Short Lived but Much Learned

Well we’ve I’ve finally made it to the end of the semester and I must say that it has been a great experience. Digital media was a course that was very demanding when it came down to the work that had to be done, and not the the quantitative sense but the qualitative sense. Design is hard, and it may not be for everyone but I believe that it is one of the greatest forms of expression and creativity. After working on the projects that i had to prepare for class I saw a trend of a lot of hand drawn design, which is not exactly my forte, but it was very prevalent. I also saw a lot of consistency when it came down to colour pallet and textures so that is something that i may want to look more into when I find myself in a position where I have to design.

The work that I have done in RTA 103 has definitely changed my views in design and media but not my future career choices. If anything I would still like to work in sound but somehow integrate design into it like album cover design or poster design. I also see how prevalent digital media is in basic society. I see posters and videos and all that jazz like everywhere all the time and its jus so common that I hadn’t really realized its effect on society. For something this big to be so ignored it crazy but its an indicator that it works. There is a huge amount of work that goes into everything that is out there as digital media and after working with software like photoshop and aftereffects I have a great deal of respect for all of these designers.

The program that I would say I feel the most comfortable with would have to be photoshop, I mean i did most of my after effects assignment on photoshop. Photoshop is definitely the best program when it comes to design, there is just so much that you can do with it to make almost any image that you can think of. Through working with these images I feel that my skill for time management has greatly improved. The works that I’ve had to do were not things that I was able to do in one day so I had to be able to make my idea before hand and learn how to break it down into smaller parts that I could work on at different times.

This semester has proven to help me develop in my venture to work in media. Coming in I honestly had no idea when was going on, it was a lot at once but I’m happy to say that we’ve made it, word to Drake ! (Before writing the exam that is)

Games!

I have been a gamer since the age of 4 and I must say that the gaming life style has only gotten better over the years. In my earlier years gaming only consisted of board games and card games with my family but as grew older my interests started to move on to bigger and better things… Yes RuneScape. Although online gaming was such an amazing move for me in terms of my gaming preferences, the RuneScape fad only lasted about a year for me. My gaming now is mainly defined by console and steam games, which are always fun especially when you have plenty of friends to play with. I always gamed just for enjoyment but what does it really mean to be a gamer? My last lecture on gaming actually gave me a little perspective into what I’ve been doing for a great portion of my life and in some aspects ruined it for me. A gamer is simply someone who plays games, online games, board games, card games any games. In playing these games we are developing many different skills that we can integrate into our daily lives. We play games for entertainment, to relax, to engage with friends or just for the love of the game.

This community and culture of gaming has always been a part of my life and it is something that I never thought was that serious but there are many powerful underlying themes and issues that have actually changed my perspective on gaming in a big way. Many games are considered sexist or racist because of the lack of diversity in terms of ethnicities and the overall portrayal of women. For many games, if you haven’t noticed, the protagonist is typically a middle ages white man. There are many reasons for this, like the game following a specific story or the face that it is harder to create the features of other ethnicities. Although it is always easier to just make games this way designers should take up the challenge to create better, more diverse games. The females in these games are portrayed as the helpless damsel in distress which is not a good look for the large demographic of female gamers out there. These are issues that have been in games for years but they can be changed if designers decide to take up the challenge.

                            

Storytelling is a huge part of gaming. There are almost no games out there that don’t tell some sort of story but this storytelling exceeds just storytelling the the virtual game world. Games have grown to become adaptations of hundreds of movies, books, and television shows that have been able to be marketed to the masses. This gaming aspect of a story has only added greater interaction to massive trans media stories. I feel that the traditional methods of narrative story telling will only be more enhanced if they choose to allow gaming into their trans media campaigns. This will allow the audience to have more options and more of an ability to really get into the stories.

I believe that Jane McGonigal’s notion of gaming for a better world is amazing especially to a gamer like myself. If we can make saving the world in a game as easy as saving the world in real life we can bring about great change. Games are essential because they provide us with the skills and drive to achieve an “epic win” in real life. If we can solve problems in real life the same way that we can solve problems in a game, we can ensure our survival.

