jennaseniorprojectblog

[jennaseniorprojectblog]

My Final Reflection

[jennaseniorprojectblog]

Week 15 update

My final afterword/reflection has been posted on Instagram.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jenna Hasan (@welcome2ourmind)

It was great reading people's thoughts. I think we were able to learn together, just as I had hoped!

[jennaseniorprojectblog]

Week 14 mini update

I'm feeling better, and it looks like many people saw my first afterword. I tried encouraging those who haven't seen the story to check it out in the post's description. Even though I'm no longer collecting data technically, people can still answer the questions, view the stories, and learn, which is cool.

Today, I posted the afterwords for stories 2 and 3, and, like with the first afterword, I thanked people for watching and participating and encouraged those who haven't seen it to check it out. Looking at my data, it seems that my stories have been watched by people that are not followers, which is cool.

I have one more afterword post to do; as long as I can get it out next week before December 2nd, I should be good. Once I have that out, I plan to include the images of all the afterword posts in my final reflection.

Hooray!

[jennaseniorprojectblog]

Week 14 update

I just posted afterword 1 of 4!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jenna Hasan (@welcome2ourmind)

For the past few days ( Friday, Saturday, Sunday, (and Monday, aka today) I've been sick, having caught the coronavirus for the first time.

Anyways, when I wasn't feeling tired I on and off I tweaked my first afterword post and finished the 2nd and third. I made a few changes based on the new data and added more graphics.

Interestingly two more people answered right before the week ended. I'm not sure who they are, but I'm happy to have more data.

Unfortunately, Canva doesn't let me share all ten photos as an Instagram post. It only allows me to select one page to share at a time (I guess each image counts as a page.) There is a share-as-story option, but I'd rather not put a time limit for each slide since it's a lot to read.

I decided to upload the photos to my phone gallery and then, from the gallery, share it on Instagram.

That led to another set of issues.

The images have strange numerical names given by Canva. I can only edit part of the name in Canva, so I just named them letters.

What it looks like in my gallery (set to display in alphabetical order)

What it looks like when I go to select images on Instagram (I guess images appear by a different order here? ) I don't know how to fix that.

So ridiculously, I had to look at my computer while using my phone to make sure I selected the images in the correct order.

I will be doing this again three more times before December 2nd. The good news is I have already finished 2 and 3. I just need to post them.

Afterword 2 -

Afterword 3 -

The final post I was hoping to get done soon. It is taking a bit longer since I'm still sick, and reflecting on the results for these questions is harder. I think it's because it's harder to draw conclusions from the answers to these particular questions.

My project is nearly complete.

[jennaseniorprojectblog]

Project progress update 6 - Week 13

What's been happening in the past two weeks has been reflected mainly in my previous posts. To briefly recap, I've been reviewing the responses to my story questions and thinking about when to release my afterword posts. I'm in the conclusion stage; all the main content has been removed, and now it's time for closing thoughts.

Unfortunately, the only new thing to add is that the hashtags I used in story four didn't help get more people to participate in the polls.

Now to the present.

I decided for the sake of time management and the appeal of making things limited that this would be the last week I'm accepting answers instead of the end of November, which is cutting it close.

I made a post today informing people of this. This will give me a more comfortable amount of time to put together the final posts and put them on Instagram before the deliverable is due on December 2nd.

While on Instagram, I also followed some accounts that share similar values. These are all accounts in Hawaii that have to do with disability advocacy.

Now, I realize that since my afterword posts are the final thing, it might be wise to include results for the questions too. This a neat way of ending things as I show my thoughts and then summarize the audience's thoughts. One of the things I learned in my Mastering Social Media class is that one of the huge appeals of social media is being able to see how your thoughts compare with others. This is because it feels good to see how we share similar ideas; it makes us feel like we are part of the community. On the other hand, seeing that we have different opinions once and a while is also suitable for us because it gives us a sense of uniqueness. Comparing and contrasting my views with the audience demonstrates how storytelling can bring about understanding.The answers are meant to demonstrate if I successfully communicated what I wanted to the audience.

So going into the next two weeks, I plan to release four final posts.

I have begun making drafts of these posts on a website called Canva. I specifically chose the format of an Instagram post.

The afterword posts were written long ago; however, since I plan to share my questions and answers, this will require more time to put things together. That means copying and pasting the question and summarizing the results. I did this successfully today with story one and made copies of it to use as a template for the other three posts. This took me two hours to do (also did a little of post 2). I hope the remaining posts will be easier to make now that I have a template. Also, if I receive any new responses by the end of the week, I will be sure to tweak the summary sections of these posts.

I should note that I learned that you could post 10 images tops per post on Instagram, so I would have each of the four respective posts set up as follows.

Adda story ten images

4-afterword

6-question results

Niko story 8 images

4- afterword

4- question results

Kaleo 9 images

4-afterword

5- question results

Bindi story 10 images

4 - afterword

8 questions results

I will have to pair some of the questions and answers together on a slide; otherwise, I'm going over the 10-image limit. This could be tricky.

