So my final video went over 2 minutes, but it still stayed within the 2 minute range so hopefully Aggressive Technologies doesn’t kick me out of their conference.
My goal with this video was to purposely make it spontaneous and free flowing. I realized that the majority of my output in this class was meticulously planned and scripted out. For a reflection video such as this, I wanted to let all of my thoughts out in free flow, but this also made it difficult to keep it under 2 minutes as I’m a rambler.
What a crazy few months it has been. From our humble beginnings with setting up our blogs and writing film reviews, all the way to making collaborative radio shows and final projects that showcased all of the different technologies we worked with. This class has been an adventure that I would have never imagined back in January, and I’m grateful for all of the lessons and experiences I had.
Thank you to Professor Bond for steering us in the right direction every week without limiting our creative scopes. I hope to take the skills I learned to enhance my work in the future, as well as my daily life.
What a crazy last 6 hours it’s been. I just finished my final project and it definitely did not go as I expected. Last week for my weekly summary, I detailed how I was going to do a commentary video on some aspect of AI and the advantages / disadvantages. While doing the rest of my piled work for the week before finals, I thought about topics that I wanted to hone in on, and it was definitely the use of ChatGPT and other forms of AI assistance in assignments. I did not have any time until today to knock it all out, so I prepared myself to finish my creation in one sitting starting at noon today. Not the greatest decision, but it has been a trend during my DS106 career, and I have made some of my best works with this last minute sprint towards the finish line, so I was expecting the same here (spoiler, it did not go as expected).
While watching some YouTube this morning, I stumbled upon an edited video full of jump cuts and memes that I used to enjoy watching back in high school. I drew some inspiration from this blessing from the YouTube algorithm and decided to make one of my own. My intent was to create a POV story about a student who doesn’t have a job lined up, and is looking for his first opportunity. However, he stumbles upon ChatGPT and uses it throughout his schoolwork and his interview prep, which leaves him with no actual knowledge and coding ability. It was meant to be a commentary on harmful AI use in computer science students. At the end, I was going to add 3-4 minutes of recorded commentary answering the question of whether or not AI is beneficial or harmful to students.
Around 8pm, I started to write up a script for this 3 minute commentary at the end of my video that would tie all of the knots up and bring the audience to a good conclusion. By 9:30pm, I’d written up a solid few pages on this topic to be read into my mic, recorded, and then overlaid with some various clips that relate to the topic.
This was when I messed up.
I was writing on my Windows Notepad, the default one that is preloaded on every Windows computer. I usually never do this and write all of my documents on Google Docs, but since I had so many tabs open for ClipChamp, OBS, downloading music and clips, along with other programs, I didn’t want to open another tab for Google Docs, and thought that since I’d just be reading off of it and discarding it, I would just write it on the Notepad.
Of course, my computer gave me the blue screen of pain and suffering for the first time in my ownership of this PC, and wiped all of my tabs, and most importantly, my script. My edited video was saved into the Cloud via Clipchamp, but the script for my commentary was completely wiped.
I tried various methods to restore the lost text file, but it seemed as though the system cache was already wiped due to the reset. I tried to rewrite all of it, but with my 4 hours of sleep and the deadline fast approaching, I had no willpower left to recreate a script that I’ve been writing for almost 2 hours, and I didn’t want to give the SparkNotes version in my final video, either.
Completely demoralized, I came to the conclusion to publish my video as is, and detail these events in my summary post instead. I think that narratively, my project is missing a conclusive answer and purpose due to not having the commentary at the end. I was going over some DS106 examples of how a few of my daily creates were AI generated, and how many aspects of DS106’s topic of the semester being AI contradicted the entire essence of the class, as well as going over some other computer science examples of how AI is used in classes as a distraction to student learning.
While I cannot share these insights anymore with the limited time that I have remaining, I will go more in depth about the video and audio editing that I that made me jog my creative digital skills that I accumulated throughout the semester.
I used OBS to record myself going through a scripted sequence of searching on Reddit for advice and using ChatGPT to solve a LeetCode problem, which is just a practice website for coding interviews. I made sure that each click towards the next phase wasn’t too hasty, as I needed some time to overlay memes and audio clips to create the edit.
I then added this clip as the main background, and searched up various small videos and images that would add comedic effect to the story. A lot of the memes are from the mid 2010s, and the background music choice was also free music from Kevin Macleod that dominated YouTube for a long time.
