Tressa McIff Blogs

This Semester News Story The very first project we did in video this year was a procedure video. We were supposed to take a basic procedure in ONW and make it into a sort of silent "How To" video. This took a couple weeks. Some challenges we faced were lighting and editing. We had a hard time finding good lighting so the final product came out kind of dark. I also had some trouble with editing since this was the first project we did this year. This project was a major refresher on the editing process, but it was also the first time I used the actual cameras instead of the iPads so I learned a lot about the cameras. Some feedback I was given was that the lighting was really off and that we needed to pay more attention to what was in the background. We did not do a re-edit of this video so I didn't change anything. Overall, I think this was pretty decent for being the first video that I did after summer break. Feature Stories This semester in convergence journal...

I did three projects this semester is Graphic Design. The first project was a raccoon, the second project was an infographic, and then I ended the semester with a vectorized self portrait. Raccoon This was the first project we did in Graphic Design. The three parts of this project were the basic raccoon, the fall raccoon, and the postcard. The whole project took most of first quarter. I struggled quite a bit with this project because it was the first time that I ever did something this extensive in Adobe Illustrator. I had a hard time figuring out how to use all the tools, but ended up getting fairly familiar with the most important ones. Having a tutorial for how to create the raccoon was extremely helpful and allowed me to learn a lot without all the stress of trying to figure it all out by myself. This whole project just allowed me to get more comfortable with Adobe Illustrator in general and I think it was a great first project. Some feedback that I got was that it was a stron...

Olathe Northwest Gymnastics Wins State The Olathe Northwest gymnastics team won State on October 30, 2017. It was the first time ONW had ever won State. The winning team consisted of freshman Hallie Robertson, sophomore Brooke Illum, and junior Sydney Weeks. They were coached by Mallory West and Alison Krumbiegel.     The team practiced everyday after school in preparation for this meet. Alison Krumbiegel, the assistant gymnastics coach, said, “Our team has a great talent to begin with, but those girls are the hardest working girls in the gym.”     The girls on the gymnastics team are also extremely close and push each other to do their best. Brooke Illum, a sophomore on the team, was injured but competed anyway because “she cared so much about her teammates,” Coach Krumbiegel said. Hallie Robertson also said her favorite part of gymnastics is “hanging out with the other girls because it’s kind of like having another family.” Winning State was ...

My group decided to do a feature on gymnastics and interviewed Hallie Robertson, a freshman on the gymnastics team, and Alison Krumbiegel, one of the gymnastics coaches. After we decided on our concept, we started contacting interview subjects and writing 21 interview questions. Next, we decided on the shooting location and interviewed Hallie, followed by Mrs. Krumbiegel. Finally, we edited and uploaded the video. My roles were production designer and editor. Since I was the main editor, I learned a lot more about editing and the software that we use. We did struggle a bit in the communication and project management departments. I was gone for a few days and then my team member missed one day. Due to this, we didn't get the video in on time and we didn't have the best communication when I was gone. If I were to do this project again, I would try to communicate better and get the project in on time. I would also try to direct questions more towards the gymnastics team winn...

For our first interview of the year, my group decided to interview Ramal Nasim. We decided to interview her because she went to Pakistan over the summer and we thought that she would have some interesting stories and information to share. After we decided who to interview and assigned production roles, we had to create a storyboard to outline what we wanted the video to look like. We then had to write 21 interview questions, which was actually fairly quick. Once we were done with the Pre-Production, we were ready to shoot. The location that we had originally planned to shoot in did not work out due to other classes needing the space, but we were able to find a good alternative fairly quickly. When we finally found the right location, we started shooting. We got off to a bit of a rough start and had to start over a couple of times, but we ended up with a lot of good content. Since we got done with filming our planned questions early, we asked a lot of follow up questions which also le...

Summary My first project as a sophomore in Graphic Design was to follow along with some Photoshop tutorials and eventually edit my own creation. I learned a lot through this process, especially since I hardly knew anything about Photoshop before starting with the tutorials. First, I learned about content aware fill and used it to remove unwanted details from the background of images. Then I learned about the patch tool and used it to remove a logo from a man's shirt. Next, the videos taught me about the clone stamp and the healing brush. I used those to remove a tag from a woman's coat. After that, I learned how to use the patch tool with the clone stamp and used those to remove more background details. The spot healing brush, which was next, was used to remove small blemishes from a boy's face. The last tutorial was about building a portrait collage and combined most of the skills I had learned in previous tutorials. The last project was a challenge where I was supposed ...

My first video project of my sophomore year was creating a video that showed how to go through a basic procedure at ONW. My group decided to show how to get a pass and go to the restroom. Initially, we were going to show what not to do as well as what you should do, but I decided to cut that out of my edit in order to make the video shorter. We had to start the process with coming up with a concept for the video. Luckily, we came up with the idea of getting a pass and going to the restroom fairly quickly. Once we did that, I wrote the script and the other group members created the storyboard. We were supposed to start filming the next day, but we got faulty equipment so we couldn't start until the next day. As far as our cast list, we just used the people in our group as actors in the video so that we wouldn't have to disturb any other groups or classes. The process of actually filming went fairly smoothly. I was the main cameraman, one group member was the main actress, and...

Quarter Four In quarter four of e9, we were assigned to groups and had to create a fake product. We spent the entire quarter creating animations, graphics, a video, and a website for our product. My team decided to create an app called YOUnique Boutique. This is an online shopping app that allows its users to virtually "try on" clothes before purchasing them. The whole project took the entire quarter. My team faced many challenges such as poor communication and technical confusion. None of us were very good with the website, so creating it proved to be very difficult for us. This project helped me to learn a lot about web design, video, and graphic design. I also learned more about what to do and what not to do when giving a presentation. My team was told that we could have been more prepared for our presentation and should have had more on the "Meet the Team" section of our website. We were also told that our video was well made and our graphics were cool. W...

