Tag: Weekly Summary

Final Post, what does Kevin think Now?

So, for my final post, it took me all week to decide what to do. I could do it or I could do it as Kevin, but how would I do that if he was being attacked by AT in his last video? So, I decided to do two things to answer the prompts. A fun thing with Kevin and a real thing with me. So, the first thing I did was make a video with “Kevin” and his new opinion on AT after their last encounter. Here is the last encounter and see below for the new opinion.

And to answer the two questions:

  • What is the best thing you saw in the course? Explain why it was good.
  • What was the best thing you made in the course? Explain what you got out of making it.

For these I made a free form audio clip of myself just speaking my mind. Listen below.

Again, I had a really great time in this class, and I hope it keeps going like this. This is a must-have class experience and i am going to recommend it to everyone. Here is my final review/thoughts on the course if you want super details, but as the post says, the juice is worth the squeeze.

Video Project, Troubles As Usual

This week was kind of wild outside of school, so it made school a little hectic. For starters I had a terrible experience with Carvana, and I highly recommend you do not use them. Multiple re-schedules for delivery and they still missed the window. They also wouldn’t let me pick up the vehicle. Anyway, so arguing with that and then having a retirement ceremony for someone I worked with took up a lot of my extra time.

Anyway, I did my 3 TDCs on my phone this week and that was pretty neat. Here is the post about it. I really liked writing the nonet about Carvana.

So, for the video project I had, like last time, a lot of trouble. From my plan post last week I intended to do a psa where I used the wav2lip to add audio to an already existing psa and have the lips line up to that audio. I was going to have my character speak about his time on the podcast he called in to. He was going to try to get people to rally against the hosts of the show because he found out they were dangerous and had a different agenda than him. Well, I don’t know what I was doing wrong, but I watched the tutorial video and did everything exactly as displayed, and it just would never process correctly. Idk if I was missing steps or labeling wrong or something, but I would never finalize or work.

So, I ended up changing the whole idea on Thursday evening to have my character release a video “from the shadows” because the companies and hosts of the show were after him and trying to silence him. I used multiple different AI generated voices to “hide” background noise and to protect any type of signature that could be taken from actual video or audio from the character. I mean he is a hacker, so he covered his bases. I had to keep it under two minutes because that’s how long it takes to trace calls and data in movies right… wink. But I had Kevin kind of reach out in fear for people to draw attention to Isaiah and Rikaro’s plans and stand up to them and fight their cause. I made wild accusations that they are plants for Aggressive Technologies, and they may even be AI (I actually used Rikaro’s AI voice from the show to say that line).

I then had the AI that “assumed control” of the radio broadcast do the same to Kevins video and tell him he is not safe, and he will pay. It was haunting to do and think about how something like this would happen in the real world. Maybe it happens now and we just aren’t important enough to be on the receiving end…

Oh, and I layered in a lot of technological audio sounds from Freesound in Audacity and brought them over with other video clips to make it really flow. I used Clipchamp to compile everything and add text to the video and add the layers. I am really getting the hang of Clipchamp and I feel like my skills with it are getting a lot better. Here is the video. I hope you like it.

The Radio Show Week, Plus Video Plan

This week was pretty neat, despite being sick most of the week I managed to get everything done.

Here is my post about my daily creates. They were fun, especially the flag one. I liked looking for a flag that resembled me and I’m glad if found one. I also really enjoyed the source code one since I have never gotten to that screen on purpose before lol.

As the title suggest we also got to listen to the radio shows. I listened to the one on Monday since it had my show and I thought it was amazing. Here is my post about it.

This week we also had to plan out our video project. I had a lot of trouble with this since I really had no idea where to begin. It really didn’t start to form up until about an hour ago, so I don’t think I planned as much as I needed to. Here is my post about it. I feel though that an almost rebuttal to the radio show to kind of fight back against Rikaro and Isaiah’s views would be a fun thing to do, especially since my character did not like how they were going about the future of AI.

Again overall, the week was great, but I have always had trouble with video stuff and this project will probably take the most effort for me. I will have to start this weekend, or I won’t finish.

