Week 12: Last Blog!

I really enjoyed Digital Media because it provided me with a good, although basic, technological background on several programs and software widely used on computers! I can now finally use the Photoshop software that has been on my computer for several weeks untouched, because I had no clue how it worked. We never used Photoshop in class but Fireworks is a very similar program. Digital Media is something that has always interested me, not necessarily because this is the path I believe I will take in the future for a career but because it works in close connection with the creative field I want to pursue. Making movies and editing them is something I have been doing for the past two years and have always wanted to learn to create better title sequences for them. Many people around me use both Photoshop and Flash animation to create cool title sequences and I always felt like my work could never be as good as theirs. By combining the basic knowledge what I have learned in Digital Media I feel confident that I am no longer at a disadvantage and can now use these skills to create more compelling pieces of work in the future!
What I believe could be improved for this class is the software we work with. I think we should have started working with Photoshop instead of Fireworks. I know that Fireworks is much easier but it is not as widely used as Photoshop in the industry.
What worked well were the assignments in this class. I enjoyed doing them and they really tested our capability to work the programs we were learning about.

Week 11: Dreamweaver

This week we started to use Dreamweaver. I really like this program, because compared to the week before when we had to use notepad to generate HTML code this seems like an easier, faster, and more reliable way to create a web page. It's great how user friendly this program is, making it possible for anyone to create their own web page! Not only is it user friendly, but it is also very professional looking. Google offers free website software called google page creator. It is very easy to work with but what you can do with the program is limited to a few pre-designed formats, making these types of sites less creative. I've always wanted to build a web page that was a type of portfolio for my creative work, like pictures and films I have created. Learning this software is the perfect opportunity for me to learn the basic skill of creating a professional looking web page.
For week thirteen I will create a portfolio based web page that will include pictures I have taken over the years and if possible, because I have not tried this out yet on Dreamweaver, videos I have made.

Week 10: Web 2.0 Characteristics

1) Dynamic content:
Aggregator- FeedBucket ( www.feedbucket.com/)
Is a way to view RSS feeds. You must be a registered user. You can store up to several RSS feeds.
This program can also generate JavaScript code-that can automatically update headlines to your own blog or website.

2)User contribution: Crackle (www.crackle.com)
This site features user generated value. It allows you to rate videos and leave comments about them. You can create a play list of your favorite videos and share them with your friends . It also knows the most watched videos of the week and features them. This site lets the users decide which videos are the best and this lends a certain notoriety to the creators of the most popular videos.

3)Social Media: hi5 (http://hi5.com/)
This is the same concept as Facebook and Myspace. You register, then create a profile that expresses who you are, or who you want people to believe you are like! You can upload pictures, add friends, find friends, listen to music etc...

4)Online applications: Phixr (www.phixr.com)
Free online photo editor. Easy to use when you're on the go and when there is no photo editing system installed in the computer. No need for flash or java. This application lives entirely on your web browser!

5)Harnessing collective intelligence: YouTube (www.youtube.com)
Tagging.
Tagging makes it easier for people to find things, subjects that they are looking for. When we tag something we have uploaded to youtube we are making it available to a wider range of users. When other people who watch your movie on youtube tag it further more, because they think that it applies to what ever word they are tagging it with, they are making it even more available to the public. The more tags you have on a certain movie the more chances someone will type in that word!

Flash Animation

For my flash animation I decided to create a fictional opening sequence for a snowboard movie. I incorporated both animation that I created and pictures that I cut out with the polygon lasso tool and cropped in Fireworks. The target audience for my project is teenagers and young adult snowboarders. I was inspired by a snowboard movie I watched a few months ago called “From___, With Love”, produced by MACK DAWG PRODUCTIONS. At the beginning of this snowboard movie they present the snowboarders and the places where the movie was filmed with animations and real pictures of the snowboarders. I wanted to give my flash animation almost a kids cartoon look, thus why I kept the animation very basic, but at the same time give it an edgy appeal for younger adults. I really think the way I used the word ‘Featuring” as a rail that the snowboarder then goes on is effective and original. This was my first experience with Flash. I did not know how everything would turn out before hand because my knowledge of this program was very basic, but after a lot of trial and error I was able to master a good portion of this program. My animation only contains one interactive button, but I think it is justified since it is a title sequence. I was able to explore many of the functions in flash while doing this project, although I’m sure I was only able to touch the surface of it’s full potential. I must admit at first I wasn’t a fan of this program, but now I can see why it is such an important skill to have. If I had been able to use flash for all the movies I have created in the past I think they could have been a lot more effective and visually pleasing. I used both Fireworks and Flash to create this animation. Instead of using music from the iTunes play list I decided to create my own music to go with this animation. I used Garage band, which I believe turned out to be much more effective since I was able to create music that really fit with the image I was trying to create. The problems I encountered while doing this animation where things like trying to figure out how to create a specific anchor point and getting all the images to flow nicely on the seen without looking choppy

I believe that this piece is effective in conveying the message that it’s a fun, light movie, most snowboard movies are. The snowboarding laid-back attitude is also represented in this movie, which is why it works well for its target audience.