Motion Graphics

So its coming down to the final moments of the semester and I realize that my final motion graphics project is coming up. Im am not exactly what one would call experienced in photoshop and after effects but I must say after lots of practice with it I THINK I’m starting to understand how to do a few things. So in terms of my project i actually went through some pretty serious changes.

For the background I liked what I did with the strokes in the background to give a sort of blurry effect but I then realized that the scene overall was just way to colourful. Especially for something like the Great Gatsby that had a specific pallet of color. I realize that if you stick to one pallet and change the tones slightly it makes for a much better over image. So I decided to use a pallet that consists of a very dark blues, greens, and greys as well as a dirty gold colour to have something to stand out on the dark background. I re-watched the scene and i realized that it has to be at night and the road is more of a dirt road, so I remade the road with a dark grey and used a special brush stroke with a slightly lighter tone to give a dirty road texture to it. I then used a special brush and created the grass on the sides with a dark green and then filled the background with a navy blue. I then created the illustrious T.J Eckleburg sign on the right had which was a reoccurring sign in the book. Finally to give it a true night time feel, I made a black rectangle and placed it on top of all my layers. Then I turned down the opacity on the rectangle to give everything a black tint.

In terms of the car I liked that the physical design of it but i then realized that in the book the car was actually yellow so I changed the colour of it for blue to yellow. I though oh yeah awesome its done, no. I then realized that my car had no driver so I created the head of Gatsby and threw it inside the car to give the effect of someone driving. I think that it turned out pretty good but I also think that the yellow that I used was way too bright so it throws off the colour balance. Right now its bright but I plan to make it darker and possible add a bit of gradient to give it dimension.

Finally I redid the tombstone, and I must say I am actually very happy with the result, out of everything that I’ve done on photoshop its probably one of the best things I’ve made from scratch I took a basic shape learned about the curving power of the pen tool. I bent many lines and made a multi layered cross tombstone. On each layer I made a black to grey gradient that will make the tombstone look more defined while keeping the black background.

I pretty happy with the progress of my project and now all I have to do is make it come to life in the way that I want it to. That itself is another challenge but I’m happy to take it on because I’m starting to grow a bit fonder towards design.

Cosplay and Groovy Q

About 3 days ago I was just going about my regular day when I decided to go on twitter. I was partaking in my usual thoughtless browsing when I saw that someone had made a new tweet. I refreshed the feed and saw that one of my favourite rappers, Schoolboy Q, tweeted that his concert on the 21st of November has now been changed from 19+ to all ages. This was probably one of the happiest moments of my life which resulted in the immediate purchase of 5 tickets.

                                

Yes. It’s that serious.

That one tweet was seen by over a million people and created different stories for each and every one of them, be it happy or disappointing. For me and my friends he made something great to look forward to and something that we put a lot of planning into. This was expressed through our posts on social media like Instagram, Twitter, or Snapchat! The people who see our reactions to these little things take them differently and therefore have different stories to tell other people. Who knows maybe they might want to go to the concert too !

In terms of transmedia interaction I fee that it is the ultimate tool in terms of marketing and the measurement of devotion that a person can have for some sort of content. I see transmedia interaction all the time but I haven’t done anything to the extent of the dark night event that happened. The most I’ve taken part in is Anime North (because I’m a nerd) which was nowhere as big as some of the other events that have happened like Fan expo. Anime North was a great experience in terms of realizing the extent of the power of transmedia. I was able to see thousands of people dressed up as their favourite characters and taking part in tons of themed events. There were even shows that had clothing lines, that had cutlery, that had a video game, that had an exclusive sound track. Yes it sounds crazy but thats because its actually is crazy. Being able to interact with some sort of content over multiple platforms appeals to the audiences of media.

                                       

Some Anime North Shots

Storytelling is a part of everyones lives and they are something that can be taken from any little thing that you hear or see. What we make of those stories is what makes them good or bad for us.

