10¥

This site is what has been eating my time for the last several weeks and the launch date is almost here.

Please look forward to it!

Nothing feels better than showing off your final project to someone, only to notice the several errors in it that you can no longer make right.

In any case, I’ll fix them before uploading my flash project for all to “enjoy.”

In other news, I’m looking into creating some “welcome” posters for the DD09 class at VFS. In my experience so far, folk seem to think that the different rooms are this giant barrier between the classes and that folks from one class can’t interact with the other. So! I’m going to put together a few welcome posters that will get dropped on the temp drive on each of their computers as a little “surprise.” Thus on the first day when they learn how to use the temp drives, they’ll find these posters and take some amusement from them. Also, I hope to encourage them to get to know each other more by spreading the different versions on different comps.

As per my previous entry, I present my motion piece for last term!

I really liked the concept for this piece. It started off at around 8 pages of storyboarding, then got bumped up to 10 after talking with Cory. Sadly, I wasn’t able to execute precisely along the lines of the storyboard as I had hoped due to limitations on money and time, but all in all I’m rather pleased with how it turned out. The graphical style of the backgrounds is one that I have been toying with this term greatly in numerous other projects (many of which I have posted here).

To create the piece, I first sketched out my ideas via storyboard, then on the computer with my tablet. Then after finalizing my bluescreen videos with the alpha channel attached, I did a final environmental design and coloration of the world using illustrator. Ultimately my bluescreen footage was pretty good, though not perfect as I had a number of places where rotoscoping was required (and not enjoyed, I can assure you). I shot all the outside footage myself, even the skateboard shots. For those I ended up just leaning down on the board and holding the camera steady to take the shots. It wasn’t easy and I kept seeing visions of something going wrong and breaking the $1800 or so camera, but it was ok! I feel a little bad about the audio design as it was the last part of the project that I did. As a result, it was rushed and not mastered properly. However, I do think that it came together fairly well and that the simplicity of the solo guitar for the alternate world is really nice. I wanted to have only the music in that section, but it became clear that sound effects would be needed as well, so I kept them limited and light. The skateboard audio is some that I recorded myself using a handheld recording device. I made use of the slight hill in front of my apartment to record the audio on, but it took me 3 runs down (and then back up!) the hill to figure out how to actually record. That aside, I captured some good sound.

I think it was a successful project despite needing to cut out shots, rushing at the end and all the other foul things that happened. I hope you enjoyed it!

Well, the VFS term is thankfully over and all my work is in. It was an extremely stressful last week and lots of things needed doing really quickly, but all in all I’m happy with the work created. When I get a break from this other project that I’m involved in, I’ll post up some of my final pieces for all to enjoy and heckle.

Well folks, everything is due tomorrow. everything.

Here we go.

It is 6 pm, the day before everything for this term is pretty much due and I have realized that I made a mistake.

In first term, I pushed myself to go as far as I could with my different projects and completed them without issue. Well, too much issue. So, this term, I similarly pushed myself to do the most I could. Unfortunately, I went too far this time and have more on my plate than I may be able to deal with. I will do my best to complete my projects and do them the best I can, regardless of what it takes.

However, from all of this, I can take away the extreme need for careful planning and not overextending myself. Next time, should I prepare ebtter, I shouldn’t have trouble accomplishing my goals. Back to work!

Are you ready?

This weekend will be the last big sprint the finish of my work for this term. The motion video is due monday along with a presentation of my flash project that I have to do on monday. This basically means both need to be done by then.

Lets go work, I’ma gonna catchya!

For Visual Communication, we were requested to make a promotional poster advertising our class (in my case, DD08). To create this poster, as a class we took lots of pictures and played around for a few hours, then everyone took the photos and developed their own creation.

Here’s mine:

I really like how this turned out. I first gathered several analog images: the thumbs-up, the flame, graphite scratchings and a bright fireworks image. Then I started playing with them and how to work them together. I used a background texture that I took off of a light bouncer, then starting adding elements on top of it. Over time, the flame became the center of the image and I worked how to bring focus to it. First was through using a channel based on the graphite and the fireworks to create the sense of a space being broken through by the flame. Then I put the thumbs up in to give the sense that the fire is coming out of the hand; or instrinsically a part of the hand. In any case, the emphasis is quite strong in that direction. On the other side is the branding for the image, “DD08 - A Spark of Genius” is the tagline for the poster and the graphic is a logo for the class. To create it, I experimented with how to illustrate the double Ds and the 8; the 0 had already become the centerpiece of the design. Eventually I hit upon the sense that the Ds are much like the two halves of the 8. I started developing butterfly-like designs, but found that the perfect circle in the middle of the dd/8 created a stronger brand image.

Overall, I really like how the poster came out!

The final project for the 2D design class this term is to create a self-portrait. It was expected that one would create layered shapes that are then colored to create an image that looks much like oneself.

I decided to go in a different direction. Instead of using shapes to color my design, I colored it:

As you can tell, these projects take time. I hand added each part to the design slowly. Overall, however, I’m quite happy with the result.