How to guide: Neon text in Adobe InDesign

Hey guys! Haven't posted in forever but I kinda have an assignment to do something using Adobe InDesign and at first, I was struggling cause I had absolutely NO idea what I was doing but after playing around with it and looking up stuff online, it's not that hard anymore. Anyways, here's a tutorial on how to do some pretty neon text in Adobe InDesign. Let's go!

1. In a new document, rename Layer 1 as background and use the rectangle tool and the swatches panel to make a dark background for the document.

2.     In preparation for the texts, create two additional swatches, one bold colour and one lighter shade of the colour. (Example: Hot pink and pale pink, bright blue and pale blue, Etc.)

3.       Using the type tool, insert desired text and edit it to your desired font, size and position. Using the swatches tab, set the text to the bold colour from earlier.

4.       In the Type tab, select Create Outlines to turn the text into a vector for you to edit. Make a copy of this as you will need it later.

5.       With the vector selected, go to the Object tab and select Effects and Outer Glow. In the window that opens up, set the Mode to Screen, Opacity to 20%, Noise to 3% and Spread to 70%. Click the square next to Mode and choose the bold colour from the list of swatches. Click okay to exit the window.

6.       Make a copy of the vector and paste it directly on top of the previous one. Select the Object tab, Effects and Outer Glow again and this time, set the Opacity to 80% and the Spread to 40%.

7. Using the previously saved vector (from step 4) and lay it over the previous two vectors. Change its colour to the lighter colour from the swatches.

8. Using the same window as earlier, select Object, Effects and Transparency. Set the Mode to Screen and Opacity to 70%. In the same window, at the left menu, click Outer Glow, set the Opacity to 65% and have the colour set to the pale colour from the Swatches. Click on Drop Shadow from the left menu and set Mode to Multiply, Opacity to 40% and the colour to the bold colour from the Swatches. Finally, click Gradient Feather from the left menu and select Radial for type and click OK to complet the changes.

9. Almost there! The final step to give your text that final glow is to add a final layer of "light". Make another copy of paste directly over your creation. Change its fill colour to the Pale colour you chose from the Swatches. Next, go back to the Effects menu and in Transparency, set the Mode to Screen and Opacity to 50%. In Outer Glow, choose Screen for the Mode and the pale colour. Set Opacity to 50% and Spread to 40%. Click OK to exit the menu and you're done!

Tadah! The final result is a glowing neon text. Some tips to make a good neon text is to really choose:
1. A good font
2. A good choice of colour for both the bold colour and the pale colour.
3. A nice solid DARK background.

 The colour choice really makes a difference as the range from dark to light helps with the contrast and makes the text glow more than fade together. Also, for the glow colour(the pale colour), it is good to have the colour be pale but still clearly the colour you want as if it is too light, it may turn up too white.

So, that's all. Best of luck with your own neon text and I hope this little trick adds that little kick to all your future InDesign projects. Bye!

Pure stress

I know I haven't put up anything lately and I'm sorry for that. This is just something short I want to put out cause I'm quite annoyed, upset, stressed and a bit cranky due to some stuff.

I get a lot of stress and today was the worst.
1. I'm clarinet section leader for my school and we were supposed to have practice today but yesterday last minute, it wasn't necessary for my section so I had to rush and tell all of my juniors.
2. I was sick the whole of the past week and have a crap ton of homework.
3. My friend left early on Thursday and asked me for her homework and I forgot so I had to rush and brain-wreck myself to remember the homework.
4. My dad's still ordering me around everyday since I was 5-6.
5. My brother bugged me for the dog and fought with me.
6. My father forced me to help my brother with his homework.
7. He yelled at my brother and this led to him not saying anything.
8. I didn't know what to do so I thought design him a poster.
9. Father comes and asks me what I'm doing and tells me I just have to find a poster and bugs me on what I was doing so I tell him I don't wanna speak and delete the design.
10. He yells at me, thinking I'm giving him face and this makes me cry and walk off.
11. Now he's enjoying life as he watches some TV show about little girls and their mothers dancing.

I just want to punch him in the face/balls, dig a deep hole and hide in it OR jump off a cliff. It's just so frustrating and nerve-wrecking that I feel like locking myself in my room and never come out. Anyway, there are a LOT of movie reviews to come but today, I really don't feel like it. Bye.

EXAMS ARE OVER~

And they were terrible. I would LOVE to rant about the incompetant teachers in my school but I promised a review on Teacher's day and that would be wrong.