This quarter in eComm, we are doing a large group project that encompasses everything we have learned this year. The assignment is to create an imaginary product and then make an animation, commercial, and graphic design for it.  The project that my group decided on is an app that allows you to virtually try on clothes and makeup while online shopping. I started the quarter in animation. In animation, we had to crate a 2D animation and a 3D animation. Our 2D animation shows three mannequins with clothes scrolling over them. Our D animation starts off by spinning around the inside of a boutique and then zooms out of a phone screen. We also started on the website, which is being very slow process. My team is pretty good. We all try to contribute to the project and offer different views and ideas.

This web design project was all about using CARP to make websites visually appealing. CARP stands for Contrast, Alignment, Repetition, and Proximity. I followed a document that told me exactly what to do in Dreamweaver. The difference between the original website and the one that I manipulated is that the post-website uses CARP. The website uses Contrast through various colors, font sizes, and font styles. Alignment is used through all the text being on the left. The colors and fonts use some Repetition by using the same few fonts and colors over and over again. Proximity is through the text and the picture. All the text and the image are just the right distance from each other.

For this assignment, I was supposed to create a personal logo. We started by learning about what makes a good logo and how we could apply those rules to our own work. Next, we sketched three different possible logos and picked the best best. Finally, we transferred our logos to Illustrator. I decided to make a heart that is half black and half white with my initials in the middle. I like this design because it is very sleek, simple, and straight forward. The colors are very basic but give the design a smooth look. I have been drawing this since sixth grade so guess it has always been my "logo" of sorts. I never really had any meaning behind it but my friends say that it represents how I can be very dark and reserved before you get to know me but then, when I break out of my shell, I am fun and bright. I had some difficulties creating this on Illustrator because I couldn't figure out how to create a heart or how to only she in half of i...

For this project, we were supposed to draw either 20 flowers, trees, birds, or houses. I chose to draw 20 flowers. This was fairly difficult for me as I am not a talented artist at all, so I really just hopes that the sketches would turn out slightly decent. I looked up different pictures of flowers and did maybes to draw them as accurately as I could. I drew real flowers as well as some more abstract flowers. When I got to the illustrator step in this project, I decided to stray from what I had drawn. I typically find that I do much better with these types of projects when I just wing it, so that's exactly what I did. I started out by making a simple circle and adding abstract petal-like shapes off of it. Originally, I thought that this would just be my flower. Later on, however, I decided to make it an abstract sun with plain flowers underneath. I decided to give the some more vibrant colors to the sun than the plants to draw more attention to it and to show that the sun w...

  According to this mini Meyers Briggs test, my personality type is INTJ. This stands for Introvert, Intuitive, Thinking, and Judging. Introvert means that I recharge by being by myself. Intuitive means that I think more about data inseated of just taking it directly as it is. Thinking means that I have to critically think things through instead of relying on feelings. Finally, judging means that I want things to be neat, orderly, and established. I think this evaluation describes me fairly well, especially the introvert and thinking aspects. I defintely prefer to keep to myself and never realy on my feelings or logic. However, I don't think the intuitive part is very accurate. Although I do like to be creative at times, I generally prefer straight facts over everything else. This evaluation of my personality can defintely help to explain why I don't have many friends. I am very aloof and often annoy people with how technical I am. When I am on a team I usually take on th...

Colors can be extremely effective in communicating a message or evoking feelings. Different colors have different connotations. Black is associated with death and mystery, red is associated with blood and passion, and white is associated with purity and innocence. Colors can also evoke many different emotions in many different people based on their memories and just basic preferences. My favorite color is black. I like black because it is a very universal color and people don't usually ask why I like it. Other than that, I really have no reason. I have no extremely fond memories involving the color black. Just like it because I like it. My least favorite color is yellow. I don't like yellow because it is too invasive and bright. I just find the color yellow really annoying. I also don't like lemon flavored candies. I don't know if that has anything to do with me not liking the color yellow, probably not, but I will include it anyway. Color is a huge part of grap...

Rough sketch Final product This first actual design project using the computer was all about implementing the shape tool into a design. At first, I had sketched a picture of the moon and the sun. However, once I started working with Adobe Illustrator, I decided to create a mountain landscape. I tried to keep the colors and designs very simple with the blues and orange and basic shapes. I generally wanted it to be a simple, pleasing image. This was my first time really using Illustrator on my own, so I did a lot of experimenting with the program. Like I mentioned earlier, I had originally had a different idea of what to create, but changed my mind while playing with the program. I used the pen tool to create the mountains and the shape tool to create the sun. However, I must admit that it did take me some time to get the hang of some of those basic tools. I also learned how to use the shaper tool. This tool just allows you to make basic shapes through broad gestures, so...

I am in graphic design this quarter in e9. My first assignment was to draw what graphic design means to me. I wasn't really sure as to what to draw since that is an extremely broad and vague topic. I ended up just drawing some logos that I like and that play some sort of role in my life. I find that these three logos are very simple and visually appealing. The final product did have a bit of white space that I would have like to fill with a few more drawings. I used the seven key elements of graphic design through my choice of logos and spacing. I tried to put in enough drawings to take up most of the space but also leave a bit of room to breathe. However, I do not think that I quite accomplished that. Like I said earlier, I would have liked to add more drawings to take up more space. Drawing and making products visually appealing are definitely not my strong suits. A few things that I enjoyed about this assignment were the opportunity to try to improve my skills and learn...