Media Arts – M4 Blog Post: Contracts (Week 10)

Posted on by shaunnicholsonmediaarts

No contracts/forms will be needed to be filled out, signed and/or completed for my Media Arts Final Project.

Andrew and I are in agreement that we are going to collaborate in our Media Arts Final Projects by advising each other with positive feedback (editing, ideas, etc.) We are also going to include our project roles and names in the title/credits where relevant, provided that we contribute to each other’s projects and that positive feedback goes into the project.

 

Media Arts – M3 Blog Post – Process (Week 7)

Posted on by shaunnicholsonmediaarts

The process of making media arts is long but very rewarding, especially if the media arts are on something that is enjoyable and worthwhile. Video games and virtual worlds/reality have always been major interests and media arts in my life. I am thrilled to start creating media arts like video game video in the future. This includes “Let’s Play” videos that include all of the content in the video games I want to play. I am up for the challenge of the creation process with all of the content that comes with media arts projects like this one.

Virtual reality is emerging as a powerfully and aesthetically pleasing form of media art. The content in the game portrays many of the human senses that allows the experiences of virtual reality/video games to be more breathtaking than ever before. As technology improves and advances, so does virtual reality/worlds and video games. Visuals, quality of graphics and audio, hardware and software are still advancing and improving. This makes it easier for the genre(s) to become more popular, and makes it easier for media artists to create media arts projects.

For my process of making media arts and to prepare for the making of my final media arts project,  I step I would add is to do test runs of the video game and do practice recordings of the level I am using for my final media arts project. Doing test runs of the level in the video game, while doing practice recordings of my commentary and the video game will give me more comfort and experience. This will make the actual/real production, recording and level run easier. This will also improve my process of making media arts like my final project, because the test runs could have video, audio and other content that I could use with my real “Let’s Play” footage. It will also improve my process because the aforementioned previous runs will comfort me further and add more experience towards completing the final “Let’s Play” video in fewer takes.

I believe that the most important step of the media arts creative process is the script. There is so much content that goes into a script, and the script’s content and information outlines the whole process of creating the video recording with all of the other elements, tools and content that makes it up. Writing the script and including all of the content and information is a long and hard, but worthwhile process. It organizes the final media arts project so that it the process is more successful, simpler to manage, and easier to create.

I have completed some very important stages and parts of the media arts process. I have created a final media arts project pitch and proposal. I have also written a set of skills and strengths, along with my proficiency of the software/hardware/tools that I own, my experience with each, and my interest level in collaborating those skills. In addition, I have also created a short video sequence of the scenes and content that will be included in my “Let’s Play” video. I also have written a storyboard of each scene, while elaborating on the content in each and what happens in all of the important events. I am also in the process of writing a draft of my final project script, which will soon be transformed and edited into the final draft of my final media arts project script. The script will include all of the elements, hardware, software, content and tools included in my project.

Other components that I have done includes creating a sound composition. This helped me become more familiar with editing audio files, while also combining voice recordings, background and foreground sound into interesting and complex solo tracks. All of this helped me learn to produce more advanced audio files easier.

Media Arts – M3 Assignment – Create a Sound Composition (Week 6) – Bowling League @ Noon

Posted on by shaunnicholsonmediaarts

For my Sound Composition assignment, my passion of bowling and myself bowling were the central themes of it. My environment was my Friday bowling league @ noon. The environment is energizing because it is myself bowling against many other bowlers who compete in the league every week. The adrenaline rushes with every strike thrown, every spare and split converted, and every big score amassed on the scoreboard and scoresheet. Bowling balls hitting the lane and the pins are heard up close and in the background, but mainly as background sound. Those sounds are also constant, they are in a pattern and rhythmic. As each frame goes by, bowling balls are thrown and pins are hit. The beginning, middle and end are heard as the same story, but the story progresses with each frame and game that goes by until the league is done and every bowler is finished. The foreground sound is my voice talking about the environment, time, and my life of bowling.

Below is the YouTube video of my Sound Composition of my Bowling environment and sounds. The background is the bowling environment and sounds, and the foreground is my voice recording. I used TunesToTube, an MP3 audio file to YouTube video converter website in order to make the video. I combined the MP3 file with a bowling picture of two new bowling balls I got to add to the bowling experience and theme.

Media Arts – M2 Blog Post #2 – Thoughts & Reactions – Final Media Arts Project

Posted on by shaunnicholsonmediaarts

Pitch:

For my Final Media Arts Project pitch, I am very happy with the proposal and idea. Since I love to play video games on a daily basis, it was easy to want to do a Let’s Play on a favorite video game of mine. Video games are an emerging powerhouse in the media, and allowing me to provide commentary on my experience playing through it and on my opinions of the content that game has is a great opportunity. Doing it on Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon is added positivity because it is one of my favorite games, and a game I play to this day. I want to do make YouTube videos of video game Let’s Plays, so being able to practice that in this Final Media Arts Project is a great test. Distributing the Let’s Play on social media sites like YouTube and Facebook allow me to gain feedback and work on mastering the craft and perfecting future ones.

Budget:

For my budget, I am very happy and content with it. I do not have to purchase any extra equipment in order to produce my Video Game Let’s Play. I have my iPhone, iPhone tripod, Television, PlayStation 1 and Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon video game. I have also found other useful equipment that will be used to produce and create my Final Media Arts Project. I have two Targus tripods, one small and portable and one larger with more features, along with a Selfie Stick that I can combine to make a superior recording device for my iPhone. It is easier and more convenient for me to play the video game with the controller in my hand, and record the video game content with my tripods and iPhone.

Timeline:

The timeline I chose is still very accurate compared to what I have done in preparation for production and creation of it. I am very eager to continue the new steps of producing the Final Media Arts Project as I go along with the course. Doing a Video Game Let’s Play is always fun especially when I can do it on Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon. It is a game that I will always enjoy no matter when I play it, and doing it on a PlayStation 1, a video game console that has also been with me my whole life is a great compliment. Doing different assignments on this video game project allows me to expand my knowledge on the topic of Media Arts. Also, doing this project on something I really enjoy doing on a daily basis (video games) increases my comfort level on completing the variety of assignments given to perfect my project.

Storyboard: 

I am very happy with the results of my Storyboard. I think it is very organized and provides a great blueprint of how to make the video. The order of events and content in the video game make the sequence of events of the major recordings easier to progress through. Celtx is a great storyboard tool because I was able to transfer my images easily into the program. As I have opportunities to tweak my Storyboard and add more shots and information to it, it will continue to enhance my project and improve the video. I think I am off to a great start with the storyboard because I got a variety of shots based on the events in the video, and the content was sequenced to where I am comfortable progressing through the game at a pleasant pace and have a very fun and positive experience.

Media Arts – M2 Media Arts Project – Storyboard Creation

Posted on by shaunnicholsonmediaarts

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Here is my created Storyboard for my Media Arts Project. Celtx does not allow me to attach the file to the blog page, so I had to take individual images of each storyboard shot. I made all of the Storyboard shots into a Slideshow of images to keep the chronological order.

Throughout the linear Storyboard, the emotional content of my video project has attitude/tone changes. My Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon Let’s Play storyline goes from sad in the beginning, switching back and forth from happy to sad in the middle, and back to happy in the end. The positive and negative content make the experiences of the video game fun and worth-while based on the variety of the video game’s storyline.