Category Archives: assignment

Public Service Announcement!

Another one of the assignments that we were required to complete this week was to create a public service announcement using our course character and relating it to the field of AI or Aggressive Technologies. So, for this assignment, I chose to talk about Aggressive Technologies and their mistreatment and unethical practices when it comes to their employees. Now a growing theme for my course character, I decided to make a public service announcement that talked about how Xander, my course character, has gone public with the information he has on Aggressive Technologies and the way their run their business. I enjoyed creating this video because I was able to use all the skills that I have developed over the past couple weeks to create this one work of art that can be used as a public service announcement. I did everything for the video from writing the announcement, to generating the image, to putting it all together in Openshot.

In order to create this video, I first started by using Eleven Lab’s text-to-speech product and wrote out what the actual announcement would be. From reading examples on the internet and having my own ideas, I was able to come up with a short 45-second announcement that contained all the major points that I wanted to convey while also trying to persuade the viewer/listener to support Xander’s endeavors. Once I created the script for the announcement, I had to convert it to a speech so I used Eleven Labs product to do that. Once I an audio file with the speech, I decided to add some background music to the speech so it did not sound so bare. I did that on audacity and had the sounds files overlap each other with the background music being a little less louder than the rest so that the speech could still be heard. Once I had the completed audio file with both the audio and the background music, I created a graph using an AI-chatbot so that I could turn it into a video, and I did that using OpenShot video editor, and once everything was put together I uploaded it to youtube to have a link to embed with this post. You can find my work down below. Like stated before, I enjoyed completing this assignment because it allowed to use all the skills that I have gained over the last couple weeks and put it all together to create one piece of work that represents those different newly-gained skills. I hope you enjoy!

Xander’s Propaganda

One of the assignments that we had to do this week was to create a poster that was categorized as propaganda related to our course character or to Aggressive Technologies. So, for my assignment description, I decided to create a propaganda poster that was both directly related to my course character and his opinion and view on Aggressive Technologies. In the picture, you can see my character, Xander Neoteric, standing in front of Aggressive Technologies main headquarters, and the title “Aggressive Tech: Profit Over People,” I chose this title because in one of my posts from last week I talked about how Aggressive Technologies severely mistreated Xander as an employee and put profits and revenue over valuing their employees and workers. Therefore, this poster serves as the perfect example of what type of company Aggressive Technologies is and what they truly stand for.

Since some of the aspects that we can focus on while creating propaganda is to consider the ethics and employment of one’s life, it makes sense that I chose to attack the company’s reputation for their unethical treatment of their employees. It helps to bring to light the truth behind how they construct their business and the types of shady things that they do from within their own walls. Another thing to consider while creating propaganda is the control and ownership of data and information and by stealing Xander’s idea and the data that he was working with, it falls right under this category and helps to reinforce the decisions that I made to create this for my propaganda assignment. You can see the full poster below and I think I did a good job of bringing all of the components talked about above into one picture while also making it visually appealing and easy to understand. I also think that the use of the subtle colors help to push the idea of propaganda even more. In order to create this, I used an AI-chatbot to create the image and gave them prompt that asked to put my course character in front of the Aggressive Technologies building with the text below it that states the line talked about before. I enjoyed creating this piece and think it works really well for the assignment and the requirements that we had to meet while completing the assignment.

Daily Create – 2/25/2024

This daily create required us to take the open mouth of a statue and remix it and so I decided to do something a little bit more creative. I drew inspiration from the Iron Man movie, where at the end of the movie, is is sitting by himself in his suit inside of a huge donut sign eating a donut and so i had an Ai-chatbot generate me an image of a superhero sitting inside the mouth of a statue eating a donut. Although the statue was not the same, the idea behind the picture and requirements for the daily create were still met, in my opinion.

That’s a Wrap on Week 6!!!