I also plan to share these posts on this blog as images in the final post. Given that I've been regularly posting twice a week, it would make sense to have two afterwords released next week and the remaining two the week after.

[jennaseniorprojectblog]

Week 12 mini update

( 11/6/22) I uploaded my video recordings and question backgrounds to my assets folder. Now pretty much everything is in the folder.

Today (11/7/22)

I sent out some emails to folks who helped with the project or expressed interest and let them know my project was now available for viewing.

I'm still hoping to collect more answers. I've gotten a few more since the last time I looked. At the most, I've received 10 responses to a question.

I don't think I should post the afterwords for each story until maybe next week or the week after. This week I might just focus on getting more people to my page.

[jennaseniorprojectblog]

Week 11 update

Yesterday, Nov 1st, I finished adding expressions to the script of story 4 and made google forms for the poll questions. Some of the questions were slightly tweaked but still asked the same thing as they originally did.

Today, Nov 2nd, I finished recording the scenes on my phone with the Axrecorder app.

The only thing new I can say about the process is that I added a hashtag sticker to the bottom of each clip. Instagram only lets me add one hashtag per clip. Sometimes I changed what the hashtag was. Hopefully, this will get more people to see my stories that aren't following me to. However, it is confusing if they're only seeing one 15-second segment. I'm assuming if they were interested in seeing more, they'd check out my account, where I clearly have the full story available as a highlight. I hope this strategy works.

Another thing to note is that I had to duplicate the recording of part 4 and edit the copy to show the part Instagram cut-off. Like last time, I suspect this is because Instagram couldn't cut the remaining parts of the video into 15-second clips like it can with videos under 1 minute.

Now I will collect answers until the last week of November. I'll also work on some afterword posts (one for each story.)

[jennaseniorprojectblog]

Update 4.5

Story 3 has been posted along with a preview reel.

Took a while to do because the clips are longer, and Instagram was cutting out parts towards the end. So I had to make a duplicate of the clip by turning it into a reel and saving it to my phone. Then I had to edit the reel reducing it down to just the part of the story that was cut out. Then I had to go back to my stories and select the full video + shortened video. Basically, the full video only plays to a certain point, but if I add the part that was cut off as a separate video then I can post the whole story. Not sure if that makes sense. Overall it was a huge headache. I will probably have to cut some of my videos in half so that Instagram doesn't cut any parts out.

[jennaseniorprojectblog]

Project progress 4 update

Whatʻs been happening for the past 2 weeks?

 I've been updating more frequently, so a lot has been written about the last two weeks. However… I do have more to share since the last time I posted that is relevant to the past and present.

I sent out my story to more people I know -- family,  friends, classmates, etc.

I'm still trying to figure out how to get people that don't have any connection to me to get invested. 

For story 1, I've received 3-4 responses per question. However, Instagram shows I've gotten 8-7 people to watch per clip. This means sometimes half or less than half of the people watching are participating. 

Moreover, 2 of the viewers throughout these clips are not followers. So basically, 5-6 of the people watching are my followers, and 3-4 of them consistently participate.

Thoughts

It looks like I'm hardly reaching people outside my circle of followers, or even that many of my followers period. This is one of the reasons why I was so bummed that I wouldn't be able to use reels. I don't think stories reach as many people, plus when they get turned into highlights, I have to hope that I can get someone to my page to watch it. 

I think it would be wise to thank the folks who did participate. I won't say who did, but maybe that will get more of my viewers to want to engage as the other people did. 

As mentioned in a previous update, I tried posting reels that advertise the stories. I was hoping that would bring more traffic to my page. The bizarre thing is that my story two trailer reel got 160 views! 

But it didn't matter because I failed to get anyone to my page. I don't understand how my second reel ad got so many views when the last two got 20-30 views. Maybe the hashtags I used were better. 

As for Story 2....

The only thing that improved for the second story is that I consistently got four answers per question rather than sometimes getting 3. However, I retained fewer viewers. I started with 8, 7 of which were followers. Then it went down to 6

After act 1 (5 followers + 1 non-follower). So fewer people watched, but of those who did, more participated consistently. 

With all that said, I have gotten more people interested in participating, and the semester isn't over yet, so there's hope.

------------------

As for working on the story itself

(October 23rd)

 Since I finished my character assets in September, I've gradually replaced the placeholder assets with the final ones. Here's what that looks like. 

Images here are of me replacing the old placeholder Bindi with the new Bindi. This is the last story which will be released next week. I'm doing my final round of editing for this story, where I add the new assets and commands for expressions in the script. 

I also finished recording story 3 (I didn't share before but this is what that process looks like)

See the option on the bottom right labeled region recording. That's what I use to crop out unwanted things.

This is what that looks like

Once I hit the check icon, it does a count down-- 3,2,1. Then the recording starts, and I tap my screen to play each scene with dialogue. I read the dialogue each time before tapping again to make sure there's time for the viewer to read along. 

