Today I started and finished my graduation assignment, a vlog essentially of me speaking about my experience at Techie Youth. I decided to talk about one of the issues I was dealing with prior to Techie Youth and how that issue was alleviated with the help of the courses offered by Techie Youth, in hopes of reaching out to those who are in similar situations to me. It took a few times to record the footage because there would be constant background noise from construction in my neighborhood or I would simply mess up my lines.
I am concerned regarding one thing though, which is if I even qualify for graduation. I don't have the right amount of hours on the E-Earn site alone, so I don't even have the option to request consideration for graduation. I hope this issue gets resolved so I didn't do this assignment for no credit, as I am rather uncertain about being perceived by strangers who come across my video.
But with this last assignment, I have completed my time with Techie Youth. It has been a meaningful and insightful experience, and I firmly believe I am more well prepared to apply for jobs and carry on my duties in the future.
Today, I finally finished the video editing project. I recorded a voiceover, but it took some time as I don't have a mic and there was construction going on just outside my house that my laptop's mic would pick up. Furthermore, it seemed no matter how loud I spoke, the audio would still come out rather quiet, so I had to learn how to adjust the sound of the audio on Shotcut. As some finishing touches, I included two sound effects to make things less bleak. I did ultimately decide not putting any kind of background music would be best, as I felt with the voiceover it would be too much and it was difficult to decide which kind of music would pair best with the video as well. An issue I came across was when uploading the video to YouTube, I could not add Techie Youth's web link to the description as I'm new to posting on YouTube. In any case, if I'm not able to edit the video description and add the link tomorrow, I'll post it to the comments and pin the comment for reassurance.
This project was more challenging as I had originally thought, but that isn't to say it was merely challenging. Every moment of it, from illustrating nearly 40 panels to piecing the panels together to make a story was an exciting new experience. I can't say if I can see myself doing this as a job, but I certainly would consider it now that I have a gist of what it's like.
Monday and Tuesday were spent learning more about transitions, such as how to make custom transitions, and implementing them into the editing of the video. I have effectively added the transitions I had in mind when illustrating the panels and thinking of the overall storyline, but there are some transitions I don't see available on ShotCut that I'll need to either figure out how to make or compromise and find an alternative transition from one of the options they provide. Putting the editing aside, I
explored my YouTube channel a little as I had never uploaded a video to YouTube before, and I noticed an option to add a watermark to the bottom corner of your videos. So as a little side project, I decided to create a watermark. Nothing too complicated, just a simple drawing of a strawberry with my initials on it. Strawberries don't have anything to do with the project, but they are a favorite of mine.
Today, I finished up the transitions and while it wasn't as "advanced" of a project as I had hoped to create prior to receiving the job, it couldn't be helped as I feel the story and storytelling method I chose couldn't really be edited too complicatedly. In addition to finishing up the transitions, I wrote the finalized script for recording the audio tomorrow, so if no obstacles occur, I should be completed with the project by tomorrow.
I was not able to work yesterday as planned, so I made up the time today. Upon inserting the rest of the panels into Shotcut, I noticed some flaws in the continuity. Although they were rather minor, I wanted to fix them to produce the best possible video I could using the resources I had available. And so, I went back on the illustrating software to touch up the flawed panels before inserting those in replacement of the previous panels. When editing the video, I realized that I had made some clips last too long, so I attempted to speed them up rather than take them out since there were many other panels already placed after them. I searched for a tutorial on how to speed clips up, however I did not have the same functions they did and so I was at a loss for how to speed the clips up. I did some experimenting on my own and managed to find a function that cut part of the clip, which worked since each clip was a still image. Although I could not choose how much of the clip I wished to cut, it worked out on its own. I just hope I am able to speak the lines of the script quick enough to match the pace of the video.
With the work of yesterday and today, I finally finished each panel for the video. Towards the end, it took a bit more time than usual as I couldn't simply reuse previous panels as bases and edit those to fit the new panel. Each of the end panels had different positions in each so I had to draw each of them out and color them separately. Tomorrow, I plan to compile the rest of the panels into Shotcut, check over each panel to ensure there is a good flow, and include transitions and other effects. As I feel it would be easier if I base the audio around the editing of the video rather than the other way around, I will work on the audio either tomorrow if I manage to finish all the editing or next week. After that, I simply need to piece it all together and upload the finished product to YouTube.
Yesterday and today I continued with the dialogue panels, and I decided to change the original script for the sake of tone, as I felt the original line didn't properly convey the message I intended and instead focused too strongly on an irrelevant point. To elaborate, I wanted to express how convenient it was that we could choose what topics to learn based on our own interests and even get paid for doing something that was fun in a sense, but the original line pushed more on the "getting paid" part rather than the opportunity to learn more about possible career paths that may interest us. And so, with the script change I had to tweak the panels as well. I also inserted images of some of the courses offered, aiming to get a diverse range of topics so it could appeal to many different interests. For example, selling art online, which it was not a course I took, is a job that has been growing popular as artists take to social media and make art targeted at specific groups, such as fan art for popular media or home decor pieces. I am interested in selling art in the future as a side job, but I'm not entirely sure where to begin. So I figure there must be many people similar to me in that sense, to which a course on just that would be very helpful. Investing in stocks is also something I'm eager to learn but confused on how to start, thus I included that as well. As time is of the essence, I hope to complete the panels soon and get started on the audio, as I plan to incorporate J and L cuts in the audio so I may require a bit of time to fully grasp that.