Motion Graphics Prototype

For my motion graphics piece I decided that I will be doing an animation of the climax scene from the classic book, The Great Gatsby. This book is one of my favourites that i had read over and over again in high school. I felt that the images that were provided by the book were very vivid and all greatly reflected the themes of the book as a whole. My vision for this animation was hard to come about because there was so many things that I felt I could do. My original idea was to have Gatsby in the foreground looking out at a lighthouse in the background. The light from the lighthouse is the green light and the light will rotate. As the light comes towards Gatsby it will cover the screen and blind the viewer. As the light passes it will show a tombstone in which the words “The Great Gatsby” will appear. After attempting to make the scene in aftereffects I realized that there were many problems with my original idea so I decided to redo it. What I have decided to do is to recreate the climactic scene where Myrtle dies from a car crash.

I got my inspiration from a exert from the film “The Great Gatsby” where I saw the car speeding down towards the camera at an angle. At this point I decided to take that and turn the scene into an idea of perspective. I decided to put the view into the perspective of Myrtle. I will have a car that I made on photoshop drive towards the camera, and as it gets closer to the screen the background will turn from day to night.  The head beams on the car will be green representing the green light and as it comes to the screen it will fade to white. Once the light disperses it will show a completely black screen. There will be a light that will come from the top right corner and increase in intensity revealing a tombstone. Finally, the words “The Great Gatsby” will fade into the tombstone.

The background that I made with different shapes, a colour fill, and special brush strokes. I blurred the horizon to emphasize that it is in the background and not fully in sight.

The car that will be driving up to the screen made with multiple shapes and different colour shades.

The tombstone and beam of light I made using gradients.

A link to my inspiration

Digital Media Meets Music in my Life

In learning about how to produce most of the digital that I love so much I’ve actually grown an extremely deep appreciation for the talent that these designers have and for the immense amount of hard work that goes into producing something that looks so clean and natural in terms of work. Although I am still new to things like photoshop and aftereffects I’m able to see how these programs allow designers to express themselves and create great art. Digital media is everywhere, and its many aesthetics have been used to relay great concepts or beliefs. It is integrated into many other platforms and works hand in hand with things like music or sound effects. The perfect combination of digital media and sound make for a perfect piece of media. I personally hold a great love for music and being able to work in sound production of any kind is my main aspiration in terms of goals for this program. Music is integrated into my daily life and I love being able to see what kind of images the artist was trying to plaster into my mind. This is where digital media is integrated into sound with music videos. Music videos are the ultimate aesthetic that emphasize the main idea of a song. I can easily just download the songs like I like but I enjoy looking at the visual representation of an artist art. Here are some of my favourite music videos: (Please excuse the language)

These videos showed some of the amazing used of digital media principles like dynamic typography , animation, and motion graphics, ultimately making great projects.

Motion Graphics

After a nice unproductive reading week I came back to lecture on motion graphics. Great way to get back into the swing of things right? Well its actually not that bad. Motion graphics refers to the art form of bringing graphic designs to live using animation. This art form is found literally almost everywhere that visual media is. Some examples are Stop motion animation, CGI, movie titles, television titles, music videos, commercials and many many more. Some of the most influential of these would be the title sequence. The title sequence of any piece of media (this including things like station IDs for radio and other sound mediums) is extremely importantly because it sets the mood, establishes themes, foreshadows plot and characters, immerses the viewer in the experience, maintains the brand of the content. This importance was emphasized by Saul Bass a man that realized that a film began on the first frame. Saul’s influential title sequences had opened the doors for other motion graphics designers and created an iconic style that had inspired many new styles and concepts that ultimately became the many brands that we have come to know and love now. Here are a few of my favourite pieces of motion graphics!

The opening sequence of Jackie Brown is a favourite for me because it is constantly dynamic, it continues to move with Jackie as she moves and the typography was just perfect to the time period of the film.

