1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
This module has definitely helped me to manage my time better. I got the ball rolling very early on in what I wanted to try and convey and how I wanted to go about it, because i had been thinking about the final piece for a little bit of time. This helped me just to get on and decide in terms of presentation and portraying a message in the right and most effective tone. Oppose to other projects I was able to spend more time creating effective research ideas and not worrying about were exactly I was heading at a late stage. As a result i was able to spend more time editing and playing with the final piece, letting my final cut and computer based skills develop as a result. Even with problems such as loosing all my work a week before hand in, I was able to work effectively with what I had to try and bring the project back to the same standard and even learn from my technical mistakes this time.
2. What approaches to/methods of research have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?
The whole project has helped me think more about what i want to be in my graphic career. Although I really enjoyed working with animation and developing this theme in a longer 5 week project, I did somehow miss a bit more creatively. It has helped me to see that maybe Im a bit more of a problem solver than I thought and that I like to create solutions for concepts oppose to following them through.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalize on these?
Its definetly humerous. That is something i thought i have always had. Editing and whiteness is something ive really enjoyed working with.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these more fully?
The camerawork has definitely let me down again in the stop motion. I took many variations but was having a lot of problems with getting a light balance right. In the future i need to work on this.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
. if working with stop motion, I will spend longer working with photography as It makes a big difference to the work
. i will learn to save work effectively, as this ruined my timetable of work
. i will get more variations of everything so I have many options to choose from... eg/ audio/photography
. i will make more story boards as they most effectively show my thought process throughout
. i will use crits more effectively. I didn't manage to get a lot of feed back for this module from my course mates and i think it was a necessity as I can not really judge how effective it looked. It got to a point were I had been editing for so long that i didn't no how humorous anything was, and needed my peers to rate my work. This is vital for next time. Especially with longer projects.
6. How would you grade yourself on the following areas:
5 = excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
Attendance 5
Punctuality 5
Motivation 4
Commitment 3
Quantity of work produced 3
Quality of work produced 4
Contribution to the group 5
Sunday, 31 May 2009
Wednesday, 27 May 2009
Tuesday, 26 May 2009
Brothers Quay- where have you been all my life
New animation forwarded to me through a friend in which I feel is something id really like to have a little dive into. Most of their films feature dolls similar to my work in 'what's a line', often disassembled or destroyed, in a dark, moody atmosphere. This is something Im still yet to try. A piece which purpose isn't to inform or make an audience laugh but simply to scare or terrorize.
The hand made sets and use of surfaces such as this grassy effect which is shown in this animation, is something very hard to conquer with stop motion. I like it.
On top of that the typography Is just beautiful at the beginning. Type isn't really something that would normally attract me but i felt this stood out and is completly appropriate for the sinister tone that is trying to be shown.
Monday, 25 May 2009
Development of the final piece
Still debating parts of the concept, Im finding it hard to make the interviews look authentic and well made.
Heres a trial I did that took quite a few hours to be honest. Not quite a waste of time because I now no how important the position of the camera is and how it cant look too jittery otherwise the focus just shakes much like this version did:
Heres a trial I did that took quite a few hours to be honest. Not quite a waste of time because I now no how important the position of the camera is and how it cant look too jittery otherwise the focus just shakes much like this version did:
Saturday, 23 May 2009
Inspiring me. Quimby the Mouse
So thinking about what has made me think about using the audio I had combined with the visuals, I briefly looked back at an animation I had seen a little while ago by Chris Ware. My favorite of his work is a animation called Quimby the Mouse. its a very dark short animation of two mouses, one of which has no body and the other abuses it. In a Tom and Jerry like short film, Quimby really has made me think about what an audience likes to see and whats funny. for my sense of humor i found this hysterical although looking at other peoples comments they found this Punch and Judy like bater a little offensive and didn't want to watch.
This is one of his animations with a voice over. The simplicity of each object is very effective and definitely gives Chris Ware his style
His work also influenced Frank King (creator of Gasoline Alley) which is definitely worth a quick watch.
This is one of his animations with a voice over. The simplicity of each object is very effective and definitely gives Chris Ware his style
His work also influenced Frank King (creator of Gasoline Alley) which is definitely worth a quick watch.
Slight change
Loosing a lot of my imagery due to bad saving technique on the uni computers, i then had to start re-photographing the shots, so I decided to go all out and try creating slightly different lighting and imagery. Turning some of the lights off and getting a torch out helped me to create a much more "interview" like effect. it worked, so could potentially use it for the final thing.
Although this lighting and tone looked slightly better, it was taken at my flat oppose to the studio were the majority of the first images were taken. they look slightly better and the context is a little more appropriate.
As Im unable to post the link of the similar work of creaturew comforts on my blog, here is the link for it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3AAdkfiamU
Friday, 22 May 2009
Thursday, 21 May 2009
Getting there.....
Just over a week until I have to give in my final piece. So on one hand Im panicking and wondering why I spent so long deciding the exact questions I wanted and how I wanted the piece to generally look. Then on the other hand Im wondering why Im feeling so anxious because actually.... I seem to somehow know what Im doing and I do have enough time to completly edit it all.
My feeeling has compeltly changed about this project. Due to my persistancey in trying to make the audio carry the whole piece and making it strickly proffesional, the rest just all seemed to fit into it.
Problems with recording voices on the mac made me for the first time venture to parts of the college I had never quite gone before. The digital dungeon allowed me to record audio using a very effective microphone. The new audio and sound quality did take a long time to figure out and try and work in correlation with my lap top, but ended up being completly worth while.
The general relaxed attitude I had whilst interviewing the characters worked a lot better too as the interviewee's were more at ease and less aware that it was an interview this time round. A calm chatty vibe let the characters ramble on for quite a long time in some cases, just making the general audio fairly hysterical to listen to.
So now with fresh new excitement for the task and a calmer and more determined work attitude towards this, I am able to finally settle down and enjoy playing with my stop motion.
My feeeling has compeltly changed about this project. Due to my persistancey in trying to make the audio carry the whole piece and making it strickly proffesional, the rest just all seemed to fit into it.
Problems with recording voices on the mac made me for the first time venture to parts of the college I had never quite gone before. The digital dungeon allowed me to record audio using a very effective microphone. The new audio and sound quality did take a long time to figure out and try and work in correlation with my lap top, but ended up being completly worth while.
The general relaxed attitude I had whilst interviewing the characters worked a lot better too as the interviewee's were more at ease and less aware that it was an interview this time round. A calm chatty vibe let the characters ramble on for quite a long time in some cases, just making the general audio fairly hysterical to listen to.
So now with fresh new excitement for the task and a calmer and more determined work attitude towards this, I am able to finally settle down and enjoy playing with my stop motion.
Wednesday, 20 May 2009
Many problems occurring
So i literally only have a week to make this stop motion due to a bit too much research of what looks effective and a change of direction in terms of meaning and content. Now Ive hit a bit of a brick wall where it comes to the whole piece being put together and the final piece making sense and understandable. I will once again have to backtrack and find a simple and effective way of creating the question answer style audio and visuals that i was originally going to use. Perhaps a quick simple visual created in photoshop or illustrator could be an effective way of bringing it in. This would directly answer the brief in a more obvious way as the questions are put right in front of the audience and simply and effectively shown in a visual way.
After starting to figure out how to create a successful animation using a combination of the imagery and audio I had collected, I then began organizing the quotes and dividing them into the appropriate sections.
To make the video clear and understandable to the audience I wanted to literally spell out the questions. I then began to work a little more with the text. Trials and errors with different colors and text formats made me think of the piece as a whole a bit more. I eventually kept the type simple and just made everything plain and simple.
Heres a little montage of the questions and type before being edited into the final piece:
course I put some awesome music with it!
The tone of the piece is directed in a humorous and quirky way visually interesting for the first year graphics. Light hearted and intersting type is important for this task so after this first test run I decided i needed to try harder in making some funky interesting type.
After starting to figure out how to create a successful animation using a combination of the imagery and audio I had collected, I then began organizing the quotes and dividing them into the appropriate sections.
To make the video clear and understandable to the audience I wanted to literally spell out the questions. I then began to work a little more with the text. Trials and errors with different colors and text formats made me think of the piece as a whole a bit more. I eventually kept the type simple and just made everything plain and simple.
Heres a little montage of the questions and type before being edited into the final piece:
course I put some awesome music with it!
The tone of the piece is directed in a humorous and quirky way visually interesting for the first year graphics. Light hearted and intersting type is important for this task so after this first test run I decided i needed to try harder in making some funky interesting type.
