Week 12 - The End

Well it's time to say farewell to BDC 192. Along with that, my great instructors in Maayan, Lisa, and Laurie. In general I found this course fun, delightful, and challenging. I was tested and expected to make projects in programs I have never used before; programs which are essential to the industry of digital media. I found it quite difficult because I had never worked with Photoshop or AE before, but it forced me to learn these wonderful and complex programs and make the process a bit easier for me.

The aspects that I thought worked well with the course were: the freedom of expression in our projects; we could basically do anything we wanted to do, the style of the lecture; very laid back, entertaining, and insightful, the style of the lab; we could watch/listen to Maayan and her tidbits before going off to work on our own projects and tutorials. I thought this was a very effective way of learning; the laid back feel in the lecture and lab, the freedom, and the help through the tutorials in creating a better learning atmosphere.

The aspects that should be improved is maybe having more instructors at the lab, or having some assistants have a concrete lab schedule where they could be there to help students with problems or technical issues. Many classes I would get stuck and I would have so many questions that I felt embarrassed to ask since I was so lost. Another thing is that when I would want to ask a question, the instructors would be busy helping someone else. So I think the only thing to improve on is to get more instructors in and out of class time.

This course has changed the way I look at digital media and things in general. Today I was looking at a magazine and examining how a picture was cropped in there probably by the use of Photoshop. I envisioned this process and knew how it was done. I also saw some films with special effects and realized that AE or a program similar to it was used to create these effects, and I had a basic grasp of how it was done. Now working on html, I saw some complex websites and was astonished at their complexity as I know the basic codes and I could now appreciate the work put into them. The course has made me realize how digital media is created and where it comes from, it has allowed me to appreciate everything much more.

 

I think the most important skill I have learned in this course is the use of Photoshop. Photoshop is essential in creating images for basically any medium whether it's a magazine, newspaper, personal photo, website, film/video, or anything else. I now have the knowledge and skills to manipulate a picture or photo and create my own spin on it and I find that very important.

In the end, I had a great semester full of fun, entertainment, and learning. I hope all you guys have a great holiday break and enjoy your time off!!!!

Bouncing Ball Movie Trailer (Week 10)

Artist Statement

Nem Stankovic

My trailer is a very simple animation for a short film I saw a long time ago. In high school I randomly watched a short film about a bouncing ball that travelled through a city of geometric shapes and was scrutinized for being a ball. I thought it would be a comical idea to incorporate a ball that is bouncing across the screen in slow motion along with bouncy letters that wiggle and move with the same theme.

I initially wanted to create a basketball bouncing across the screen and then have it explode into the words “Space Jam” to do a trailer for that film. This was too difficult because every time I tried to do the explosion it would not work properly. The lighting and 3D aspects of the explosion kept messing up and I had no idea how to make the explosion turn into the words.

I then decided to just create the bouncing ball and bouncy letters. I watched a few tutorials on how to make the ball bounce and squish when it hits the ground, and make the words “bounce” when they come in. I downloaded a couple expression codes which are basically shortcuts for animations you paste into a layer and they create specific animations like the wobble/bounce of the letters when they swing in. This initially created the biggest problem for me because when I tried to render there would be an “error” sign that stated that it could not render because of the expression code. I then played with the aspects and ratios of the expression codes for hours and eventually it was able to render. I then added Jay-Z’s song “The Bounce” that went along with the video and it worked!

A very random film that I doubt anyone has seen or remembers, but I figured out how to make my problems into advantages.

Week 11 - Interactivity and Media

I liked what Laurie talked about in the lecture regarding interactivity and how its changing. She talked about how for example the audience is not just watching or listening anymore but they are talking, showing, and sharing! For example, back in the day we would go to the movies and learn to remember and reminisce or rewatch a film. Now a person can easily download or find the film online, share the link on facebook or twitter (or other social media sites) with the click of a button, their friends will see their posting in an instant, talking about the film and every aspect about it, and showing and sharing it to all their other friends.

One film trailer I would like to interactively share:

Another aspect of the lecture I enjoyed was the history of Interactivity and the fluxus and dada movements that incorporated the creator/artist, viewer/audience into one. For example the artwork of the girl being covered in whipped cream etc. and the artists carried out ideas based on the spectators' reactions! Great works by John Cage and Allan Kaprow created this genre of art and new media.

Changing Tires - Allan Kaprow 1967

I enjoyed the bit about interactive advertising and how ad agencies are becoming more savvy in breaking markets by appealing to young crowds in different ways. Today a huge part of advertising is done online, where there are less strict regulations and a chance for the advertiser to directly interact their product with the consumer/user. This enables a dynamic that is powerful in creating more interest in a particular product/company, but also creates a whole new culture of media (i.e. some people go on saying a phrase from a commercial for months or years and it becomes international slang with a short amount of time - Whazzupp commercial).