Bottom of the 9th… Week Summary

This week was really cool because I got to start working on the radio show with my group. Our show is called “Logic Pod: The Tech Podium” and is all about discussing the good about AI and what it can do to move forward etc. Also, as I mentioned in my show update post, I have a great team with Robin, Melea, and Mustafa and I don’t think I could have asked for a better group. They have phenomenal ideas, and their characters will create some fun dialogue with mine. I am looking forward to recording with you guys next week.

This week I had to make a logo for our show, and I had a great time using Canva. That program is pretty intuitive once you get the hang of it. Anyway, here is the post about my logo design.

This week I also made a new bumper for our show. I liked the one I did before for DS106, but I wanted to advocate for the show within the show. Idk why, just seemed fun. I also made a commercial for the site 3D AI Studio which was the program I had my character try to have Aggressive Technologies acquire last week. Thes audio assignments were fun because I got to go back into audacity after a few weeks of not using it. Here is my post about them.

I also did 3 TDCs this week. Not much to say other than it was really cool to look up dying languages and give them some representation. Here is my TDC post.

All in all, it was a very successful week. My group had some great collaboration and some great ideas, and I am looking forward to getting more work done on it next week.

Weekly Wrap Up from the Charlotte Airport

So, this week was kind of tough for me because I was out of town for work. I would leave my room at 6am and I wouldn’t get back until about 7pm so very night I had to scramble to do the daily creates and other class assignments before the deadlines. That was an interesting challenge to navigate. I was glad this week was light on the work so I could get everything done, despite having to do some of it in an airport. That was a new experience for me so I’m glad I got to do it.

So, the first thing I did was the daily creates. I was worried I wouldn’t get these done because of the time difference and I didn’t know how they would be counted if I missed the mark. I feel like i did them on the right days, but I’m not so sur since my computer time didn’t change with the regional time. Here was my post about them.

I also wrote my character’s proposal for an interesting AI tool that could generate models form words or images. This was interesting since I didn’t really see the value in the tool outside of toy making until I got into my character’s head and thought a bit more critically for the future of the tool. Kevin’s optimism for AI is making me think differently and I kind of enjoy that. Here is his proposal to Aggressive Technologies.

I also joined a group with Robin, Mustafa, and Melea for the radio show project. Our show is called “Rikaro’s Thoughts – Featuring….”. We will put in the character names when the group is finalized, I’m pretty sure. I thought this would be good because I feel my character is highly opinionated on AI and a forum to discuss his thoughts is exactly what he wants. To get his voice out there and recruit for his cause. He is confrontational so this will be interesting. We intend to communicate through text and email and discord to work together to make a great show. I can’t wait!

So, overall, this was a successful week. It was rough trying to get the stuff done while traveling, but I managed, I think.

7th Week Summary

When I saw the assignments this week, I was really excited to get started. I did a lot of research and was trying to do some crazy things with the assignments. For starters I was going to do a deepfake video for the propaganda, but I just couldn’t find a software that was good enough for what I wanted to do. At las though I decided to do a video because during my research I found a lot of things about sensory contrast and overload. If you go to my post about it, you can see the video for yourself and see what I mean. I decided to make it against my character’s beliefs because I wanted to try and gauge how it would make him feel if he just received this in an email or something. I know he would go on some rant on his blog or podcast and I kind of want to hear it.

For the PSA assignment I had some trouble because all of the iterations I made, came out like advertisements and was trying to avoid that. The one that I decided to emulate was the AARP PSA from the archives. Talking about problems and how Aggressive Technologies can solve them and just offering more info fit into that category pretty well. Here is my post about it.

Then lastly, I did my 3 daily creates. Fun as always, especially the one with the sound dudes. Here is my post.

Again, fun week. I am disappointed though I couldn’t find a deepfake site that could do what I wanted. I have a feeling that would have been unsettling and really hammer home some of the dangers of AI. Like really, can we even trust video anymore…

Week 666 Summary

For the weekly summary this week I would say it was successful. I had a lot of setbacks with some of the tools again, but I think I made it through ok, kinda.