We had another light week this week in terms of assignments and work we needed to get done. I did my first daily create of the week on Sunday and it required us to create a two line poem about what nature teaches us. This daily create was a little quicker than normal since it was only two lines, however, it was interesting to see what I could come up with and you can read it here. My second and final daily create for the week was done on Monday and for this one we had to find a movie, associate it with a picture, and mess with the title and flip the words and letters around. As you can read here, I chose to do Harry Potter for this one as it is one of my all time favorite movie franchises. This week was a little more interesting because we were allowed to have more input on the work we were doing to finish out assignments for the week. By that I mean, we had a choice of either creating a video while talking to Dr. Oblivion or creating three blog posts about three different video assignments from the assignment bank. For this week, I chose to do the three different assignment from the assignment bank. It is also important to note that for these assignments we were required to make sure that at least two of the assignments were related to our course character in some way. The first assignment that I chose to do was called “What do you do?” and this assignment wanted us to create a short, 8-second video that shows something that we do on a daily basis. I created a blog post about what I chose to do here. For that assignment, I decided to keep it simple and just record myself walking back from class and lifts. As you will read in the post, the video was taken near Eagle Village right near the bridge that connects the village to the rest of campus. My second assignment I chose to do this week was to create a TikTok of your pet, and I had to relate this assignment back to my course character in some way. So, I decided to take my dog, Belle, and claim that it was also Xander’s dog and gave the two a little backstory and talked about how they grew up together and have such a strong bond. That post is located here. The final assignment I chose to do this week was to do a GRWM, or Get Ready With Me! This GRWM follows Xander has he gets ready for the day and the day that I chose to do is very important. This is the day that he is making a public announcement about what his former company, Aggressive Technologies did to him. You can find that post here. The final thing we needed to do this week was create a backstory with our character and the company, Aggressive Technologies, which is why the GRWM assignment is so closely tied with the company. Xander has a dark story with the company, from brilliant mind within the company, to be being publicly humiliated and ridiculed, Xander’s made it his mission to get back at what Aggressive Technologies did to him. That post is located here.

I did not encounter too many issues this week when completing my assignments. I thought things went pretty smoothly this week and I enjoyed doing all of the assignments. From this week, I would say that creating the backstory between our course character and Aggressive Technologies was my favorite. This is because I found it very interesting how I could create even more about my character’s life and the directions that I could have gone in were endless. I enjoyed taking the time and trying to figure out where I wanted to go with my character and found it soothing. I had an issue last week with learning how to work with OpenShot video editor, but this week the process was a lot smoother and definitely helped speed up the process of creating and exporting the videos for the assignments that I completed this week.

I definitely think that I accomplished all of the requirements for the assignments for this week and I think I did them to the best of my ability. My favorite assignment was the creating of the backstory for Xander and his former company. I would not do anything differently for the work that I did this week as it was completed with effort, time, and creativeness. I believe that there are no larger issues at hand with my work. I do not have any further questions at this time for the class. Last week I said I wanted to get better at working with OpenShot Video Editor, and so far, that goal is being accomplished because I had to use it for one of my assignments this week and the process was a lot smoother. Till next week!

Get Ready with Me… Sorry Get Ready With Xander!!!

The final assignment bank assignment I chose to do this week was the “Get Ready With Me!” in which we needed to create a video of someone getting ready for the day, getting ready for practice, bed, etc. Since one of the course requirements this week was to incorporate our course characters into at least two of out assignments. I thought, why not create a great ready with me, alongside my course character Xander Neoteric. I enjoyed creating this little video because it allowed me have full creative thought and input over what was going to happen in the video and how it was going to happen. This video takes place on the day in which Xander is preparing to out Aggressive Technologies for what they did to him. (P.S. Read about that here). I decided to use an AI chatbot to generate the images for me and then used a text-to-speech converter to give Xander a voice because I felt that was more creative than me just voicing over the video. In the end, I am glad that I did because the video turned out so much better and sounded better as well. It was really col to see how the AI chatbot interpreted my prompts to give me the images and I was able to use the skills that we learned over the last couple weeks to create this video. From generating images to creating text-to-speech audio outputs, I brought everything together in the following video. I hope you enjoy!

Xander’s Pet Makes an Appearance!