Monday, 18 May 2009
Start of the interviews
First attempt at my audio.
I found it was too distorted and now clear enough. Need to find a quieter place to do it with the interviewee closer to the microphone too.
Ive not tryed useing any imagery for the visuals. The audio was the main focus for this.
I found it was too distorted and now clear enough. Need to find a quieter place to do it with the interviewee closer to the microphone too.
Ive not tryed useing any imagery for the visuals. The audio was the main focus for this.
Which ones work the best?
Testing out the objects of which ones work the best, I put all the tests of what I had already got into one video to see how effective each one is. I definitely found through doing this that the pencil case worked very well as a "mouth" type image. This will be used.
New love
Finding the prodigy's "Warrior's Dance" is probably the highlight of my week. It says on the site I found it on (its nice that), that its made from stop motion however I think digital animation would definitely have been used too.
Kates one to watch:
Kates one to watch:
Plan of action
Complete breakdown of the brief:
TASK= To identify and answer key questions bout what is actually needed stationary-wise on the first couple of weeks at college through a humorous and upbeat way.
HOW= Stop motion. Objects interviewed in an answer and question type fashion with the object having a direct relation to the context of the question asked.. Film sorted into two sections:
. opening music based sequence introducing audience to the studio
. then camera focusing into the objects for interveiw.
AUDIENCE= Freshers for the graphics year one ba course.
What now?
Effectively less then two weeks left for the final product to be finished. I want all the filming/audio done by this friday so there's room for certain aspects to be changed such as the questions which are being asked as their relevance and purpose is the most vital aspect of my piece and effectively needs to be confirmed from other opinions as being completly relevant.
Small plan for week:
Today. prepare for shooting tomorow. Get the poster wih welcomes the camera in at the begining. Get audio done. Interveiw Charlotte, Mitch and anyone else intersted.
Tomorow. Film the sequences. Get into college early to film the object in the surrounding without the rest of the class there to ruin the context of the shots.
In evening- film the opening sequence to get the studio isolated.
Wednesday. Start editing.
Thursday. Editing
Friday = crit
Heres some of the question and answers in which im intending to involve in the piece. The audio will hopefully be unplanned but I have a simple script put together to ensure i will get the relevant information out of the characters.
Script
Character 1
. So what did you bring on the first day/ week?
To be completely honest with you, I came on the first day with nothing apart from my wallet and my phone. I found out later in the week when we were actually doing activities and work, that I needed at least a pencil case or something. Then I wouldn’t have to keep borrowing my mates.
.How often do you use the library?
Well not very often because ive already got my local. I hear its fun there though and really busy on a Monday night.
NO NO
Not the pub, I mean the college library!
Oh . That library. Ye that’s open most of the time. And its defiantly worth using it on the first couple of weeks just to get a feel of it. Its good to get familiar with were it is on the first couple of weeks so you can use it to you’re advantage for as many projects necessary.
Character 2
.What stationary do you need on the first week?
Well I brought:
.a ruler
.a pen
.5 different colored biros
.a rubber
. a sharpener
. a notepad
.my Mac
.erasers
.pencils
.colored pencils
But what did you actually need?
Oh. A notepad and pen.
Character 3
Is a Mac really a necessity?
No definitely not. The college is already full of Mac’s and even a couple in the studio. However if you are looking to purchase a computer soon, Macs are the most common and best equipped for anyone in the design and creative field. So get that if your looking anyways.
TASK= To identify and answer key questions bout what is actually needed stationary-wise on the first couple of weeks at college through a humorous and upbeat way.
HOW= Stop motion. Objects interviewed in an answer and question type fashion with the object having a direct relation to the context of the question asked.. Film sorted into two sections:
. opening music based sequence introducing audience to the studio
. then camera focusing into the objects for interveiw.
AUDIENCE= Freshers for the graphics year one ba course.
What now?
Effectively less then two weeks left for the final product to be finished. I want all the filming/audio done by this friday so there's room for certain aspects to be changed such as the questions which are being asked as their relevance and purpose is the most vital aspect of my piece and effectively needs to be confirmed from other opinions as being completly relevant.
Small plan for week:
Today. prepare for shooting tomorow. Get the poster wih welcomes the camera in at the begining. Get audio done. Interveiw Charlotte, Mitch and anyone else intersted.
Tomorow. Film the sequences. Get into college early to film the object in the surrounding without the rest of the class there to ruin the context of the shots.
In evening- film the opening sequence to get the studio isolated.
Wednesday. Start editing.
Thursday. Editing
Friday = crit
Heres some of the question and answers in which im intending to involve in the piece. The audio will hopefully be unplanned but I have a simple script put together to ensure i will get the relevant information out of the characters.
Script
Character 1
. So what did you bring on the first day/ week?
To be completely honest with you, I came on the first day with nothing apart from my wallet and my phone. I found out later in the week when we were actually doing activities and work, that I needed at least a pencil case or something. Then I wouldn’t have to keep borrowing my mates.
.How often do you use the library?
Well not very often because ive already got my local. I hear its fun there though and really busy on a Monday night.
NO NO
Not the pub, I mean the college library!
Oh . That library. Ye that’s open most of the time. And its defiantly worth using it on the first couple of weeks just to get a feel of it. Its good to get familiar with were it is on the first couple of weeks so you can use it to you’re advantage for as many projects necessary.
Character 2
.What stationary do you need on the first week?
Well I brought:
.a ruler
.a pen
.5 different colored biros
.a rubber
. a sharpener
. a notepad
.my Mac
.erasers
.pencils
.colored pencils
But what did you actually need?
Oh. A notepad and pen.
Character 3
Is a Mac really a necessity?
No definitely not. The college is already full of Mac’s and even a couple in the studio. However if you are looking to purchase a computer soon, Macs are the most common and best equipped for anyone in the design and creative field. So get that if your looking anyways.
Monday, 11 May 2009
Speaking from experience
So the new project was beginning to develop. A change of plan for what I was intending to answer in the brief was now apparent. The direction I was originally heading toward with helping with location and stress in the first week, has now changed to helping with vital necessities for the first week. Equipment was specified so I've decided to similarly use the same kind of theme with the imagery, and show a direct link between the two.
The plan now is to create an Creature Comforts type animation, with simple question and answer type audio. The audio is so I can unlike the other work I have done, keep the imagery simple but effective.
I began to start investigating how the objects in question (literally), would work by movement. I found good lighting and thin string was good when trying to move part of an object. I made a test run and put a song on the background just to see how well it would work. Turns out, not very well.
Creature comforts is made in a similar stop motion way, by that Aardmin Animation company I love so much. However my work will not look as character based as their because I will be using simple objects oppose to clay.
The plan now is to create an Creature Comforts type animation, with simple question and answer type audio. The audio is so I can unlike the other work I have done, keep the imagery simple but effective.
I began to start investigating how the objects in question (literally), would work by movement. I found good lighting and thin string was good when trying to move part of an object. I made a test run and put a song on the background just to see how well it would work. Turns out, not very well.
Creature comforts is made in a similar stop motion way, by that Aardmin Animation company I love so much. However my work will not look as character based as their because I will be using simple objects oppose to clay.
Tuesday, 5 May 2009
In need of a partner
Especially since investigating me as a graphic designer, I have now seen and found that I would really like to find a partner. I need someone to bounce ideas off with an opinion and critical point of view to help me develop my ideas in the stop motion and video field. I feel at this point in graphics when Im finding obsessions its importnat to try and push that.
Heres a really original and impressive stop motion a friend found, that to be honest is really making me want someone to work with to a greater extent.
IF YOURE OUT THERE COME FIND ME!
please
Heres a really original and impressive stop motion a friend found, that to be honest is really making me want someone to work with to a greater extent.
IF YOURE OUT THERE COME FIND ME!
please
Monday, 4 May 2009
kate as a Designer....
I USED TO BE:
Lazy- my resurch had no resurch and facts. Just explored ideas that I found visually exiting and fun. I was also a lot more pretentious. I believe this was due to me wanting to find out for myself what Im good at creating in visual terms and not just that I was clueless in terms of my content and meaning. On the foundation course I felt this was actually considered secondary in terms of what is important. Now I am on a degree, I feel that my effort to investigate and therefore create a point of view or opinion with understanding, is a lot more vital and appreciated, and actually, is something Im getting quite good at.
I AM NOW:
Obsessed with parts of graphics. Reluctant to handcraft projects, which is good in terms of forcing me to use programs such as illustrator and photoshop, but bad in terms of exploring what I am good at and imporoving my presentation skills. Presentation is definetly something which I need to work on. From drawing to screen printing, I find it very hard to complete a succesful work of art. Screen printing is the hardest one at this point so I will try and include this in an upcoming project. Hit the nail on the head!
