The Big Project: Reflection
Rationale: The original purpose of my project was to create GIFs using GIMP that relate to college life. There are several other tools that can be used online now to create GIFs, but since GIFs are becoming increasingly popular, I thought it would be a useful skill to know how to create them the old fashioned way like with GIMP.
Risks, Challenges, and Opportunities: What went well? What went badly? If you had to do the project over again, what would you have done differently?
When I stated the risks in the proposal, I thought that finding a set of images could prove to be difficult. When I was trying to actually animate a set of images in GIMP I had trouble extracting specific frames from video to put into Gimp. Which is fine, as I was able to find other images that worked just as well. It would have been convenient to find that software in the process, but I intend to work on this further in my free time. As for what went well, I think my project turned out pretty well. When I showed my table the project I received a lot of good feedback. On the teaching day, I was able to teach my table how to make GIFs within the time, which was fun. Actually using GIMP to create GIFs proved not to be very difficult (as long as you have the images you need). Teaching myself how to use GIMP seemed to be the most challenging part, as I was unfamiliar with it until this year. But once I learned how to use GIMP, it became a very easy tool to use.
Resources: Which resources were the most helpful or essential in completing this project? What additional resources could you have used to make this project even better?
The most helpful resource proved to be google images. Along with this, Gimp (of course) proved to be invaluable, as learning it was a key point in my project. Something that could have made my project a lot better would have been software to extract frames from youtube videos. I was having a lot of trouble finding free software that could accomplish this. If I had a bit more time I probably could have made better GIFs.
Outcomes: Using the guideline created in your proposal, assess the outcomes of your project. Did you meet, exceed, or fail to meet your expectations of yourself?
After reviewing my proposal and the guidelines that were issued, I’d say my project was successful. The GIFs I created were relatable, aesthetically nice to look at, and I had some good feedback. If I had specific frames from video they would have been better, but I met my expectations.
Executive Summary: A short paragraph summarizing everything that follows. Write this last.
Overall, the project illustrated key necessities to college life and was able to put these necessities into a format that is currently trending, such as GIFs. While exclusively using GIMP, the GIFs turned out reasonably well. I think learning how to make them with old software like GIMP was definitely a main focus of the project. Not using frame extraction software made finding images difficult, but I’m still pleased with the results. With the knowledge gained from this project I can now animate anything in a GIF format, which is definitely going to be useful later on down the road.
