Category Archives: Everything Else I Create

Sashay Away – My Final Project

This week I made my final project!

First, I want to explain why it is a little late. I was working on this all week, then lost the video halfway through making it. I remade it as quickly as I could, but editing takes a while and I have a tendency to overcomplicate things, which means it takes even longer. In any case, the video is done now!

Here are some of the tools I used to make this video:

  • I used the 4K Video Downloader to download all of the clips (and some of the audio) off of YouTube.
  • I recorded myself using an audio kit from the HCC.
  • I edited the video on iMovie.
  • I used Landing to make the thumbnail.
  • I used the Drag Race Simulator to make the main section of the video.

This video brought all of the skills I’ve developed throughout this semester. Here’s that breakdown:

  1. Video editing. I’ve always been interested in video editing but found it too tedious to enjoy. After the week where we had to make several videos, I was no longer afraid of it. I’m still a fan of my simple software, but have begun to master it, so maybe I will upgrade to the real stuff soon. I also heavily used 4k Video Downloader, a program that I learned how to use because of this class.
  2. Sound editing. This video used my voice, sound effects, music, and video clips. It wasn’t as much sound editing as we had to do in previous weeks, but definitely still involved it. I even browsed through a free sound website that I got to know a few weeks ago, even though they didn’t end up having what I needed.
  3. AI discussions. This video doesn’t use AI in any groundbreaking ways, which I think makes it especially interesting. Because of this class, I started to look at the softwares I was using in a new way. What actually counts as AI? And, off of that, is all AI harmful? This class got me thinking and made me recognize that AI can mean a lot of different things.
  4. Computer organization. After weeks of organizing different clips, images, audio files, and more, I developed a pretty good system that made this video much easier. I did make one mistake that caused some big problems, but that issue had less to do with me and more to do with my computer. Long story short, practice makes perfect. This is especially true for the editing process. I tried a few things over the various videos we had to make and now I know what works for me. I haven’t edited a lot so I’m still not very good, but I am significantly better than I was at the start of this semester.

All things considered, I am very proud of this video. I wanted to look at AI in a unique way and try not to get too serious about everything. AI includes a lot of different programs. While AI is an issue, I think people have a tendency to overreact. 

AI may be able to replicate some human thought patterns, but it cannot, and probably never will, be able to predict human spontaneity. One of the fun things about humans is we don’t think in exact patterns. AI can create something technically perfect, but that isn’t what humans do. I have concerns about how people chose to use AI, but I don’t think AI will ever be able to replace humans because there is no way to code thought processes that humans themselves don’t understand.

I hope you all enjoy the video.

Good morning, and in case I don’t see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night! – New Radio Outro

This week, one of the things I did was remake my radio bumper/outro. After we finalized the idea for our show I realized that the bumper I had made last week didn’t make a lot of sense. So, I made a new one. It was a very similar process – I even used the same background noise, since I enjoyed the ambience last time. I just replaced the diolague using an AI text-to-speech website.

My new bumper is on my Soundcloud (I also put new images for all of my uploads so they match the theme of this blog).

Aggressive Posters and Bumpers – Radio Show Design

This week I did some designing for Aggressive Testimonials, my group’s radio show. I designed a radio bumper and a poster. This post will mostly discuss the poster since I made another post detailing my process making the radio bumper.

I made the poster in Canva using my propaganda poster from a few weeks ago. I used the same AI generated robot, color scheme, and fonts. I generated a microphone using CrAIyon. I then removed the background using PhotoPea and changed the color scheme in Canva.

I think the design is very simple but functional. I like the consistency with the propaganda poster. Repeating the same aesthetic gives Aggressive Technologies a specific brand.

Get Aggressive – Aggressive Testimonials Radio Bumper

For one of my audio assignments, I made a bumper for my group’s radio show. Aggressive Testimonials is still in development, but currently it is “a tell-all about this company’s intrusive tech, featuring 2 “neutral” employees.” I am very excited to see what it becomes and I think this radio introduction is very funny.