WHEN IM OLDER i WILL BE:
. Always in the no of what's going on around me, in terms of music, film and art. Important to the work produced.
. Upbeat work. I dont want to spend my life creating warning campaigns and ugly imagery just for effect. Although these kinds of campaigns are important, i dont want to let my work depress me or to get too involved in the meaning. It can sometimes just make me very emosional!
. Work that doesn't contradict any of my beliefs. I would never want to necessarily make a new campaign or logo for a MacDonnals advert, as it is against my religions and belief, despite me occasionally eating there! Something that would offend my family and friends and make me feel bad for producing, I want to stay well clear of.
Lazy- my resurch had no resurch and facts. Just explored ideas that I found visually exiting and fun. I was also a lot more pretentious. I believe this was due to me wanting to find out for myself what Im good at creating in visual terms and not just that I was clueless in terms of my content and meaning. On the foundation course I felt this was actually considered secondary in terms of what is important. Now I am on a degree, I feel that my effort to investigate and therefore create a point of view or opinion with understanding, is a lot more vital and appreciated, and actually, is something Im getting quite good at.
I AM NOW:
Obsessed with parts of graphics. Reluctant to handcraft projects, which is good in terms of forcing me to use programs such as illustrator and photoshop, but bad in terms of exploring what I am good at and imporoving my presentation skills. Presentation is definetly something which I need to work on. From drawing to screen printing, I find it very hard to complete a succesful work of art. Screen printing is the hardest one at this point so I will try and include this in an upcoming project. Hit the nail on the head!
WHEN IM OLDER i WILL BE:
. Always in the no of what's going on around me, in terms of music, film and art. Important to the work produced.
. Upbeat work. I dont want to spend my life creating warning campaigns and ugly imagery just for effect. Although these kinds of campaigns are important, i dont want to let my work depress me or to get too involved in the meaning. It can sometimes just make me very emosional!
. Work that doesn't contradict any of my beliefs. I would never want to necessarily make a new campaign or logo for a MacDonnals advert, as it is against my religions and belief, despite me occasionally eating there! Something that would offend my family and friends and make me feel bad for producing, I want to stay well clear of.
Thursday, 30 April 2009
Animation
I Met the Walrus
Found a new animation thats given my an idea for my project. So maybe I could record the advise given from my class. With their quotes and audio information based on John Lenon, I began to think about how this time, in this animation I could use perhaps the advise or description of the class. Basing my imagery on simplistic objects I could effectively use some sort of completly opposite and contrapuntal ideas.
Found a new animation thats given my an idea for my project. So maybe I could record the advise given from my class. With their quotes and audio information based on John Lenon, I began to think about how this time, in this animation I could use perhaps the advise or description of the class. Basing my imagery on simplistic objects I could effectively use some sort of completly opposite and contrapuntal ideas.
Wednesday, 29 April 2009
5 artists I would like to potentially relate to my project
Spin
Posted by Alex27 April 2009
Blank Canvas
Posted by Will27 April 2009
James Jarvis and Richard Kenworthy
Her Morning Elegance / Oren Lavie
Posted by Alex27 April 2009
Blank Canvas
Posted by Will27 April 2009
James Jarvis and Richard Kenworthy
Her Morning Elegance / Oren Lavie
Tuesday, 28 April 2009
speaking from experience
What is the problem?
The problem I have specified was :
PANICKING ON THE FIRST WEEK.
From my experience, the week goes by very slowly as you are always on edge and anxious about the new course and trying to fit into the new intense atmosphere. The best advise for this in my experience is just to calm down. Break everything down even if its just in your head and prioritize.
What are you going to do about it? (identify, inform, promote)
I would like to inform/ identify from my previous experiences of being in the first week of the course myself. My idea is to give advise of how to break the week down.
How are you going to do it?
Using humor and simple use of imagery Id like to direct my ideas through an animation sort as I am having exploring this new concept and love to the Max. I think finding humor in animation is something i have not quite found yet, as a audience understandable to me and my friends may be different to that off the whole of next years first year class. First years are the target audience effectively so covering a laughable and quirky animation is something i would anisially like to produce.
The problem I have specified was :
PANICKING ON THE FIRST WEEK.
From my experience, the week goes by very slowly as you are always on edge and anxious about the new course and trying to fit into the new intense atmosphere. The best advise for this in my experience is just to calm down. Break everything down even if its just in your head and prioritize.
What are you going to do about it? (identify, inform, promote)
I would like to inform/ identify from my previous experiences of being in the first week of the course myself. My idea is to give advise of how to break the week down.
How are you going to do it?
Using humor and simple use of imagery Id like to direct my ideas through an animation sort as I am having exploring this new concept and love to the Max. I think finding humor in animation is something i have not quite found yet, as a audience understandable to me and my friends may be different to that off the whole of next years first year class. First years are the target audience effectively so covering a laughable and quirky animation is something i would anisially like to produce.
Saturday, 18 April 2009
I like all your artwork
A band called the noisettes which I have been a pretty big fan of for quite a while now have a new album out. The type was so unbelievably rad In the next few days I may try and take it on myself.
My own little attempt. No were near as good though, the thought was there though:
Day out with the Origional Madame Fenton
So its the Friday before Im going back and despite already gradually making my way through various London art galleries and exhibitions, Im still insanely bored and looking for places to go with only my oyster card to hand. So mother Fenton steps in.
She took me to the Science museum in London were a Wallace and Grommit exhibition had just started. The obbsesive nerd that I am made me jump at the chance. Here is some of the set that was showcased:
I had actually seen most of the sets for this specific part of the movie before, when I visited the Aardman studio's a couple of years ago. But there was definitely something very refreshing and inspiring to see it again.
After the exhibition, we went to the Imax to watch an underwater 3D animated documentary. It was really fun, plus, it definitely made me more eager to go snorkeling and cadge diving when I eventually go cadge diving. The underwater is Awsome!!!
Origional Madame Fenton.... and what a legend she is! ....
She took me to the Science museum in London were a Wallace and Grommit exhibition had just started. The obbsesive nerd that I am made me jump at the chance. Here is some of the set that was showcased:
I had actually seen most of the sets for this specific part of the movie before, when I visited the Aardman studio's a couple of years ago. But there was definitely something very refreshing and inspiring to see it again.
After the exhibition, we went to the Imax to watch an underwater 3D animated documentary. It was really fun, plus, it definitely made me more eager to go snorkeling and cadge diving when I eventually go cadge diving. The underwater is Awsome!!!
Origional Madame Fenton.... and what a legend she is! ....
Tuesday, 14 April 2009
Making videos to keep me SANE
So Id never thought Id say it but this easter break has actually been fairly boring. Being recently graced with a whole load of new music, I felt compelled to try more music animation as I was having many ideas and small themes despite not haveing a context or brief.
My logic first came from working directly with music and imagery more and finding an appropriate balance to the kind of music and the image or shapes being used.
After this anisial use of simple photgraphy and a few light changes on photoshop, I than began working more with the music in hand and breaking it down into the instuments used and the time and movement.
That led me to my next video.
My logic first came from working directly with music and imagery more and finding an appropriate balance to the kind of music and the image or shapes being used.
After this anisial use of simple photgraphy and a few light changes on photoshop, I than began working more with the music in hand and breaking it down into the instuments used and the time and movement.
That led me to my next video.
Tuesday, 31 March 2009
Visual Language Module evaluation
What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
My skills have developed a huge amount through this module. I really took into consideration at the beginning of the module when the brief was given, how at this stage I thought I was a graphic designer. From last years Final major project on foundation I found that my imagery side of creating any piece of either video or photography was strong so I wanted to make enfaces on that , and stop motion I felt was appropriate as i had such a long period of time to investigate it. this was defiantly the best decision i have made it in the year so far as I am very confident in this technique now and eager to learn more about it and develop my skills. Because this module didn't have a specific final piece to create, the resolution was my main focus, which effectively was to try and show all the skills I had learn over the weeks and put it in a sequence that made sense. Creating an effective piece of imagery that had a meaning I found hard in this task and later realized that actually the question of whats a line could more simply be answered through visual language and sequence of objects that was anisially asked in the brief. Overcomplicating this aspect may have potentially lost me time in the brief, but It was still all trial and era at that stage and can definitely be seen as investigation towards the final resolution.
What approaches to/methods of research have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?
