Project 2 Favorite Cartoon Characters

This is project 2 of my digital design class. After project 1 that we have used html to create a website about our top 3 favorite movies, we change it up this time and create a website without any form coding at all. Instead, we will build a website all by using Photoshop and mostly Fireworks. In this new project, we create another website about our favorite cartoon characters with 3 pages. A home page that contains an image that we drew of our character, a biography page that talks about this character, and a process page where we show how the image on the home page of our character is created with each step and explanations.

For this project, I chose minion Bob which is created within Fireworks as the major element of my website. And with the theme colors blue, gray, and yellow from the minions, I have created a background of the midnight sky with clouds and the moon. This background is placed at the master page, the page that contains the layers that will be visible in all other pages so the pages will maintain a certain consistency. On the home page I have a banner inspired by the look of the minions that I’ve created by Photoshop, the major minion (Bob) placed at the middle and the other two smaller minions (Kevin) on each side that serve as buttons to the biography and the progress page all standing on top of the moon. On the biography page, I have a similar banner, but with a different title, I have Bob at the middle, two minion shadow buttons that links to the home and progress page, and a simple biography I wrote about Bob contained on a text box. In the process page, I created 2 rectangle with a small transparency. One contains four images from the beginning all the way to the final image of how I have created this images of this minion. And the other one contains text that explains how I have created it by words. And on the right bottom, it has the same two minion shadow buttons from the biography page.

 

Lab 10 Firework GIF

      This lab is another preparation to do project 2 following lab 9. In this lab we use firework and create a GIF with an image that we are designing for project two and make it flash in a web browser by change the states using Fireworks CS6. It serves a purpose to show us how we can use firework in a different way. So I chose a image design that I have designed as a banner for the home page for my project 2 website. This is a very simple and easy lab. As long as you know the steps, it is very easy to complete.

      To create this flashing effect for the use of the browser we first create this image with Photoshop or Fireworks. Import the file along with all the layers into a new document created in Fireworks. Create another state and copy all the layers into that state. So now since both states have the same layers, change and play around with all the layers in one of the states. Make changes that are easily visible so everyone can tell a difference between them such as the colors. You can also add a hot spot or any types of behaviors to it. Set it to loop if it isn't. Then set it up as a html file and the most important step is to export it as wizard. If it is just exported in a normal way, it will not work in the browser. Also make sure it is saved as a html and images with all slices and pages.

http://techteach.us/DD2015/HJiahua/Labs/Lab10/LB10_Jiahua_DD.html

Lab 9 Wireframe

      To begin our next project in this class we have to draw a wireframe about it. Project 2 is to create a website of our favorite cartoon characters with 3 pages. A home page, biography page, and a process page. But before we do anything in the computer, we have to draw out the design that we want to be using in the actual website that we will be creating. So on paper, I drew the same banner and navigation bar for all three pages. Then I have my main character, Minion Bob on the home page along with two buttons that links to the other two pages. On the biography page, I have another minion on the left, and next to it is text that talks about minions. On the process page, I will have the steps on the top, right below the banner and navigation, and text the explains it in the bottom.

      After the wireframe is confirmed by the teacher, we used the scanner to scan all these three pages into the computer. We need to create a webpage out of it. It is very easy. All we need to do is to create a table with one row and three divisions and place the images scanned inside in order. With the same headings as usual, we add a short text explaining it on the bottom to finish this lab.

http://techteach.us/DD2015/HJiahua/Labs/Lab9/LB9_Jiahua_DD.html

Community Service: PB&J Drive

      In this world, many are living a great life, some might not even know that they have so much more than other. And since we have more, we need to share with those who don't have much, because not everyone is the same. So in 10/08, the NHS had a Peanut Butter and Jelly Drive. It is a event of which we make PB&J sandwiches and give them to those who needs them for free. By the end of that, we made in total of 65 sandwiches. It wasn't too much because not many of our members had showed up to help, but it's still not a small amount. This was my first time participating at a community service in school with NHS, I had a lot of fun making these sandwiches. I never knew this can be such an exiting activity. And I am really look forward to participate in such events again. 

Community Service: Fund Rising for NHS

      In the two days of the PTA meetings, the NHS decided to sell snacks, water, and juice to rise fund so we can use them for any future events that are mainly for the purpose of helping out others such as the PB&J Drive. We were split into two groups, one group at Thursday (11/19), and the other at Friday (11/20) which the group I was in. It was a half day that day, so we started at 12:00 until 14:30. It was a great experience selling things with Tanzil, Kismat, Javier, Ashley, and Tania. We another small group of that day that goes around the school with the cart. We were selling it to all the teachers, parents, and students as well. We went through every single floor multiple times to make sure that we can get as much costumers as possible. By the end we made  approximately a hundred and something from this cart. We sold a lot. And in that day, the NHS had rised over $300 which exceed the amount that was made in the previous day.

Self Evaluation

      In these two marking periods, I had a really great time in this class learning skills and building websites. My current grade for this class is 94.9%. This grade is alright for me because I had better and worse grades so. The reason I got this grade is because even though I did well in a few of my labs and project 1 that I am extremely proud of, there are some things I am getting worse at. Such as getting to class in the morning, I am not sure why, but I am always getting to class late by a few minutes. I also did very bad in my presentation about project 1. I think I got nervous and just didn't know what I was suppose to do, so my presentation ended up being one of the worst according to the way I see it. And I had a missing assignment, which is the worst thing that I would ever thought that can happen. It was a homework that we have to listen to a hour long podcast and write a blog about. I just never felt like I have the time to spend an hour for it, so I never did it.

      To make progress at future days in school, I will try to wake up a bit earlier in my school days to avoid any lateness. Try not avoiding any future assignments. And use more preparations for any future presentations to drive this nervousness away. In any way, I am not satisfied with my grades this time, so its very important for me to fix any current issues and hopefully do better.

Project 1 Favorite Movie Website

        This is project 1 where we make our own unique websites of our favorite movies. We create a home page, 3 movie pages, and link them together. We also use skills we have learned in previous labs such as CSS to help us in this lab to create a design of our own. 

In this lab, I chose to use a theme that contains a gray background, an orange sub-background for the header, navigation bar, footer, and a steel blue for my fonts. I did not use any background images, because I wanted to keep everything nice and simple. I also added hover effects to the navigation bar of the website to make it look more professional. And this theme is applied to all pages of this website. 

The home page is the index, the first page anyone sees when they visit my website and which can guide them to any content of my work. I decided to make the posters of the movies in this web-page into circles, because I find it unique and look better this way. 

       

The three movies I wrote about are Minions, Terminator 2, and The Guardians of the Galaxy. So in my web-pages that talks about these movies, I introduced the movie by showing simple information about the movie and talked about why is it a good movie.It was a time consuming project. Took us a long time and hard work to complete. But at the end, I feel accomplished as I was really satisfied with what I have created, my first website.

Link:
http://techteach.us/DD2015/HJiahua/Projects/Project1/index.html