C/A/S

 Similar to last year, I've been doing volunteer work at the tennis academy since this is the time of year when new players join the academy. This month I did some fairly minor things, I showed the new players the warmup and recovery stretches we do. Additionally, I showed several players around the facilities so that they know where to go whenever they arrive for practice. Other than that, I practiced myself in order to prepare for a tournament that I signed up for. I did not play very well. I should mention that I did not favor the conditions. It was around 40 degrees Fahrenheit and very windy. Fortunately, I won my first match fairly easily. We had to play short sets due to the weather and the score was 4-1. 4-1. I lost my second match in a tiebreaker, the score was 2-4, 4-0, and 8-10 in the tiebreaker. Although I lost, it was a very close match. I have learned a lot from this tournament, and I hope to apply what I've learned to my game next time I play.  LO1, LO2, LO4

 Today is the last game that will be live-streamed as it is the end of the volleyball season. Overall, I thought I did okay with setting everything up. I noticed that on youtube, a lot of other school sporting events were being live-streamed were getting recommended. I became curious to see how others went about live streaming one of their games. For example, I believe one of the ones I found was a basketball game from The Kinkaid School. It looked like they had a pretty standard view of the basketball court, similar to one you would find on television. A lot of what they had wasn't really possible in our gym as ours is not really like a stadium layout. To get the live stream similar to Kinkaid's I would have to place the camera on a small ledge above the basketball court where the speakers are. That certainly would have been a lot more difficult to set up. Nonetheless, I thought what we had was good enough. All the feedback I received was good, and no one had any problems with...

 I've continued helping with the live-streams at the boys' and girls' volleyball games. Since the first time I started helping with the live-stream, I've learned a lot about the software and what I have to do. In the last blog, I described that we weren't able to get the score up on the live-stream. Recently, however, I was able to get the score displayed and everything went fine. I also adjusted the camera angle and put in a tripod that can extend to be very tall so it had a better angle of all the volleyball games. Other than that, however, not much has changed. I am looking to improve some minor things, like showing the name of the teams for instance. I think that will be an easy fix and probably won't take very long to include on the live-stream. LO5 LO4 LO3 LO2 

 Live streaming the boys and girls volleyball games has been successful for the most part. Nothing has gone wrong, and I have successfully kept the live stream up through entire games. In my last blog, I mentioned that we weren't able to get the score displayed. In the second game, I had to stream, I figured out a simple way to get the score displayed without causing too much latency variation. I simply opened a text document and formatted it in a way that resembled a scoreboard. I could change the score quite easily as I was just typing different things on the text document. In the future, I'm thinking of adjusting the camera angle for which the volleyball game is shot at. As of right now, I have a tripod that I am using that I haven't quite experimented with enough yet. I currently have it so wear the camera is about 7 feet above the ground, however, I am aware that you can extend it to wear the camera is about 12 feet above the ground which will help me get a better came...

 Aside from tennis, I've been doing some things that are more related to service rather than activity. One thing that I've been doing is helping live-stream the boys' and girls' volleyball home games at the Bisonnett campus since no in-person spectators are allowed as a result of the coronavirus. I was one of the people asked to do this since I am in the class for film at school, and I have some experience with a camera. All I needed to do was get familiar with the live-streaming software that staff members from school provided me with, and I would be able to keep live-streaming until all of the volleyball home games were completed. The first live-stream ended up being successful, however, one thing we didn't get to work on in time was the on-screen game score. Hopefully next time we'll be able to do that, nonetheless, the live-stream was still a success since people were able to watch the game successfully.  LO5 LO4 LO3 LO2 

 COVID-19 restrictions have remained in place. However, as I mentioned in the last blog, the USTA decided to bring back tournaments with a limited amount of players per draw. I decided to sign up for a tournament for this month, and I did not play well. I lose in the first round and had to withdraw from my consolation match because I began to cramp up in my legs. Overall, I just wasn't happy with how I was playing. I simply found it frustrating not being able to play my best. Especially because right before the COVID-19 restrictions were put into place, I was playing really well and I was getting closer and closer to winning a championship tournament. However, having come back to a loss definitely impacted me negatively. Going forward, I'll do my best to practice and play in the same way I did before. Hopefully, I will get some better results in the future tournaments that I play. LO1, LO4

Since school is starting, I thought I would continue video editing to help prepare for film class. As of right now, I'm interested in going beyond video editing and trying out animation. I have heard of several different software, however, I don't know how to use any of them. It will take me some time to learn how to use one of them similar to what I had to learn about After Effects. Cinema 4D is one software I've heard a lot of things about, so I will experiment with that and write in my blog about that next time. For now, I have tried to improve on some of the things I wrote about in the last blog. For example, time remapping is something I've gotten a lot better at. Although it can look really unnatural at times, I imagine it can be appealing to the viewer depending on how you use it. Another thing I've begun to practice is color correction. I've created several filters of my own that can either be put on videos or photos.  LO1, LO2, LO4

 I have continued to practice video editing as many of the same COVID-19 restrictions I mentioned in the last blog are still put into place. Not to say that I haven't enjoyed my time video editing. To me, it's relaxing to a certain extent. Additionally, it's good practice for film class. At this point, I have edited several videos, most of them have to do with Rocket League clips. I should mention that I don't just compile the clips together and let that be the end of it. Viewers enjoy many things in regards to video editing that you wouldn't find in most films or videos in general. For example, syncing certain events in the clips to music that is playing is something that is done quite frequently, and it's something that I practice to improve my timing skills. Another thing that I do a lot is called time remapping, which is where you use After Effects to manipulate the time at certain points of a clip and rearrange them. Depending on what you have in mind, it c...