My method started specifically with the stop motion and photography so this was a consistent form of research/development into the final sequence in itself. At the start, we were given the perspective classes alongside the whats a line work that we were doing, so i combined them as earlier sequence and photography work fitted in well with it. Story boards were also a major factor to all my development research and towards the end I began to find more effective ways of doing these without needing to necessarily draw the idea out, which i am not confident in doing.
What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
This module has defiantly allowed me to develop and find my style, as far as imagery and message is involved. Creating concepts and meaning was were my attention was focused and now i have got into a routine of having to plan my idea, then test run until it effectively works. I also found that especially with this kind of stop frame animation that was being created, it was good to take a step back sometimes and either analyze or get other people to analyze the work I was beginning to create. Thats why crits were so important to me this module. Photography skills have been improved because of this module, which is definitely evident after looking back at the first stop frames I had created. Being very influenced in music I kept trying to bring this element by figuring which kind of sounds and imagery worked the best together. I felt some actually worked very well.
What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these more fully?
I definitely dint use this module to my advantage in practicing my drawing and simple imagery work. This has always been my poorest element of design, and I really regret not using the opportunity to try and create work in which the class could give me feedback on. This kind of process would have perhaps given me focus in this area, encouraging me to use a more drawn based approach to my work from this point on. Saying this I do not regret the obsessive nature and excitement I now have when it comes to video animation as this has given me a good focus and even a fun hobby to have now throughout my graphic career.
Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
1.Definitely use the oppertunity to be abkle to draw more and even screen print, with such a long project, I should have used the opportunity to focus on elements I vitally needed to progress on
2.I would use more of a brainstorming stage at the begining to experiment and see what visually works best with what Im trying to say. Explore anisial ideas more
3.I would document my work as I go along more. Story boards via the computer are easy to achieve, I should have realized and focus on detailed accounts of work like this at an earlier stage.
4.asked opinions more about what works the best. The work is better assessed by a completly new person who hadn't seen it before, so i should have created surveys to try and receive effective feedback.
5. Not panicked as the process went along. I compared my work to other peoples a lot in this module. Effectively it made me work harder because peoples physical drawing and painting work made me think I had done no were near enough work, were in fact I was on target and it was going fine.
This is how I'd grade myself in the following areas:
1. attendance -5
2. Punctuality -5
3. Motivation- 4
4. Commitment-3
5. Quantity of work produced-4
6. Quality of work produced- 3
7. Contribution to the group-3
My skills have developed a huge amount through this module. I really took into consideration at the beginning of the module when the brief was given, how at this stage I thought I was a graphic designer. From last years Final major project on foundation I found that my imagery side of creating any piece of either video or photography was strong so I wanted to make enfaces on that , and stop motion I felt was appropriate as i had such a long period of time to investigate it. this was defiantly the best decision i have made it in the year so far as I am very confident in this technique now and eager to learn more about it and develop my skills. Because this module didn't have a specific final piece to create, the resolution was my main focus, which effectively was to try and show all the skills I had learn over the weeks and put it in a sequence that made sense. Creating an effective piece of imagery that had a meaning I found hard in this task and later realized that actually the question of whats a line could more simply be answered through visual language and sequence of objects that was anisially asked in the brief. Overcomplicating this aspect may have potentially lost me time in the brief, but It was still all trial and era at that stage and can definitely be seen as investigation towards the final resolution.
What approaches to/methods of research have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?
My method started specifically with the stop motion and photography so this was a consistent form of research/development into the final sequence in itself. At the start, we were given the perspective classes alongside the whats a line work that we were doing, so i combined them as earlier sequence and photography work fitted in well with it. Story boards were also a major factor to all my development research and towards the end I began to find more effective ways of doing these without needing to necessarily draw the idea out, which i am not confident in doing.
What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
This module has defiantly allowed me to develop and find my style, as far as imagery and message is involved. Creating concepts and meaning was were my attention was focused and now i have got into a routine of having to plan my idea, then test run until it effectively works. I also found that especially with this kind of stop frame animation that was being created, it was good to take a step back sometimes and either analyze or get other people to analyze the work I was beginning to create. Thats why crits were so important to me this module. Photography skills have been improved because of this module, which is definitely evident after looking back at the first stop frames I had created. Being very influenced in music I kept trying to bring this element by figuring which kind of sounds and imagery worked the best together. I felt some actually worked very well.
What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these more fully?
I definitely dint use this module to my advantage in practicing my drawing and simple imagery work. This has always been my poorest element of design, and I really regret not using the opportunity to try and create work in which the class could give me feedback on. This kind of process would have perhaps given me focus in this area, encouraging me to use a more drawn based approach to my work from this point on. Saying this I do not regret the obsessive nature and excitement I now have when it comes to video animation as this has given me a good focus and even a fun hobby to have now throughout my graphic career.
Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
1.Definitely use the oppertunity to be abkle to draw more and even screen print, with such a long project, I should have used the opportunity to focus on elements I vitally needed to progress on
2.I would use more of a brainstorming stage at the begining to experiment and see what visually works best with what Im trying to say. Explore anisial ideas more
3.I would document my work as I go along more. Story boards via the computer are easy to achieve, I should have realized and focus on detailed accounts of work like this at an earlier stage.
4.asked opinions more about what works the best. The work is better assessed by a completly new person who hadn't seen it before, so i should have created surveys to try and receive effective feedback.
5. Not panicked as the process went along. I compared my work to other peoples a lot in this module. Effectively it made me work harder because peoples physical drawing and painting work made me think I had done no were near enough work, were in fact I was on target and it was going fine.
This is how I'd grade myself in the following areas:
1. attendance -5
2. Punctuality -5
3. Motivation- 4
4. Commitment-3
5. Quantity of work produced-4
6. Quality of work produced- 3
7. Contribution to the group-3
Monday, 30 March 2009
New week... new partner
So new partner to be paired up with and I have a real gooden! Liam hine... otherwise known as Hiney. Had to find out about him via a series of questions I had written about him and a quick search through the blog. One thing I was informed about this exercise was about some artists and eras which is really quite exiting. Liam is very interested in Russian constructivism and the Avant Garde. Specific influences inlcude Alexander Rodchenko and H.NWerkman. Not knowing anything about them, im looking forward to finding out about these specific artists. WOOOP WOOOP
Fenton the Feminist?
So after my critical studies essay were I based my work on equality and sexism shown through media and advertisements, I then found a new artist in which is now a bit of a hero of mine. Jacky Flemings who created the book “Be a bloody Train Driver”, made the question of how women are stereotypically seen, and made it a number one best seller. The original and comical short stories are humorous to any audience with its simplicity and irony.
Friday, 27 March 2009
final resolutions for communication is a virus
This was the final outcome of that weeks investigation. The outcome developed from work throughout the week which questioned how people can communicate more. Our final concept came from the idea that communication could simply be made in an airport through the means of creating some sort of language between passengers in which firstly makes them laugh or smile, and secondly makes them communicate.
Thursday, 26 March 2009
The Brief
The brief is to try and get people to communicate. We are doing this through offering a joke which can be understood in many languages. We have done this through type. The message is placed in an airport were it seemed to us as the main area were tension would need to be calmed and the general mood would need to be improved. By communication, we are trying our best to distract the travellers by grabbing their attention which would normally be on waiting in line at the check in queue.
Concept / Proposal
The design of a gradually told knock knock joke, which is non offensive, simple and family friendly, which can simply be positioned on the floor of a airport, heading towards the check in queue.
Tone of voice
Friendly but bold. Simple but interesting language.
Deliverables
A2 mount boards representing our project proposal, the actual concept itself and the concept in its appropriate location, ie) the airport.
The brief is to try and get people to communicate. We are doing this through offering a joke which can be understood in many languages. We have done this through type. The message is placed in an airport were it seemed to us as the main area were tension would need to be calmed and the general mood would need to be improved. By communication, we are trying our best to distract the travellers by grabbing their attention which would normally be on waiting in line at the check in queue.
Concept / Proposal
The design of a gradually told knock knock joke, which is non offensive, simple and family friendly, which can simply be positioned on the floor of a airport, heading towards the check in queue.
Tone of voice
Friendly but bold. Simple but interesting language.
Deliverables
A2 mount boards representing our project proposal, the actual concept itself and the concept in its appropriate location, ie) the airport.
