull is a short range character who has a slightly higher move speed than the others. Penny is a long-range character that has a slightly slower move speed than the others. Each brawler has its own star power that becomes unlockable at level 9. The star power enhances the abilities of the brawler. The game has its own leveling up system where when you get experience, you level up and get brawl tokens which you can buy chests with to upgrade your characters.
Over the past couple of weeks, I've been working in the amazing software that's is Adobe Premiere. Adobe Premiere is by FAR my favorite out of all of the Adobe Softwares. Some of the things that I find so amazing about Adobe Premiere is how easy it is to cut clips and put them into your own amazing composition. There are so many different effects that vary from simple transitions such as a screen slide all the way to distortions and other crazy effects that you can use to mess around with your composition. I've done 3 different projects inside of Adobe Premiere which I've loved each one. My favorite so far was the fluidity of motion project where we took several clips and cut them up and put them in a certain order to portray someone getting ready to leave their house in the morning. On my own time, I've put together a couple of funny compositions using royalty free short video clips from online. I really enjoy the variety of customizability that Adobe Premiere offers to you. I recently found out how to adjust audio gain in a certain audio block and I've had fun putting it to the max in a random part of my video.
Over the past couple of weeks, we've been working in different Motion-Based Applications. These are Adobe Animate, Adobe After Effects and now we're moving into Premiere. Although I have done basically nothing in Premiere so far, I have a good understanding of some of the similarities and differences between After Effects and Animate. One thing to note off the bat is how After Effects is solely based off of using several different images to create an animation which is known as the traditional way of animation. Animate on the other hand allows you to use keyframing and tweens as well as the traditional style. I think creating animation in After Effects is MUCH more tedious than in Animate, but for me at least it was a lot easier to understand. In Adobe Animate I struggled over and over dealing with the Shape Hints to correctly make my animation fluid and not choppy. If you screw up your shape hints and don't choose the right type of easing, your animation will look terrible. In After Effects there are certain styles that you can choose to make your objects move or transform on the screen such as making them dilate, rotate, move and a couple more. I found Adobe After Effects to have a bit more of a complex looking interface but it was easier to pick up. One other difference that I noticed is how Adobe Animate seemed to allow you to create much more complex types of animation unlike After Effects, where it seems like the majority of what you can do in it is make text, lines, and shapes move on the screen. 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
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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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