So, two weeks ago, on Friday, we celebrated Teacher's day and honestly, I had a lot of fun. My friends and I actually auditioned for the celebration but none of us got in. It was then discovered that the audition was 80% popularity and 20% actual talent. *sigh* Go figure~

Anyway, a little bit of a backstory. In...either 3rd or 4th grade, I met this girl called Evelyn and she...affected my life deeply and till this very day, I still have a grudge against her. I hope she rots. ANYWAY, she was my first friend in that year cause all of my friends from the year before were in different classes. She was quite tubby but was very friendly so she became popular fast. I, on the other hand, wasn't good with talking to people so I tended to become friends with the secluded, like me. But, by some twisted magic, Evelyn wanted to be my friend. Obviously I was happy and agreed without questioning it. Boy, was I wrong. She wanted to be my friend because my mom tended to pack snacks for me and I guessed it attracted the beast. While she hacked away at my food, I made some friends within her huge gang. When the beast was done...."I don't friend you anymore!" Those words hit me hard and those "friends" I made within her gang left with her. The next day, with new snacks, "Let's be friends again", and in the afternoon,"I don't like you anymore." This loop went on for everyday or every week of every month for a whole year. You'd think I would learn but it's because of that that in year 4/5, I was scared of making any friends. I couldn't hang out with any girls cause I thought they would all be like Evelyn so, I hanged out with guys and became a tomboy. Even till today, Evelyn is still the tubby, popular b#@ch I knew from that year and she's still in my school.

So, during now that you know something about me, you should understand why I felt a certain way during the shows. In the audition, the first to go up was the Indian dance. There was some popular girls, the cheerleaders and a 2 chubby ones. One of them was....EVELYN. I watched in silent disgust as she danced and I kept turning my focus to the prettier girls but I couldn't stand how, even though Evelyn was dancing horribly, she laughed it off while acting shy. I wanted to throw my hard-covered book at her head.

Okay, to Teacher's day. It started of with the usual singing of the school, state and national anthem. We sang LOUDLY this time and it pleased the teachers. Then the school's tradition of the teachers going onto stage to do an oath then sing. Then, the fun began.

This year, teacher's day was disco themed, I guess. The drama that beat us in the drama competition weren't as good as they were during the contest because they cut out a LOT and were too soft. The performance after them was the ballet dance and it was very pretty and graceful. The ballerina wore a black glittery tutu and had a tambourine. She danced gracefully and it was just amazing to watch.

After her, was a teacher, Mr. Matthew, that sang as he played the guitar and it was spectacular. He sang VEEEEERY well. After him was the Indian dance and, as you should know, I'm a bit biased in this as the girl, Evelyn was in it. Truthfully, the dance was good and if it didn't have any of the chubby girls in it, it would have been nicer to watch since it was a techno twist on traditional Indian dance and the choreography was good. Maneersha, the middle girl was the most entertaining to watch.

After that was a song by Ashley and Samuel. It was okay but it took too long to start because of a problem with her guitar and the amplifier. Then it was Keta, an old classmate of mine. His beat-boxing was just thrilling. I actually wanted to do a thing like Pentatonix but we couldn't find a male soprano bass and beat-boxer on time.I believe I have found that beat-boxer. Well, I actually did find a bass and soprano but it was found in the same person Ray Ray. Also, all of the member I found abandoned me last minute because they wanted to do solos.

After Keta was another teacher, Pn. Lily and she sings EVERY year so it wasn't that surprising. This year, however, most of us knew the song so we sang along and cause we kind of out-shadowed her, I guess she didn't like it.

The next was a band and it was the most popular guy singer in school, James. They were good and PKB said that they could become successful if they became official. I think their name was something Lovebreaker....I don't know. The song that they sang was really good and it was written and composed by the pianist, Thomas, and it was cool. The girls gave roses to everyone on stage...except Ka Seng. Why the heck did they leave him out? Not only that but they gave James and Thomas two roses each. The freak?

After them was a hip-hop dance by the group, Ambush. They were cool and sexy but a bit off sync at times but it was still good. Last performance was by the teachers. It was their annual teacher's fashion show and this year...it left me dumbfounded, in awe, confused, etc. First three teachers were the indian teachers and they were mostly covered up but still hot. Two chinese teacher, Mr. Arthur and Miss Loh came out together and were looking as cute as ever. A lot of people say that they would make a great couple and I agree. Next 3 teachers were pretty and graceful. Mr Fok came out next in his tennis gear and he pretended to play but didn't actually throw the ball but it was still fun to watch. Next was Mr. Lucas(the art teacher) and he looked epic in his...costume. He danced around stage in a "rain dance" like fashion with a huge decorated drum. Then it was Miss Gillian(my biology teacher) that looked very pretty, and Miss Wong which wore a long blonde wig. Pn. Lily's typical pretty chinese girl look was nice and her playing around on stage was cute. Then, the most epic person came out. Mr Sascha came out in a prince like outfit with Miss Melissa(Eng. Lit teacher) and Miss Wanda(last year's lit teacher) pretending to be his fangirls. Mr Sascha, prince, sword. /~\
They all did the twist and some of the other teachers joined them on stage. It was SOOOO fun to watch them.