 Because of COVID-19 guidelines, a lot of the places I usually go to have temporarily closed. I was planning to play more tennis and exercise this summer. However, most of my time has been spent indoors. One of the things I've been doing is video editing. I used to practice a long time ago just for fun, however, I stopped just because it became quite time consuming, and I wanted to prioritize my school work which meant that I would spend less time editing videos. I use the software, Adobe After Effects to edit videos. It's similar to Adobe Premiere Pro, which is what is typically used as the video editing software for films, but it has features that are similar to Adobe Photoshop. I use it because it is good for short videos, mine are typically 3 minutes long or a little bit longer. I started out editing videos for fun because of a video game called Rocket League. My friends and I play from time to time and we like compiling our clips into one video. It's been about a year ...

I haven't been able to play any tournaments since the COVID-19 restrictions began, and it is starting to look like they are going to last a while. For the time being, I have decided to try and get back into video editing. I used to do it a lot when I was younger because of a software called Adobe After Effects. There are a lot of things you can do with the software, and it's not just limited to video editing. Rather than compiling clips together, After Effects has features that are more focused on design and certain visual elements. For example, you can motion-track things or even animate text and drawings. I stopped using After Effects mainly because what I was doing took too long, and at the time the GPU in my computer went corrupt. So for a while, I couldn't create videos that were more than 1 minute long. Not to say that my videos are long, they are usually at least 3 minutes, however, I just couldn't create anything under the circumstances. Now, however, I have a n...

Things have certainly changed since I was beginning to plan out how I would move forward with my individual project. In the last blog, I wrote about how I went to help out at a presentation for breast cancer patients. At the presentation, I met a focus group and talked with them for a little bit. For my project, I was hoping to create cards of kindness with designs and drawings from other students at school. I am not very skilled at drawing myself, so I was hoping I could involve other students from school with my project that way. However, due to the new COVID-19 guidelines, I've been told that I can't do the project anymore. COVID-19 guidelines require that students do not attend school in person, and my project involved bringing materials to students so that they could work on designing cards for the focus group I met at the presentation. For now, I've been told not to worry about the project. Hopefully, everyone is able to return to in-person learning in the next couple...

 This month I've been practicing quite a lot. I played a tournament and did well. I played 4 matches and won 3 of them. I lost in the semi-finals, my opponent would end up winning the tournament. Despite losing I'm happy with how I played, I learned from my past experiences and I think they helped me win more matches at this tournament. Also, it's been getting a little warmer outside and I like that more than cold weather since I play a lot worse. Though I used this tournament as an opportunity to take what I've learned from previous tournaments, I also learned a lot from this tournament as well. In the semi-final, I lost in three sets, the third set being a tiebreak so it was actually quite a close match. I learned a lot about handling pressure during crucial points, and hopefully, I'll be able to do even better at my next tournament. Similar to this tournament, I hope that at the next tournament I play that I end up taking what I've learned and performing bett...

I have begun planning for my NHS individual project. My parents told me that a breast cancer presentation was going to happen, and they needed volunteers. The purpose of the presentation was to inform patients about breast cancer and answer any questions they had. I was there to help with the slide show and bring all of the patients water if they needed it. At the presentation, I met a focus group to speak with in the future because I was planning to do other things for my individual project. I got to know a few of the members of the focus group, however, I did not spend much time talking to them since I had to do some work on the computer for the presentation and hand out water bottles at times. I thought my intentions of the presentation were met. More specifically, I thought I did a good job helping out at the presentation. Right now, I'm still thinking of what to do in the future. I hope for my individual project to deal with creating something helpful for the focus group I met...

With a new year starting off, I wanted to use this as an opportunity to change a lot of the mistakes I've consistently made while playing tennis. Also, it has been a while since I played my last tournament since I decided to skip playing one in December. So, I was motivated and ready to play in a tournament. This month I had to travel to College Station, Texas to play at the Texas A&M tennis courts. My first match was a tough one, I won the first set 6-1 and the second set 7-5. My opponent decided that he needed to play more intensely. Thankfully I saw that and tried to adjust. Winning the second set was obviously a lot harder, however, from past experiences I learned that you have to stay consistent with playing well. In the second round, however, I lost. Although I lost in the second round, I did learn a lot from this tournament. LO1 LO2