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Final Tumblr Post - Class Reflection

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Tumblr 8th Update (Weeks 13 and 14)

Hey everyone! Well, we’re finally here. This will be one of the last updates for this semester and I honestly can’t believe we’re here! So let’s get into it. In these last two weeks, I’ve been wrapping most things up. I tidied up some things on my YouTube channel, created a trailer video for my video series, and created a behind the scenes video where I talked about my process of how I create these videos. 

And what’s coming up for the next two weeks is… wait a second, there are no next two weeks! Just one! My excitement aside, for the last week, I have only a single thing planned, which is to finish and upload my reflection video of this class. I’m already working on it too so I should be able to post it soon. If Sharla says something needs fixing with my paper, then I’ll add that to the list too, but overall, there’s not much left to do!

These last two weeks have gone relatively smoothly work-wise, so I thankfully haven’t had any noteworthy problems. One thing I wanted to mention though, was that I had a nightmare one night where Sharla got back to me and said I had to redo my entire paper! I freaked out in my dream because I thought there was no way I would be able to do it with the week or two of class I had left. I woke up in a cold sweat after that, but quickly realized that it was a dream and calmed down. And during class this week, Sharla said that for the part that she had read, there were no deal-breaking problems, so even if there is something I have to fix, I won’t have to redo the entire paper.

I’m pretty much at the end of my timeline for this class now, and thankfully I can say that almost all of the boxes have been checked off. As I said before, pretty much the only thing I have left to do is finish and upload my reflection video of this class, and that’ll be it!

Attached is the trailer video for the video series I made, my behind the scenes video, and the playlist I created of the videos in my series. My next update here will be my last and will be my reflection video. So I wanted to say thank you to everyone that has kept up with me throughout my journey so far. See you all in the next update!

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Tumblr 7th Update (Weeks 11 and 12)

Hey, everyone! We’re getting really close to the end now. Crazy to think that the end of the semester is so close now, but I guess being busy with work has helped with the time passing so quickly. This time around I’m going to do things a bit out of order. First, I want to talk about the “aha” moment that I had this past week. Earlier this week, I met up with my peers and Professor Sharla for class and this time around, I got to see what everyone has been working on this past semester. It was really eye-opening to see the hard work that everyone has been putting into their projects and I was genuinely impressed by a lot of them! For example, any project that involved coding, like the ones that were making video games, I kept thinking to myself about how lost I would be if I tried to tackle something like that. But that’s why that’s their specialty and not mine. So with all that being said, seeing all of their projects encouraged me to keep at my own project and finish out the semester strong. As for hurdles or hiccups, these last two weeks haven’t had anything too bad of note, which is a big blessing.

Anyways though, with these last two weeks, I’ve been able to hit a big milestone. Just a few days ago, I managed to finish the seventh video in my series, thus completing the production phase of my deliverable. Last week I finished the sixth video, so I’ve been able to keep at the schedule that I’ve been blocking out for myself. And as for what’s coming up in the next two weeks is entering post-production. This includes things like tidying everything up like the channel for instance, creating a “behind-the-scenes” video and double-checking my senior project paper. 

I’m pretty much exactly where I should be on my timeline right now. I wanted to block out the last few weeks of the semester for post-production where in-case anything needed major changes, I would have a decent buffer of time to fix whatever needed fixing. And thankfully, I can say that I’ve reached that point. The end is definitely in sight now, but that’s no reason to let up on the gas. I’m not there just yet. 

Attached is a link to my sixth and seventh videos. As the seventh is the last in the series, I’ll share a screenshot of my workflow for that video. Now it’s on to post-production! See you all in the next update!

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Tumblr 6th Update (Weeks 9 and 10)

Hello again, everyone! Another two weeks down and I’m that much closer to the goal line! Getting straight to business, these past two weeks have been just about the same as the past couple of ones. I’m in full production mode to crank out more videos and talk about certain literary devices that games use to make their characters better. Same stuff, different day. But I’ll admit that I’ve been getting a bit more excited since the end of the semester is drawing closer and closer. The next two weeks will be split up by week. This coming week, I plan to wrap up production completely. (Hopefully) The week after that, if I don’t need to use it to catch up on any lagging productions, I plan to enter post-production and start wrapping everything up!

While not a hurdle in a school sense, I did have something happen to me in my life this past week that did tear me from my work for a while. It’s a personal matter so I won’t go into it, but I will say that I wouldn’t call it a bad change. Thankfully though, I’ve been able to mostly keep up with my schedule since I didn’t completely stop working during that time. An “aha” moment that I’ve had recently is that as I continue to talk about different literary devices that games use, I’m starting to notice that these different games use some of the same literary devices that I talked about in previous videos. Some of the literary devices I talk about are more general in nature, like character arcs, so it’s only natural to see them in a lot of games. But still, it makes me appreciate different aspects of some games that I didn’t appreciate before.

For the timeline, I still believe that I’m keeping pace with it. As the post production stage gets closer, I’ll have to look at what all I need to do to actually wrap this project up. But if there’s anything I’ve learned from this semester, it’s that I just need to keep moving forward and keep working at it. I’m nearly at the end, so it’s no time to give up.

Attached is a link to the fifth video and a screenshot of my almost completed sixth video. After that, there should be one more video coming and that’ll be it for production! See you all in the next update!

