We didn’t start the fire, it was always burning.
Oh how we laughed and laughed,
Except I wasn’t laughing, under the circumstances
I’ve been shockingly nice.-GLaDOS, “Want You Gone”
At the beginning of last week, we were instructed to make a 3 minute
informational video based off of Chris Rocks’ skit “How to not get your ass kicked by the police”. Our topic— “How to not be an unemployed graphics graduate”. Recently we watched the video “INFERNO: The making of The Expendables” and make observations on the differences between the making of their video and our video.
Now there are some blatant differences that I really have to point out. One of them is vaguely around $100 million actual dollars at stake. Another is that Stalone made it; not for the money, but because he simply wanted to. On a topic that he chose, and wrote himself.
Us on the other hand? It was a mock client project, no money at stake. Being made, not because we wanted to, but because we were being told to. And on a topic, we weren’t strongly for. Now it’s a client project, I can understand that. But realistically I probably wouldn’t of taken on a project that involved video, and one on professionalism. That’s just me.
They were passionate of what they were filming, I mean. Look at him, he had how many injuries in the process of filming and he still continued to drive through it. I was vaguely hoping for some sort of creative freedom with the making of the video, given that it was based on a COMEDIAN’s skit. But that doesn’t seem to be the case as it had to be professional, straight up tie and suit, but still mysteriously have a laugh track involved.
Maybe I’m getting off on one of my rants again, but it’s true. This project didn’t have heart in it, it was a robotic response to a project. We were supposed to treat this as a client project, even with the fakeness that we were all blatantly aware of. Some of us were able to treat it as a real client project, but when the said ‘client’ is sitting 20 some odd feet away from me it relatively destroys the illusion.
TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read)
Differences - No heart, no interest, no talent, little time, little know-how in how the program works.
</rant>
Let’s do the Timewarp… Again…
Well here we are again…
It’s always such a pleasure.
-GLaDOS, “Now I only want you Gone”
Ever wish you had the strange ability to go back in time to fix something you did?
Well I’m supposed to use it this time to go back and fix the problems with the video project. Realistically, the group itself didn’t have any problems. Nor the video editting. Really the only problem was trying to please the client, of course the client is always right.
Blatant problem was the “Being On Time” thing where we had to video tape someone calling in. Well first it was ‘theres no one in the car next to them’ which could of been them calling from a parking lot. Now it moved to ‘calling while driving is bad’. We ran out of ideas afterwards, so we went with the calling while driving.
Then uhh.. Oh, right. There was the rendering. And being on time. It’s difficult to take a client project seriously when.. Well you KNOW it’s fake. And that you KNOW that the client is a graphics artist playing that he doesn’t know what you’re talking about. A suspension of disbelief would be nice, but it’s just not likely.
Flash Animation
Instructions: Click the photos to view the flash/video via link.
By now it should be blatantly obvious that I don’t upload things or share them if I don’t like them (Unless I have to.) So to save reading time I’m explaining them all up here.
The reason I like these is because they are relevant to my interests.
#1 - (AQUASTYLE) Touhou 12; Undefined Fantastic Object
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wAbACOuvWc&t=3m23s
Instructions: Ignore that it starts at 3:24; Stop at 6:34, Enabled Fullscreen(Optional)
Touhou Fight in the style of Super Robot Teisen
#2 - Nightmare City Animism
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0Kg0SVD84Y&t=0m18s
Instructions: Ignore that it starts at 0:18
Anime-styled flash of Nightmare City; Nightmare City Catastrophy
#3 - One More Final Battle
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/341746
Instructions: Hit play?
Final Fantasy fight including the Author’s original characters.
Ｃｏｎｔｅｎｔｓ ｍａｙ ｂｅ Ｇｒａｐｈｉｃ （ＣＨ８）
The Magic of Light Writing
Photography contains a rather large possibility of choices and what not, from discard newspaper pages, those that grace the walls of museums, documentary works, commercial work, or glossy print.
“Shooting Strips” are tools for executing a shoot, this being pre-visualization. Then theres critical things involved such as what to shoot, lens used, natural or artificial light, how to frame, etc. The image has to be editted, and then decided how it will be featured.
And oh, documentary film. Most of them are operating on tiny little budgets to share just a part of the large world. Lewis Hine is considered by many as the father of social documentary photography. (If only I knew who he was.)
What is in a photograph is eternal (until it’s burned, lost, or faded…) Film is fleeting imagery, photography is about capturing a moment. Things always present themselves.
If you’re interested in Freelancing, follow these tips.
- Define what you want to do.
- Assist others.
- Develop your style, portfolio and website.
- Enter comptetitions.
- Invest and educate yourself.
- Shoot lots of film.
There are many facets for commercial work as there are applications and outlets. Web stills, packaging, books, posters, ID, outdoor boards, brochures, annual reports, and print advertising are popular with heavy photography users.
- If you have it, flaunt it.
- If you bleed an image, make sure visual information is not lost.
- When cropping an image showing motion, give the subject room ahead.
- Don’t have subjects looking off the page.
- Allow one photograph to dominate.
- Keyline the photos or artwork.
- Grouping is a good strategy.
- Make use of white space.
- Consider using elemental form to help nest art.
- A good photograph is sharp.
The above is just a few things that are helpful guidelines for photography and editting.
If anything, this should help me with taking Con Photos.
Contents may be Graphic (Ch6)
Chapter 6: Quest for the Resonating Colored Light. Episode 45.
