Category Archives: Past Student Work

Death’s Reign – Introduction

Death’s Reign, The World Left Behind, is a 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons Campaign Setting created by me, Alexander Driskill. This audio story is the introduction section written for the current conceptual draft.

The Audio Story starts with an excerpt from a wanderer’s journal, explaining, in very few words, the history and state of the world. The echo effect is meant to emphasize some aetherial feeling of the words.

The story then moves to a gruff man speaking around the fire, telling whoever would listen about how the world “ended”. No music was used in order to emphasize the moment, before using a pause between this part and the next part to emphasize a transition.

As the music swells the story continues, introducing other sound elements, such as birds while talking about the jungle, marching while explaining The Mourning Light’s takeover of Dorado, and a simple magical effect when bringing up the use of magick.

When talking about the “Denizens of Neraida” a chanting sound is used when describing the elves as a way to help visualize the native-ness of their situation. A howl is used when talking about the beasts, and a sound effect of swords clinking against each other is used to simulate the sound of spider-like, metal legs clinking against stone or metal surfaces.


Puget Sound Hound Comedy

This track I created myself. the voices in this track want to remain anonymous. the back round music is from the class server track all about us 60’s. In the 60’s and the 70’s, blacks had it hard when it came to getting a job. A lot of people lived in poverty with no choice of there own. Hustles came in to play for the few that did not want to except being poor, so they did what they had to so they could live a good life. Pimpen is one of them. I don’t expect for a lot if you to understand, unless your born hated you wouldn’t but I grew up in this life style. this is a history listen sort of to all you how know nothing about black culture  in a funny way to understand the struggle blacks had to indoor and still do.


Creature Spot Blog

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If there is one thing i enjoy doing it is creating monsters and if you enjoy monsters as much as I do then you will enjoy the blog Creature spot .com. On this blog people from all over post their concepts and ideas for monsters of all shapes and sizes. Monsters from hand drawn and colored with colored pencil to full 3d models and sculpts. These monsters range from cute and lovable  to large and grotesque that are good candidates for a good monster movie. Some of these creepy creatures were used in film and movies  like the 7000 chemicals commercial which was made to send the message of don’t smoke.  It featured nasty human like monsters that are covered in a tar like substance and smoke coming from their backs to represent cigarets .

My opinion on the website itself is very positive it has a easy to navigate layout with a good index and a sidebar to show who has contributed to the website. The website does have a active comments section for people to leave their comments. The creator has a link to his Facebook where you can contact him if you have any questions for him. So I highly  recommend this blog its a very creative and well put together site.Screen Shot 2016-10-24 at 10.22.14 AM.png


Photography Nonsense for Dummies, From a Dummy

I have no clue what I’m doing.

There it is, out in the open. I, as a consumer of media, am blind to the nuances of photography and the effects it has on me. ISO? Shutter speed? Aperture? I feel as though I’ve stumbled into a secret meeting with codes that I haven’t learned. Even though I feel excluded, I’ve begun to realize a few things about photography and cameras.

      • it’s not by accident
      • everything is planned
      • you need to take 10 shots of the same thing
      • ISO shutter speed and aperture actually all make a lot of sense

I may seem like I’m going back on myself, claiming that I have no idea what any of these things are, but I reassure you that it’s true that I’m still lost. We take these tools for granted, but they’re essential to our every day life. I understand ISO, shutter speed, and aperture, but not by those terms. When you think of it in a more generic “layman’s terms”, these scary words all make more sense.

  • ISO is just how sensitive your film is to light
    In the sense that film took time to develop, a more sturdy one is called a “slow film” whereas one that takes in more light quicker would be called a “fast film”
    The lower your ISO is, the less sensitive it is to light and the longer it takes to develop. The higher, the more sensitive it is and the faster it develops.
    This is important to pay attention to because you want to ensure you have the right amount of light being taken in.
  • Shutter speed is how long it takes for the lens to “blink”
    In respect to ISO regarding the effects of light, shutter speed controls the “how long” it takes light in.
    This is important for many reasons; exposing a slow film for a longer time for an effect or for a clearer image, or for taking a very fast but bright image with fast film.
  • Aperture is a hole in the lens, controlling how much light gets into the camera
    This is by far one of the more difficult to understand, yet crucial aspects of a camera.
    Much like our pupil, it dilates from certain lengths to create a depth of field, allow a certain amount of light in and the like.
wait.
        • Aperture controls a really cool thing called “Depth of Field”
          Now there’s a very fancy equation for Aperture diameters called f stops.
          The F stands for focal length, D stands for diameter of the entrance pupil, and N stands for a number.
          N= F/D
          What does that mean to me? Nothing. It’s garbage. What does it mean to others? Mathematic harmony and apparently it’s really cool? What does it mean to us?
          Based on the size of the aperture, signified by F-stops, you can control how much is focused on and where it’s focused on.
          To sum it up, I will create a text based graphic for your viewing pleasure.
Where "-" is the distance not in focus and "X" is the part of the image IN focus
SMALL F STOP
---XX---------------
MEDIUM F STOP
--XXXX-------------
LARGE F STOP
-XXXXXXXXXX--

How do all of these things work in actuality? I DON’T KNOW! This is where the whole “I don’t know what I’m doing aspect falls in” and the term “gut instinct” gets thrown around with shifty glances. What I do know is that the camera is an eye without an brain attached. This is a good thing and a bad

thing because we get an unfiltered view of reality. It also means we have to work a little harder to create interesting and beautiful compositions.