Tuesday, 24 March 2009
Final piece for what's a line
So I finally completed my final piece which was a huge improvement from the second to last one I made were I was having multiple problems with many important factors such as the resolution of the photographs and the ay the sequence was generally put together. Saying that Im glad I tried to spontaneously create it otherwise some issues may have been resolved too last minuet for me to sort out. Before I got to the final piece stage I also back tracked a little to try and resolve issues and generally lay down thoughts onto paper in the form of mind maps and brainstorms. Doing this definitely helped me and its something I realized I potentially should have done at a earlier stage, to help me decide on key points early on. All the way through I was having problems combining all the ideas I was having after seeing sequences and other animation which had caught my interest. I eventually decided to keep to the same objects and idea but simplify what I was trying to create.
Concepts that I wanted to successfully develop was a successfully transition between stop frame animation and the work I had started to create as a sequence on photoshop. This was way to ambitious for this stage and is something now im actually going to teach myself throughout the holiday. Although I created far to many stop frames then were necessary, I see them all as being as part of my research which enabled me to make decisions on what I wanted to say.
Right at the beginning I had used anitial photographs of toys that I actually found very effective in terms of relating back to the brief. From the simple title of what's a line..... I automatically saw sequenced and colorful imagery in my mind. Not remembering objects Id seen or any kind of imagery of my early child life, I began to think about what kind of weird illusions i could potentially have seen as a youngster. Everything would be likely to be big and colorful and fantasy-like.
Throughout my work I have tested and in my opinion found solutions which take simplistic and relatable toys and make them into visually interesting pieces for an older generation. The pieces such as Intergalactic, makes use of trying to investigate what looks effective to an older audience. The green play dough which gradually changes from a babies face into a green monster with arms, makes the image quite disturbing and the old school beastie boys soundtrack makes the piece only really effective in the more knowledgeable eyes of an adult. This effectively has made a piece of language anisially started as investigating for a smaller and underdeveloped audience, into one for a much older one. It almost mimics how we see Imagery in patterns and sequences.
Concepts that I wanted to successfully develop was a successfully transition between stop frame animation and the work I had started to create as a sequence on photoshop. This was way to ambitious for this stage and is something now im actually going to teach myself throughout the holiday. Although I created far to many stop frames then were necessary, I see them all as being as part of my research which enabled me to make decisions on what I wanted to say.
Right at the beginning I had used anitial photographs of toys that I actually found very effective in terms of relating back to the brief. From the simple title of what's a line..... I automatically saw sequenced and colorful imagery in my mind. Not remembering objects Id seen or any kind of imagery of my early child life, I began to think about what kind of weird illusions i could potentially have seen as a youngster. Everything would be likely to be big and colorful and fantasy-like.
Throughout my work I have tested and in my opinion found solutions which take simplistic and relatable toys and make them into visually interesting pieces for an older generation. The pieces such as Intergalactic, makes use of trying to investigate what looks effective to an older audience. The green play dough which gradually changes from a babies face into a green monster with arms, makes the image quite disturbing and the old school beastie boys soundtrack makes the piece only really effective in the more knowledgeable eyes of an adult. This effectively has made a piece of language anisially started as investigating for a smaller and underdeveloped audience, into one for a much older one. It almost mimics how we see Imagery in patterns and sequences.
Sunday, 22 March 2009
Last mock up--- i promise
So today I was determined to completle the finish product for my whats a line...... but usual senario..... mid way I decided it was right so attempted to carry on then just move to the next subject. At this point though I had now decided on the
subject..... toys... all the ones that worked well in this sequence... the barbie, play dough and the ball
song..... mr scruff.... great choise... no lyrics but fun, different and upbeat
photography... the white wall worked the best... either the bit on the shelf or on the white window ledge... a lot of light made that image work well
subject..... toys... all the ones that worked well in this sequence... the barbie, play dough and the ball
song..... mr scruff.... great choise... no lyrics but fun, different and upbeat
photography... the white wall worked the best... either the bit on the shelf or on the white window ledge... a lot of light made that image work well
Friday, 20 March 2009
New friend week.......
Monday the 16th of March, we were given a new brief. Choosing a partner from posters we has made, which advertised our skills and the skills we were looking for, we then got given "Communication is a virus" as a theme. Me and my partner (Ironically also a Kate), chose communication as a specific of what we wanted to achieve in the final imagery. After much consideration and discussion into what instant audience we wanted to do we chose a specific place/audience and outcome, which to us, seemed the most important aspect of this week's long task.
Journeys was were our subject began which then progressed into imagery and posters that specifically would be deigned to be shown in Airports. We came to this conclusion as airports would be the place or journey type with the most amount of time to spare, and would normally also be labeled a place were anxiety is high and nerves occur, due to recent activity and terrorism attacks around the world. With our Smile concept that came out of communication, we decided the idea of making people smile and more comfortable in an airport was a fairly sturdy and fair message.
Me and Kate then started creating little mock ups and deciding on specific things the poster or series of poster would need to say. A family friendly/ travelers type of advertisement was were the project ended up going. Although originally we were looking more at audience and trying to create ways of discouraging younger generations to read the posters as older travelers are were are potential audience was going to be at that stage. Looking at places on transport were adults would be limited to made it a little too specific at such an early stage. The only place we could think of was the tall and high bar handles which technically only the older age group would be able to reach... so therefore making the older folk happier in their traveling location.
Journeys was were our subject began which then progressed into imagery and posters that specifically would be deigned to be shown in Airports. We came to this conclusion as airports would be the place or journey type with the most amount of time to spare, and would normally also be labeled a place were anxiety is high and nerves occur, due to recent activity and terrorism attacks around the world. With our Smile concept that came out of communication, we decided the idea of making people smile and more comfortable in an airport was a fairly sturdy and fair message.
Me and Kate then started creating little mock ups and deciding on specific things the poster or series of poster would need to say. A family friendly/ travelers type of advertisement was were the project ended up going. Although originally we were looking more at audience and trying to create ways of discouraging younger generations to read the posters as older travelers are were are potential audience was going to be at that stage. Looking at places on transport were adults would be limited to made it a little too specific at such an early stage. The only place we could think of was the tall and high bar handles which technically only the older age group would be able to reach... so therefore making the older folk happier in their traveling location.
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
More research- via stop motion
My next step was to fnd exactly how I wanted to create my pice. How I could I use this transition of showing a distinctive layer change which would provide the piece to change its tone or motion half way through. For this piece I just used a contrast level to test this variation.
Text or not text
At this point in my build up to the stop motion finale, I had to decide what exactly was my context and what I wanted to put in the final piece...
I new a few things for sure.
1. it would be based on scale---- perspective imagery was strong now
2. The imagery used would be small toys. As was used throughout this project.
3. It was going include music--- but no lyrics to whatever song it was.
4. There would be some sort of transition between adapted photoshop or illustator created image, and simple photographic stop-motion.
At this point I begin I looked back at all the stop motions I had done.... The one named "my first try at stop-motion" was by far the most effective. It had sequence which showed the line in some sort of context which the others didn't seem to do.
Heres a advert I found on you tube. Similar sence in humor- similar problem of createing video in context.
I new a few things for sure.
1. it would be based on scale---- perspective imagery was strong now
2. The imagery used would be small toys. As was used throughout this project.
3. It was going include music--- but no lyrics to whatever song it was.
4. There would be some sort of transition between adapted photoshop or illustator created image, and simple photographic stop-motion.
At this point I begin I looked back at all the stop motions I had done.... The one named "my first try at stop-motion" was by far the most effective. It had sequence which showed the line in some sort of context which the others didn't seem to do.
Heres a advert I found on you tube. Similar sence in humor- similar problem of createing video in context.
Sunday, 15 March 2009
Towards the end of the project
As I was originally going to create an advertising campaign around my blog in which was going to this specific audience, I wanted to started creating a range of product in which I could simply put the logo on. I started testing what It would be like on a coffee cup as one of my strongest of the ideas.
The end of this project presented a few problems for me. Although I had worked hard on the image/logo which introduced my blog and the text and layout, I felt the final ideas put forward and content of the actual ideas weren't there. Some very valid points came in a crit suggesting that I should have talked in third person and that the language I used needed to be more intelectual---- basically check spellings and language. I will change these points in the near future as this is the main focus of my work. The target audience is a property developer or business class, so I definitely need to go back to alter anything suggesting an ammeter has written the blog, although technically they (I) have.
Interesting look at stop motion
I found this stop motion which unlike the others I had found and seen, was a bit dark. There were needles and scary looking animations which were simply made out of objects such as gloves. I found this was a bit similar to my childish approach to what happens when you cross a line. Simple child-used objects I find makes a piece of film lot more sinister and offbeat. This animation used a good correlation of the film and objects used with the music that was chosen. Although the tone of my pieces normally work very well with the music, it also can create an instant confusion to the message I am trying to create when the music has lyrics. On this note (no pun intended) I will choose the music for the piece a lot earlier on in which I can then create a mood, and then scene by scene set up how and what I am going to film. Hopefully this will help me create a direct link between the line project and what I am trying to say, something that has been evident to me to be a problem in past films.
