Month 14: Flash Design and Animation

I made another video for this class, pretty much to help catch up. However, I will say that I really enjoyed this class. It's a ton of fun, and it teaches you some pretty cool things along the way. I did end up taking the online course, instead of in the classroom. Apparently Full Sail is quite short of teachers, and they've only been able to run the online class for now. So, here it is!

Game: http://www.artofliz.com/fda/

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Grades: Flash Fundamentals

I already told you guys that I got an A+ in this class. I think the most ironic thing was I was scared I was going to get a "B" and that this would break my A+ streak. So, here's the breakdown of my grades, as usual (perhaps the longest grading list in the history of Full Sail):

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Month 13: Flash Fundamentals

Okay, so here we go! This is your first legitimate coding class. There was a lot of stuff to cover this month, so I made a video! Hope you guys enjoy!

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Grades: Web Standards Project

Okay, so, by the end of the month, I had busted my butt on this project. I spent nearly every waking moment on this, revising, revising, revising. And it paid off! I ended up getting an A+ in the class. Oscar, the teacher, really knows his stuff, and is all about learning new ways to do things. That being said, he'll teach you a couple of cool, neat little tricks to really help your designs stand out. As usual, here's my grade breakdown for Web Standards Project. Almost perfect!

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Month 12: Web Standards Project

Okay, so a lot has been going on, and for the past couple of months, I know it seems like I fell off the Earth. I've had a few personal real-life issues come up, and I had to withdraw from Full Sail for a little while in order to get that under control. Once I came back to Full Sail, the courses started to ramp up in difficulty, and I've been trying to catch up with that.

Anyhow, before I withdrew from Full Sail, the last class I had was Web Standards Project (WSP). In this month, you'll basically develop the wireframes, color schemes, and layout for a fully function HTML and CSS website redesign. For me, I wanted to create a potential website that I could use to promote myself. After discussing it with my teacher, I was permitted to do a new layout for my website. Please keep in mind, this isn't a final product. There's still a lot of work that needs to be done, in terms of functionality, but this would be the bare bones of the visuals.

During the course of the month, we had to create a video that documented our progress. Since it would be a good reference to see the direction I was going in, you can view the video below:



Once we were finished with the majority of our website, we were required to do some user testing. This was a lot of fun. I posted links on the school's portal, and sent the link to my family and coworkers. The feedback was submitted, a few more changes made, and I ended up with my final product for the site. You can view it here, along with other deliverables for the class: http://lrroberts0122.github.com/WSP/

Other than that, this class is pretty much one big project. While you're required to have certain things finished by certain times (to help keep you on track), you are constantly reiterating and revising your project until the final day, when it's due.

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Grades: History of Visual Communications

Okay, so I'm pretty happy with the grades. I wish I'd studied for the Final, or else I could have gotten a 100%. I only missed two questions, but I was preoccupied with a death in the family, unfortunately. I still got an A+, so what does it matter? Regardless, this class was fun, and it offers the students a fresh air and really gives us a chance to get a creative boost going.

On another note, I'm a bit disappointed with my "grades" overall. Last month, I was supposed to be in Web Standards Project, however, I had to withdraw from the class because my video card fried. (Curse you Maya!) However, I got marked an "F" with a grade of 0.00% instead of "FA" (Failed Attendance) which would be understandable considering I wasn't even there; instead, they were supposed to give me a "W" (Withdrawn), and now I have to go at some point to get this fixed, who knows when. But it dropped my GPA down to a 3.35 and I'm kind of upset, especially with the Education Department. But these are the (annoying) little things that you're going to have to deal with at Full Sail, so I suppose you should get used to it. Anyhow, here's my grade breakdown, as usual.

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New Wallpaper

Hey everyone. It's officially break, and until Christmas I've been super bored. I ended up doing this Wallpaper. It's not very Christmasy, so I'm going to do another one, soon. I was actually recording this, but my computer ended up crashing half-way through, so I lost my recording. Sorry. :( I'll be sure to record the Christmas one for you guys. :)

So here it is. I also created a new "Wallpaper" section at the bottom where you'll be able to download this and any other wallpapers I end up creating. Max resolution is 1920x1200. Enjoy.

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Month 11: History of Visual Communications

Final Project

For the final project, we were supposed to create a poster-esque something that was one of the art styles we'd learned about in class. The teacher allowed me to do something a bit more traditional, since we're rarely ever able to do something along those lines at Full Sail. Overall, I ended up going the Dada / Anti-Art route (though it ended up being more Auto-Destructive than anything).

I got a lot of compliments on the piece, and I'm quite happy with it. I feel like through destroying things, I'm able to express who I am, which actually makes sense considering how self-destructive I've been in the past. Perhaps that was the effect trying to contain all of it.

Good news is that they're going to display it in the showcase. I'll be sure to take a picture when they do for you guys. I also wanted to give a shout-out to John Castle for his awesome photography skills!