I still think about the costumes I saw that day and I still can;t wrap my mind around Mr. Sascha and his outfit. I would LOVE to show you guys pictures but I couldn't take any. I have to go now. I'll put up other reviews and posts soon. I still have the movie "Epic"'s review and a short-ish blog on what happened today during band practice. So, bye~

Watching Prince of Egypt(1998)

Busy with exams

This is going to be a short post because I'm doing this while I should be studying and my parent's could barge in at any moment. I haven't put anything up recently because it's currently the exam period for me and I have one week of exams left. After that, I can put up more posts like more of my character data pages and a "review" or summary of my school's teacher's day. It has a lot of fun and...amusing details, like what two of the fun teacher's wore for the teacher's fashion show. I have one week of exams left which are:
Math(Craaaaap)
Biology(Yay~?)
Physics(My teacher is horrible. She teaches other classes a lot more than mine)
Chemistry(Memorising~ hahaha>A>)
Literature(Yay!!!!!!! .... I don;t know how to feel)
History(The most "think-out-of-the-box" one...ever!)

Wish me luck~ I think I heard my dad. Bye~
Listening to: Periodic Table song
                   just joking
                   【合唱】ポーカーフェイス / Poker Face - Nico Nico Chorus

Pentatonix fun and a bat experience

Hey guys~
Lately, I've been OBSESSING over this a Capella group called "Pentatonix" and they are AMAZING!

The members of this group is Mitch, Scott and Kirstie, the main singers, Avi, the bass, and Kevin, the beat-boxer. I'm an Avi fan and I'm also a Pentaholic. I've shown these guys to a bunch of my friends and they're all turning into pentaholics as well. I really hope that they will one day do a global tour and maybe visit Malaysia and do a concert.

They're all very fun and really......real. They won the Sing-Off 3 and I've watched every performance on the show at least 3 times. I actually found out about them through their evolution of music video but my favourite songs are "Love Lockdown",  "Aha" and "Show you How to Love". Their vlogs are also very fun and their lives seem very interesting. If they ever come to Malaysia, I really hope that they'll do the Audience participation part during their performance. I would also LOVE to meet them.

My favourite person of the group is Avi because:
1. He's the bass and his voice is sooo low, BUT his range OAO.
2. He's really fun and has a great personality.
3. He is so skilled~
4. His dancing moves/groove is really fun to watch, especially when he grooves on stage.
5. Did I say he's really fun?

Anyway, they have their own albums, their debut and a Christmas one and I've shown it to my dad. He said he MIGHT get it, IF I do well for my exams which is next next week and if I have his trust to get it.

Also, something really...funny(?) happened while I was writing this. A bat snuck into my house and everyone was freaking out. My dog, Coco, was scratching at my brother's room door and my mom was hiding in the hallway. My dad was looking for the bat and called for my brother to bring out his torchlight. I was called out to pin-point where the bat was hiding and I said it was at the dining area. My dad insisted that it was outside. When he said it was outside the house but near the wall, my dog crept out of the room and was looking around. he went under the dining table and I freaked and got her out.In the end, my brother found the body under the dining table and  called out to my dad, who was SO confident that the bat was outside of the house.
After discovering the actual location of the bat, we told my dad and he went to get some gloves while I got a net, scared that the bat might be sick and worried that it might be injured. He caught the little thing and he brought it outside to let it go but when he freed it, he thought it flew away BUT it was actually clinging on the net so when he turned, my mom and I screamed while my brother freaked(cause he was near my dad) and ran towards me and we both hid in my room while my mom hid in hers. We all peaked out of the rooms and my dad was gone so we taught he was outside. Then, he spoke from the kitchen that the bat was gone then we all laughed it all off. Well, that was a funny memorable experience. : )
I have to go. My dog's still hiding under the bed from the bat. Bye~

I just edited the title and I just realised how lame I am. ^^"
Listening to: Kalafina - Serenato / Letra Español [Kan-Rom] and PENTATONIX - NEW Kevin and Avi (and Audience) - House Of Blues, Boston, MA
Pentatonix's youtube channel: PentatonixOriginal
Pentatonix's website: PTX Official

PLEASE share this so that, maybe, they could see this and come to Malaysia. Thanks~