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Finally, I found the last remaining assets for story four and added them in/

bathroom stall - https://unsplash.com/photos/xXc7zUKIhRw?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditShareLink 

bathroom sink - https://unsplash.com/photos/oxD5Zaki7ig?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditShareLink

inside panel room - https://unsplash.com/photos/ewGMqs2tmJI?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditShareLink

artist alley - https://unsplash.com/photos/FFzMyu7yXyg?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditShareLink

Hallway - https://unsplash.com/photos/8FHEYXo4Zgs?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditShareLink

sketchbook - https://unsplash.com/photos/eBo-8_0i5ic?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditShareLink

purse - https://unsplash.com/photos/EOu6RjWX730?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditShareLink

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Whatʻs going on for the next 2 weeks?

This week 

 - I need to create google forms for the questions, then post story 3 + the questions on my Instagram.

- Make a reel that tells people story 3 is up.

- I will also need to finish up story 4 for next week.

So far, as shown above, all the final assets have been placed into the last story. I just need to insert commands that tell the characters to have different expressions.

Next week

 - I will need to create google forms for the story four questions and post the clips and questions to my Instagram. Then I will need to post a reel that tells people that story 4 is out.

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Hiccups/Hurdles/AHA moments

 I just discovered there was a ratio option in Axrecorder's editor! I did not know this. Now I don't have to crop it again when I bring it into Instagram! I also don't have to worry about the videos not lining up because they'll all remain with the same ratio since its Instagram friendly. I wish I had known about this while doing the first two stories! I guess better to know now than never. 

Today 10/24/22

It was brought to my attention that people outside the UH system need permission to access. Turns out this was checked on so I have to go uncheck it for all the forms. Maybe that partly explains why some people didn't participate.

--------------------

Any deliverable drafts? Please present if you do.

 Here are the respective questions and links to the final two stories.

Story 3

Pt 1

Story clip - https://headkanon.com/play/4394696c-5c10-43dd-93fe-f314d9ae5ed5

Image---If you knew the person you’re speaking to has autism and struggles to pick up on social cues, would you–

- Hope that they understand what I’m saying 

- Try to adjust how I talk

 Pt 2

Story clip - https://headkanon.com/play/1fbaf3ac-b175-4e06-9b49-8c3f25f0a46b

Image -  How would you feel if you were Kaleo and had no idea why people were annoyed with you? What would you do?

- Feel sad, try to find out why

- Feel sad and keep to myself

- Feel angry and blame everyone around me

-I would be indifferent

Pt 3

Story clip- https://headkanon.com/play/5761c7c8-660c-4d65-8475-400b8745468d

Image---Did you agree that if you’ve met one person with autism, then you’ve met one person with autism?

No - Knowing one person should be enough to get an idea of what autistic people are like

Yes - Autism is a spectrum; no two people are the same.

Pt 4

Story clip - https://headkanon.com/play/431504b3-f386-49e9-98e7-0eb1f3458750

Image-----Do you think it's fair to say that it's far less stressful to talk to someone whose communication style matches your own?

-Yes

-No

Image-----Did this story help you understand autism better? Feel free to share your thoughts or questions. 

- Yes

- No

-----

Story 4

Pt 1

Story clip-  https://headkanon.com/play/faad0015-4d07-4751-95f3-2087c2eeee85

Image-----Do you think Bindi is overreacting to everything?

-Yes, she just needs to take a moment and relax

-No, there might be a legitimate reason why her response is more intense 

Image----Bindi has autism. Some people with autism experience sensory overload. Imagine you felt overwhelmed by your environment, but everyone else seemed okay and told you to “calm down!”,  would you feel -

-Worse! People are telling me my feelings are invalid and want me just to be okay when I’m not. It hurts.

-Better! If everyone is okay, then I should be too. Shut up, brain.

-Nothing! I don’t care. 

Pt 2

Story clip- https://headkanon.com/play/c509bb50-b9c1-4e50-8b9a-85a22c710a4e

Image----Have you been told that people with autism lack empathy?

Yes

No

Image---People with autism have empathy; however, they sometimes feel too much. Do you think this could be a valuable trait? 

Yes- I think being super attuned can allow you to do amazing things

No - It sounds like that would just make you emotionally bloated

Pt3

Story clip- https://headkanon.com/play/14d5e740-410f-467d-89d5-f086a225d19e

Image --- Why do you think Bindi is so deeply distraught?

- The panel she was looking forward to was canceled. 

- Her schedule was disrupted, and now she feels uneasy because she doesn't know what to do.

- She’s a crybaby

- A & B

Image---Recall how Bindi went to a bathroom stall (act 2) and wore sunglasses (act 3). Why do you think she did that?

- She’s masking (trying to look “normal”). She doesn't want to bother people or have people think she is weird 

- She doesn't want to look weak 

- She’s embarrassed 

- All of the above

Pt 4

Story clip - https://headkanon.com/play/88f700ea-32b6-4898-a026-91af62047584

Image-----People with autism are either a savant or have a low IQs.

True  - If you’re not one or the other, then you’re not autistic; the media tell us this too.

False - Average autistic people exist

Image----Autism doesn't automatically equal savant. Did this story help you better understand autism? Feel free to share your thoughts or questions. 