The ending credits for the incredibles has to be one of my all time favourites in terms of motion graphics. This graphic is extremely powerful in the way it uses many shapes, colours and extremely dynamic motions in order to tell the story while giving credit to the people that put the film together. The music matches the  whole super hero feel of the sequence and the best part of all of it to me has to be the way that each and every animated scene in the sequence gracefully leads into the next and so on. This gave the feel of a little film in itself while adhering to its purpose of being a credit scene.

For my own motion graphics assignment I’m planning on doing a short teaser for the book “The Great Gatsby”. This book is one that was greatly emphasized in my last year of high school and was one that I felt had a lot of symbolism in it so I have more to work with. My plan is to show Gatsby looking out into the distance with a lighthouse in the distance giving off a green light. The light will do a full turn and when it comes to the screen the whole thing will turn green and it will show a tombstone with the words “The Great Gatsby” written on it. I’m still not 100% sure on how I am going to make this happen but for the most part I’m planning on doing a lot of it on photoshop and import the images into Aftereffects to animate them.

Infographics and My Digital Diary

Now I know that information is all around me and it takes different shapes and sizes but it has actually been something that I’ve been taking for granted. This weeks lecture was on Infographics and self-tracking and I found it to be one of the more interesting topics to learn about in this course. So what in the world is an infographic you may be asking? Well to put it simply an infographic is literally a visual representation of information in order to make complex topics and ideas easier to understand. This is an amazing tool used to convey information, I mean I’d much rather look at a picture than read a bible of text, and  I think you would too. Infographics have been around for thousands of years, although they were not know as infographics in their earliest stages, because most of them were just cave drawings but they ultimately served the same purpose. Some Infographics are simple and some are much more complex but the key to making a good infographic is having a Compelling Story, Great Data, Visual Style, and Sharability. You must first establish the message or story that you want to tell to your audience, next you must compile your data and be able to summarize it into easy to read points, then you must have a visual style for the infographic that will support your story, and finally you must have a way to share it while still keeping your target audience in mind. Follow these simple steps and you sir have yourself an amazing infographic!

Here are two of my favourite inforgraphics that actually show principles of a good infographic!

                                               

So although infographics are lots of visual fun there is another topic that was discussed in the lecture this week and that topic is self-tracking. Self-tracking is literally just the tracking of yourself. Sounds simple yes but it is actually very broad in terms of what it is you are tracking. Whenever you use those apps to monitor how many steps you have taken in a day, or how fast your heart rate is, or even how many calories you have eaten in a day are all different forms of self-tracking. As we do this we are sharing this information with the world in different ways like on social media. When you track yourself you are creating a build up of information on yourself which is valuable to companies and essentially anyone that wants to sell or promote something. I think that this desire to track ourselves and share this with the world is a step in a more united direction for society but at the same time shows our attachment to technology. The more we feed our desire to share things ourselves in on social media ; how we think, what we listen to, how we take care of our bodies, the more that other people are able to take from this. This shows that technology is slowly continuing to become integrated into our culture, and the impact that they have on our daily lives is immense. After learning about this I decided to take up the challenge of tracking myself for 24 hours and it was actually insane. After tracking myself I learned that I actually cannot  live with out internet technology. I started my tracking at 12 AM on wednesday the 8th, which started with me immediately being on laptop studying for a music midterm that i had the next day. While on my laptop I had Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and multiple other tabs of research open at the same time. After sleeping I woke up hours later to the alarm on my iPhone and proceeded to go to school as I listened to music. During the rest of that day I checked my phone an additional 20 times which resulted in 6 tweets, and lots of regrettable snapchats. The bulk of what I share consists of my opinions of the things that I see, hear, or believe in. In a day that consists of 24 hours I found that I spend at least 6 hours on the internet, using some sort of internet technology be it for personal purposes or for school purposes. THAT IS 20% OF MY DAY. That is insane, I never thought that I used the internet that much but apparently I do. I don’t want to say that I am dependant on it but I feel that it has a huge impact on my daily life.

good kid m.A.A.d City

The piece that I decided to create was a literal take on the Kendrick Lamar album entitled good kid mad city. I decided to make my own version of this cover because I am a huge fan of his music and I loved the concept of the idea behind the album. The album plays out as a narrative of the some of the misadventures and experiences that the artist had gone through in his home of Compton California. My inspiration came explicitly from the image of the album cover showing a young Kendrick at a table with some of his relatives, but not the city that his whole album is based upon. So I thought, “Hey I can be that good kid in a mad city.” This brought about the creation of my piece!