Friday, 13 March 2009
happy red nose day
So its red nose day.... and after the rediculously humerous cadburys advert in which two children create an eyebrow dance, they decided to make a red nose version which has been broadcast on Youtube. Enjoy.....
To buy or not buy...
A week ago we were given the brief of picking a page in the book "How to do" 1000 things. I chose the number 204 the book instructed me at chapter 204 "How to Buy to Let". This was initially a shocking How To in which I was convinced I would be bored galore! Then I started to think about the best way to go about it in which I would have to help also inform the public about this property based task. Being targeted at anyone looking to prophet, a more wealthy or property based businessmen was my specific target audience, especially in the time of such a strong recession.
The headlining article on The Times Business Website:
From The Times
March 13, 2009
G20 summit: Britain calls for sweeping powers to curb banks
Philip Webster and Suzy Jagger
Radical powers for financial regulators to step in to stop banks around the world overextending themselves with “catastrophic” consequences will be proposed by Britain today.
Alistair Darling will suggest that the Financial Services Authority and its counterparts elsewhere should monitor the overall financial positions of banks and other institutions to preempt irresponsible behaviour.
They would intervene to stop banks “overleveraging” if their capital reserves are not large enough to balance the loans they have made. The regulator would effectively be able to prevent a repeat of episodes such as the takeover of ABN Amro by Royal Bank of Scotland, Treasury sources disclosed.
The plan, one of Britain’s main proposals for the G20 summit on April 2, will be discussed by world finance ministers at a hotel in Sussex tonight.
As I was sure of this specific audience range (business or property based type), and I had located what In my opinion would be their main source of News which was Money related. The short article struck me as showing great concern in how the banks are developing a lesser chance of being able to loan money to their costumes which could be very damaging to the finances of the Uk. This would obviously mean Mortgages are harder to fund for them, therefore automatically leaving a gap in the option for people to buy or sell a property. From my own experience, my brother has been trying to sell his property in a good area in London for about the last year and a half, not being able to get much interest, he has basically given up.
Buying to Let although, is a different case. As the property market is making it hard to get a mortgadge, letting is better option if needing to amediatly move somewere. With a fixed income and not a huge amount of money to dispose on buying a new property, letting is a lot of peoples best options.
My next step was working out how to go about getting this advise and organized information in the right context. Creating a blog was an accessible way for them at work or in the home environment to be able to seek this advise. As this was based on factual and statistical information a natural option as a graphic designer would be to try and create realtable and understandable typography or an effective logo.
The earlier stages of this project was uncertain for me as I thought I was going to try and discover the difference between buying and letting... Buying and Letting. But as I later researched Buying to Let is a lot different and would obviously have a target audience. Along these lines... I began making posters aimed at students with logo's which could potentially be created as some sort of campaign to help students with Letting a property as would be done whilst at university or after a graduate course.
The website was made up and just an example of how I could begin with this campaign, which after I found the meaning of the "How to" was admittedly a waste of time.
The headlining article on The Times Business Website:
From The Times
March 13, 2009
G20 summit: Britain calls for sweeping powers to curb banks
Philip Webster and Suzy Jagger
Radical powers for financial regulators to step in to stop banks around the world overextending themselves with “catastrophic” consequences will be proposed by Britain today.
Alistair Darling will suggest that the Financial Services Authority and its counterparts elsewhere should monitor the overall financial positions of banks and other institutions to preempt irresponsible behaviour.
They would intervene to stop banks “overleveraging” if their capital reserves are not large enough to balance the loans they have made. The regulator would effectively be able to prevent a repeat of episodes such as the takeover of ABN Amro by Royal Bank of Scotland, Treasury sources disclosed.
The plan, one of Britain’s main proposals for the G20 summit on April 2, will be discussed by world finance ministers at a hotel in Sussex tonight.
As I was sure of this specific audience range (business or property based type), and I had located what In my opinion would be their main source of News which was Money related. The short article struck me as showing great concern in how the banks are developing a lesser chance of being able to loan money to their costumes which could be very damaging to the finances of the Uk. This would obviously mean Mortgages are harder to fund for them, therefore automatically leaving a gap in the option for people to buy or sell a property. From my own experience, my brother has been trying to sell his property in a good area in London for about the last year and a half, not being able to get much interest, he has basically given up.
Buying to Let although, is a different case. As the property market is making it hard to get a mortgadge, letting is better option if needing to amediatly move somewere. With a fixed income and not a huge amount of money to dispose on buying a new property, letting is a lot of peoples best options.
My next step was working out how to go about getting this advise and organized information in the right context. Creating a blog was an accessible way for them at work or in the home environment to be able to seek this advise. As this was based on factual and statistical information a natural option as a graphic designer would be to try and create realtable and understandable typography or an effective logo.
The earlier stages of this project was uncertain for me as I thought I was going to try and discover the difference between buying and letting... Buying and Letting. But as I later researched Buying to Let is a lot different and would obviously have a target audience. Along these lines... I began making posters aimed at students with logo's which could potentially be created as some sort of campaign to help students with Letting a property as would be done whilst at university or after a graduate course.
The website was made up and just an example of how I could begin with this campaign, which after I found the meaning of the "How to" was admittedly a waste of time.
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
3 Rules and Statement of intent
3 Rules from this point on about my "What's a line brief"....
. No more stop motion for a few days! Focus on drawings and new Media
. Story bored and plan everything you do. So far there is not much logic to work apart from blog work. Now illustrate whilst progressing the themes
. Think about context more. Specify exactly what you want to get out of the brief as well as identifying what the problems is. This has to relate back to the body of research.
Statement of intent from this point on:
With just under a month now I need to finish developing the logic of my pieces. This I found is best done by story boards and basic sketching. I need to do this anyway as my drawing skills need to be vastly improved. I have found quick ways of going about this planning and logging of illustrative ideas, and this will help me to use basic methods for planning so I can now focus still on the video making side of it. My problem to this point is that I have too many short films now that are actually just made as part of my research process. Now I want to take time for this last one as a method of resolving all these problems I had with the first few films. Its all been trial and error to this point and there's a few different kinds of ways I have already gone about it, now with this break of making the films, I can take some time to actually analyze which ones worked and went well.
An idea I had was to do a survey interactively regarding the short animations I had made. Ask my fellow colleges which animations works the best and why!
Ideas I had for these final resolutions was to literally do sequences illustrating what happens when you "Cross a line" or in other words anger it. These are quite fun to do and fairly understandable when the element of a toy is brought in too.
. No more stop motion for a few days! Focus on drawings and new Media
. Story bored and plan everything you do. So far there is not much logic to work apart from blog work. Now illustrate whilst progressing the themes
. Think about context more. Specify exactly what you want to get out of the brief as well as identifying what the problems is. This has to relate back to the body of research.
Statement of intent from this point on:
With just under a month now I need to finish developing the logic of my pieces. This I found is best done by story boards and basic sketching. I need to do this anyway as my drawing skills need to be vastly improved. I have found quick ways of going about this planning and logging of illustrative ideas, and this will help me to use basic methods for planning so I can now focus still on the video making side of it. My problem to this point is that I have too many short films now that are actually just made as part of my research process. Now I want to take time for this last one as a method of resolving all these problems I had with the first few films. Its all been trial and error to this point and there's a few different kinds of ways I have already gone about it, now with this break of making the films, I can take some time to actually analyze which ones worked and went well.
An idea I had was to do a survey interactively regarding the short animations I had made. Ask my fellow colleges which animations works the best and why!
Ideas I had for these final resolutions was to literally do sequences illustrating what happens when you "Cross a line" or in other words anger it. These are quite fun to do and fairly understandable when the element of a toy is brought in too.
Monday, 2 March 2009
Crossing a Line
So I took this line thing to a new level.
. Create a charcter
. Create a setting
. Introduce the line
. Create a reason why the line would apparently be mad at the character.........
and you get this.............
The music I used is from the Juno soundtrack. As I was still creating the animations around childlike toys I wanted to support that with the music choice. The playful story has gone quite nicely with the indie sounding song.
Incase the story is hard to understand....... The Koala is stealing money from the bank, hence crossing the line. The line then begins to torment him making him run away. Doesn't make sense to you, BUT IT DOES TO ME!
