Melissa Loa’s Weblog

We took an online colour IQ test last week in our first scanning and resolution class. The lower your score was, the better your color IQ is. The higher your score was,  well, the lower your color IQ is. I scored 19 on it, which is pretty bad. I didn’t read the instructions or the fine print, so when I thought I did well when I scored a high score. In reality, I didn’t… much to my disappointment.  The test was still pretty cool though. I made my sister try it as well as a few friends of mine and they scored in the 0-4 area. We learnt about colors in our photoshop and scanning and resolution classes. We learnt about saturation (the amount of purity of the color there is), hue, and brightness. In our scanning and resolution class, we took a quiz (not really a quiz, but just an activity) to test our knowledge about how colours mix and how light passes through, as well as reflectivity. Also, we learnt how lighting makes colours look different. If the color is on a dark background, it looks slightly different than when it is on a white background. I didn’t know much, so I guess I have to re-read my notes all over again. However, I did pretty well with mixing the colors together (then again, if you choose the wrong color to mix, it repels right away which only makes you drag, drop and guess which is the right color!) We played around with photoshop in our classes. We touched on the levels of hue, saturation, and brightness to improve the color and brightness of a photo.  That was fun! It allowed us to become more familiar with the tools in photoshop, although I’ve had experience with photoshop already. There are still some tools that I am not aware of in photoshop (or I wasn’t required to use them as much when I was taking the digital animation course.) I’m hoping we receive more hands on training as the year progresses!

This is our second week of classes (excluding the first week which was just system management) in the New Media program at BCIT. Over the past few days, I have learnt quite a bit. In particular, Mak, our Photoshop instructor, taught us scanning and resolution. He taught us how to transfer images from it’s original size to a larger size or smaller size canvas in Photoshop or how to calculate the proper size for whatever resolution (ppi) you are creating your image in (how many pixels in length and width the canvas should be.) He taught us this method so that we don’t make the mistake of printing out our images from Photoshop and having it come out smaller than what we imagined when it comes to creating pieces for our portfolio or homework. I thought that this was quite interesting and helpful. Speaking of Mak, he was also my composting (for the program Discreet Combustion) instructor when I was taking the digital animation course. It’s nice to have a familiar face in class. He is a great instructor! He really knows his stuff and he teaches the programs very thoroughly!

In information architecture, we learnt about what information architects do (map out websites whilst being considerate of the users in regards to navigation, labelling, organization, etc.) Ron, our teacher, showed us some intersting statistics about which countries in the world use the internet the most, China being the leading country that uses it the most. It’s crazy how the internet has evolved so quickly over the past years. It has gone from the ”old internet” being more static and having simple HTML to having YouTube, Skype, Facebook,  eLearning, and so much more all online at the user’s convenience. With our internet now, we pretty much don’t need to leave the house to entertain ourselves; we can socialize, learn, and entertain ourselves with the internet.  Ron also showed us some videos on YouTube (from CommonCraft) about how to use Twitter, Wikki, and Delicious. I think I may have to use Wikki when planning events and trips with my friends (we are very disorganized people and we cannot keep track of our emails, let alone check our emails on a daily basis.) We also learnt about the types of websites there are –advocate, promotional, eCommerce, content sites, portals, and personal websites. Did you know that Google pays $1.6 billion for YouTube and Facebook is valued at 15 billion? Wow. Who knew that Facebook and YouTube could cost so much?

The previous blog entries have been for the Digital Animation program that I was taking at BCIT from October 2007 to October 2008.

I’ve always been a fan of graphics design and websites. Creating websites and playing around with Adobe Photoshop has been a past hobby of mine ever since I was in grade 8.  However, after I graduated from high school I decided to take up digital animation  just to try out something new. As much fun as 3D was, I realized my passion was meant for graphics design. I suppose it’d benefit me to have the skills that I have learnt from both programs, the digital animation program as well as the new media program.

It’s our second week into the program. We’ve gone to almost all of our classes for this term. Like the digital animation program, I know that the new media and design program will become more demanding as the program progresses and I have created some goals for myself to ensure that I will stay on track and focused this year. My goals in this program are to be able to create and design websites that are organized and well structured. Also, I would also like to create well constructed advertisements, posters, and etc. by the end of the program. I would also like to create my own business, sometime in the future, creating websites and graphics design for companies. I’m hoping that at the end of all this, we’ll all be able to find jobs in the industry. We had our first Photoshop class today. I enjoyed it. We learned about scanning and resolution. I found it quite useful, because I never knew how to find the appropriate size for my documents (without my work becoming all pixelated when it was enlarged). This information will definitely come in handy for all the future projects that I do! I also learned what the difference was between vector art and rasterized art. I have seen vector art many times, especially in magazines. I think vector art is pretty neat, and I can’t wait to try it for myself (I’ve tried to teach myself before, but the end product didn’t really turn out like what I had pictured in my mind. But that hasn’t stopped me from trying again! Perhaps when I familiarize myself more with Illustrator, or techniques, and whatnot… it will work out the next time I try it!)

Graphics design and web development are jobs that I seem to find postings for all the time on the internet or Craigslist. Luckily, those are my interests! I seem to be able to find more jobs for graphics design and web development than digital animation. I guess it’s just timing. Speaking of digital animation, I tried modeling in 3D today and I still have it in me! I’m quite happy with the fact that I still have the knowledge and skills to model (basic items anyway, nothing too complex!) I asked a friend of mine about this year’s industry night. Apparently, it’s happening next Wednesday at Radical Entertainment! I hope I can make it, I’d really like to see what their portfolios are like. They just keep getting better and better each year!