To make this piece I decided to make an optical illusion using my face. I took a picture of my face from the front, and then I took a picture of my face from the side and imported the two images into Photoshop. Next, I used the polygonal lasso tool to trace the outline of my face from the side and the back of my head. I copied and pasted that outline onto the image of my face from the front, and erased the right half of my face as well as all the rest of the image on that side. Using the quick select tool, I selected the little parts on the edges of my image that I could not use the eraser tool for and deleted them. At this point I inserted a new layer and placed it under the other two, to then import a picture of Toronto at night. With the picture of the city in the background and my face in the foreground, I repositioned it onto the left side and changed the color of my face to black and white. Next I slightly blurred the edges of my face beside the city so that it may better blend with the image, and added a drop shadow on the right side of the face from the blend options menu. This gave the feel of the good kid looking out over a mad city. To emphasize this effect I created multiple grey, transparent ovals and placed them to the right of the face to create the imagery of the good kids darkness taking over the city as he looks over it. Next I used the text tool to insert the text “good kid, m.A.A.d City” and increase its size. I then went into the blend options menu and added a black bold border and a grey and black gradient to the text. Finally, to avoid copy right issues I recreated the parental advisory sign in the bottom right of the image by placing a black rectangle down with a white rectangle in the middle of it, and added text in black and white within the appropriate spaces saying “Parental Advisory Explicit Content”.

Final Product

Digital Footprint

After a glorious lecture given by miss Laurie Petrou I was given enlightened upon the ways of a digital footprint and OH MAN do I have to watch what I post. So a digital footprint is basically a little mark that you leave on the internet every single time that you log in, post, and interact with things online. Your digital footprint is able to be found, shared, broadcasted and most importantly it is permanent. Yes that means that all of those intoxicated, embarrassing and completely inappropriate  pictures, tweets, and Facebook posts are all able to be seen by anyone with internet access and they are going to be there forever! So why is this a good or bad thing? Your digital footprint is a very vivd depiction of who you are as a person, and that fact that anyone can find out all about you just by googling your name will put an impression on the searcher. You better hope that impression is a good one, especially for family members or future employers. You don’t Believe me? Go google yourself and check what you see.

When I google myself I am filled with mixed emotions because I see a great combinations and good things and embarrassing things. For the most part I don’t really care about what I post online or what some people post of me either. Google my name and you see a profile picture of me for Toronto Public Health,whom i’ve been working with for some time, and a badly edited picture of my face on a Yu-Gi-Oh meme. Yeah… My footprint is not the best and guess what, thats just images! I still have plenty of content on my Twitter, and Facebook account that I’m not too proud of but for the time being I have to live with them. I think that the best way to improve my digital footprint is to actually think about the content that I am posting, father than,”is this going to get a laugh”. I should look to continue to post content that emphasizes the good qualities about me and not just my horrible sense of humour. The easiest way to escape this cycle of posting good and bad content is simply to just deactivate your account and just not post anything bad but I don’t think that that is best. Having a digital identity is a great thing because it allows people to express themselves and their thoughts in their own special ways. Whether its within 140 characters or long winded life stories, people should be willing to open up and put themselves out there and not just to keep their personalities to themselves. If all we worried about was what people think, we wouldn’t be able to have a lot of the amazing expression that we have now. I still have a long ways to go, but instead of just running away from things like social media I feel that it is best to just continue to express myself in the ways that I do best, and learn how to do this in a more positive way.