Double movie review

So, day before yesterday, my parents(father) dragged the whole family to go and watch a movie, Iron Man 3, BUT because there were no good movies for 4 o'clock, he decided to watch ANOTHER movie, first. So....here are the two reviews. This time, I have a lot of notes and they're quite detailed so there is going to be a LOT of spoilers so if you don't like that, click away OR you could read another one of my posts. I also say notes because I brought a small book of mine into the theatre and wrote down my thoughts.
1st review: Oblivion
So, this is the most recent Tom Cruise movie out and it's basically about a war against aliens and everyone is supposedly safe on some ship in the sky. Two people, Jack and Vixa remain on Earth to fix droids that are supposed to clean up any aliens left on Earth. When a space pod lands and Jack goes to the crash site to check things out, he finds a woman, Julia, which has been in his flash backs(He and Vixa had their memory erased to protect their mission).
First impression, the machines and scenery's look quite cool. Jack has a cool pure white outfit and helicopter thing BUT has a lame bobble head that he calls Bob, and when he's about to fix a fallen droid, he wears a very LAME cap and when he takes it off, his hear spikes up, also making him look very lame.He also has a hideout that Vixa doesn't know about which is full of plants and life and when the space pod flies past, he pulls out his gun, even though when he was playing basketball by himself and feeding a fish, there was no sign of the gun at all? His clothes also confused me a bit when he wore the clothes at first, they were clean(even though he just fought underground) and the moment he gets on the bike, his clothes are tinted with brown and muck.
He also found a book in the underground area and opens it to read it. I questioned this cause that book was soaked when he picked it up and I'm guessing that the book was there for a REALLY long time...so how in the world are the pages still flip-able and the inked words are not just a huge black splat, OR smudged? He also supposedly goes to his lovely house in the lively area all the time but Vixa NEVER questions it.
Okay, thing I hate about today's movies were that some people didn't off, or even silence, their phones. And they bloody answer the phone IN THE THEATRE. I wanted to get up and slap the two people.
Okay. I'm going to skip a bit cause, to me, nothing interesting happens until after he passes the radioactive part. Right after that moment, to me, things became a bit predictable. For example, when the other mechanic came, I guessed it was going to be a clone(and it was). I guessed that Julia was going to be hit when the two Jacks fought and accidentally shot the gun and I guessed that he was going to meet the other Vixa. Then another questioning thing came about. After Julia was shot, her clothes were torn open by Jack and then after he patched up Julia, he brought her to the house. After that, she suddenly has a change of clothes. Did Jack keep women's clothes? He also kept two of those pod things that he found Julia in? WHY? Not only that but why are there two? Didn't he only bring home the one that he found Julia in?
Lastly, the ending was bittersweet to me. I really did';t expect the leader guy to be in the pod and I also didn't expect Julia to have a daughter. When 52s Jack came, she was perfectly okay and happy with that and why does he remember? I am still very confused.
I give this movie a 7/10. It's a good movie with a good, interesting storyline, fun characters and unique ideas. There were some predictable moments but some unexpected ones.

2nd review: Iron Man 3.
The movie hadn't even started and I was still at the commercials and I was already really confused.Once again, I dislike it when my brother chooses seats cause we got seats which were quite in front. It was only 5 minutes and I already knew that this was going to be a bad experience because the whole row in front of us consisted of an Indian family with some young kids.  Some young, very NOISY kids that wouldn't stop talking and/or crying during the movie and its action scenes. Thanks horrible mother that doesn't know that the baby cries cause the movie was too loud for him/her and not considerate enough to bring the kid out. *frustrated sigh*
Okay, the intro was very amusing with the test suit and the robot having the dunce cap on. The villain, Mandarin, looks VERY weird. The botanist's joke in reaction to Stark's comment on having a kid was extremely amusing as well. Stark and Pepper's argument after was very cute, the explosion scene after was confusing, Pepper saving Stark was amusing compared to the usual typical damsel-in-distress which Pepper usually is. Stark's mistake of falling asleep in the suit was also quite amusing. Jarvis falling asleep was quite saddening since I liked his personality, a lot(even though he's only a robot.) Back to the explosion scene, when the idiot robot fell and tried to wake up another broken robot, I found that very depressing but cute.
Harley was so cute and when was about to leave Stark, was sooo sassy and cool. Stark also gave sassy comebacks which was amusing to watch.
Meeting with the bad guy for the first time, without his accent, left me dumbfounded. An actor? Trevor? Drugs? ACTOR? Holy shit. So the real villain is Killian. Why am I NOT surprised? I disliked the real villains sooo much. I take that back. The lady "villain" was okay. The real villain and Stark's discussion about the actor is really amusing and humorous. Mandarin's laybackness is really refreshing during the tense situations. Such a shame that the main villain was a nut job. Stark's attempt to scare the two guards was really cute since Harley had the suit trapped.
Pepper became sooo bad-ass after her "death" which was really predictable. Even Tony was speechless at Pepper's epicness. "Violent"? That's all she could say after defeating Killian with ease. Just have two questions:
1. Didn't all of Tony's suits get destroyed in the explosion?
2. Why does Tony give Harley, a little boy, a car?
The outro was a merging of all three movies and after the credits, there is a scene. It was showing why Tony was telling is the whole story in the first place, which was because he was having a "counselling" session with Bruce.
I like how they mention the whole Avenger scenario and show how it affected Tony. I also like how Tony named all of his suits and also gave them each a unique look and theme. The ending shows that it might be the end of the Iron Man franchise BUT there could also be more, BUT Tony won;t have that glowing thing in   his chest anymore since he got that "fixed".
Overall, it was a great movie with a smooth blend of comedy, drama and action. The suspense and the unexpected twists kept the movie exciting and interesting. There were a few predictable and boring moments but the twists kept this movie in my top few movies of this month/year. Favourite twist is still Mandarin's true identity.
I'll have to give this movie a 9/10. That seems pretty decent for a movie as good as this. Have to go now. Brother's starting to whine like a baby cause he couldn't get his ice-cream. Bye~