The most difficult part about this was layering each clip and audio file to match the timing of each sequence. Also, having to track all of the different files in my arsenal became a bit of a hassle when the end product became almost 30 different files put together.
Most of the apps I used throughout the semester were used for this project. Without all of the experience I gained throughout DS106, this video probably wouldn’t have been possible.
I’m a little jumbled in the head right now from all of the stuff going on right now, but hopefully this was a comprehensive enough summary about my process. Looking forward to my conclusion to DS106 next week.
This week’s assignment was to just plan out our final project and document progress on it. I had a lot of work piled up for this week and I wasn’t able to start putting the video together, but I’ve done a good amount of brainstorming about the idea I would like to delve into.
For my final project, I would like to deviate away from my course character idea and make a video essay. I’ve always been an enjoyer of video essays on a variety of topics from sports to video games. Planning out a script and analyzing the pros and cons of AI appeals to me as something I would make myself if I ran a YouTube channel.
I’m envisioning a 5-8 minute video with a variety of graphics on screen, different backtracks based on the topic at hand, as well as segments of me talking on camera to bring a more human aspect into the project. I still need to think more about which aspects of the analysis I would like to hone in on, but I’m most likely going to talk a lot about how AI is too powerful in the scope of college assignments, ranging from Daily Creates and other DS106 assignments, as well as some insight into the problems of AI in Computer Science courses as well.
Not much to summarize in this week other than my video project. I will say that I had a foot injury earlier today from playing tennis, so I had to go get it checked out and I got home pretty late. Luckily, I still had time to put something together to wrap up week 12.
The first one is a trading card I made for Remy the Rat. I’m not sure when I started using Remy as my avatar for “anonymous” things online, but it has been my go to for a while, and it was fitting to make a card based on him.
The second one was to animate something that shouldn’t move. This is a moving / waving banana. Pretty self explanatory but I wish I could make GIFs of this quality on my own.
The last one was to make an eclipse poem. I highlighted a few words to stand out to create a piece on the emotions of the eclipse. A lot of descriptive adjectives to bring out the expressiveness of this poem.
For my video project, I decided to continue Hwei’s story and give some context as to what drove him to absolute madness. After being fed up with Aggressive Technologies and their mass expansion and brainwashing of the world, Hwei decides that he must become an example of what humanity can achieve if they choose his route and embrace AI.
Like I said before in last week’s summary post, Hwei has never been animated to talk in front of a camera, so I had to find a mad genius look-alike in the League of Legends universe to fill in. I had to get clips from the movie Arcane, and there were plenty of clips of the mad scientist Viktor, who is actually the embodiment of Hwei’s character in its entirety (other than being European and not wearing robes / being artsy all the time).
Since the whole premise of my story was to show that initial human side of Hwei then transforming into a robot, I recorded my own voice with the script I wrote to really sell the idea of human becoming something different entirely.
I used Wav2Lip for the second time now, and it was just as disappointing as last time. Not sure if I’m doing anything wrong, but it seems as though the lip syncing is never up to my standards. There are a lot of parts where I am not speaking, yet the algorithm moved the model’s lips. I also couldn’t find a continuous 50 second clip of him just talking, so the 4 second clip I used kept looping over and over, which didn’t make it very realistic.
I got all of the video clips from YouTube, but I noticed that the YouTube to video file generator I used reduced the video quality tremendously. The entire video looks 480p, and I think I’ll try to find some ways to download crisper videos for the final project.
Just like I did in the Radio Show, I had a lot of fun syncing up the different music and voice line files to create dramatic effect. The black screen before the transformation cutscene signified a shift in atmosphere, along with the new music track being added in tandem. When Hwei touches the ominous purple device, jolts of lightning come into frame as the scene cuts again with the music at the perfect timing, and a picture of robot Hwei (Which is actually a portrait of Viktor) comes in. The voice lines were taken from YouTube, and since they were voice lines from the video game, I had to splice together a few lines in audacity to make a coherent “villain announcement” segment.
Luckily I had no issues with copyright music or clips like I was worried about last week, and I hope it stays that way so that everyone can still view the video! Overall this process took around 2 hours and I definitely have some takeaways for the final project moving forward.
After a tough week of grinding out the radio show, I’m glad that this week was much lighter.