One of my favorite forms of photography is astrophotography. There’s something so simply humbling about the stars, and photographing them with clarity somehow makes them feel personal. It’s as if something so intangible is suddenly within reach. Photos like this take filters to filter out light–because for the size of aperture and long time for shutter speed even 100 ISO is too much.

With an exposure like this, you capture the movement of the earth. The blur of the stars creates a wonderful path for our eyes to travel, and the color of the sky contrasts against the yellow hue of the field. There are leading lines from the field from out of the image to give us an entrance into the piece, and a calmer center of the sky. The setting is  calm and its amazing to think of how carefully he chose his setting and settings.

http://frikosal.blogspot.com is Manel Soria’s blog, and you can find more of his work there.

On another end of photography, I adore sports based images. Specifically dancers. Specifically ballet dancers. To the same respect as my love for the capturing of the heavens, I find myself in awe and in

love with the idea of capturing a moment of flight and pure magic.

With an image like this, unlike a time lapse, you need a high ISO, smaller F stop, and an incredibly fast shutter speed. This is all to optimize the amount of light entering the camera for the speed at which you’re photographing. I think the beauty from these shots is not only instinctual from out desire to admire dancers, but from the weightlessness implied through composition. For a moment, Misty Copeland is flying. She is free and she is strong, and to capture the moment of her flight in it’s beauty is something we can respect. Unlike landscape and astrophotography, dance photography is about transforming an art form primarily based on experiencing the moment into a single moment. To capture that one moment takes either 500 shots, or precise and careful planning and execution.

http://www.henryleutwyler.com this is the photographer’s website.

Through examining other’s works, you can begin to realize that we have a very innate sense of how a camera functions. We can critique and appreciate other’s artwork even without the basis of how a camera functions. Though, with the knowledge, we can better formulate our ideas and opinions. Not only that, we can learn from them. I hope to take M Soria’s technique with me to a mountain top one day. It would be neat to catch dancers in the middle of jumps. It’s only with understanding these fancy concepts of ISO, Shutter Speed, and Aperture that we can learn.

So time to take more photos and learn from all this, I guess.


Interview with the blogger

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MeCan you please  tell me a little bit about yourself and your blog?

 

Gene:  My name is Gene Ostrovsky and the blog that I run is www.medgadget.com. Medgadget covers the latest in medical technologies and exclusive content, like interviews and product reviews.

MeDescribe how did you first get into blogging?

Gene:  I thought that there was a great opportunity to cover something that a lot of people are interested in and also utilize my programming skills from my university studies. It also gives me an opportunity to learn something daily and share it with a wide audience, and it is very satisfying.

Me: Can you tell me some of your strengths that really helped you in blogging?

 Gene:  The strength that helped me in blogging is the knowledge of computers and how internet works (though it all changes all the time and you have to keep on top of it). There is a lot of technical details to blogging, like dealing with servers, data analysis, etc.
Me: How would you describe your blogging style?
Gene:  Blogging style…Hmm, that is an interesting question and I think the right answer is that I have to be very clear in what I am describing, although it can be very technical, so it is accessible to a wider audience.
Me: What would be your ideal working environment?
Gene:  I work from home. I would prefer quiet evenings to work; however, maintaining a full-scale blog takes much more than just a few hours a day, so just evenings is not an option.
Me: What do you think is the best strategy that worked well for you to get more traffic to your blog?
 Gene:  The best strategy was hiring more people who have medical knowledge to contribute articles to Medgadget. That way there are more articles daily with more variety of subjects covered.
Me: What was your greatest failure and what did you learn from that?
 Gene:  The greatest failure is not answering people on time. I have learned that if you do not respond to inquiries on time, you lose customers, contributors, partners, etc. It is a busy competitive world out there, and you have to be on time and on your toes all the time.

Me: What has impacted you most in blogging and how?

 Gene:  What impacted me the most is how fast the medical technology and internet technologies are moving and it is exciting to imagine what the future holds for both and how Medgadget will keep with it all.
Me: How do you motivate yourself to keep the blog up and running?

Gene:  Honestly, money is an important motivator to get up daily and do the good job. In addition, the satisfaction of knowing that you accomplished something daily and that over the long time you have created something of value to you and others feels great.