- Yes

- No

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Where are you are on your timeline?

 I'm on track. I'm supposed to release story three this week, which I intend to do. Also, Story 4 is nearly finalized, so I feel good about meeting next week's deadline. I plan to post all my stories by next week (Week 11).

Unfortunately, I'm not sure when I should release the afterword posts. Starting from week 12, I can, at the very least, take the text I have written and try to make it visually appealing for when I post it. I also need to get more participants for the remaining weeks, 12-16.

Be sure to document your process. You can upload your footage to your Dropbox > Media Assets folder

I will do that once I record story four next week so I can share the entire folder from my phone to the media assets folder. I'll put links to the highlights too.

[jennaseniorprojectblog]

Mid Week 9 Update

Story 2 of 4 is up! 

https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17962952005973911/

This is the last of the ADHD stories. The next two will be about Autism.

Like with the first story, I added my questions to google forms and linked them all to the same spreadsheet. I'm glad I did this because so far, no one's used the sticker, but I have one person who wrote a reply and two who used the form link.

Also, continuing the trend from Story 1, I made a post telling people that the new story is out.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cj6i-2DgfL9/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Current issues

Issue 1

I'm a little frustrated that some of the stickers end up being off-center after posting these videos. I could've sworn it was straight when I placed it if I wanted to fix it, though I'd have to redo all the clips.

Also, you may or may not notice that after each clip, the video shifts—two reasons for that.

1.I still haven't gotten the 60-second clip feature, so Instagram cuts my one clip into several 15-second segments. 

2. The original video is too large for the screen, so I have to zoom out. I'm doing this by hand using my fingers to minimize the video on my phone screen. Unfortunately, since my one clip turns into like 3-4 segments, I have to edit all of them. It's challenging to crop them all the same way.

3. I struggle with aligning things in general and with my fine motor skills. So it's either spend hours trying to fix it with no promise of success or accept that it's the best I can do. Also, again I'd have to redo everything if I wanted to go back. 

Issue 2

Getting people to answer the questions. 

1. I know it's not the best practice to give your audience too many options. However, since the stickers expire after 24 hours, I need to have a backup option hence the link. Also, links are not appealing to everyone. They're good for folks who want their answers to be private and anonymous. But, if a user wants to do things quickly and doesn't care about their answer being public then their next best option is to comment/reply, if the sticker is broken. So, I feel I have no choice but to crowd the clip with these different options. To me, its the lesser of evils and ensures every kind of person has a way to answer if they want to.

However... 

2. Even though I've made it easier to answer and did my best in my posts and stories to emphasize the importance of people's answers, my results are lackluster. As I learned in my mastering social media class, it's essential to provide value in your social media posts, show that you're listening and want to hear from people, and ask your audience questions. I urge my audience to take part by telling them their voice matters, that they will learn something and that they will be helping the project as a whole. I've also participated in other people's polls and answered their questions because I understand how helpful it is and I live by the golden rule. I can also hope that maybe they'll return the favor. I also try to be entertaining to keep people's attention, but that's only half the battle. I have no guarantee that my viewer is interested in playing a more active role and answering the questions. As I've learned in my class about mastering social media, videos are the most appealing to viewers; however, many social media consumers are lurkers. A lurker is a viewer who consumes content but doesn't engage with it. From my insights, I can see that several people watched my videos but didn't answer the questions. As they say, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink it. Perhaps it's not enough to say things like "let's learn together!" or "Your answers matter!". A viewer looking to be entertained who doesn't know or understand my project and isn't actively looking to learn will understandably not bother to answer questions. I need to get more targeted. Actively seek out participants in person and online and try to be compelling. I have to get more people invested in what I'm doing. 

So now I'm thinking things like- 

Why would learning this be beneficial to them? How can I make that clear? Other than reaching out to people I know, like friends, classmates, and family, who else can I target? 

The good thing is that half of the stories are already up. I believe once all four are posted, it will be easier for me to put everything I have into driving people to my page. 

That said...

Issue 3

What do I do about my afterword posts?

Initially I was planning to have an afterword post after each story. These posts would discuss the story, the issues it tackles, and some things about the character's strengths and weaknesses.

Unfortunately....

I have had to put that on hold because I haven't gotten a lot of answers to my questions. If I were to release the afterword post now, it would spoil some things about the stories to people who may not have engaged with it yet. Moreover, it may alter their view of the story, and their answers won't reflect whether the story itself taught them anything or if their primary understanding comes from the afterword post. So I will have to postpone that content until I get more viewers or until the end of November because it needs to be shared eventually. 

What's next on the agenda

Get approval and post story 3 next week

[jennaseniorprojectblog]

Early Week 9 update

Couple new things.

1. Shared my account on other social media (my other Tumblr account and my other Instagram.)

https://www.tumblr.com/anajenna/698337164442959872/jenna-hasan-welcome2ourmind-instagram-photos?source=share

2. Made an outline for each story to follow while making my posts. You have the video --- image----question.

For example

3.Decided to make a post directing people to my page. Will repeat this after each story is released

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cj1kG1LgV70/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

4. Story 3 has been finalized and story 2 is going to be posted this week.

5. I am going to reach out to more people directly to see if I can get them to participate 

[jennaseniorprojectblog]

Week 8 update

Tuesday  10/11/22

 I realized it would be better to record the stories on my phone. There's less space around the video when I do it that way. 