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Tumblr 5th Update (Weeks 7 and 8)

Hello, everybody! We're past the halfway point now so I’m excited that we're getting closer to the end. Of course, there’s still a lot of work to be done, so no celebrating yet. These past two weeks have been pretty much the same as the last two. I’ve been working on getting more videos out for my deliverable. And I have a few more to share this time that I will post alongside this post. The next two weeks should be the same as well, but if I’m reading the schedule correctly, after that, there should be a shift as we start entering the last part of the class and that is where I will (hopefully) start wrapping things up in post-production. 

These two weeks have been mostly hiccup-free, if you can believe it! There were some small issues here and there, but nothing really to report on. As for an “Aha” moment, in my latest video, I talk about the importance of a character arc. And to help argue my point with the specific character that I was talking about in my paper, I used the theory of the “shadow”, coined by the Psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung. The reason why this is an “Aha” moment for me is because I actually found out about the concept of the “shadow” in my own free time a few years ago. And when thinking about how to back up my argument, I thought about the “shadow” concept again and was glad that I could incorporate it into my work all these years later.

For the timeline, I think at this point it’s just tradition to keep saying what I’ve been saying in all my previous posts. I believe that I’m keeping pace with it, but I do not want to grow complacent knowing that. “There’s still more work to be done! More time to be spent on this project, I say!” - Me, probably.

Attached is a link to my third and fourth videos. I don’t have anything really to show for my fifth video yet, so instead, I’ll show a screenshot from my workflow of the newly completed fourth video. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you all in the next update!

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Tumblr 4th Update (Weeks 5 and 6)

Hello again, everyone. Over the last two weeks, I’ve had my nose to the grindstone on working towards realizing my deliverable. I managed to finish my second video for the series, and am nearly done with the third as well. My research paper is getting on in terms of number of pages as well, as I continue to back up my videos with how the literary devices I talk about are good for storytelling. One thing to note is that Sharla gave me the approval to continue on my video series without the need to check up with her whenever I complete the script or video. While it’s a little scary to continue on with only me calling the shots, overall, I’m glad for this turn of events as I can keep working on the project without needing to take short periodical stops to wait for approval.

As we’re now about halfway through the semester, the next two weeks and beyond will just be more of my nose to the grindstone as I’m now in the full swing of things. I’ll try and get these videos out as fast as I can, so I’ll keep you all updated in terms of progress.

Thankfully, these last two videos I’ve been working on haven’t had any major hiccups to speak of. The one hiccup that I have had however, if you haven’t already noticed, is that I got the weeks on when I need to update this tumblr off slightly. That’s why this week's update shares week 5 with the previous one. If this post seems slightly shorter than my other ones, it’s simply because I do not want to repeat what I talked about in my last post in this one. Thankfully though, after this update, I should be able to correct the error.

For the timeline, however, I will repeat what I said in my previous post. I believe that I’m keeping pace with it, but I do not want to grow complacent knowing that. There’s always more work to be done, so I’ll keep going.

Attached is a link to my second video, as well as a screenshot from my workflow for the nearly completed third video. Thanks for keeping up with me and I’ll see you all in the next update!

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Week 4-5 Update

Hey everyone. For the last two weeks, I have been working on finishing up my preliminary research and following that, been working on a test deliverable to see if I am ready to move on to that phase. Thankfully, I managed to get both the script and subsequent video approved by my professor (which is my deliverable), so I’ll take it as a good sign to move forward with the deliverable. 

With that out of the way, for the next two weeks, I plan to continue to do more of the same. Create the script, update my research paper to back up said script and video, and then actually make the video. And just keep doing that until the next deadline comes around.

One challenge I faced recently is that, for context, my video series are going to be shorts on Youtube. And shorts have a different aspect ratio then most other videos out there. So when I started working on my first video, I completely forgot about that and made the dimensions 1920x1080. Thankfully, I caught it pretty early on when making my video but I did have to rearrange everything I had to fit the 1080x1920 format that Youtube shorts use, so that was a thing.

As for where I am on my timeline, I want to say that I’m doing relatively well and am keeping pace with it. But at the same time, I do not wish to grow complacent with that fact. So I’ll just keep moving along, as there’s still work to be done.

Attached to this post is a screenshot of my (somewhat goofy) workflow and a link to the aforementioned video.

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Week 2 Update

Hey everyone, Andy here to give you my second update on where I am. So first things first, where am I now and what have I been doing this last week? 

For this past week, I’ve been working on the first draft of my senior project paper and as such, I’ve been trying to gather academic sources to help build credibility for it. To be honest, I was a little worried when I first started writing because since my topic is the characterization of characters, it ultimately deals with fiction. And why that matters is because I wasn’t sure if I could find things like an Academic Journal that outlined what exactly makes a fictional character good or not. Thankfully though, those worries were unfounded as after just a bit of searching I found just that. Personally, I think the research is going fairly well, but that leads to the next part of the report: Where I’m headed next. 

Although I think the research is going well, my opinion is not what determines whether I pass or fail this class. So before I go any further, I plan to get in contact with Sharla and get her opinion on whether the research and sources I have so far are good or not. I’m hoping they are, but remembering what she and other previous students of this class have said, it’s important to be flexible. So if she points out some problems that I need to fix, parts that need to be expanded upon, or if things need to be outright changed, then I’ll be flexible and do what needs to be done. After all that’s said and done, I plan to start working on pre-production of my deliverable. But we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. That’s all I have for now!

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1st Tumblr Post - Introduction to myself

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1st Tumblr Post - Introduction of myself