Similar work in that of "adam and Jo" , two men who use a similar concept to spoof already made films and tv shows. They use toys similar to me and cleverly word their creations such as:
.Toytanic
.Furends- spoof of "Friends"
. Chew've Been Framed
I loved their originality and different concepts and themes in their films.
. Create a charcter
. Create a setting
. Introduce the line
. Create a reason why the line would apparently be mad at the character.........
and you get this.............
The music I used is from the Juno soundtrack. As I was still creating the animations around childlike toys I wanted to support that with the music choice. The playful story has gone quite nicely with the indie sounding song.
Incase the story is hard to understand....... The Koala is stealing money from the bank, hence crossing the line. The line then begins to torment him making him run away. Doesn't make sense to you, BUT IT DOES TO ME!
Similar work in that of "adam and Jo" , two men who use a similar concept to spoof already made films and tv shows. They use toys similar to me and cleverly word their creations such as:
.Toytanic
.Furends- spoof of "Friends"
. Chew've Been Framed
I loved their originality and different concepts and themes in their films.
Pure
"PURE" was a week project in which we had to create an appropriate response to the word. Thinking and imagining Purity in context of religion I decided this would be the most suitable route. When It came to mind I was seeing virgin Marys and halo's and even crucifix. This then to me brought up the question of why I did think of it. Im not Christian, so why was It that I would relate a possitive and God-like word to someone else's religion. An other religion was Buddhism. I then briefly looked into trying to create some sort of imagery mimicking the Hindu Elephant Ganesh. I did this by correlating it to the students of 2009.... so my mind instantly took me to using a beer bong as a trunk.
No students were harmed in the making......
This image above was tried and tried again.... I tried to create the setting so the light of the lamp behind my friend who create a ring around her head much like a halo.... TURNS OUT THIS IS QUITE HARD TO DO!
This is Ganesh - The basis of my attempt.
This idea of developing my own set of images with cultural relevance began to form. I wanted to mimic what the poses and positioning were saying though our modern day spin on it. For example my friend kindly created a symbolic preying pose for me, much like the Madonna would tend to do. I then on photoshop began to play with these images for different effects. This one in particular turned out looking very classic in the sense that the quality is much like an old painting.
Then Virgin Mary images started forming.... the bottle symbolic for the role of a baby in the original classic images.
The red cloak worked well as a draping effect which was similar to that of which Mary would wear, but the colour was wrong and actually ended up making my friend look like red ridding hood. I then was able to change the colour of the cloak for the final pice to show more similarities to the original.
An other small photoshoot i created was about the same theme with a different approche and a different model.... i used the virgin mary look to the extreme this time and tryed pushing the boundaries. Un intensionally its actually eneded up looking quite like mug shots of virgin Mary, which almost has created a hole new concept in itself..... AND ITS ONE I LIKE!
No students were harmed in the making......
This image above was tried and tried again.... I tried to create the setting so the light of the lamp behind my friend who create a ring around her head much like a halo.... TURNS OUT THIS IS QUITE HARD TO DO!
This is Ganesh - The basis of my attempt.
This idea of developing my own set of images with cultural relevance began to form. I wanted to mimic what the poses and positioning were saying though our modern day spin on it. For example my friend kindly created a symbolic preying pose for me, much like the Madonna would tend to do. I then on photoshop began to play with these images for different effects. This one in particular turned out looking very classic in the sense that the quality is much like an old painting.
Then Virgin Mary images started forming.... the bottle symbolic for the role of a baby in the original classic images.
The red cloak worked well as a draping effect which was similar to that of which Mary would wear, but the colour was wrong and actually ended up making my friend look like red ridding hood. I then was able to change the colour of the cloak for the final pice to show more similarities to the original.
An other small photoshoot i created was about the same theme with a different approche and a different model.... i used the virgin mary look to the extreme this time and tryed pushing the boundaries. Un intensionally its actually eneded up looking quite like mug shots of virgin Mary, which almost has created a hole new concept in itself..... AND ITS ONE I LIKE!
Just a little appreciation for Henry Moore
For many years I had been interested in Henry Moores work. I found a sculpture I had created when I was in the Sixth Form at school. Being a main founder of Leeds College of Art and Design...... why not put it in... Its the best sculpture I have done to date! If I can say so myself.
Thursday, 26 February 2009
What next with my lines.......
So after some thinking about how I could next explore "what's a line" I wanted to try bringing in new creative elements to keep my interest level going with the stop motion and generally with subjects and areas of this I am interested in. My thoughts went into how I could create story lines and sequences with a focused theme of Lines..... The idea went then to progressing a line and theme and then it transformed into an other story of some kind. I would potentially like to combine photography stop motion with the kind of work I am doing on photoshop. The two kinds of animation in one sequence would show a huge separation so I could perhaps develop that into a fantasy or parallel world.... Shown through a line.
Heres a short montage of some of these ideas expolred via the photoshop animations. And on the end are other clips I hadn't used that to be honest just went wrong. Development work i will call it!
This similar theme of lines that are created into other objects or lines were taken from the opening sequence of catch me if you can. The film, made in 2002, was what made me want to go into art and graphics. I used to rewind the sequence so many times that I normally wouldn't end up watching the actual movie!
Heres a short montage of some of these ideas expolred via the photoshop animations. And on the end are other clips I hadn't used that to be honest just went wrong. Development work i will call it!
This similar theme of lines that are created into other objects or lines were taken from the opening sequence of catch me if you can. The film, made in 2002, was what made me want to go into art and graphics. I used to rewind the sequence so many times that I normally wouldn't end up watching the actual movie!
Friday, 13 February 2009
Evaluation of module
What practical skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
A main practical skill I learnt this module is how to use more of a logical and effective way of researching my work. I reached methods that I enjoyed and this definitely worked to my benefit. Although Photoshop and the In Design have helped me develop my skills, I feel this module, these workshops have been the only aspect of learning that have given me genuine input into how to create professional work. Although I had learnt from book binding and the research workshops, the computer workshops helped me develop skills that at this point, are a lot more visible and easier to use in other aspects of the course.
Although I regret not managing enough time for the final product in this module, I do however feel my time management has improved as I am working constantly throughout and uploading work on the blogger as I go along which makes it easier.
What approaches to/methods of problem solving have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?
This module has helped me to see how to find and create research using much more interesting and in a scene random forms and styles of communication too.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
My work is definitely full of more ideas this module and I have tried developing these with trial and error exercises which I have mainly photographically documented.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these more fully?
Through this module my weakness has defiantly lied with all my final outcomes. I felt with every project this module that I didn’t have a good looking final outcome that I could be proud of. They all consisted of a lot of ideas backed up by research which although the module was about, I still feel a better outcome would have been more appropriate. The research in this module may have also needed to be more statistical as I have research and information but not compared any of them and put them into graphs and databases etc.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
1. Plan time more effectively, especially with a 5 week project
2. When being given small one week projects, try and think about it more in the big picture, as part of the final outcome, and not as a side project. Focus on the theme.
3. Identify purpose and content at an earlier stage
4. Find new ways of researching.
5.Document work as I go along more. Use blogger to its full advantage. `
I would grade myself in the following areas as:
attendance . 5
punctuality. 5
Motivation. 4
Commitment. 2
Quantity of work produced. 5
Quality of work produced. 1
Contribution to the group. 5
A main practical skill I learnt this module is how to use more of a logical and effective way of researching my work. I reached methods that I enjoyed and this definitely worked to my benefit. Although Photoshop and the In Design have helped me develop my skills, I feel this module, these workshops have been the only aspect of learning that have given me genuine input into how to create professional work. Although I had learnt from book binding and the research workshops, the computer workshops helped me develop skills that at this point, are a lot more visible and easier to use in other aspects of the course.
Although I regret not managing enough time for the final product in this module, I do however feel my time management has improved as I am working constantly throughout and uploading work on the blogger as I go along which makes it easier.
What approaches to/methods of problem solving have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?
This module has helped me to see how to find and create research using much more interesting and in a scene random forms and styles of communication too.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
My work is definitely full of more ideas this module and I have tried developing these with trial and error exercises which I have mainly photographically documented.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these more fully?
Through this module my weakness has defiantly lied with all my final outcomes. I felt with every project this module that I didn’t have a good looking final outcome that I could be proud of. They all consisted of a lot of ideas backed up by research which although the module was about, I still feel a better outcome would have been more appropriate. The research in this module may have also needed to be more statistical as I have research and information but not compared any of them and put them into graphs and databases etc.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
1. Plan time more effectively, especially with a 5 week project
2. When being given small one week projects, try and think about it more in the big picture, as part of the final outcome, and not as a side project. Focus on the theme.