It took some time, but I found the ideal screen recorder app Axrecorder for Android! Not only is there no watermark, but I can adjust the screen size and crop things out before recording. 

When I went to record a story on my phone, I noticed the characters were floating because there was a space between the dialogue box and the character images. I adjusted the height, and now it looks all good. I then did several tests on my other Instagram account to get a feel for things.

Unfortunately, when I brought the video clips into Instagram in its nicely cropped form, it was too big for the screen. So I have to adjust every clip's size on Instagram by zooming out slightly. 

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Wednesday 10/12/22

Posted my intro video to Instagram. This one is long and has no questions, so I posted it as a reel.

My Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/welcome2ourmind/

 I believe polls expire after 24 hours. I don't have a lot of confidence that people will watch and participate throughout the entire story if I post it on different days. They may not bother waiting for the next part; it's more work for them to have to keep coming back and answering questions, and it's even worse if the poll expires before they even make it to the story in the first place. 

Heck, I'm not even sure if I can get people to participate it's sinking in that there's a lot to look at, kind of like this blog!

The only reason I write so much on here is for the sake of documentation; I want to look back and know how exactly I pulled this off. 

Anyways so, if I'm bringing new people to my page, I should make it as easy as possible for them to interact with my project if and when they decide to look at it. So I've decided to put all the parts together and add google form links as a backup if the stickers stop working. 

It's ridiculous, but I will make a form for each question. This is the only way I can think of doing it so that there is a link for each question. Thankfully, I can link multiple google forms to one spreadsheet, allowing me to have all the data shared there.

So I suppose I would make one spreadsheet for each story and link the respective question forms to the spreadsheet.

 This was my process

Create forms for each of Story one's questions.

Create a spreadsheet for story 1 data

Go back to each of the forms under responses, hit the three-dot icon > select response destination > existing spreadsheet > select the spreadsheet named story 1. 

Now all forms are linked to a spreadsheet. This should make it easier to look at the data. 

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Thursday  10/13/22

 I recorded half of my content (stories 1 and 2) using Axrecorder and put all the videos in a folder on my phone. I also added some art I made to use as a background for the questions segment.

Unfortunately, my Instagram still doesn't allow me to post clips up to 60 seconds. So the workaround is adding multiple clips and having Instagram splice everything up into numerous 15-second segments. It's not the cleanest looking, but it'll do.

This was my first go at it. I didn't include stickers since this is just a test.

https://www.instagram.com/s/aGlnaGxpZ2h0OjE3OTc5ODc0ODAxNjcyODg2?

In my trial run, I discovered that you could only add ten images at a time. The good news is that if you go over ten, you can add more later, and the next photo you add will appear last. Since I can't predict how many videos will be on there when Instagram turns my one long video into several 15-second segments, I'll have to change my strategy a bit from how I did it for the draft.

New strategy

1. Go to the account

2. Hit plus icon at the top

3. Select the stories option

4. Hit gallery > select the first Axrecords0 folder

5. In the order you want them to appear, select the clips and photos you'll need. Best to do acts 1 and 2 first and then make a story again with acts 3 and 4. 

6. Go to the clips with images. Copy and paste questions, answers, and google form links from notes to the image. It should be -- question on top,  middle - sticker/answers, bottom - link. 

Friday 10/14/22 (today) I followed the process above for my first story, then added each story clip to a highlight titled Story 1.

[jennaseniorprojectblog]

https://www.instagram.com/welcome2ourmind/

My first story is up, plus the intro.

Edit (oct 19th) : Story 2 is up now

(October 26th) Story 3 is up now

(November 2nd) Story 4 is up now.

All stories have been shared now!

[jennaseniorprojectblog]

Project progress 3.5 mini update

 Somehow I was unaware that the time limitations on Instagram stories are different than it is for reels.In truth, I've never tried to make an Instagram story until this year. In my defense, when I did a test run, the story clip I used to test it out just so happened to be short enough (actually, a few seconds was cut off, but I didn't notice until I watched it again later).Anyways, when I tried making a draft for story 1, part 1, the video was abruptly cut off, to my horror. 

Later that day I did some digging to try and understand Instagram stories better.I discovered that Instagram began rolling out a new feature of 60-second story clips a few months ago! That could work. It's not 90 seconds, but I'll take it. I think most of my story clips are 60 seconds. I had it timed where the clip plus the questions were 90 seconds or under, and  I could do multiple stories and group them in a highlight!

Apparently, this feature hasn't been showing up on everyone's account yet. I tried a video to fix the issue. Unfortunately I only got it to work on my personal account, not the one for this project.

However, I found out that if you add more than one clip, Instagram will splice the video for you so that the last 10 seconds that were cut from video 1 will show up in the following story segment that plays after it. It's not the cleanest looking, but it's better than nothing.