Old Spice Guy: LOL-ed and shared

Week 9 - Looking at different Adobe After Effects Tutorials/Videos

These young Italian nerds created an amazing video with After Effects. The dialogue and acting is very cheesy but the effects are phenomenal. If I were to study After Effects for the rest of my life, I doubt I would ever in my lifetime be able to accomplish special effects at this level of sophistication. I just thought this video was really cool. The one guy has blue ambient special powers, and the other guy has a similar version of powers in red. There are explosion and ambient forcefields, and auras. So sick!

I thought this animation was really cool since it was so short (5 seconds, like our assignment) and it was very well animated. It looks very visually striking and realistic. The meteor flies in, hits the building, and there is smoke trailing, an explosion, shattered glass and debris flying, etc. It shows the amazing things you can do with AE.

On a simpler note, this AE video is amazing, short, simple, and just as visually striking. I am thinking of having a bouncing ball exploding in my video so this is very appealing to my ideas!

Week 8 - After Effects

I am finding After Effects terribly confusing! I have never used a special effects program before, and I have always used video editing software just to put together films (my films never need special effects!!!).

I find the tutorials we have done a little confusing, regarding the ones with the flying ghost and putting together the images to make an animation. It sounds simple but its confusing when you actually begin using the program.

I'm very new to it, so all the layering and animation points confuse me even more. I am unsure of what I am going to do for my assignment but I have a few ideas.

One idea is to take a crapload of pictures of my dad walking, then me walking, and then a child walking, and animating these pictures going backwards in time; showing the history of a man's life. The men/child would be walking backwards in the same background and it would show the man as an older individual, then an adult, then a teen, then a child.

Another idea I had was to do something with maybe a basketball bouncing around the screen with an explosion at the end. That would be cool!

My last idea is to have some type of writing going across an old paper and then being scrunched up into a ball at the end. I was inspired by the MTV graphic assignments shown in the lecture where a paper was scrunched!

For now, I am lost. And I am unsure of what the hell I am going to do for this assignment.

Week 7 - Different types of typography

Hendrix Poster from collthings.co.uk

The minute I saw this poster it struck me visually. It is so effective because the entire portrait of Jimmy Hendrix is created in words and letters. I believe the words are his lyrics or song titles and this resonates a powerful image. I'm unsure of the font but the words create the picture... literally.

Drake So Far Gone Album cover - www.octobersveryown.blogspot.com

This album cover for Drake's So Far Gone is a very strong image because of its typography. The letters seem to be tumbling down into a pile at the bottom of the album cover and shrinking in size. I like how the words aren't together in one line, but rather separated by the letters in a tumbling pyramid. It seems like the D, R, and A are balancing at the very top and about to tumble down as well. The contrast of the bold white letters on the black background is very well done along with the white silhouette blowing what looks to be small red hearts into the air is a very powerful visual tool (red is the only colour in the cover). The cover is very powerful and striking almost only because of the placement and style of the words.

Mock Soviet Propaganda M&Ms Ad - smashingmagazine.com

This is an M&Ms advertisement that mocks old WW2 Soviet propaganda. There are many soviet propaganda posters just like this but I chose this ad to show that advertisements are propaganda as well; whether they are mocking something or not. The target audience that M&Ms is targeting most likely barely knows anything about soviet propaganda (North American market) but the company uses a powerful mock version of USSR-style posters seen back in the day all over Russia. The reason this poster is visually striking is because of its "Communist Red" and its Russian style font that resonates power and never-ending triumph. When these two are mixed you have your classic propaganda poster, and without the typography of the bronze soviet letter styles the poster would have no message or image of power. This poster really struck my eye, I thought soviet propaganda before I even noticed the giant red M&M.

Week 6 - Water... A scarce and diminishing resource.

            The concept behind my poster is the resource that is most important to not only humankind but also life in general; and that is water. Water is known as the “resource of the future” as it is running out because of human abuse and pollution to the environment. Clean fresh water will be a huge asset and resource in the coming decades that will be looked at in a similar light as oil today. Many experts predict wars and conflicts being fought over water as a resource in the future.

            The idea behind my poster is that water is running out. Many of us take it for granted as we are living great lives of abundance in a developed country. This is demonstrated by the water streaming out of the faucet into a pair of cupped hands. My message is that it is running out as it is running into the hands of the privileged person. My target audience is around 18-30, mainly university-aged students that are the future leaders of our planet. I demonstrated this by using a pair of young female hands cupping the water. To put emphasis on the water, I made it bright blue as it bubbles to capture the viewer’s attention, along with making everything else black and white, focusing on the hands and water, and making the background blurry.

            In Photoshop I created 3 layers, one blurry background black and white (Gaussian blur), one black and white sharp cut of the hands and the water, and one of just the water in a bright blue colour to capture attention. Along the way I had problems with the lasso tool to select the hands and water, so I used the pen tool which proved very useful. One problem I did not figure out was how to blur the edges of the bright blue water in the hands as much as I wanted. No matter how much I smoothed and feathered the edges it still didn’t work out so I did the best I could, playing with the edge refining options and feathering. After everything was complete I picked a font I liked and used the eye dropper tool to select the same colour of the water as the font.