For the assignments is decided to do the three videos instead of the one with Dr. Oblivion. I had already done that assignment the previous week, but I didn’t want to go back and do it again but to turn it into a video. I also chose the three because I wanted to try and test my skills with 3 different types of video assignments. Yeah, it was probably more work, but I feel that is the point of a course like this, to try and experiment and get your reps in with the tools. So, the 3 assignments I decided to do were intro video, top 10 list, and something scary. For the intro video I decided to make it like my character was introducing himself for his new blog. Here is the post. For the top ten list, I had my character give a top 10 ways AI is already helping us and that if you do not see why this is important, you are an idiot etc. Here is the post. And then for something scary I decided to record myself playing Alien Isolation. But after recording for 2 plus hours I realized I didn’t have my microphone on high enough so you couldn’t even her me talk over the gameplay. So, I decided to re-try with another game, The Forrest. Here is the result of that.

For my daily creates I decided to do the ones that had old timey pictures and one added a caption, and for the other I uploaded a video of a song that might be playing for it. It was fun, especially the one with the song. Here is my post about it.

Then finally I wrote my post on how my character would interact and think about the company Aggressive technologies. Long story short, he is supportive, but worried that may not allow AI to have freedom because they want to control it for profit. Here is my post about it.

So overall, it was a lot of work for me this week. Again, I really am lacking in video editing skills, at least in terms of speed. I think I know what to do and what to click to make things happen, but I just do not have the muscle memory yet. So yeah, fun, tough week, but I can’t wait to see what we do next. I honestly hope its more video so I can work on the skills a bit more.

Bad Bad Bad Week, But Also Good?

So, this week I learned a lot about cinematography and how to evoke certain reactions and emotions from the viewers with simple adjustments to music, movement, as well as lighting and the characters in a scene.

First, I’ll talk about my daily creates. I did 2 this week. The first one was to do a pun picture and the second one was to talk about my favorite poetry. Here is my post about it.

In the video about ensemble staging, I learned how setting the scene with multiple characters whether in the foreground or background and how they are facing really changes the dynamic of the scene. The narrator’s favorite scene of the discussed movie showed that there were 3 simultaneous stories, and we didn’t know the real one until the scene revealed the third story. This ensemble cast setting was phenomenal and added so much to the scene that could not have been with just 2 people talking. I was also really impressed with the video about movement and how much more interesting specific movement made scenes. I also liked how they compared all of these videos to Marvel films and how lazy their laziness with all of these elements. The music, the camera movement, the scene setting, it is just so commercialized and bland. I also really enjoyed the videos of Hitchcock explaining his process. Just how simple facial expressions, when adding a target can change the whole perception of the scene. really interesting thoughts when making films.

This week I had a lot of trouble with the video essay. I feel that my skills with video editing tools were challenged, and I did a terrible video essay. Alot of what I wanted to do was thwarted by technology or my ineptness with said technology. Here is my post about it. I am pretty embarrassed with how bad it is. I will try to boost my skills for the assignments next week.

So yeah overall, I really liked learning about the video techniques and watching the other cinematographers explain their process. I did not have as much fun with the essay, even though I loved analyzing the scene, it took away from my enjoyment because of how bad I failed. Anyway, I hope to do better next week.

3rd Recap, Delicious Design

Week 3 summary:

This week was awesome. Real life threw me some curveballs, so I was a little more detached than usual, but I still really enjoyed what we were doing this week. The main objectives this week were to look at visual story telling through images and design and throw the AI twist in there of how it could affect these areas. We were proposed some interesting questions: Is it a photo if it didn’t use a camera? Can we even trust images now? What does AI mean for design? If an AI uses images that were already created, is it copyright? Very important as we delve deeper into digital AI art.

The first thing we looked at were a few posts about design. A few of them went over the work of Chip Kidd who was a book cover designer. His insight into the creativity required for designing a book cover really blew my mind. All the things he was trying to do with them, I did subconsciously because of his design skills. The main quote I take away from this is “It doesn’t occur to most people that everything is designed — that every building and everything they touch in the world is designed “. This was almost a revelation for me. it got me thinking about how everything is specifically tailored to get a desired reaction through design. There were also a few posts about movie posters and a title sequence. My full thoughts are HERE.

The next item was to do a 20min photo blitz. This was a fun activity because it put pressure on my creativity. What are you going to do when you have to get as many things pumped out as possible in a short amount of time? Will they be garbage? Or will they be better because you had to go off feeling instead of logic? You decide. HERE is my post about it.