It's irksome, but at the end of the day still works better than reels because the highlights can be neatly organized and labeled; plus, I need that questions sticker that's exclusive for stories. That said, I still hope I can get the feature; if not, then the story will not look as smooth. I reported the issue to Instagram; who knows; maybe they'll fix it.

[jennaseniorprojectblog]

Project progress update 3

Week 7 ( Sunday October 2nd)

Added a screenshot and free stock photos from Unsplash to Headkanon

Story 1 assets

kitchen - https://unsplash.com/photos/VaGdhK-kI1c?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditShareLink

Computer/bedroom - https://unsplash.com/photos/p6inklbZzMM?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditShareLink (10/2/22)

Story  2 assets

Breakroom - https://unsplash.com/photos/4HG3Ca3EzWw

Workspace - https://unsplash.com/photos/FSFfEQkd1sc?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditShareLink

Another office - https://unsplash.com/photos/deoSlTaI0JU?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditShareLink

So stories 1 and 2 are all pau. I just have to turn them into posts and add stickers for the questions.

(Image of computer screen. This is for a scene in story 1.)

Unfortunately, when I make another story, I can't select the photo I used here; I have to input the link again. Meaning when I go to add this asset to another act, I have to input the link again I can’t just hit add art and select it.

 Edited text box to have different colors 

Made sure the color contrast is disability friendly. (Learned about this from my web design class)

Tuesday October 4th. Made an intro post. I’ll post it once I’m done with the stories.

Also made an Instagram account.

Welcome2ourmind - https://www.instagram.com/welcome2ourmind/

However...

I ran into a problem!

 I tested reel features on another Instagram account to get a feel for things. Unfortunately, I've run into some annoying issues. First, there is no question sticker that lets viewers type in responses for reels. Oddly this sticker is only available for Instagram stories, not reels. Another bizarre issue is that the poll question stickers can not be set to appear at a specific time, and yet this feature works for the other stickers. Even if two different videos make up the reel, the question will appear on both. This means that the poll sticker will sit on top of the story for the entire duration.

Have two clips here, and the poll sticker just stays there. I can't designate it to one clip.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CjY81ckAWF6/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY= 

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Possible solutions I thought of

Record the entire computer screen so that there is space beside the video to insert the question

Have the questions themselves be in text so they can appear and disappear and not spoil anything.

Since no sticker lets people write their responses, I will have to urge people to comment below with their answers. I'm concerned that because this is more work, the viewer may be less likely to answer, plus their response will be very public.

 (Using the poll sticker and just adding in the question later (nope)

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CjZIgdapdVg/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY= 

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Turn the story into a reel.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CjZmZKhAzfm/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY=

Nope, the stickers don’t work, so you have to ask people to comment.

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Turn reel into story???

Make a reel first with a question on the side and turn it into a story.

Crop to just show video. Add other clips with question stickers.

Post. Add as a highlight on my Instagram page.

Also nope! That's silly. I might as well just do stories.

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And so….

Finally, I  decided on a better solution  (today, October 10th)

Just make stories instead! Keep them permanent by saving them as highlights on my page, use hashtags so more people can find them, and share the page with many people. All I have to do is make sure all the stories are up by the end of week 11 (4 weeks from now) and then continue working on getting people to visit my page. 

Ideal Timeline

So week 8 (story 1 acts 1-4), Week 9 (story 2 acts 1-4), Week 10 (story 3 acts 1-4), and Week 11 (story 4 acts 1-4). Even if I'm late one week, it's okay as long as all the stories are on my Instagram page by week 11.

Weeks 12, 13, 14, and 15. Continue promoting the account and collect data. 

Right now

Stories 3 and 4 need to have the finished assets added and stories 1 and 2 need to be turned into posts. 

[jennaseniorprojectblog]

Project progress update 2

A lot has happened these last couple weeks. As I’ve been working I’ve been taking notes and screenshots here and there to record my progress. Here is what I’ve been up to.

Designing, and posing characters   Weeks 4-6

9/11/22

I posed my first character Adda and took pictures. For all my other characters, I use the same process once I finished their hair and clothes. I hit the photo icon on the top right of Vroid Studio to start. When taking pictures of your Vroid model, you can put it in pose mode. I did this to move the character up, frame the camera around them, and pose them. I also adjusted the picture size to a width - of 881 height - of 720. Then I made the background color #04F404. This makes it special effects green color that you can remove to have a transparent background. I save that pose, name it character (mood) bring the image to - https://www.remove.bg/upload to get rid of the background. Then I save that photo to the respective asset folder I made for that character (character name expressions). 

Uploaded assets to Headkanon.com. (Plus google drive)

- note about Adda’s design its supposed to be fun and dynamic like her.

9/12/22

I discovered you can recolor texture using color calibration

Saving different variations of eyes and skin for each character

https://vroid.pixiv.help/hc/en-us/articles/4405438979225

9/16/22

I created Bindi's hair from scratch using the presets I initially used as a reference. It took me a while to figure out how to do a braid. I used one of my failed attempts at braiding as a part of Bindi's design. Now she has braided hair and twisty hair.