Week 8

Over the years the cost of creating a music video has become outrageous. I believe this is due to the fact that artists want to stand out from the pack, they want to create an image for themselves that is glamorous. It is no longer about the music, but about who has the most money and who looks the best. Creating an image that we can associate with their music.
Is it just me or these days many bands or artists are very good looking? The thought of showing anyone who doesn't look like a "babe" could possibly bring music sales down?!? Maybe so, but now certain artist seem to be bringing it back to the roots, to the music itself and aren't glorifying themselves. There seems to be a rise in what we could call "homemade" music videos. I think they are doing this to make a comment on how ridiculous it is to spend so much money on something as basic as a music video.
I really believe artists must make it about the music, not what they look like. When they can do that then maybe pre-fabricated pop music will finally come to an end.

Digital Art

When a computer is used in the production of a piece of art it becomes digital artwork. Is digital art really art? If a computer is doing all of the work for you wouldn't it be like cheating on a test? I believe that it depends on the person who is looking at this form of "art", and what that individuals definition of art is. I personally think that digital art is amazing. It's bringing traditional art like painting, for example and new media works created on a computer together. It makes for very interesting visual and sound productions. Another advantage of this medium is that it is opening the doors of art to many more people who can't draw, paint, etc. I am one of those who can not draw no matter how hard I try! As we evolve technology evolves and I think we should use it to our advantage to create bigger, better things! Digital art can reach the masses easily, because with the click of a mouse it's there!

Flash animation

For my flash animation I will be creating a title sequence for a fictional snowboard movie. I really had no clue what to do until a few days ago when I was watching one of the many snowboard movies I own. The title sequence to this particular movie is amazing, very original and creative, and it is done in flash! I have done a few snowboard movies in the past, but having no knowledge or even access to flash I had a very basic title sequence. Flash will allow me to integrate both interactive animation and still images into a title sequence. My idea so far is to have animated snow continuously falling while still photos, that I will have cut up and played around with in Fireworks before hand, of the fictional characters in my snowboard movie come in and out of the frame. There will also be funky, original animated text presenting both the snowboarders feature in this fictional movie and the production company, crew etc....

Very excited to see the final product!!

CD Cover

My concept was to create a fictional CD cover for my brothers band “The Garden Gnomes.” I wanted this CD cover to reflect the band’s personality, attitudes and the type of music they play. “The Garden Gnomes” play a cross between grunge (e.g. “Nirvana”) and alternative (e.g. “Radiohead”) music. The band has a very outgoing personality so I really felt it necessary for it to show through their CD cover. I decided to create a sort of psychedelic CD cover that brings all the elements mentioned before together. The target audience is males between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five. I think the edgy fonts and the bizarre look of this cover matche the style of music that they play and will attract that particular demographic.

I used the Fireworks program to create this CD cover. I layered a few images, used the Polygon lasso tool to select a certain part of an image that I placed on top of the background layer. I then distorted the colors of these images. I then found appropriate fonts for my target audience and incorporated them into the CD cover. I applied the principles of design we learnt in class as much as possible. Many colors are contrasting on this cover. For example the words “Weird dreams” are blue but they are highlighted with a complementary color, orange. The white background makes all the colors seem very vibrant. Although the colors contrast each other on this CD cover many of them are repeated. For example, I took the blue and the green of the background image and used those colors both for the band’s name “The Garden Gnomes” and the CD title “Weird Dreams”.

I was not too sure what to expect when I first started using Fireworks for this assignment. I knew what sort of feel I wanted to give the cover but was not quite sure I would be ale to convey it with the resources on Fireworks and my limited knowledge of this program. There were a few challenges at the beginning. What I had originally envisioned at the beginning did not turn out like I had planed and left me with a disappointing piece of work. I brainstormed ideas and found other ways of conveying my message with different images and a different approach.

