For our final project, my team and I decided to create a Halo Machinima. We played a game of halo together and used theater mode after the game ended to go through and record the snippets we wanted to use. We also created a logo and a title for our project, which is named “Orange Vs. Purple”. We are currently working on the audio for the video and the final editing for everything. 
Creative Video
We had the opportunity to produce a creative video for extra credit. I chose to make a music video for the song “Take it Low” by Creaky Jackals, which I converted to a MP3 file from Soundcloud. After getting some videos of myself skiing from my GoPro camera, I planned out which videos I wanted where and then clipped videos that I wanted to use from the original, longer videos. I added transitions and tried to make the video flow with the song. Here is the Story Board I created to help with the layout of the video.
Movie Preview
This last assignment was a group project, we either had to create a music video or a movie preview. My group decided to create a movie preview for Fortnite. We took all the footage in one day, using short clips to show snapshots of scenes from the movie. Using premiere pro to edit the video, we then added sound clips from the game to create an authentic sounding preview.
Credits:
Background song; Fortnite Main Menu Theme Sky Remix (soundcloud)
Sound clips; All Fortnite Sound Effects, The Music Lovers Place
Un-silent film
On this assignment, we were given several videos to choose from, each of them had no audio. After we had our video chosen, we had to record our own sounds and dialogue for the film. I chose the chess video, as I thought it looked fun and unique. I used my airpods case for the chess piece noises, and a snack bar wrapper as the candy bar. I found old juice boxes in my fridge to get the tapping on the juice box noise, and recorded myself swallowing for when the girl sips on the water. I recorded all of these sounds on Voice Record Pro and saved them to dropbox, I then inserted these sounds into Adobe Audition and inserted the sounds into the video. I clipped them to the length they needed to be and then inserted both the silent film and audio into Adobe Premiere.
Camera Angles
In class we are about to begin a group filming project, we were asked to choose 5 different filming styles and take pictures using those styles. Here are my 5 camera Angles:
Long shot; I chose this camera angle for the purpose of showing more background in our video. The long shot will show our characters, as well as anything important going on behind them. To take this picture I had my friend pose by the vending machines in my school and then zoomed out to show more of our school.
Close up; I chose this angle for items of emphasis. when something important is being used, this camera angle will be used to show that the object is important. For this picture, I again used our schools vending machines and took a picture of one of my favorite chip flavors of all time, Cool Ranch Doritos.
Birds eye view; I will use this camera angle to show an overview of our staging areas. This will help give the audience an idea of where our characters will be going and what terrain is around them. I had my friends stand by the vending machines and went upstairs to take this picture.
eye level; I wanted to use this camera angle to showcase each character in action. As they are going through their individual stories I will use this angle to emphasize them. My friend Louise was kind enough to pose for this picture in the hall.
cowboy shot; This angle is similar to the last one used, however, this angle will be used to introduce the characters to our short film.
Heath bar Ad
For this assignment, we had to create a 30-second radio ad for a product of our choice. I chose to make an ad for my favorite candy bar, Heath. I wanted to ad to be unique for a candy bar, so I decided I would model the ad after a medication ad on T.V. After writing the script, I recorded the voices I needed and imported them to Adobe Audition. Next I found a background song that fit the ad (Heart of Courage, by Thomas Bergersen, Two Steps from Hell album) and embedded the audio file into Audition and trimmed it to the length of the ad.
Digital Media Contest
In our class, we created an entry for the Utah Digital Media Arts Festival. After brainstorming several ideas, I decided to use a picture I had taken on a hike I recently went on and add some elements to make it unique.
After inserting the main photo from the hike, I cut out the shape of my body and deleted it so that the background was showing through. I then opened a photo of the night sky I had taken in a new document and edited it to add some extreme colors to it. I inserted both copies of the night sky photo into the main document and merged them together to create an even balance between the two. The colors in the background of the picture from the hike were fairly bland, so I inserted a sunset picture I had taken and moved it behind the main photo. I set my eraser tool to a low opacity setting and erased parts of the main photo to create the appearance of a sunset occurring during the photo. After looking at the photo, I decided that the line between my body and the rest of the picture was too sharp, so I created an adjustment layer and went around the edges of my body to make the effect of shadows emanating from my body.
Animation
Recently, my digital media class has been working with Adobe Animator. For our final project, we had to create a 15 second animation of whatever we wanted. Being a Star Wars fan, I decided to do something from that universe.
To begin, I created a layer with the door design and animated the door opening. To keep it from being bland, I decided that the door would jam, and that a Storm Trooper would have to fix it by throwing a hammer at it. To make the hammers’ motion, I made a motion tween for it’s flight path. I created a second motion tween for after it hit the door and fell. To make the Tie Fighter fly up, I again made a motion tween for the Tie. After completing its’ entry, the ship fires its’ guns, again made with a motion tween, and when the laser bolts meet, an explosion occurs. Here is the animation. 
Action Tween
After we made our walk cycles, our teacher asked us to create a background with individual moving parts. At first, I was going to do a beach, but as I started making the background, I was reminded of the time I went to Hawaii and went for a walk in one of the resorts fields. It had palm trees and a little shack for maintenance. I decided to recreate that instead. For the sunset, I was again inspired by Hawaii, for anyone who has been there, the sun sets are beautiful but don’t last long.
Walk cycle
For this assignment, we had to create an animation of our walk cycle. I asked a friend to film me while I walked so I could have a reference to go off of when I animated. In addition, I used a sample walk cycle to help with head and foot placement. As I started animating, I realized that my head didn’t bob as much as the base reference showed, so about half-way through, I had to go back and change everything to make it more like my own walk. Below is my walk cycle.
Matthew Pierce 