Listening to: Pentatonix - ALL Sing-Off Performances (1/3) Favourite song of the 5 songs is Love Lockdown.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation review

So, I just got back from the theater and I am tired, BUT I'll still do the review.As you can see in the title, the review is on the very recently released action flick, "G.I Joe: Retaliation", the sequel to "G.I Joe: Rise of The Cobra." Since this movie is pretty new, I'll TRY not to go to deep into the movie but there ARE going to be spoilers so if you don't want to be "spoiled", click away and read something else(maybe another one of MY reviews? Please?)

So, basically, this movie is about how Zartan, being president, sets the G.I Joe's up and tries to annihilate the whole group.SPOILERS FROM HERE ON. Only 3 people survive the attack BUT Snake-Eyes survives because he wasn't with the group but on his own mission. Duke, the main character from the first movie, dies when he saves Flint. Flint is one of the three survivors, the other two being Roadblock and Lady Jaye.  The three try to find out who betrayed them and could only think of the president. They're correct and they meet with General Joe, himself. Snake Eyes on the other hand is paired up with a girl named Jinx and their job was to find Storm Shadow, which survived the blast from the previous movie. They manage to and they bring him back to the "head quarters" of their erm....Ninjitsu thing where Storm Shadow finds out the truth of his master's death and the real murderer, Zartan. Enraged, he agrees to temporarily "not be an enemy" to the Joes as he is out for revenge.

Cobra Commander is also back because, before Storm changes sides, he helps a man by the name of Firefly help Cobra Commander escape by pretending to be Snake Eyes. Cobra's plan was to make Zartan gather all of the nation's leaders and they have a discussion about a world nuclear disarmament. When the leader's say that they are going to try reducing the amount of nuclear bombs slowly, Zartan pulls out a case and send all of his nuclear warheads to attack all of the countries. By doing so, all of the other leaders do the same but Zartan then destroys all of the nuclear warheads before they land. The other leaders, not wanting to be held responsible for many deaths, do the same. Zartan proclaims that they were now in a world that is nuclear bomb free, until he pulls out another suitcase that is linked to Cobra Commander's secret plan which is codenamed Zeus. The G.I Joe's manage to save the day and you know the rest.

Okay. I just summed up the whole movie. Now, my favourite character time~ I used to like Snake Eyes the most cause he was the mysterious type but in this movie, my favourite character is this movie has GOT to be, Shadow Storm. When they first showed him disguised as Snake Eyes, he just looked VERY cool and when he escaped by lowering his heart rate to 0, just AMAZING. When Snake Eyes came to attack Shadow Storm and Jinx was throwing people off the side of the building, Shadow Storm tried to reach out and grab the arm of one of his falling allies. And, by the end of the whole movie, I just liked the guy sooo much. The other characters were okay but I definitely prefer Shadow Storm to the others.

SPOILERS END.
So yeah. As you can see, if you were here for a review without any spoilers, you have missed A  LOT! So, for the review without spoilers, the characters were good. Backgrounds were AMAZING. Acting was good. Storyline, good too. Yeah, I can't think of much to write about the movie, status wise.

I have to go now. Talking to my cousins and I have a bad cough. Bye~

Listening to: Secret by The Pierces