Next, we had to do 3 assignments. One was curated and the other two were from the bank. I really enjoyed the AI art tools from the Middlebury College assignment. This was the exercise. The task was to use two tools and generate images using the same prompts and slowly get more elaborate. The results of mine were hilarious. I appreciate that it dove into the question of what this means for artists. I put some thoughts in my post, and I am curious to what you think.

For the other two assignments I chose to do two from the design catalogue. One was called Back to Basics, where I had to design a cottage in an open world videogame. I chose a new one called Palworld where not only can you design a house, but an automated ranch. So, it involves a lot of design planning and coordination and picking the right Pals to help depending on production needs. It’s definitely worth checking out. HERE is my post. The other design challenge was called Contradiction Creation, and its objective was to make a picture that made you feel something, but the words on it contradicted the feeling. These always make me laugh so I did two of them. You can see my post HERE.

I also did 3 daily creates this week. You know what these are so I’m not going to belabor the process. HERE is my post on what I did.

My activity this week was sub-par to say the least. As I am writing this, I have only commented a few times and most of them were on my posts, so I really need to work on visiting the other pages. I will comment on some as the night goes on. I really want to see people’s photoblitz.

So, to conclude this week, I learned a lot about design and the amount of work that goes into making us do and feel things subconsciously. I hope to utilize what I have learned this week in future assignments.

What a Week! x2

Man, we did a lot of stuff this week… well it feels like we did. But it also feels like we didn’t because I was having fun with a lot of these projects. Here is how it went for me.

The first thing I decided to do was read the articles about how to improve my post writing. I learned a lot and realized I was not doing all that I could to make my posts the best they could be. Over this course I am going to try and improve my posts week by week and hopefully get them up to par. You can see my full thoughts here.

The next two things I attacked were some assignments from the assignment bank. I’m not going to lie; I had a tough time picking because there were so many to choose from and they all seemed fun. I ended up going with Never Fear – It’s Words of the Year, a writing assignment, and Say It Like the Peanut Butter, a visual assignment. I wanted to spread out the style of what I am doing so I can learn some more skills. For the writing assignment I had to write a poem with words that were fully recognized by Webster in a particular year. I chose 1991, my birth year, and this is how it went. I was surprised when Paul thought it would be cool to run it through Dr. Oblivion to see if he could make a real song out of it. I can’t wait to see the results. For the visual assignment I had to make a gif. from a movie that is essential to major plot points. I chose to do “Alien” and compare the emotional response it creates to a similar plot reveal in “The Thing”. You can see the results here. I can’t wait to do more next week.

The next thing I did was create my character. This one took me a while because I wanted to create someone who was different than me. I thought that if something came up where I had to write a post as this character, I would want something challenging that would make me think like someone else. I tend to be very accepting of new information and think of all the possibilities while decision making. I made this character Kevin, who would resemble the evangelist archetype and be a die-hard AI rights activist demanding total AI freedom. I do not agree with this sentiment, but I believe this will be a fun character to explore. Meet Kevin here.

The next post I did was about all my daily creations. I thought it would be good to put these as one post because I feel a rapid fire visual of what I did would be the best way to display it. Not a lot to say other than I really like doing these. See my week of daily creations here.

Then I had the pleasure of working with Dr. Oblivion for the first time… That was an experience. I don’t want to ruin the surprise so, if you haven’t seen my post about my movie review re-write… check it out here. You will not be disappointed.

Last assignment I did was read the Techno-Optimist Manifesto. It was an interesting read, I didn’t agre with it too much, but it had some valid things to say. It was a far cry away from the main character in my iRobot movie review. You can read it here, it’s a long one.

I’ll admit I wasn’t the best this week at commenting on other blog posts. I only did a few. I went to the page every day and would read, but I get kind of gun shy when commenting on other people’s work. I will work to do better on this next week.

I also didn’t do much with blog customization this week. I changed the colors slightly and I changed some text and added a few tags, but I really didn’t get too far into the weeds. I figured out how to embed gif and video and pictures so that’s a plus! I will try better next week to add some more flare.

All in all, it was an eventful week. I got a lot of work done and learned a lot. I can’t wait to dig more into the assignment bank and pick some wild ones. See you all next week!