 Me: Can you tell me about few sources from where you get products for review on your site?
 Gene:  In addition to press releases, we follow medical industry news on a regular basis. In addition, we have people who are interested in us providing product reviews and book reviews, and they contact us on a regular basis.

Me: What do you find the most frustrating aspect of blogging?

 Gene:  The most frustrating aspect of blogging is the daily aspect of it, which means you take your work with you on vacation all the time.
Me: In the future where do you hope your blog will take you?
 Gene:  In the future, we hope to be the gold standard for the news and reviews and interviews related to emerging medical technologies. We are partnering up with different companies and universities, to work on new and exciting projects, so we will see where they take us as well.

Me: Have you met anyone interesting/famous on your blogging journey?

 Gene:  Throughout the years and attending many conferences, I have met many industry leaders. And sometimes you meet a celebrity outside the medical world circles (please see Medgadget exclusive interview with Mr. Herjavec http://www.medgadget.com/2016/09/robert-herjavec-improving-cancer-care-healthcare-security-innovation-investment.html)

Me: Did you have any professional help or did you created the blog yourself?

 Gene:  I have needed professional development help with some of the more advanced features for the blog, like setting up payment systems and stuff.
Me: How active are you on a weekly basis? How often do you communicate with your followers?
 Gene:  Medgadget posts daily 2-5 articles.

Me:  How much time do you spend blogging?

 Gene:  There are a few hours to prepare and post the articles, then a few more hours to answer emails and do accounting and follow up on leads and deal with the contributors.

Me: What do you think is the best social media strategy for getting more visitors to a blog?

 Gene:  I think providing excellent content and finding a niche in which your blog delivers value are the most important.

Me:  Would you encourage other people to make their blog?

 Gene:  It is a tough environment out there to make your blog stand out, very competitive and overcrowded. But as I stated before, if you got original good content, then it is a go. Remember, it is hard work though.

Me:  Is blogging your profession or just a hobby?

 Gene:  It is a profession at this point.

Me:  What is the biggest difference in your life post-blogging?

 Gene:  The ability to work from home and be in charge of my life is amazing.

Resources for Media Arts Students

equipment-checkout
Don’t worry if you can’t afford high end gear, LCC has a student checkout counter for equipment in Building 17 on the bottom level. 
blue-cync-wall
This is the “Blue Cyc Wall” it is located in Building 17 on the bottom level, be careful though it is in a studio where classes are held, if you need to use it please make sure you don’t disturb class! 
student-engagement
This is the Center for Student Engagement. It is located in the center Building on the Lane Campus.
gallery1
Are you a fan of Art? Check out the Art Gallery in Building 11 on the main level.
artomat2
This rare creation is called an ARTOMAT! insert the money and watch the magic come to life. This is located near the gallery in Building 11.
library
This is the Library located in the Center Building, it can be really useful not just for books they have computers for students to use!
silver-statue
This is the statue outside the Health and Wellness building. 
mary-jo-kriendel-office
This is the office of Mary Jo Kreindel, her office is located in building 11 on the main bottom level. 
media-creation-lab
This is the Media Creation Lab it is a work studio for students taking Multimedia classes, it is located in the back of the library in the Center Building.
judy-gates-office
This is the office of Judy Gate’s, she is one of the Media Arts advisors. Her office is located in building 11 on the second floor, but be cautious she is said to be moving offices soon.
indie-lab
This is the Indie Lab, it is a work room for students it is located in Building 17 on the second floor up from the ground.

Introducing Lane County Community College

The Equipment checkout counter building 17

equipment_checkout

 

The Studio with the “Blue Cyc Wall building 17

2_blue_cyc_wall

 

Center for Student Engagement in the Center Building

center_for_student_engagement

 

The main Art Gallery on campus

art-gallery

 

The Art-O-Mat

art_0_mat

 

The Library

library

 

The large silver sculpture that sits outside of the Health & Wellness building

health_and_wellness_center

 

Mary Jo Kriendel’s office (The Art division Office Specialist)

mary-jo-office

 

Indy Lab building 17

lab_bldg_17

 

The flags inside of the Students First Building

flags_bldg_1

 

“Turkey Shot” in Lane

turkeys


A Campus Tour

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So long as you’re there then they’re open, you  can get what you need
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Not really visible in this picture, but with a good imagination, theres a “cyc” wall here

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Even though this is the newer of the galleries, this is considered the main art gallery on campus
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I heard you like art, so we put art in your art
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Not surprising, but another closed area
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The sculpture is deadpan approved
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The label for Mary Jo Kreindel’s office is very artsy
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Judy Gates was with a student, she’s very helpful!
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I’m sure this place isn’t dead so long as it’s not 0900 on Monday morning
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No Djiboutian flag… I’m kinda disappointed
img_3949
In lieu of the blue “cyc” wall, here’s another one used for construction