Day of Design 1

2/10/2016

   
During the Day of Design we had the privilege to hear about the work of professional designers. The first speaker was Josh Goldblum, the CEO of Bluecadet in Philadelphia and New York. He first discussed how he and his company try to use a wide arrange of technology and try to remain agnostic when choosing platforms to design for. They try to integrate with touch screens and social media as much as possible. All of this seems important, especially if they intend to stay up to date with technology.

After that he showed us a lot of projects he worked on. The first thing was a website for science fair Friday, and a game called chem crafters. Then he showed off an app that gave a tour of the the Monticello museum which had 3 touch screens to customize typography. Another app which seemed incredibly useful was called Anthi, I think, and it translated english names into korean and vice versa. Probably my favorite piece of work were these museum pillars with touch screens that could be moved up and down in order to get all the content of the exhibit. It apparently cost over 100 grand. Then he showed off a wall dedicated to the pope's travels in the papal museum. Then he told us about a mobile museum experience that allows people to sync their phones to the screens in the museum and share content. Then he showed off an experience which used 2 Xbox Kinects that were used to take a picture of their bodies and place them into landscapes. Then he talked about wood cuts of Ben Franklin that were animated in AfterEffects with scripts. It was actually very interesting to see just how integrative they can be, even though it can be expensive. 

  Then he talked about the process needed for each project. He said project management and communication are the most important part of the process. He used to work for a museum which is why he loves the cultural aspects of each project. He discussed how brainstorming can be such a struggle. They usually look at the content of the project in order to come up with a design. For example he talked about how he was working on a piece for a Van Gogh exhibit and they asked themselves, what do people like about Van Gogh. He said that a lot of work comes from experiments and prototypes. To be a successful designer you must have the tenacity to solve problems and be willing to experiment.

Week 4C

 

2/10/16

1 Linear Emotion: Anger
  A lot of the movement made by this line resemble actions and objects associated with anger. Actions include punching, kicking, pacing, yelling, and quick movements. Objects include lightning bolts and fire balls. The movement even starts out small and slow and quickly builds to be large and dramatic, much like anger itself.

2 Dreamscape
  The words and textures make sense in context of the dream it is based off but I'm a little embarrassed to mention details of the dream. Although, the vagueness of these words do scramble the story making it more surreal like a dream. I now notice how difficult some of the words are difficult to make out but this notion of being difficult to understand adds to the dream like atmosphere.

3 Rhythm
  This wasn't my first idea for the rhythm project but it does use some of the movements made from my first idea. I decided to use both changes in position as well as changes in size to add rhythm. I feel like it might be a little better if it were a little faster.

Week 4B

9/10/16

  Today we did an animation about rhythm. Rhythm, in motion graphics, is an action that regularly reoccurs and pace is the rate of rhythm. We were to make a looping animation that uses the letters of the word rhythm and transforms them from with rhythm.
  At first I was going to have the six letters come from different directions; r from the left, h going strait down, y going strait up, t going diagonally down, h going diagonally up, and m from the right. Then when the word was formed fully it would then exit in the first direction, then reform, and exit in the next respective direction until it reached all six, then it would loop. I found that this was too long and not fast enough. I also felt that the six different exits moved away from the rhythm because the multiple directions made it less repetitive and therefore have less rhythm. It felt like the looping wasn't that noticeable as well.
  After that I thought what can I do to better this. I actually saved the first idea as a different project instead of destroying it. I decided to keep the letter entering animation and removed the exiting animation. I also added a size change rather than keeping all the action position based. The letters get smaller and then return to their normal size before exiting in the direction they came. It is a faster, shorter, animation that I think keeps people entertained with better rhythm.

Week 4A

2/8/2016

Today we had a critique of the dreamscape project. Some issues were that some of my backgrounds were more of objects than textures. It also could have had a more diverse cast of typefaces and weights and maybe even different colors. Some positive feed back were that the backgrounds that were more clearly textures, specifically the background for lovely, were very effective. The switching back and forth between running and shocking was very effective. They also thought the fact that the background in running never points in the same direction when it is on screen. They thought this kept the repetition entertaining.

Week 3B

2/3/2016

   Today we were assigned to do a dreamscape in after effects. These are supposed to be composed of only textured backgrounds and single words. There are not supposed to make an obvious story and are to make little to know scents much like dreams themselves. Well I chose to do a dreamscape based on one of the strangest dreams I have ever had. The only parts that can really be explained to make somewhat scents are the reasons I think this dream came out so bizarre. I had this dream during my first year of high school and I had a terrible cold at the time. The night I had this dream was also the first time I ever had night time cold medicine so maybe that effected the way I dream. I apologize if it is a bit graphic, their really isn't a way for me to control my dreams.
   My dream starts out with me at a high school dance. I'm there by myself while everyone else seems to have a partner. I think to myself this is weird because I not usually go to events like dances. Then the power goes out and everyone gets bored. Then the principle of the school tells me I have to run to the 4 corners of the school with these giant extension cords and plug them into giant outlets so the backup generator would work and the party could continue. Each of these giant outlets were held by 4 giants. They looked like the 4 giants from The Lengend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, which makes a little bit of scents to me seeing as I was playing that game around the same time. The first 3 were really easy because the giants just lowered the outlet to my level allowing me to easily insert the cords. Then when I got to the area were the 4th giant was said to be but there was no giant; instead there was the girl I had a crush on at the time. She said something on the lines of there is no 4th giant I have the final outlet but you will have to find it on me. In the dreaming mind of a high school boy this is obviously an invitation for intercourse. So I decide to undress her and insert the extension cord inside her and inserted myself into another area of her body, I'll let your imagination decide what part went where. Then as she reached climax the power returned and everyone was able to have a good time that night.
   I've always thought that dream was so bizarre that I still remember it today while other dreams I usually forget in a couple of hours or days. That is why I chose this dream and have chosen vague words so the true story is still a mystery to the viewer.

https://youtu.be/OGrXhmEYQp8

Week 3A

2/1/2016

Today we started out with a critique of our emotion animations. I was critiqued by Alina and Max who guessed my animation was about confusion. They were both wrong because it was actually about anger. They said that it fits the motion because they said it looked like people about to start a fight which is sort of what I was going for. They also liked how parts looked like someone pacing back and forth which is exactly what I was going for with those moments. They also thought the use of thin and thick lines were a good idea which I agreed with before the critique because making the lines thicker near the end was actually an accident but when I noticed it I thought it looked better that way.

Week 2

1/27/2016

Today we were to chose and emotion and make a 15 second flash video of what that emotion may look like using only the brush tool. We were to keep the emotion a secret so that others could guess the emotion.

https://youtu.be/N02Mrm2YNoo