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Blog 10 – Game Review

Minecraft is a game made of blocks where you can explore the infinite terrain or let your creative juices flow by testing the limits of building with just blocks.

This game was my childhood. Although I’m no longer the expert I once was, the basics have never changed.

My younger brothers convinced me to play for the first time in a while when I had some free time over winter break. Though there was a lot I didn’t understand now, I can’t deny that I had fun.

The basic controls are the WASD keys to move, spacebar to jump, E to access your inventory, left-click to hit/break something & right-click to select/open something.

My view of a jungle & forest as soon as I dropped into a new world

Survival mode is the first of 2 modes where you’re dropped into the world with nothing but a health & food bar. The first thing you always do is punch some trees down for wood to create your tools after obtaining a crafting table.

Anything is possible once you obtain a set of tools. With over 900 kinds of blocks, 64 different biomes, 30+ structures, 79 passive & hostile creatures, 11 ores & 3 different worlds, the possibilities are endless.

Village structure in a Savannah

Creative mode is the other main mode where you cannot take damage, can fly & have access to every resource & block at your disposal. You can easily explore the infinite world or choose a super flat world for a more blank slate with nothing but flat grass.

One of the 3 worlds; dubbed “The Nether”

My experience with the game dates back to 2011. I’ve always enjoyed the game, my friends & I made memories that we still laugh about to this day.

It’s difficult for me to keep an unbiased lens given all the nostalgia, but it was nothing but positive & I can’t think of anything I’d change.

Sights of diamond ore deep inside a cave

The target audience is geared towards younger kids 7 & up like most non-violent video games. However, the general age of players is around 13-21.

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Blog 9 – Swiss Army Knife

As someone fairly new to the design field, there are many tools I have the opportunity to advance throughout this program & beyond. Luckily I’ve always been quick to learn new concepts when I can put the work in. I’m great at visualizing ideas in my head & feel like I have a better understanding of technology & computers than the average person.

I’ve always been a creative thinker & problem-solver, however, my health has put a damper on this in the past causing an uphill battle. So far in class, I’ve learned new ways of thinking that are helping to grow these tools. The program teaches me that there is so much more behind design than you initially think. Understanding design theory, the principles, color, type, etc. are new concepts to me that I’m getting a grasp on for the first time. Thanks to Jason & my quick learning skills, I’m beginning to learn a lot about design software. Although the skies are the limit when it comes to these skills, I feel I have a good foundation right for growing them throughout my career.

3 major tools that I need to invest a lot of time in are time management, communication & presenting. Having ADHD has made managing my time a struggle & I always seem to be pushing at the last minute to get something done. In high school, I was never great at communicating or presenting my ideas. After COVID kept me out of school for 3 years, I realized I never had a chance to strengthen these skills before SCCA.

Unfortunately, I am a perfectionist. Although this has benefits when it comes to the final product, I’ve always struggled with letting my ideas be. When I’m sketching it’s difficult not to judge my ideas or latch onto an early one. I also have a tendency to never be satisfied with the work I have done. I always want to push myself & fully fledge out every idea that I have. Well unfortunately my mind & body can only handle so much & my limit is almost always less than I wanted. It can be difficult to be happy with a project or feel satisfied when I know I’m not able to put in as much effort as I want. Luckily this is slowly turning around, as my grades surprised me last quarter. But, there’s still a ton a progress left to be made & I know that I am not going to be successful if I can’t learn to just let things go.

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Blog 8 – AI Image Generation

My chosen prompt was playing frisbee with a cat at the park. When I think of this I imagine a sphinx cat catching a frisbee in their mouth mid-air like a dog next to a tree in a grassy park area. Their owner is in the corner of the image having just thrown the frisbee.

Here’s a rough sketch of what I had in mind;

The free image generator I chose was craiyon.com. I began with a simple prompt: “A sphinx cat catching a frisbee that their owner threw in a park next to a tree.”

Here was the best result:

The cat clearly DOES NOT look realistic nor is he jumping mid-air. The tree looks like a stump & the owner is nowhere to be found. Somehow this was the best result they gave me, half replaced the cat with a human.

After figuring out the problems I went back in for round 2.

“A sphinx cat jumping and catching a frisbee in their mouth next to a tree in the park. Their owner is off in the corner after throwing the frisbee.”

Better… although the cat still looks very alien-like. The tree looks more realistic & the cat is in mid-air, though you could argue they’re climbing the tree. Still no owner in sight.

I get one more chance to make it count. Here’s the final prompt:

“A person throwing a frisbee to their sphinx cat that is jumping mid-air to catch it in their mouth in the park next to a tree.”

Although this was butchered, it’s still the most accurate of the 3.

