Stop Motion Reflection

1. Are you using an apple or android phone to take pictures? What program/apps did you use for filming/photos and editing? Would you recommend that program/app or would you look for a different one? Explain.
We used an iPhone 6s with its built in camera application and Windows Movie Maker on desktop as our devices to film/edit. In my opinion, Windows Movie Maker is not the easiest application to use, because there is a huge learning curve that comes with it and there are so many settings to go through to make it the way you want to. I believe using iMovie would have been easier, though some people may not have an Apple device and would rather not pay any money for something like this.

2. What went well with Project #3? What were some of your challenges? Positives and negatives?
I think the possibility of learning stop motion was a definite positive. Finding the right lighting and camera angles to consistently take many photos was a hassle however, as we had to redo many shots on multiple occasions because of the terrible lighting. On some days, we would have really good lighting because of the weather while on other days the lighting will vary depending on the weather forecast. It also did not help that we did not have a mini tripod to hold the phone in place when taking the photos, leading to inconsistent angles.


3. Are you happy with your project? Explain.
I think I am happy with the results of the project, we did the best we could with the resources we had amid all the challenges we faced with lighting and keeping the camera steady.


4. If you could start over, what would you do differently? Explain.
As I mentioned above, I think transitioning away from Movie Maker would have been beneficial for us and use another editing application instead, because Movie Maker can be very frustrating to operate at times.


5. If you worked with a partner or a group, state who did what? Was the division of work equal? Explain. If you worked alone, how did that go? Explain. Talk about your challenges of either working in a group or alone.
In my group with Amun and Nathan, we all had specific tasks assigned and feel we divided our work as evenly as we could. Amun had the duty of being the modeler and main editor, while Nathan was director and found the music for the video. I on the other hand was the photographer along with some minor editing in the video to add the final touches. Though we never experienced it ourselves, one challenge of working in a group is when one member decides to slack off and not do anything, leaving the rest of the group to carry the load for them.


6. Did you enjoy learning about Stop Motion? Explain. Talk about your learning. Your answer should be thorough.
I really enjoyed the experience of learning Stop Motion because it's something I have always dreamed about doing when I was younger, watching all the cartoons like Tom & Jerry and Family Guy before their transition to CGI. Though it came with its challenges and was certainly time consuming, this was all very much worth it in the end.

May 15 - Genius Hour #8

1. What happened over the past week,
We have continued progress on our new game and are almost near the completion process. We added new features such as a block to activate a little dialogue regarding the plot of the game, adding a little realism feeling to it.


2. How it made you feel (yes I want a feeling and why you felt that way).
This game has my partner and I very excited about the conclusion, knowing every week we are getting closer and closer to completing it. The amount of time it took to get all the programs to work accordingly has made it all worth it now, and we feel great about ourselves.


3. What you learned, what challenges you faced,
As I've mentioned before, creating a game of this caliber is not easy at all, it takes combining many aspects to create the product you want, and taking the time to learn it may take hours if not days.While we are comfortable with almost everything now, we still learn new things from time to time, including how to make disappearing blocks.


4. How are you going to overcome these challenges
Most challenges we faced were a result of miscues and malfunctions in our programming, so a small tweak would usually do the job for us to get us back on track.


5. What failed (if anything) and why this happened.
I believe this is our first week where nothing seemed to fail us, we credit it to our increased knowledge of our game's mechanics and good luck.


6. What do you anticipate in the future?
My partner and I hope to be finished with our game in the coming weeks, adding small tweaks to make it the way we would like to, not to hard but a little challenging at the same time.


7. Most importantly you need to write what you learned, if you learned anything at all for that week, and if you did nothing that Tuesday, why?  Were you tired, were you not inspired to work?  How were you feeling that day?
The last few Mondays I have been very excited for Genius Hour to work on our game and continue our progress. However, I was feeling a little fatigued from the night before and so was my partner, so it wasn't the best day in terms of working on the game.



8. Write up what it's like working with a partner or group (if you are working with one) in respect to your genius hour project.  If you are alone, write up the positives and negatives of working alone.
I love interacting with my peers and working in partnerships because we can split the work evenly and get more work done working as a group instead of working alone. I do not see any negatives in working in partnerships either.

May 8 - Genius Hour #7

1. What happened over the past week,
This week my partner and I made an executive decision to start anew with a new game, as we felt we were comfortable enough playing around with our old game and the coding mechanics, and it was time to finally create a real product to publish. Other changes include changing our concept to an alien being brought down to Earth, instead of doing it in space.

2. How it made you feel (yes I want a feeling and why you felt that way).
We feel really confident now in our abilities to create a finished product and cannot wait to begin once again next week.

3. What you learned, what challenges you faced,
The first run through showed us that creating a game is harder than it looks and takes a lot of time and dedication, something my partner and I have adapted to along the way to. All the coding issues were a benefit for us as we learned to improve on them for our next game.

4. How are you going to overcome these challenges
Continuously looking at tutorials as well as requesting help from a buddy with experience will help us get over the hump in our project.

5. What failed (if anything) and why this happened.
Lots of things failed. For one, we had various difficulty implementing a character selection screen, even though we went through multiple tutorials but we just could not find a solution to our problem. Definitely one to look out for in our new game.

6. What do you anticipate in the future?
I anticipate my partner and I will have greater successes now that we have experienced the game's mechanics to its fullest and hope to get the ball rolling fast next week creating our new game.

7. Most importantly you need to write what you learned, if you learned anything at all for that week, and if you did nothing that Tuesday, why?  Were you tired, were you not inspired to work?  How were you feeling that day?
We did not learn much yesterday because we were deciding whether or not to create a new game and start fresh, ultimately deciding to start over.


8. What are the strengths and weakness of your project at this point?
We will continue to update our strengths and weaknesses as we begin the process of making the new game.