Image of me posing Bindi (9/19/22)

For Bindi's dress I exported the guide and design template

Brought them together in Krita

Exported again as jpeg

I emailed it to myself to use as a guide in ibis paint Then I sent it back and put it in Vroid.

Bindi is supposed to be in cosplay. I don't have her cosplaying as anything specifically, but I did want to her clothes to seem like that of a fantasy character. I randomly decided to go with a fairy princess flower theme.

I also worked on other two main character’s Niko and Kaleo's shirts.

Like I did with Adda, I am continuing this practice with other characters, bringing in the design from my phone and getting it to fit in the UV map. I'm using different techniques to get the design to fit. For Adda's shirt, I warped the perspective; however, for this shirt, I'm doing a different warp technique where I grab different points and stretch the shirt in different directions. By doing this, I can ensure that when I bring this texture to Vroid, the shirt will be in the correct place to display over the shirt. I'm also using liquify, which essentially spreads the shirt more freely.

I tried a different approach for the Mom's shirt. I did her design in vroid studio, then copied the layer multiple times, applying various effects like lighten, darken, etc. I also used the teardrop blur brush to make things look better. The lines are not as lovely when drawn on the computer.

I like how it came out.

For the Mom's design, I unconsciously used my Moms two favorite colors (black and red) and her birthday as an inspiration. I also used the color pink with hearts because my Mom was born on Valentine's day, and pink is just a cute color to have with hearts.

Within Week 5, I finished posing the main characters since their shirts and hair were done.

This is how I felt while doing it. It's really not the same as posing a character with rig controls in Blender.

- Kaleo's hair, as you can see above was kind of tricky to design. I wanted it to look thick and poofy and have a lion mane look. I also adjusted his face to look more Hawaiian.I looked up images of Hawaiian guys and used random pictures as a reference. 

- Kaleo shirt has a lot of triangles in the design; this was inspired by the traditional patterns Hawaiians would stamp on Kapa cloth There is also a lion in the center, which references the character's name and love for lions.

This is how I felt when I finished doing it.

Niko's shirt is not too flashy. I used cool colors. This reflects how Niko wants to be calm and not draw attention to himself. The effects and brushes I used give the shirt a fluffy texture. Niko wants to be comfortable, and his clothes reflect that. 

Now for the side characters. 9/24/22

I decided to make Edwardo's shirt in vroid. I made his hair thick which is somewhat plot significant.To me, he looks like a popular kid in school

I made this design a while back in ibis paint. I brought it into Krita, ensured it covered the shirt area, and then imported it into vroid. I was thinking along the lines of Hawaiian shirt/Japanese aesthetics, which ended up fitting the boss character who  I made Japanese. Fall is a significant season; it reflects impermanence as the leaves change color and dry up. Granted, in Hawaii, we don't experience this. I'm a huge fan of autumn leaves, and Ibis paint had a leaf brush that I went crazy with. Note that the purple at the bottom is supposed to be transparent; however, when I save it as a jpeg, it turns out like that. If you bring a png into vroid, the design will look faded, so I save them as a jpeg to keep the design looking vibrant.

I Did the same thing for Bella's design. I made it in ibis paint. I should note that I was able to achieve this pattern by using the symmetry kaleidoscope tool. In other words, you have a bunch of lines repeating ray-like lines, and when you draw between these lines a pattern. The pattern you draw is then repeated several times over. I also really love getting crazy with different effects like glow, bevel, color contrast, etc.

Rather than doing what I did with the boss's shirt, I decided to have the design overlap itself. The small square design on top covers the torso portion of Bella's dress, and then behind it, the rest of the dress is covered by a larger design. Then like I have for the other designs made outside of vroid, I took this design along with an exported UV map of Bella's dress and ensured the design covered the entire area. This was a bit of a gamble, but when I brought it into vroid, it looked pretty good, to my relief.

9/25/22

Keyon's shirt was made in vroid. I was trying to make a plaid shirt. It doesn't look plaid, but it looks good.

Cara's design, like Bella's, was a case of me having fun with the symmetry kaleidoscope tool. You can adjust the number of times the design repeats. You can also turn it off and add to it, which I did. Like I did with Kaleo's shirt, the design fits within the main body of the shirt, so I have to use the liquify tool to spread it outwards for the sleeves to be covered.

I had to add some props to some of the character expressions. I started with Kaleo, whose pose calls for taking notes with a pencil and notebook.   I used this method several times of selecting the hand in the original layer, then going back to the layer with the object in it and erasing the highlighted part so that their hand looks like it's going over the object.

Some other examples

Editing the story

- Story 1 Has been reviewed once over by people I know. (Sep 11-12) Poll questions were modified. A psychologist I know pointed out that people don't want to look bad when publicly choosing an answer. The way I wrote some of my questions made it seem like you'd be a jerk if you didn't put a specific answer. She suggested I have some questions not be multiple choice, so the viewer has to type in a response. I also got help from my brother, a law school student (writing is his bread and butter) plus, he was once an editor for a college magazine, so he gave me some tips on grammar/wording. On top of that, I use a program called Grammarly.