            In the end the font made the poster look complete, simple, eye-catching, and concise. I was satisfied with it considering the fact that a few weeks ago I barely even knew what Photoshop was! I believe my poster does address my target audience based on its simple and concise message in text and the use of young female hands grasping some bright, colourful, flowing water.

Week 5 - Motion!

Since we now have to do a 5 second motion graphic assignment, I searched for some well-done, simple, and short ones myself.

This one commercial for Original Black Entertainment struck me because of its simplicity yet sophistication. I liked the way the words are animated and moved in and out as if they are in a "zero-gravity" environment. The zooming of the words while they are transitioning through animation is an effective visual tool as well. I also liked how the grey blotches are animated over the screen as well which gives a 3D feel, along with how the background looks like old parchment paper that is deep in the background (also 3D feel). 

This commercial is short, simple, and effective. There are no animations besides the words over the old parchment paper. Another effective tool is used in the old camera simulation (with the vertical lines moving side to side, and cracks in film). This will help me get a grasp of a simple 5 second animation that I need to do!

Week 4 - Che Guevara

I was thinking about what I should do for my poster and was inspired by the many different depictions of Che Guevara in art form. Che Guevara was a revolutionary socialist guerilla fighter that freed Cuba from fascist dictatorship in the 1950s and his famous photo of him with the hat is seen everywhere in the world today.

Different forms of this famous photo have been depicted in different ways and been manipulated to mean or represent different styles of art.

Here are some:

(Original)

 

Week 3 - CRAP

CRAP


Contrast

This piece strongly shows the contrast aspect of CRAP. This can be seen from light blue sky at the top contrasted with the extremely dark and black clouds in the middle, and then again with the red and bright yellow sunlight at the bottom (which is sandwiched with more darkness by the dark land). This bright-dark-bright-dark sandwich demonstrates strong contrast. Although this piece strongly shows contrast it lacks much of the other CRAP aspects along with colour.

Repetition

This piece demonstrates the repetition aspect of CRAP. As can be seen, there is a strong sense of repetition in the bronze mailboxes that seem to go on to infinity. This is a great example of repetition as the colour is not only the same but the design of the bronze boxes is identical as well. The only thing that is not repeated are the mailbox numbers. This piece use good alignment and proximity properties of CRAP as well as the boxes are aligned perfectly and the proximity of shape and lines are seen throughout. There is not much contrast in this picture.

Alignment

This picture demonstrates the alignment portion of CRAP. As you can see, the buildings are perfectly aligned in many ways. Not only are their shapes aligned, but the lines criss-crossing from their windows are aligned in parallel and perpendicular fashion! This creates a smooth dynamic for viewing the picture. This piece also uses good colour balance, contrast, fair repetition, and proximity.

Proximity

This artwork uses the proximity aspect of CRAP. This can be seen with the proximity of the rocks themselves, the shapes of the rocks (mostly oval), the designs of the rocks (they are transitioned well and very close to each other), and the different balances of colour (the dark and light blue are pushed together to make a smooth mix in their proximity). This picture also uses good contrast (dark, light blue, and black background) and alignment!

The helmet is moving fast.

Week 2 - Digital Footprint

Week 2's lecture was very fun and interesting as we talked about the "digital footprint" and how everything online or on any digital device is permanently recorded FOREVER. Each person has a digital footprint and it gives us a sort of online "identity". The digital footprint is the accumulated web information on one person: for example when an individual is googled.

My digital footprint is very similar to my "non-digital footprint"; since I am a basketball player and I have played all over the world, basically my entire digital footprint has to do with my basketball career when I am googled. Although this is very fun and interesting, I believe that every person has a right to his or her privacy. I think it is a little dangerous to be sharing the entire world's identities online because many individuals have bad intentions but then again each person has the right to choose whether they would like to input their information online and take whatever potential risks go along with it.

I am happy almost all my information online has to do with my basketball career and not my political orientation/opinions, personal life, religion, or my family. If it did, my identity would be prisoner to "Big Brother" so to speak. Many sites are pushing for this and many governments from different country have this type of control in their regions where people have no rights and freedoms online or offline. I just hope it doesn't end up like that here.

Some screenshots of my digital footprint:

My Las Vegas postcard

First Post - Week 1

Before my first digital media class I thought of the term "digital media" to mean the entire culture of communication through technology. Any kind of messages created with computers and other digital devices would be considered digital media. After my first class I saw that digital media is basically the most powerful type of media with widespread use of social-media such as Facebook and twitter. Digital media is the becoming the most predominant media source in the world. People are putting away their telephones and televisions and becoming more in-tuned to the internet and its social networking or video blog sites.

An RTA student should take a digital media course because it is very fun and at the same type he or she will learn many different tools for many different digital mediums that will enable them to have skills in a growing industry. Along with this, an RTA student will learn and master the social networking aspects, working with different types of digital mediums; i.e. visual, video, web (photoshop, aftereffects, and html).

There is no doubt this course is valuable and very diverse. The planet and global village are becoming more and more digitally oriented, and a course like this teaches a student the basic principles of this field of knowledge!