3. Identify purpose and content at an earlier stage
4. Find new ways of researching.
5.Document work as I go along more. Use blogger to its full advantage. `
I would grade myself in the following areas as:
attendance . 5
punctuality. 5
Motivation. 4
Commitment. 2
Quantity of work produced. 5
Quality of work produced. 1
Contribution to the group. 5
Thursday, 12 February 2009
Book project evaluation
My problem was directed specifically at students and recycling. The fact that not many students in fact recycle or even have the facilities I found quite alarming. I tried to use many ways of investigating my research. Some were simply surveys to my target audience via face book, some were video documentation and some were photographs I had posed which included information i had got from my original research. It was all sufficient in the end because I used the format that I originally had investigated with and then through other means of research I had used this same format, with all the other information in the final piece. Saying this I didn't include typography which i did briefly look at. The other books as well, were all pretty bold in what statement and how they were going to compromise the audience and the content, but i found in the end to make it more simple and try not to complicate my decisions. I think there is an appropriate amount of work. I made a decision that because this module was mainly based on research, trial and investigation, that I should go with the flow in a scene and not keep my eyes fixed on the final goal. The research was the main focus and I wanted to find new and more engaging ways for me to do this in the future, which looking back, i feel i have definitely found. My bad decision in this module, without a doubt lied in the fact that I made all my decisions for the final design too late. Although I wanted to keep it simple and not worry about the final piece too much, I felt with even a little more consideration into the final quality and layout of the book, I could have made it a lot more effective and neat. To evaluate my own process I was using a trial and error method. I wanted to find out specifically what points of my book were strong and what weren't and how visually interesting they became.
The gutter idea may be a idea to generally have developed further on this project but because I had only recently began using an working with InDesign and Illustrator, i was completly reluctant and terrified of trying to create effective writing through the middle fold. Thats why eventually took a step back, kept all my information normally laid out of the page and used literal rubbish and plastic bags in the gutter.
My direct audience was students in Leeds although some of the information i had originally looked at and compared my work to was from Family homes back in Pinner were I live and from students in other cities. A big problem of mine in this project was the actual binding. I found it didn't matter how many attempts I tried, I never seemed to get it right. i had never need to craft something before and been given an intense introduction into how to make and create it so I think through this year i may try continuing my attempts of being successful in this. First hand research into leeds and the council may have been more vital. Although I had tried to contact the council in order to receive information, their response was too delayed for me to make use of it and interpret it more in my work.
I think my work has definitely moved on from the first ideas and concept but also keeping the theme of in the gutter. I had used, developed, and re used research that eventually went into the final format or content for the book. The final piece used skills I had gained format he bookbinding work shop although If able to create the piece again, I would use different methods of binding for a more scrap book like quality. I brought 100 things into my book in as a mixture of the images and quotes given, and the names and data of each individual. If I did this process again I would keep all the facts or the objects given as one item. I also divided my book up into how GREEN the student was so I literally categorized in colors which had the most environmentally friendly being green. This categorizing was based on the statements and the three categories were all effectively the colors of recycling bins.
The gutter idea may be a idea to generally have developed further on this project but because I had only recently began using an working with InDesign and Illustrator, i was completly reluctant and terrified of trying to create effective writing through the middle fold. Thats why eventually took a step back, kept all my information normally laid out of the page and used literal rubbish and plastic bags in the gutter.
My direct audience was students in Leeds although some of the information i had originally looked at and compared my work to was from Family homes back in Pinner were I live and from students in other cities. A big problem of mine in this project was the actual binding. I found it didn't matter how many attempts I tried, I never seemed to get it right. i had never need to craft something before and been given an intense introduction into how to make and create it so I think through this year i may try continuing my attempts of being successful in this. First hand research into leeds and the council may have been more vital. Although I had tried to contact the council in order to receive information, their response was too delayed for me to make use of it and interpret it more in my work.
I think my work has definitely moved on from the first ideas and concept but also keeping the theme of in the gutter. I had used, developed, and re used research that eventually went into the final format or content for the book. The final piece used skills I had gained format he bookbinding work shop although If able to create the piece again, I would use different methods of binding for a more scrap book like quality. I brought 100 things into my book in as a mixture of the images and quotes given, and the names and data of each individual. If I did this process again I would keep all the facts or the objects given as one item. I also divided my book up into how GREEN the student was so I literally categorized in colors which had the most environmentally friendly being green. This categorizing was based on the statements and the three categories were all effectively the colors of recycling bins.
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
The gutter Idea that finally went in the "gutter"
A few weeks ago we were given the 7 day brief to create a simple version of the book we were intending to create, and we were given specific guidelines. although we were given these boundaries, I was still confident in creating this "into the gutter" approach which I later, after many trial and error testing, found was a difficult concept for someone who wasn't particularly confident on illustrator. Here are some of the images from the book in which was the information I collected from the christmas holiday, literally written in the gutter of the book. As the date of the hand in of the book drew closer i began to think how relevant this idea was actually was compared to all my research. Although it was a sensible option, it didn't really liek the gutter idea with students not recycling.
From this I had a quick look at similar graphic designers who use their work along the centre fold of the work. This image is from the 1000 type treatments.
From this I had a quick look at similar graphic designers who use their work along the centre fold of the work. This image is from the 1000 type treatments.
ALL my attempts of book making
So through the last few weeks I have made many attempts of book making and book binding. The first of these was the book binding session we did a couple of weeks after we got the project given to us.
Although I did play full attention in the work shop and tried this new type of crafting, It can safely be said that this did not turn out how I wanted and we very unsuccessful. The most obvious and critical error I made was that the books edges were completely visible and to be honest it just looked a bit shoddy.
So I decided to do something about the fact that this clearly wasn't me fort-ay, and gave it an other go one miserable Saturday night:
I would be the first in saying this was possibly a lot more horrific than the first attempt. The sizing was all wrong for the outside and uneven. The glue was used a little too much and may be a main factor to why it went all wrong. Although I was obviously hopeless in this area, I didn't let it dishearten me. I carried on with my research and contents of the book and decided that I would just have to cross the bookmaking bridge when I came to it.
Heres one of the first books I made, when we were put in a group and asked to develop a book over that day with other people. WE used a combination of our research and attempted the folding from an a3 sheet to get this small book.
Similar to that I used the paper from a recycling and environmental magazine to create a book.... just seeing how effective the paper would be.
I wanted to have a quick look in how I could potentially create a book that was a little different but still on the same line. My thought process then went on from book making to book making inside other books. I began to strip the centre section out of this environmental book to look at an ironic perspective in that it would literally look like a student had cut up or "ruined"the environment, which more ironically, I had.......
Heres some of the other books i had bought... but before I begane cutting them all out, I changed my mind. He He.
An other of my ideas was to litrally create and make my own gutter, so me being me, went to buy a huge brown silinder tube and then reolised that as origional this idea would be, there was literally no way I would be able to bind the thing!
Although I did play full attention in the work shop and tried this new type of crafting, It can safely be said that this did not turn out how I wanted and we very unsuccessful. The most obvious and critical error I made was that the books edges were completely visible and to be honest it just looked a bit shoddy.
So I decided to do something about the fact that this clearly wasn't me fort-ay, and gave it an other go one miserable Saturday night:
I would be the first in saying this was possibly a lot more horrific than the first attempt. The sizing was all wrong for the outside and uneven. The glue was used a little too much and may be a main factor to why it went all wrong. Although I was obviously hopeless in this area, I didn't let it dishearten me. I carried on with my research and contents of the book and decided that I would just have to cross the bookmaking bridge when I came to it.
Heres one of the first books I made, when we were put in a group and asked to develop a book over that day with other people. WE used a combination of our research and attempted the folding from an a3 sheet to get this small book.
Similar to that I used the paper from a recycling and environmental magazine to create a book.... just seeing how effective the paper would be.
I wanted to have a quick look in how I could potentially create a book that was a little different but still on the same line. My thought process then went on from book making to book making inside other books. I began to strip the centre section out of this environmental book to look at an ironic perspective in that it would literally look like a student had cut up or "ruined"the environment, which more ironically, I had.......
Heres some of the other books i had bought... but before I begane cutting them all out, I changed my mind. He He.
An other of my ideas was to litrally create and make my own gutter, so me being me, went to buy a huge brown silinder tube and then reolised that as origional this idea would be, there was literally no way I would be able to bind the thing!
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