Now I’ll admit, I haven’t spent too much time yet experimenting with AI image generators. I may just not know how to write prompts correctly or this just happens to be an awful free generator. I wanna lean closer toward the latter considering I know I’ve generated better images in the past on sites I don’t remember.

There are definitely more cons than pros for this site as you can see. It was never truly able to capture the prompt I was looking for & the correct aspects looked like something from another planet. Either way this has taught me that I should spend more time exploring AI, practicing writing prompts & absolutely trying out different sites.

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Blog 7 – iPad Pro + Apple Pencil

Although it’s not very unique & I’m sure the program has plenty, I wanted to take a deeper dive & see what I could accomplish in my work if I added an iPad Pro to my lineup. In 2012 when I was just 10, I remember asking everyone I could for money for my birthday & if I could do some yard work for them to earn a little extra to save up. It was the first big thing I saved up for that wasn’t a video game. I didn’t know what I was doing & only used random free apps, but that iPad was where I got my start in design. Unfortunately, it stopped working before I ever touched an Adobe product.

The model I went with is the 2021 12.9” M1 iPad Pro with 512GB & of course an Apple Pencil. The 2023 M2 model from what I’ve heard is almost too powerful & most creative apps aren’t going to take advantage of its capabilities. With the price range, it makes much more sense to grab a refurbished version of the older model. Also can’t forget to use that 10% student discount.

I haven’t gotten a chance to dive into digital drawing yet which is something I’ve been interested in for some time now. Never touched Procreate, Adobe apps aside from Express on my phone, or various other creative apps that can flourish from being on a tablet over a laptop. Another aspect I would use is FigJam, taking digital notes without having to use my big 5lb Macbook & I’d probably have to check out some games that Apple claims to be amazing on these M1 iPads. A few other designers like classmates & family have told me good things about it, not using it as their main device but being able to expand their work & make some aspects easier by using it.

Spec-wise it boasts a liquid XDR display that supports HDR content, Apple’s 120hz pro-motion technology, 8 CPU & graphics cores, 8GB of RAM, a little bit under 4k resolution, a Thunderbolt 4 port & much more. Although not as beefy as my Macbook Pro it doesn’t need to be. It’s 3.5 lbs lighter which adds up when carrying it around & getting work done on there I feel it would be much smoother depending on the job.

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Blog Assignment 6 – Be A Disruptor

My entire life I’ve been living with chronic illness. Fortunately, I’ve never had any major issues or hospitalizations but it has absolutely made an enormous impact on who I am today & where I am. Without it, I may have never gone to the Mariners Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Night, never become obsessed with the Mariners & never have sparked an interest in design in the first place.

Throughout my 21 years, I’ve had to solve problems in my life that most people will never experience. Frequent doctor visits, a hefty daily care routine, missing out on much more than I’ve wanted to, among many other things that I’ve had to adapt to.

Pre-COVID when I was really just beginning to get serious about design, I took a lot of things for granted & it never truly set in how different some aspects of life were for me. Now that I’m finally able to work towards something I wanna do in my life, I’m realizing how dealing with my illnesses has helped me become a great problem-solver.

I’m not quite sure yet if it has had any impact on my specific style or the kinds of work I like to do, I still have at least 2 more years of the program after this. However, dealing with the illness during school has made me realize that it’s not going away & if I truly want to be a designer I have to push through with whatever energy I have.

Managing everything back in high school was tough because it was so easy to just give up since it wasn’t stuff I was even interested in. After taking a step back I knew I didn’t accomplish as much as I wanted despite still graduating.

I believe that my illnesses have given me the fear of failing & knowing how unpredictable life can be. That sounds bad but I see it as a great thing. These struggles have taught me to give it my all, ask questions, try different things & design what I want to design.

There’s still a long way to go for me. We’re just about a quarter in now while I’m about 4 years removed from my last schooling. Every aspect of my life right now is a huge learning experience & it’s making the program so fun. Although I’m not always going to have the energy or ability to make every assignment or job I do perfect, I’m going to strive to get as close as I can because I never know when I’ll get sick again or just have a day of fatigue. I gotta give it my all now & strive to become the best designer I can be.

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Blog Assignment 5 – Letter X

When I saw I got the letter X I figured it would be really easy, I could just find 2 things that crossed. It was not easy.

After roaming my neighborhood for a while I finally found some trees that were able to convince me a bit.

Trees roughly forming the letter X

If it’s a little difficult to pick up, I was pretty far away, I highlighted the letter I saw below;

The letter X highlighted in the trees
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Blog Assignment 4 – International Job Listing

Hopefully it’s not cheating, but I decided to stick close to home & look into Vancouver, BC just a few hours north of the border.