Also, on another note, we went to the Graduate Showcase today. I found it very interesting, and exciting, because I just know one of those days, that's going to be me up there. I'm getting very excited. I'm almost half way through it. All I have to do is keep up the good work! :)

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Month 11: History of Visual Communications

Lab 2: Watercolor

In this particular lab, I believe the goal was trying to get students to open up. What I really enjoy about this class is that you really do have creative freedom, for the most part. The exercise, I believe, helped to get students to understand abstraction of art. The process started with students closing their eyes and scribbling on the paper with permanent marker. Each scribble was collected and then distributed again. I have no idea whose scribble I got. Instead of coloring inside the lines, I just experimented. Strangely enough, I got a lot of compliments on it. I think it's because instead of trying to color inside the lines, I just tried to do something fun...

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Grades: Designing for Web Standards

This month was hard. It was more or less learning the concepts and understanding the concepts behind Cascading Style Sheets. And I won't lie, it was frustrating. Even though I bombed the second quiz (and YES, I did study), I ended up getting an A, so I'm very, very happy and thankful. The teacher is a cool guy, even though he can be a little rough at some times. He definitely strikes me as someone who is a tough-love kinda' guy. He'll make you cry. Not even kidding. But it was all worth it... Moving on!

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Month 11: History of Visual Communications

Lab 1: Art Nouveau

Okay, so things were a little crazy with the break. Tuesday, we went to the Morse Museum to get some inspiration for our first Art Nouveau project. It's a little bookmark, and we have to make it styled the same way as the general period, even though there are multiple styles. It gives us a bit of creative freedom. However, it can be a little confusing, because they're actually looking for Artist Statements and stuff about your project.

I've finished my project, I think. I may add onto it, however I'm going to wait for a final critique. Here's what it looks like for the time being.

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Month 11: History of Visual Communications

Hi everyone! So this is my last Gen-Ed class. So far, we haven't really done anything, so I don't have anything fancy to really show off. Last month, I had to take off. My video card fried and the school didn't have any loaner laptops for me to use. I guess that's one bad thing about Full Sail.

If your stuff magically stops working, you're screwed. Unless you're in CA / GA. Then you have open labs. But this wasn't the case for me...

But, all in all, I suppose it was a good thing I was "forced" to take a month off. My dad has cancer, so I've been taking the time to go over and help him, and take care of some things.

Anyhow. Happy belated Thanksgiving to you all. I look forward to doing the holiday thing this year, and hopefully I can create some beautiful festive digital composites for you! I'll keep you posted as the month progresses!

See you then!

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Month 10: Designing for Web Standards

So this month has been pretty relaxed. Apparently, the first Exam is supposed to be hard, but I found that it isn't if you study the material. The instructor gives several links an an eBook that are really beneficial. I especially love the O'Reilly series. Studying for several hours for about three days helped me to get a 100% on the first Exam. It's only hours before the second, and I'm feeling confident. I thought I'd take a few minutes to make a post about the work that I've done before I get back to my Lynda videos.

So each lab in this class touches on particular aspects and categorizes CSS in a way that's beneficial and easy to learn. There are some concepts that were challenging to grasp at first, such as the Cascade and Specificity, but once I understood them at their roots, I felt a lot better about the class and information came a lot easier.

So below, is a complete list of links for what I've done for this class. The requirements were that we only had to make these links work for Firefox, so apologies to those of you who use Chrome or something else. I'll be sure to go back in and add my vendor prefixes later, so check back!

Lab 1: Color
http://lrroberts0122.github.com/DWS/lab1/index_linked.html

Lab 2: Typography
http://lrroberts0122.github.com/DWS/lab2/index.html

Lab 3: Floating
http://lrroberts0122.github.com/DWS/lab3/index.html

Lab 4: Gradients
http://lrroberts0122.github.com/DWS/lab4/index.html

Lab 5: Responsive Design
http://lrroberts0122.github.com/DWS/lab4/index.html

Lab 6: Forms
http://lrroberts0122.github.com/DWS/lab6/level-1/
http://lrroberts0122.github.com/DWS/lab6/level-2/
http://lrroberts0122.github.com/DWS/lab6/level-3/
http://lrroberts0122.github.com/DWS/lab6/level-4/

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Month 10: Designing for Web Standards

This class is, the easiest and yet the hardest class I've had, both at the same time. There's a constant balance of love and hate, and an overwhelming sense of fear that I'm going to fail this class. The teacher is very organized and presents the information in a clear, concise manner that is easy to understand. And while code is little more than memorization of a few selectors, properties and values, the semantics behind why you do what you do, is certainly the more complicated aspect of CSS. Learning specificity, and how the Cascade works, are some of the harder concepts to grasp, especially when things start to get really complicated.

