PAOLA SERGO

01.POKEMON
In semester 2 we started with development workshops where we cover the basics of HTML, CSS, JS and complete little challenges at the end of each one. During one of the first workshops, I had to make a Pokémon using only DIVs. Here, I practiced positioning the elements and coloring. Even though it was only the basics, there was a lot of space to learn because I only had to focus on one thing at a time (in this case, positioning the elements)

02.ANIMATING THE POKEMON
In another one of development workshops, I was learning about CSS animations. The whole class got the explanation of the basics and was able to go through some examples to understand it better. At the end, our assignment was to animate one of the popular Pokémon’s using ChatGPT to create the craziest animations. My idea started off with coding the Pokémon and then making him move repeatedly across the screen and then exploding at the end. I thought the workshop was interesting because we had the complete freedom when deciding on which animations to use, while not worrying about how to write the code and rather just go through it at the end to understand it. Even thought ChatGPT wasn’t fully understanding the commands, I still had fun with it, but still prefer and understand why is looking online for proper explanations about the code and doing it myself from scratch better.

03.POKEMON VIDEO GAME
In another one of my development classes, I had the opportunity to develop a Pokémon game using an API. The teacher provided us with a PDF guide, filled with detailed instructions and explanation of the code. After implementing the basic elements of the game, and establishing the API connection, I was able to customize the styling and incorporate additional functions and features of my choice. The project resulted in a playable game. It was a fun class, with an assignment that was both engaging and educational, while offering a better understanding of using APIs in software development.

04.REAL TIME CHAT APPLICATION
With this assignment, I learned how to make a real time chat application using NodeJs and SocketIO. At the start of the workshop, we were given a short presentation, alongside with an instructed PDF file. While following the steps and reading their explanations, I acquired a better understanding of how to set up and run a server, so that later on it can wait for connections and display messages. After setting everything up, I worked on the CSS, so it can look visually appealing.

05.3D POKEMON MODEL
Continuing the development workshops, during this assignment, I got to display a 3D Pokemon model using my phone. Again, following the steps in the provided PDF file, I installed a server, created a SSL-certificate and included a Pokemon GLB file. Using the HIRO marker and navigating to a specified IP address, I was able to experience a virtual realty Pokemon. Even though I ran into some problems while setting up the server and acquiring the certificate, I was able to solve it with the help of my teacher and ChatGPT.

07.PORTFOLIO GALLERY
To challenge myself more, and gain more experience with JavaScript, I decided on implementing small galleries throughout my portfolio to organize my images for each learning outcome better. Since I also followed a certain color palette in my portfolio, my end goal was to deliver a gallery in which by default, the images are covered with a black and white filter, and only on hover and scroll they reveal their true colors. I also worked on making the JavaScript code hold the information of all the galleries, and iterating through them when needed, so that all of them are operated by one code, instead of each gallery having its own block of JavaScript code.

08.MY REFLECTION
During the development workshops, I have the opportunity to understand the process of development better. Along with the PDF files filled with instructions and explanations, and teachers guidance, I work on fun projects, which always result in learning something new and understanding something better. This semester, I dived deeper into basic programming languages such as HTML and CSS, started understanding how JavaScript works more, and worked with NodeJS and APIs for the first time. I also set up and ran a server a few times, which helped me in becoming more familiar with what goes on behind the scenes.