My second assignment I chose to do from the assignment bank was called “TikTok of you pet” and it required us to create a funny, short video of our pet doing something random for a TikTok. For this assignment, I chose to do a video of Xander’s dog, Belle, running around in a little field with the music from the Disney movie, “Up,” and I think the sound fit perfectly with the video because in the movie, there is also an animated dog that runs around in random fields sniffing for various smells. In the video, you can Belle having a great time just running around and exploring the area she is in and just having a wonderful time overall. As you will learn, this is one of the reasons why Belle brings so much happiness to Xander as his pet and why Xander is always smiling and happy. As a result, the video that I chose replicates that by having Belle run around in a field and smelling everything there is to smell. As many of you now, Xander lives a pretty lonely life, and while he was growing up, the one thing that his dad gave him was Belle, which he has had since he was a teenager. Ever since he got Belle, he has always been happy and never feels lonely because Belle has always been there for him. He enjoys Belle’s company and allows him to continue to work his long hours and work towards his dreams while also having someone to join him in the process. Belle and Xander do everything together and they are very tough to separate and that bond really brings out the best in Xander. Especially after his fiasco with Aggressive Technologies, he felt the loneliest he had ever felt, but Belle was there to get rid of that feeling and Xander could not be more grateful, not only for Belle, but also for his late father that brought him the best surprise a kid could ask for. Keep scrolling to find a video of Belle and you can see why Xander has such a great time with his dog and why it brings out the best in him. Enjoy the video!

What do you do?

One of the assignments that we had to do this week was to create three different videos in relation to the video assignments on the assignment bank website. We were also tasked with creating two of the videos be related to our course characters. This first video assignment that I created was quite simple, however, it is not related to my course character. This first assignment is called “What do you do?” and it revolves around the idea of creating a video about something that you do in everyday life. For this assignment, I could have chosen a lot of different things to do for this assignment from me playing tennis, to my just waking up and brushing my teeth. However, I chose to do something that made feel a little more unique with my work and made me get outside. So I decided to film myself walking back to my apartment after my classes and lifts were finished for the day. As you can see on the video, the video was taken near the University of Mary Washington’s bridge that connects Eagle Village to the rest of campus near the Anderson Center. I enjoyed deciding what to do for this assignment because there were so many different options. I took my time with deciding what I wanted to do and was happy with what I decided on. You can find the video below.

Xander’s Vision for Aggressive Technologies!

As you all know, in recent months Xander recently invented his biggest creation, a chip that can be implanted into one’s brain to use as an AI agent that is capable of many different things. However, once the new broke, some started to question whether Xander had stolen the idea because Aggressive Technologies had announced that they were beginning to work on something just like the chip Xander created around the time Xander made his announcement to the public. However, what most people do not know is that Xander once used to work for Aggressive Technologies as their Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer, or CAIO. Xander was a brilliant mind in their company and was at the forefront of all their big projects related to the field of AI. As stated before, Aggressive Technologies had big plans to release a AI chip implant that would allow humans to access this chip whenever they deemed necessary and accomplish almost any task. Now, this is where Xander and his story starts. Xander had brought the idea to create an AI agent chip to the CEO of Aggressive Technologies, Max Sterling, and Sterling green-lighted the project. After many months, Xander was almost done creating the chip during his time with Aggressive Technologies, but that was when he found out through a colleague that works closely to Sterling that Aggressive Technologies had a far bigger agenda than Xander first thought.

Xander found out that the company he had devoted his life and mind to was planning on fully commercializing his invention and cut him out of it completely so that they could gain all the profit off his invention. This is when Xander truly realized that this idea that he devoted so much of his time and brain power to was in jeopardy of being spoiled. This is when he decided to leave Aggressive Technologies and pursue his own dream by himself. Xander left almost immediately and came out and said that he was starting his own company, Xander Technologies to pursue his idea of the AI agent chip implant. However, the public was skeptical especially since Aggressive Technologies had made a very similar announcement just a few weeks prior.