-I also went through the script of story 3  with my brother (Sep 21). I changed the poll's wording and audience response options and went to the other stories to tweak them. I also checked with Grammarly for the first two stories to see how many seconds it takes to read each part and their respective poll questions. So far, each part is under the max 90 seconds, except for one part that is 3 seconds over. Now I'm just reviewing all four stories and editing the grammar and tone.

Poll questions

As I mentioned in my previous update, I got some excellent advice from UH West Oahu's Gloria Niles before I started writing my questions. She advised that I use the questions to ask the audience how they would feel if they were the character in the story or if it was someone they knew. Perspective-taking is the key. If I can get the audience to understand the character and imagine what it's like to be them or know them. Ideally, that will cultivate some understanding. Another thing I was advised to do is address the disability that's being represented. So I also made questions that say this character has such and such and explored that within the question. By that, I mean encouraging the audience to imagine what it's like or describe how they would feel. For example, one of my questions for story 3, which talks about autism, is this - "How would you feel if you were Kaleo and had no idea why people were annoyed with you? What would you do?"   When you have trouble reading nonverbal cues, as some folks with autism do, it gets confusing. I'm fluent in vocal English, but my silent English isn't great. It's almost like you are a foreigner in your own home.

Finally, yesterday I changed the dialogue box to a default option that mimics subtitles.

With all the character’s done now, what I need to do by week 8 Oct 11th.

1. Get approval

2. Finish editing the stories

3. Change the expressions of the characters throughout the story - would write a cue in the script like - Adda happy.

4. Get some background images

5. Record each clip to bring to Instagram

Finally, I will keep doing my best.

[jennaseniorprojectblog]

Project 1 reflection pt 2

Where I was 

To give some context to where I am now since I actually started this way back in May, here is a timeline.

May 2022 -Did pre-capstone presentation. Set goals to make stories and characters and interview people. I discovered Vroid studio and decided to design the characters in this program.      

June 1st - Sent an email about my project and a request for assistance to UH Manoa's Center of Disability Studies.                                                   

June 2nd - I reached out to UH West Oahu's disability office, informing them of my senior project and asking for help getting participants. The office was happy to help and had me write up a message for them to send to students using their services. I managed to get one response from a student.       

June 3rd - Started the story writing process, recalling my own experiences with ADHD and Autism.          

June 6th - Interviewed student, and took notes on ADHD. I Got ideas for the plot of my first story. Read an article about Neurodiversity featuring a faculty member of UH West Oahu. I emailed this person, Gloria Niles, UH West Oahu's Director of Distance Education & Coordinator.     

 June 8th - I spoke with Gloria Niles. She has a background in special education and neurology. She advised that I ask no more than three questions for my polls (to keep people engaged). These questions should touch on the disability I'm talking about in that respective story, and how the audience feels about the character and their situation. Like, what would you do if you were talking to such and such, or how do you think such and such feels? I was advised not to say what disability the character has in the story, so one or more of the questions would need to address what disability the story is talking about directly. I got an email back from the Center of Disability studies referring me to two people they think could help.                                                               

June 17th - I reached out to one of the people the Center of Disability Studies recommended (Raphael Raphael). Also, I included Annie Moriyasu since they were both topic chairs for a discussion on creativity, media, and the arts at the 38th Pacific Rim International Conference on Disability and Diversity (2021). Raphael responded that day, expressing interest. I replied back, asking if he would like to do a zoom meeting sometime this month. It was 6 pm on a Friday, so I might've answered too late in the day for him to see it.                     

June 21st - With no word from Raphael, I sent a follow-up response giving him my availability for the month. Unfortunately, he never got back to me, and I didn't want to bother him, so I gave up.   

June 25th - Interviewed a friend with Autism and ADHD. I also got feedback from them on what I had already written.  

June 30th - Modified goals, cut down from focusing on 6 neurodivergent conditions to 2 (ADHD and Autism). Also, cut down the number of stories from 7 to 4. The format was changed after rediscovering Headkanon, a site that essentially lets you make visual novels with ease. Concluded that it would be easier than doing animation and better than posting an image with a long block of text.                                                                                                    

July 17th - Discovered Instagram reels and how you can add more than one clip and poll stickers. I decided to divide up the stories into parts. This way I can adhere to Instagram's video time limit (90 seconds) and question the audience as they're going through the story. In other words 1 reel = 1 story clip + poll question clip.           

July 1st-24th- Worked on and finished rough drafts of stories, characters, and polls. I touched base with the student I interviewed and got feedback on ADHD stories.                                                                                                       

July 25th - I brought the scripts to Headkanon along with screenshots of the rough drafts of my characters. I made rough drafts for all the stories and their parts. I redesigned the text box to make it my own.                              

All Summer- Spoke with some acquaintances with Autism and drew inspiration from them as well.                                          

August - Designing t-shirts for characters, story drafts pending review, organizing assets, and making plans. 

September - Working on finishing character designs/ editing story.