Today, I was able to get a lot of panels done. I wanted to include a scene in the animation where you can see the character actually speaking rather than the viewers having to hear the character's thoughts, so I attempted to animate the mouth movement as minimally as possible whilst still getting the right poses for each word. It took a bit of time as this resulted in many different layers that looked almost identical but with different mouth formations, and so it became a bit difficult to keep track of. Of course, it took time to draw each formation as well, as I had to consider which forms would apply for multiple words for the sake of saving time. After completing a majority of the dialogue panels, I put them into Shotcut to check the flow while speaking the dialogue out loud as I plan to record the dialogue after I finish the panels. Then, I had to go back and make some adjustments to "perfect" the flow.
I wasn't able to work this week besides today as I attended a 4 day long family event and could not fit in work within the busy schedule, so today I rewatched the Shotcut tutorial to learn more about transitions and other effects that I can add to my final video as I planned last week. After exploring the features and getting a bit more familiar, I decided to get back to drawing and fully focus on the panels as I now have a better grasp of the editing software, and completed four panels. It seems I am getting somewhat off track with the original script I created, as I'm now adding more panels and changing up original ideas for a better flow. I intend to finish at least 6 more panels tomorrow, and although it was a short work week, I hope to work more efficiently to get more work done and completing this assignment. Following the completion of this project, I do have another project to complete, so I need to review the guidelines to construct some sort of outline beforehand.
Today I drew a few more panels and continued to add them along with the rest of the previously drawn panels to Shotcut. I wasn't able to complete all six panels as my illustration application did not save my progress (which was my own mistake) so I had to use copy the panels onto new layers using the saved files of each of the missing panels. Next week, I think I'll take a temporary break from drawing and rewatch the tutorials to learn how to add transitions and other effects to the video.
Yesterday I had begun to compile the panels I had completed into Shotcut, as its reputation of being simple to handle appealed to me. I wanted to get a better idea of how the story would flow with the illustrations, which is why I began to insert the illustrations before completing every panel of the video. However, I was a little confused at first on what my first step was, and had to revisit the tutorials provided to recall how to work Shotcut. When I finally managed to put each of the panels in, I realized a few errors between the panels, such as different shades used to color the panels which broke the sense of continuity. And so, I had to go back to my illustration software to fix those issues and insert the improved panels back into Shotcut. It took a bit of time fixing the panels as to reduce the amount of layers used for each panel and keep things more organized, I used one layer per panel. This meant that I couldn't simply color over the panel as I would risk coloring over the lines as well. At the end of the day, I did manage to fix the panels.
Today, I illustrated a few more panels and reached about halfway, with the video being 26 seconds so far. Of course, after I include more editing, transitions, and the rest of the panels, it'll be far longer. Tomorrow, I hope to complete at least six more panels.
Yesterday, I had gotten started on the video editing assignment. I decided to go the route of animating. I plan to use panels with minimum action as animating every single movement will be difficult as a first animating project for me. I have drawn up a "storyboard" and created the dialogue. I had begun to work on possible background music yesterday as well, but I see now that I should have begun animating and compiling the images to make the video first before beginning the music to get a better idea as to what kind of music to add. Today, I begin drawing each of the panels for the video, and I hope to get through at least half of them so I may record the dialogue, edit it, and add any finishing touches by the end of this week.
Finishing up for today, I did not manage to reach my quota of half the panels as I underestimated how time consuming it would be. I intended to use a simple art style to spend less time doing each panel, but coloring each panel in (even if it didn't have any shading) took up a lot of time. With some minor tweaking, I'll have a fourth of the panels done by today. Considering my underestimation, it may take longer than the end of the week to complete this project.
Today I began and continued the "Data Analyst" section of the Analyst Unit. To my surprise, I was very intrigued by the occupation. I am not one for technology centered jobs since I have difficulties understanding technology at times and "Data" to me is a very "technical" word. But as I read more about the job, I came to the conclusion that it is something I could very well devote my life to. I always considered things like coding and analyzing data to be too difficult and way out of my league, but I never actually tried to do either before putting my word in. I assumed it would be too much for me without knowing much about it, thus erasing an opportunity from myself. I hope with time, I am able to step out of comfort zone and at least try everything I claimed would be too difficult for me. As of now, I may be settled on the product manager path, but becoming an analyst is simply one decision away.
Today I completed the "Business Analyst" section of the Analyst Unit. I never considered the career path of an analyst since I considered it to be too technical and possibly repetitive when it came to daily schedules. However, I was proven wrong upon beginning the unit, as I learned its quite the opposite: the job is rarely ever repetitive. For me personally, the thought of a repetitive work life seems extremely exhausting, so the occupation of an analyst was sort of an "eye opener" for me as it introduced new possibilities for my future. I am eager to sharpen my knowledge on this path in order to effectively decide the job I'll commit to.
Today I finished the "Product Manager" unit. Truth be told, before even beginning this extracurricular unit, I had spotted the "Product Manager" unit and was thrilled to begin. Not too long before my time with Techie Youth, I came across the career while researching for jobs beyond medicine as per usual. I grew nervous about pursuing medicine as I felt I did not have the aptitude for it, and decided to research more about business instead. Many of the occupations I read about did not seem that appealing to me, but the Product Manager role seemed almost perfect, as if it were the job I was looking for the whole time. This unit was extremely fulfilling to complete, and each lesson was as enjoyable as informative. I still have some confusion as to which path I'll take, but as of now I am very intent on becoming a product manager!
Today I completed the video editing assignment excluding the final assignment which involves the utilization of the skills acquired during the unit. I learned about various editing applications, as well as which better suit me in regards of cost and how simple it is to grasp. Furthermore, I was able to acquire info about video editing jobs, how to search for them, and how to prepare for when I get clients.
I learned various ways to earn money as well as how to handle that money through checks, checking accounts, etc. With the help of the lessons provided, my anxieties about my financial state in the future have been eased, as I worried about choosing the right path and not feeling passionate about the career I choose to pursue. Knowing I have more options than usual in person jobs is comforting.