For labs, we've been doing the CSS for a couple of websites. The websites are only one page each, but I still try to make them look nice. Oh, and I forgot to mention, the class only requires that we make them usable in Firefox, so if there's a few gradients missing, that's because it's not coded for Chrome, Safari, Opera, etc. Apologies about that. I'll get them updated ASAP. :)

Lab 1: Color
Lab one was all about color. I've already been doing a little CSS, on and off, for approximately two years, so I continued to familiarize myself with the properties and values. To view Lab 1, click here: http://lrroberts0122.github.com/DWS/lab1/index_linked.html

Lab 2: Typography
Lab two focused on typography. Kevin taught us how to use custom fonts, though I should probably look into how to use @font-face a little bit more. Still, it was an easy enough project, and there's not much to say except for showing you the website, itself: http://lrroberts0122.github.com/DWS/lab2/

Lab 3: Layout
Lab three started on the fundamentals of layout for our site, where we used floating to create a two-column layout. I lost points on this particular lab because I didn't make my gallery horizontal, but vertical instead. After all the trouble I went through with the sidebar, and the need to study for an Exam that was 15% of my entire grade, I just left it as is, weighing my priorities towards the Exam, which I was told I did very well on. http://lrroberts0122.github.com/DWS/lab3/

Lab 4: CSS3 Gradients
This lab focused on CSS gradients. Basically, we had to do multiple things with CSS3. It was fairly easy, and I'm updating this later than I usually would, so I don't exactly remember the specifics of the lab. But you can view it here:
http://lrroberts0122.github.com/DWS/lab4/

Lab 5: Responsive Web Design
What's really quite a shame about this particular project was that I was absent for this day. Basically, we had to make the webpage from Lab 3 responsive, so that depending on the device that you used, its layout would be optimized.
http://lrroberts0122.github.com/DWS/lab5/

Lab 6: Web Forms
Okay, so by far, this was my favorite lab. I don't know why, but I love to do web forms. Please keep in mind that these forms are best viewed in Firefox and will not work as intended in Chrome, Safari or any other explorer. There were four forms that we had to do, each getting to be more advanced than the one before. I have to say, that styling the drop-down menu items were extremely difficult, and I was too lazy to style any of the radio buttons / checkboxes.
http://lrroberts0122.github.com/DWS/lab6/level-1/
http://lrroberts0122.github.com/DWS/lab6/level-2/
http://lrroberts0122.github.com/DWS/lab6/level-3/
http://lrroberts0122.github.com/DWS/lab6/level-4/

Au revoir and thanks for reading!

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Grades: Web Design Fundamentals

False alarm! This is actually an A+! :)

*Update: Lab 2 is portrayed as a zero right now. There was a mistake when submitting the grades, so the updated version should be available within the month.

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Month 9: Intellectual Property and Law

This month has been an extremely easy month. I'm only about half way through. The class is extremely helpful in regards to how you can protect your rights as a designer. They talk a lot about Intellectual Property (go figure), about trademarks, registration and copyright. For lab each day, we are required to fill out a questionnaire that reinforces the subjects taught in class that day. I personally love the teacher. She's really sweet, and very cool.

There is literally no homework for this class, so if you're extended, it's really just a break. I've been taking some time to try and freelance. I've been working for a YouTube sensation, RhinoCrunch. I love his DayZ videos, and he needed an artist to design his website. I've been collaborating with an employee from Opace, a web development firm from the UK, so this project has proven very useful for me. Right now, all I can do is post an image of the site, but when it's live, I'll link it here.

I'm very excited. This is the first website that I've designed that will actually be fully developed.

If you're interested in who RhinoCrunch is, and what he's about, check out his YouTube channel at: www.youtube.com/user/rhinocrunch

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Month 8: Web Design Fundamentals

Web Design Fundamentals is a class that most students simply call "HTML" because that's what you learn... is HTML(5). Throughout the month, you are taught how to create a document that has semantic markup, the knowhow of when to use an element. For example, the diferences between a DIV tag, a SECTION, and an ARTICLE, or the differences between <i> and <em>.

If you'd like to view my work, you can go to:
http://lrroberts0122.github.com/WDF/

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Grades: Applied Design Tools and Interfaces

This class was definitely the most challenging class I've had to date. But it has also been one of the most fun. For those in an accelerated program, this month is paired with Principles of Production Process, another one of my favorites. Though, I wouldn't change the order I took them in, only because I feel PPP should be taken before WIU in any case. This month, I really pushed the concepts I've learned since my start at Full Sail. I haven't heard back from the teacher, however he gives out a Course Director's Award almost every month. I'm really hoping that I earned it.

One small note: As you can see, my professionalism is at 80%. I missed a day of class, and it docks your GPS (Global Professionalism Standards) points. It's a stupid system and should be disregarded. I communicated with the teacher the day I was absent and let him know what happened. This really needs to be looked at, but I digress. /endrant

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Grades: Web Interface and Usability

Going through this entire month, I was always worried that I was going to do poorly in this class. I think that's more or less because the teacher was a little intimidating. I ended up doing very well, better than I thought. It's a shame that I didn't finish this project in time for ESPN to choose a design, but there was nothing else I could do. The scheduling wasn't in my favor. Maybe next time, it will be.

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Grades: Principles of Production Process

Apologies. I've been forgetting to post the grades recently. I did exceptionally well in Principles of Production Process and was awarded a Course Director's Award. All I really have to say is that I'm happy with my grade. This class was great, and really helped to emphasize Full Sails motto, "Real World Education."

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