Living with a chronic illness having easy access to healthcare would be my number 1 priority. Becoming a citizen to access that healthcare doesn’t take too much effort & being close to home would make the transition much easier than anywhere else in the world. Although the cost of living is slightly higher than America, I would be provided many more benefits through my taxes & a more lax work environment. The climate is also eerily similar to Seattle which would just be another easy adjustment.

On Indeed I found an opening to be a Senior Graphic Designer for Lululemon. Diving into the benefits I learned there is no shortage at this job. At no extra cost I would be provided with extended healthcare, dental, mental, PTO, retirement savings, fitness & yoga programs, a wide variety of extensive classes, immigration support & annual bonuses. All while earning a comfy salary of up to $105,000.

This job is in a hybrid setting, requiring no more than 3 days a week in office which I think is a perfect balance of not too much time at work or at home.

Here’s a link to the job listing on Indeed:

https://ca.indeed.com/q-graphic-designer-l-vancouver,-bc-jobs.html?vjk=f0982439f614edaf

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AR Module Project 4 – Panels

The POI our group decided to work with was thrift stores.

One panel was dedicated to a photo of the storefront. Another included the address & hours of the store. The third included a couple “best find” items along with their prices.

We mostly used Illustrator to create our panels. I would then export them as PNG’s to use in AR & Google Slides. I’m unsure about the rest of my group but I ended up using Aero over Eyejack to give my panels a bit more movement.

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Blog Assignment 3 – Time Management

Saturday, October 21

9:00-11:00AM

  • Took about 30 minutes to wake up, take any medications, get out of bed, change clothes and get prepped for the day by tidying my bedroom a bit
  • Made my breakfast, loaded the dishwasher then reviewed my journal before meeting with my therapist
  • Spent the second half of the hour discussing how school has been going and how my health has been impacting me with my therapist

11:00-11:45AM

  • Had a 45-minute phone call with my uncle who is an alumni of the program and got to talk with him about how I’m feeling about it for the first time since the summer

12:00-3:00PM

  • Started my work by looking at the recent feedback Jason sent me last night to refine my shapes in Illustrator for the Graphic Translation project
  • Began mind-mapping and sketching out a couple ideas for Jill’s new project to create a Combination Mark for a company of our choice
  • Took a break for a snack and to finish watching Jason’s Illustrator videos for the week
  • Did a little bit of research for Jason’s next Stylized Design project
  • Sketched out some slide & panel ideas for the group project in the AR Module

3:00-4:30 PM

  • Meditated and then took a short nap

4:30-5:30 PM

  • Unloaded the dishwasher, did some laundry and then cleaned my bathroom

5:30-7:00PM

  • Went shopping for dinner and cooked

7:00-10:00PM

  • Ate dinner
  • Watched movies and spent some time with my girlfriend

10:30PM-9:30AM

  • Sleeping

Sunday, October 22

10:00-11:30AM

  • Spent some more time talking with my girlfriend after waking up before she went home

12:00-12:30PM

  • Had homemade chicken noodle soup for lunch

12:30-2:30PM

  • Look for inspiration for my project in Jill’s class
  • Sketched out a ton of different concepts for the logo

2:30-2:45PM

  • Sent Jason my object for the stylized design project for some feedback
  • Turned in my final graphic translation project to Jason

3:00-4:00PM

  • Put together my slide and panels for the group project in the AR Module of New Media

4:00-6:00PM

  • Did a few chores around the house like cleaning the kitchen

6:00-6:45PM

  • Helped another student with Jason’s graphic translation project

7:00-7:30PM

  • Took my dog Zeus for a walk

7:30-8:30PM

  • Did yoga by myself & then took a shower

8:30-11:00PM

  • Watched a few episodes of Community
  • Ate my dinner
  • Journaled a little bit & read some of my book
  • Fell asleep around 11-ish

Monday, October 23

10:00-11:00AM

  • Slept in a little bit but I really enjoyed the sleep
  • Scrolled Reddit for a few minutes watching highlights from last night’s playoff baseball game
  • Got up and got ready for the day by changing

11:00-12:00PM

  • Unloaded the dishwasher
  • Loaded some of my bed laundry to be washed
  • Wrote down a shopping list
  • Spent the rest of the hour playing around with my cats & tidying my room

12:00-2:30PM

  • Went shopping with my girlfriend Tia
  • Started at Fred Meyer to get gas a couple things the other stores don’t have
  • Next was Value Village where I needed to take a couple pictures there for the AR Panel project in New Media, I didn’t get anything but Tia found a few cute things she liked
  • Finally we stopped at Trader Joe’s to stock up on the food we needed for the rest of the month

