5363 Week One Reflection

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gAhY2664GY

Here is the link to my digital story.  I did not think I was going to finish on time.  I ran into a lot of troubles, especially with the narration.  I just finished posting it on YouTube.  That alone is a first for me.  I am a very private person.  I get around it by pretending that no one will watch the video.  I had the same problem with beginning a blog and wiki but the difference with them is that they are about school.

Did I forget to mention that I really hate my voice.  I have a speech impediment that I spent 3 years in speech therapy to overcome.  Finally my speech therapist said "you're as good as your going to be", and sent me on my way.  In recent years I can hear my lisp more than I have since 3rd grade.

I really enjoyed this assignment but the week has been very confusing for everyone.  I think that for me it was complicated by this being my last week at work.  All of that behind now and I can focus on this course and my internship.

Speaking of internship, the websites Dr. A. gave us links to fit in nicely with my project.  Thanks!  Thanks again for helping us through the confusion.

Back to my digital story.  I was able to use my Adobe products that I have not had the opportunity to use before.  I also was able to use my Wacom tablet.  I used Illustrator and my drawing tablet to create the kid drawings and the yellow crayon drawings in my digital story.  I learned quite a lot.  I encountered many issues and I really got to test many aspects of the program.  This forced me to teach myself.

I also used Photoshop and Premiere Elements. I encountered many issues that I won't recount here but was able to find solutions to all of them.  Audio was a particularly huge problem.  It took 24 takes to sort out all of the problems and it still isn't as smooth as I would like it to be.  I had to say enough and submit it as is.  My next effort will be better.  Also, I am going to upgrade my Adobe Premiere Elements now that I know how to use it.  I think some of my audio issues will be easier to handle on a newer version.

When all was said and done it took me about 30 hours in two days to complete all of the drawing, photo finding, editing and combining, assembling, recording, and uploading.  Thanks to Google Earth, I actually got to zoom around my old neighborhood, where I lived from 1960-1964. The photo of the house was close to if not the exact house I lived in.  Although the neighborhood was much prettier when I lived there.  My dad always had a beautiful garden.  In the backyard he even had a greenhouse for cacti and other more exotic plants.  Dad had an amazing talent for growing anything.  The most beautiful flowers, along with luscious fruits and vegetables.  I feel another digital story coming on???

I am not whining because I have learned a lot and I am grateful that I was allowed to use Adobe products because my school district does use them.  I really feel as though I can speak with greater confidence about my ability with Adobe products now that I have gone through this process.  Before I had a big ? over my head and butterflies in my stomach.

It's late and I am tired but I forgot to mention how difficult it was for me to come up with a topic for my story.

This was a difficult and enlightening week.  This course is really throwing me into uncharted territory.  I am learning things that I have always wanted to learn for my own art as well as my career.

I am glad to have the confusion and troubles of week one behind us.
One last thing.  I really found Dr.Abernathy's digital story inspiring.  She said some things that I could really relate to.
Cheers.