In the end, my CD cover came out better then planned. It does not look like my original idea; but I think that after figuring out the limitations of a program like Fireworks I was able to get a better idea of what I was capable of creating.


***What I got from the in class feedback is that there is not enough distinction between the bands name (The Garden Gnomes) and the title of the CD(Weird Dreams). I see how it could be problematic, thus I should either make the bands name bigger or even underline it to make it more obvious that this is the bands name. I believe people in class thought it was an effective CD cover that really depicted what a weird dream might look like. It grabbed their attention. This is the target market I was going after with the CD cover so I believe I did a good job in making it appealing to this particular demographic.

Typography

http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/

I love this one! I like how the typography used is a font normal used in "Superman" movies or any superhero movies. It really serves its purpose, to be funny and comment on how stupid it is to think that a pig could be a superhero.

Typography

www.streetkidsclothing.com

The typography used in this poster is very interesting. It is chosen very carefully for their target market, which are teens from thirteen to early twenties. Each word is largely spaced out making this easy to read from far. Some of the letters overlap each other. In this aspect the letter spacing is problematic, it makes it hard to see or understand what is written. They are trying to project a young look, a look that says I don't care what you think, washing out the letters is very effective at projecting this image.

Typography

http://media.filmschoolrejects.com/images/07posters9.jpg

The typography is very effective on this movie poster. I like the leading that was used "Days of Night" seems to be crushed together to give an effect of tension. The font they used for this poster gives it a scary look. Lines are not straight, looks as if someone wrote this by hand..in blood! They definatly took into consideration their target audience which are males ages sixteen and older, when choosing the fonts.

Week 3: Colour

I really enjoyed the lecture about colour and how to use it effectively to make an image more appealing. I was already familiar with many of the terms discussed in class and had used them without really knowing what I was doing with the image. This lecture gave a new sense to what hue or tint really does for an image. What confused me a bit was how monitors produce colour. How does a monitor know what colour to create according to various numbers? For example, Red:32 Green:223 and Blue:80. How does a computer take these numbers and convert them into the colours we see on our screen!? This would have been an interesting subject to cover.

Images that use the CRAP principles

This DVD cover is very simple but it uses the principles of contrast. Each image is very different with vivid colours that bring out the other images.

This is also a good example of proximity. It is an organized cover. An orange line, orange being the colour that seems to be repeated throughout the cover, separates each element or each image.

Images that use the CRAP principles

There is a lot of repetition on this DVD cover. For example, the background colour of the main image (which is a washed out blue) is repeated between each small image at the bottom of the DVD case. They also used the same font for every quote.

There is a bit of contrast. The small images break up the page a bit by giving it a horizontal line.

They also apply the principle of alignment. The names of the actors on the cover of the DVD are aligned on an axis to the right of the cover, this connects the names making it clear that this is the main cast of the movie. Not only are the names of the stars aligned to the right but also the Title and the quotes making this a well thought out piece.

Images that use the CRAP principles

This image uses contrast. The colours blue and white make a nice contrast ( the white really stands out on a blue background). The boldness of the word Dynamic makes it stand out. This image has both Vertical and Horizontal lines.

The principle of repetition was used. They used the same font a few times, which unifies the image.

Images that use the CRAP principles

This book cover is a great example of contrast. It has three colours that compliment each other very well (blue, white and yellow). It has both Horizontal and vertical images. Images are different shapes and sizes.

I do believe this cover has a few problems though. For example, there seems to be too many separate items on the page. The principle of proximity was not followed for this piece. It feels unorganized and is confusing to look at, like they are trying to place as many things as possible on the page.

My first Blog!

Hello!
I studied communications at Dawson College for 2 years before coming to Ryerson. Our focus was mainly films but we also touched upon the subject of digital media quite often because it is now taking over the film and television industry. My understanding of Digital Media is that it is anything that uses numbers (0 and 1) and is mainly created on computers. There are many forms of digital media like cell phones, digital cameras etc...

There are many reasons why an RTA student should learn Digital Media.
Digital media has helped the television and film industry evolve tremendously. For example, editing is now mostly done on computers instead of film being cut up and taped together. It has become digitalized making post production more creative, (the tools that editing programs have make for very creative work) less time consuming and we all know that time = money!
Also video cameras are now primarily digital. First advantage that comes to mind when filming with a digital camera are the expenses which are decreased enormously.

All in all learning about Digital Media will give us a greater understanding of the field we are about to explore.