Color is invaluable, irreplaceable. A design element in film, advertising, package design, photojournalism. The list goes on. It can identify a product. When you think Coke-Cola. What comes to mind? Reds and Whites. Time Magazine? Red border. McDonalds? Yellow, Red. BMW? Blues. Color is a potent component of visual communication. To master it, you need to understand it’s language, elements, and physical and psychological implications of color. Blues can be depressing, Reds enraging, Greens envious, Yellow happy.
Artists, scientists, and philosophers have investigated color and theorized how to order it.
Most can sense if colors are compatible, but others need assistance arrange them. Monochrome are constructed from different values of the same color.
Analogous are created with two colors that are immediately adjacent.
Complementary are directly across from each other.
Triad obviously combines 3 colors.
Content may be Graphic (CH5)
Shaping Media Architecture… What are designs purpose? The Professor says they’re to solve a problem. Each design principle can be applied in equally limitless ways, which is what the Book adds on right away. It goes on to state that perhaps the neon sign with the flicking light may be better than the one that glowed bright and true. To which I say that perhaps the flicking light will lead to a dead light which will then lead to a misspelled sign. There’s a way of doing things and sometimes they’re just not effective.
Design is the process of planning and shaping the form and structure of an object. In this case, a layout, frame, or page. Most assume its magic, mirror trickery, or sleight of hand. Which supposedly isn’t true. _Supposedly_.
Good design is problem-solving with wit, speed, and style.
Contents may be Graphic (CH4)
Creative typography. That means more than a wall of text, more entertaining than being forced to read a book.
You do realize that what you’re reading now isn’t creative typography, yes? Wall of text abounds.
Type is a crucial component of a publication’s identity, which is true I suppose. You won’t be expecting a medical report to have something like comic sans and it looking anything BUT professional. Just as you don’t expect a comic book to be nothing but text. Unless it’s about medical reports.
Letters must be of such a nature that when they are combine into lines of words, the eye may run along the lines easily, quickly and without obstruction, the reader being occupied only with the thought presented. I sort of figured a plain old sentence did this, any of them.
Like this one, it’s saying that you’re paying attention to the thought presented, that being you are paying attention to the said thought. Paradoxical, no?
Ok.. so.. Figure 4-10, top picture (Hi, my name is WILL)
Is creepy. I know he’s supposed to have a split personality but the other personality is apparently a serial killer. And (Hi, my name is 091-547) may be doing 5-10 but he seems like a better person than this will person. And (Hi, my name is Marie) has a decent grasp on writing. Most 1st graders would be writing HUGE AND OUT OF THE LINES.
Figure 4-13 (NO, DONT MESS WITH THIS WORD)
I know it’s on a serious point and everything, but I can’t help but think that by putting as they did (It’s larger than the picture, it’s outside the bounding box) is sort of messing with it.. which is opposite than what they’re saying.
End of Wall of Text </Rant>
Contents may be Graphic (CH2-3)
After a very long hiatus (Can you say, no need to blog.) Yet another rant for class. Because it’s exactly that, a rant. Entire sentences and paragraphs off the top of my head. At 2 in the morning. Woo.
I will say, I dislike having to regurgitate information I’ve been reading. Then again any regurgitation is something I’d like to avoid.
A majority of the ‘art’ heavy airquotes there, actually give me a headache just to look at. The ELMUNDO art on page 64, specifically the one with “ARMAGEDDON” focused on really doesn’t make much sense to me. You can clearly see the word “armageddon’, and the rest of the words are slightly zoom-blurred. But they’re actually in a different language entirely as well, I think it’s latin. But it’s something you can just do nowadays with digitization, probably in a few minutes, just to toss it in photoshop or paint.NET.
Fonts are nice, each one is painstakingly made and created and editted to suit someones preference or the style they want to represent. Unfortunately you end up just using a majority of the same fonts. Or multiple varieties of the same font, look around. Look at this for instance. It’s a typical font, a default because everyone has it, it’s easy on the eyes. What is it? Verdana? Time’s New Roman? Helvetica? Those ARE the top 3 fonts used everywhere afterall. Nothing special, nothing fancy. Just. Everywhere.
And then theres typography, it’s always been sort of cool but it’s not… really practical in my head. There was a typography clock I saw once, and the numbers had all fallen to the bottom of the clock. I was thinking “That’s friggin’ awesome… but what time is it…?” That was the thing, I do enjoy how a bunch of words or numbers can be artfully thrown together to depict imagery, I mean, that’s what ASCII pretty much is. Your smileys? The o_o :) >:D They’re all ascii, which is pretty close to being typography.
<End of Rant>
Ch8 - In case of emergency
No. No no no. NO. My OWN firm? What is this?
“The ultimate career goal of many designers is to start their own professional practice.” I must not be one of those many designers then, as usual.
“For a designer who gets up the nerve to venture down the long road of building a business” (not me) “the structure of the firm might be the last thing on the priority list.”
Supposedly sole proprietorship has easy setup. Anything like this does not seem EASY to me. Then again, nothing new there. It also has no partners, no required shareholder meeting, and no double taxation. ALONE! No legal protection (Ouch) Cannot issue stock (also ouch) and limited tax loopholes (triple ouch, adore the loopholes I do)
Did you know that laws govern every area of business? I did. And yes, not many of them are widely known. I don’t like to dabble in law, I like to lie low as much as possible.
There’s insuring a design firm. Against fire and flood (mostly flood.. specially here) Theft (especially here) Health (see previous) Injury/Workers Comp (see previous) Errors and Ommissions (SP) Equipment (all of the above) and Company Vehicles (Not included. Drive your own car).
Making my own business isn’t part of any plan I’d ever make. I don’t like being the leader. I prefer being the leader without being the leader (A puppet master of sorts).
</rant>