I first did a reflection of the radio shows that we created, and the experience I had tuning into ds106 radio to hear my own show, as well as another group’s. I went into detail about how three different listens all gave me a different perspective on the radio show creating experience overall.
Next I had to do some brainstorming about what I would do for the upcoming video assignment. I decided on continuing to develop my course character, but ran into some troubles finding sources for my character. I had to do some potentially illegal improvisation from the Netflix show Arcane to fit my needs, and I’ll see soon if the project I’m envisioning will work after all.
For my video project, I definitely knew that I wanted to build more upon my course character and create more of his lore in a video format. I will be attempting to use Wav2Lip, since that is a piece of technology that I’ve successfully used previously. However, when trying to find a video of Hwei from Riot Games that can be used for Wav2Lip, I realized that there isn’t a video where Hwei is talking directly forward that can be manipulated by the software. Due to this, I may be taking a clip from the movie Arcane, which is from the League of Legends world.
Hwei is not a character in this Netflix series, as he is a relatively new addition to the League of Legends universe. Due to this, I’m thinking of using the character Viktor instead.
Viktor is actually a robot in League universe, but this film goes into the backstories of different characters, so he is portrayed in his human form before the transformation. Funnily enough, Viktor is a very similar character to my rendition of Hwei, as he is a mad scientist that is an enthusiast of augmentation and the use of technology, to the point where he replaced his entire body with robotic parts to free himself of his crippled state.
Looking back at it now, I think I should have made Viktor my course character, as he is literally what Hwei stands for currently, and I had no idea until looking back in hindsight. However, maybe trying to add a personality to a blank canvas gave me more creativity in my assignments.
For the narrative of the video, I will most likely create a monologue of the pivotal moment where Hwei turned to automation and AI as his escape from reality. I will show two phases where he is initially in human form, but then turns into the idealized, robotic version of himself after a deep reflection of his ambitions and morals.
The only concern I have right now is that there will be copyright issues or that my video will be flagged by Wav2Lip or Google or any other corporation, so I’ll have to see if I get any issues using this clip.
For my video project, I definitely knew that I wanted to build more upon my course character and create more of his lore in a video format. I will be attempting to use Wav2Lip, since that is a piece of technology that I’ve successfully used previously. However, when trying to find a video of Hwei from Riot Games that can be used for Wav2Lip, I realized that there isn’t a video where Hwei is talking directly forward that can be manipulated by the software. Due to this, I may be taking a clip from the movie Arcane, which is from the League of Legends world.
Hwei is not a character in this Netflix series, as he is a relatively new addition to the League of Legends universe. Due to this, I’m thinking of using the character Viktor instead.
Viktor is actually a robot in League universe, but this film goes into the backstories of different characters, so he is portrayed in his human form before the transformation. Funnily enough, Viktor is a very similar character to my rendition of Hwei, as he is a mad scientist that is an enthusiast of augmentation and the use of technology, to the point where he replaced his entire body with robotic parts to free himself of his crippled state.
Looking back at it now, I think I should have made Viktor my course character, as he is literally what Hwei stands for currently, and I had no idea until looking back in hindsight. However, maybe trying to add a personality to a blank canvas gave me more creativity in my assignments.
For the narrative of the video, I will most likely create a monologue of the pivotal moment where Hwei turned to automation and AI as his escape from reality. I will show two phases where he is initially in human form, but then turns into the idealized, robotic version of himself after a deep reflection of his ambitions and morals.
The only concern I have right now is that there will be copyright issues or that my video will be flagged by Wav2Lip or Google or any other corporation, so I’ll have to see if I get any issues using this clip.
The first one was what I would be if I was reincarnated as a plant. As a self sufficient that isn’t dependent on excessive water, I thought that being an aloe plant would give me the highest potential of surviving.
This next one is if I was a flag. Just noticed that both this create and the previous one were both me becoming something other than human. I looked up a GIF of a golf flag and a ball. Wasn’t very creative but I really wanted to use this GIF!
The last one is HTML code of YouTube pasted into my IDE. An IDE is an Integrated Development Environment, which is basically just software used to build and edit code. I thought that pasting it into this IDE made the code look a little more colorful, but this also introduced a lot of syntax errors, indicated by the red squiggly lines beneath the code. This is because my IDE wasn’t meant to be used for HTML; it was created for Java. For TDC purposes however, it worked out as an artistic choice.