I was more creative in this bumper than I was with the commercial. There are several layers of audio; the AI-generated voice (meant to mimic the host of the show); a slight static noise to create a robotic effect; news music to give it a professional, muckraker feel; and a robot noise at the end to make it more ominous and to reenforce the technological themes. I did edit it in iMovie again, but nonetheless I am very happy with how it turned out.

Do I Even Know What Trivial Pursuit Is?

For one of my audio assignments, I made a fake commercial for a video game version Trivial Pursuit, but a fictional version where it actively teaches you things. I used TTS Maker for the voices and the background music from FreeSound.

My methods for making this were a little unorthodox. Because I still don’t understand Audacity and I was in no mood to relearn, I ended up editing this on iMovie. While the setup was not as professional as Audacity, the process was quick and I was able to do more since I already knew how to use it. Overall I think taking the easy way out was the better choice here.

Also, because I feel the need to explain myself, I chose Trivial Pursuit at random. I wanted to make a game ad for a preexisting game that I could edit.

Aggressive PSA – I make a video

This is a PSA video for Aggressive Technologies. I downloaded the clips from Youtube using 4K Video Downloader+. The AI voice is from TTSMaker. Below is the link to all the videos I downloaded and the music, which came from Freesound.

This video was much easier to make than last week’s videos, both because it is way shorter and because I was able to combine all my tools! Last week I learned more about editing, using text to speech, and downloading videos, so this time it was easy to incorporate everything.

I also learned that propaganda is fun to write. Between this and my poster, Aggressive Technologies is spreading evil left and right. Yay!

I make a propaganda poster

Today I made a propaganda poster for Aggressive Technologies and their work in AI. It reads “We’ll think for you. Trust AI. Trust Aggressive Technologies.”

I chose this phrase because it was the most outrageous AI stance I could think of. It’s also very aggressive, which is fitting. I designed the poster in Canva. I generated the image of the robot on Craiyon using the prompt “AI.” The original image is below. I then put it into Photopea and deleted the background. I put two layers of a city skyline from Canva’s graphics in the background. The font is ITC Bauhaus.

Propaganda posters are very funny to me. They are both clear and conspiratorial, obvious and secretive. The concept is interesting and trying to make one was fun.

Some of Her Favorite Things: Of Most Importance Assignment

For this video I did the Of Most Importance assignment, where we make a video about our five favorite things, places, people, etc. I decided to do this for my course character. For the video, I made a collage using Landing of her things and other aspects of her life.

I struggled to come up with the visual aspect for this. I tried to incorporate AI into it, but wasn’t able to make it work. I love making collages, so thought this was a good alternative.

I didn’t go to school for math – Ranking Video Assignment

This video is not related to my course character. I chose this purely because I wanted to make a video about drag. In this video, I ranked some drag moments that have been “getting me through the week.” This was the most ambitious video of the three based on the sheer scale. I downloaded a ton of videos – including a 20-minute video for a less-than-thirty-second clip. It is also the longest, at a little under 15 minutes.

That being said, this was one I had a lot of fun on because I really love the subject. I made it all about things I enjoy, so everything I was looking at was something that made me happy.

Professional Gaming: Stories Through Games Assignment

For this video I did the Stories Through Games assignment. I played as my course character for about a week of Sims time. This was the most difficult video to make. I already had the sim and her house created, but needed to get a good recording of the gameplay. After a little research, I downloaded OBS. This was incredibly difficult. I think it is an actual software that professionals use, meaning it is not super user friendly and not Sydney friendly. I eventually got it to work, but it took a long time. I’m proud of myself for sticking it out, though.

The editing for this video was also complicated. I recorded a little over 30 minutes and the final video is closer to 10 minutes, so there was a lot that I cut out. I also had to rearrange some clips. Again, it was very frustrating and time consuming but I did it and I think the product is not bad.