2:30-3:45PM

  • Completed my part of the AR Panel project for Stephanie’s class in New Media

3:45-5:00PM

  • Sketched out a few more ideas for Jill’s project
  • Got a few things together to begin preparing for school tomorrow

5:00-6:00PM

  • Watched a bit of the MLB playoff game

6:00-7:00PM

  • Went on a walk with Zeus
  • Took a shower

7:00-7:30PM

  • Ate dinner while watching the game

7:30-8:30PM

  • Watched some of Jason’s videos to prepare for tomorrows lecture

8:30-9:30PM

  • Prepared for bed
  • Did some yoga
  • Meditated to sleep

Tuesday, October 24

6:30-6:50AM

  • Wake up, get dressed, eat breakfast

6:50-7:15AM

  • Drove to the Tukwila light rail station

7:15-8:00AM

  • Meditated on the way to school on the light rail

8:00-9:00AM

  • Got set up in class
  • Printed out my final graphic translation project for class today
  • Watched another one of Jason’s videos

9:00-10:30AM

  • Class critique of the graphic translation project

10:30-11:30AM

  • Jason’s lecture where he taught us about the curvature, width shape & rotate tools

11:30-12:15PM

  • Ate lunch

12:15-1:20PM

  • Jason taught us about the blend tool & showed us some examples of the project we’re doing

1:20-2:45PM

  • Took the light rail back to Tukwila & drove home

2:45-3:45PM

  • Rested after the school day
  • Meditated for 20 minutes
  • Ate a snack

3:45-4:45PM

  • Chose a new object for Jason’s stylized design project & sent him my new sketches for feedback

4:45-5:30PM

  • Spent some time sketching

5:30-6:30PM

  • Got some things together for school
  • Reviewed what assignments I have due this & next week
  • Organized my notes a little bit neater
  • Watched more playoff baseball

6:30-7:45PM

  • Made & ate dinner
  • More baseball
  • More sketching

7:45-8:30PM

  • Yoga

8:30-9:00PM

  • Bedtime meditation

Wednesday, October 25

6:20-6:50AM

  • Woke up
  • Ate breakfast
  • Got ready for school

6:50-8:00AM

  • Drove to the Tukwila station
  • Meditated & listened to music on the light rail on the way to school

8:00-9:00AM

  • Set up my workspace for the day in the classroom
  • Made a few finishing touches to my sketches due today
  • Spent some time on the porch outside on the 5th floor

9:00-9:30AM

  • Jill showed us a few more examples of student logos
  • She printed out our sketches & broke us up into groups to give feedback

9:30-11:30AM

  • Clayton & I gave each other feedback on our logo sketches and we decided which iteration we would use to take further & process into our final
  • Using the feedback we did a couple 20-minute design sprints where we tried to find the heart-of-the-story in our logo
  • Jill walked around and gave us each personal feedback where she told me to break my logo down & make it more simple

11:30AM-12:00PM

  • We did a “hot potato” where we switched sketchbooks with our partners & made some changes or added some things we thought could help

12:00-1:00PM

  • I spent my lunch finally making a breakthrough on Jason’s stylized design project and sketched out a few ideas to send to Jason

1:00-1:45PM

  • Watched videos to help us with creating logos with grids

1:45-2:50PM

  • Meditated the entire 35-minute light rail ride & then drove home

2:50-3:30PM

  • Spent some time relaxing & unwinding after school with my cats

3:30-4:00PM

  • Journaled about my day and a couple things I want to talk to some people about

4:00-4:30

  • Added the finishing touches & recorded the animation for the AR Panel project
  • Loaded my dirty laundry

4:30-5:00PM

  • Reviewed the syllabus for Jill’s class and added every link to my Notion

5:00-5:30PM

  • Loaded the dishwasher
  • Put away clean laundry

5:30-5:50PM

  • Went for a walk with Zeus

5:50-6:45PM

  • Yoga & Meditation

6:45-9:30PM

  • Spent the rest of the night with Tia

Thursday, October 26

9:30-11:45AM

  • Spent some more time with Tia just talking & watching some Youtube videos

11:45AM-1:00PM

  • We both sketched some stuff together, I did just some random things & expanded on my logo for Jill’s class a bit more

1:00-1:45PM

  • Finally got dressed & cleaned up for the day
  • Ate lunch & meditated

1:45-3:30PM

  • Changed my object once again for Jason’s project after receiving feedback, I chose and sketched out 3 ideas so that hopefully one of them will work
  • Helped a New Media classmate figure out Illustrator for the AR Panel project
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Blog Assignment 2 – Polycam Object

https://youtube.com/shorts/DnntFAKUya4?feature=share