Most people speculated that Xander had stolen the idea from the company and went to start his own company so that he could fully profit off the sales and production of the chip if he was able to get it working and that is why he decided to try the chip on himself. The public created the theory that since he was working on his own in secret, he did not have anyone he could trust to try the chip on and so he needed to try it on himself. He realized that the public would never believe his side of the story, and he needed to find a way to get rid of the animosity towards him from the public. He decided there was only one thing to do. Remember that colleague that warned Xander of his former’s company notorious plan? It turns out that colleague had become an inside made for Xander and for month spent time compiling information for him so that he could out Aggressive Technologies for the frauds they were. Now, this colleague has a name, Jackson Sterling, the head of the financial department at Aggressive Technologies and the son of the CEO Max Sterling. After many months of collecting information, Xander was prepared to release a announcement to the public about the truth of why he really left his former company. By his side, stood Jackson Sterling that backed up every single word of Xander’s story and added even more important information so that the public could be convinced that it was his father, Max Sterling was the true villain of the story. After this press release, the stock of Xander Technologies took off, and now Xander owns one of the biggest tech companies in the world, and that is where Xander’s story is today.

Real Steel!!!

One of the assignments that we needed to do this week was to create a video essay of a scene from an movie related to the field of Artificial Intelligence and talk about the scene itself, almost like a mini film review and instead of doing the whole movie, we had just to pick one scene and talk about that scene. I decided to do a scene from the movie Real Steel in which the main character, played by Hugh Jackman, is walking outside of his motel room and starts walking down a dimmly-lit alleyway and then the scene cuts to him and his robot boxer outside, during the day on the lawn of the motel. I chose this scene because one of the videos that we needed to watch this week talked about how movies use cuts in their scenes to bring more emphasis to the scenes. In this case, the cut at the end of the beginning of the scene where it cuts to them being the lawn shows that a little time has gone by and that the characters were beginning the climax of the scene which was the actual training. It was important to note that from the Tony Zhou video, he stated that film makers use cuts to try and show that the scene is beginning to get to the climax of the scene. This is shown perfectly in this scene because when they cut to the training montage, that is the climax of the scene and that shows that the characters are getting ready to act out the main point of the scene. I have created a full vide essay on this scene and you can find it at the following link.

Revisiting Course Goals!

One of the tasks that we were assigned with this week was to go back and look at the course goals that we blogged about in the opening weeks of the course and reflect on how we are doing in terms of achieving those goals. We needed to look back at what we wrote and attempt to explain if we are on the right track with completing them, or if we needed to try and change course a little bit to meet those goals. One of the first things that I said in my course goals post was the course would very interesting in terms of the information we gain and the assignments we do, and I can confidently say that that statement as true. I have enjoyed all of the assignments we have done thus far and I expect that trend to continue till the end of the course. One of my goals this semester was to create various pieces of work and then explain the thought process that went into them and why each assignment was done the way it was. Once again, I think I am doing a good job in terms of achieving this goal with every post that I make because I give the audience a final product, along with the thought process that went behind to explain why I did what I did for each assignment. So, from the course goals that I wrote about in the past, I am on track and intend to keep it that way. Another goal that I had was to show my creative skills to others in the class. With each assignment that I do, I take the time to think about the different ways that I can approach these assignments and how I can make them unique. By doing this, it allows me to be more engaged and creative with my work which I think I have done a good job with over the course of the last couple weeks. From my main post, “My main goal is create multiple works of digital art that are creative and intriguing while also explaining my thought process along the way so that others can understand the story behind the works of art.” This is the main goal that I had and I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I have been doing a good job in terms of maintaining and achieving that goal. I feel like I am on track with my goals and i would not change anything because I made my goals a little difficult but still within my limits and by making it such a broad goal, almost anything I do in this course would apply to that goal as long as it is creative, thoughtful, and intuitive. Now that I have a better feeling for the course, I am in a routine when it comes to getting my work done and I am doing it efficiently and with time as well. I enjoy reading the assignments and coming up with different approaches to that assignment and finally settling on the best choice. So far, the course as been great and I expect these same trends to continue throughout the rest of this course.