Disks - Final

Will bring in two disks. One will be constructed DVD, other will contain .mv4. . . files from compressor of all works. No AE projects, etc.



No .movs
Files ran through compressor on 2nd disk

Self-Critique - Feedback Response

A lot of stuff could have been pushed more. The graphics need to be a bit cleaner, the outlines not so harshly contrived. Shorten the length. Get the point across better, there's some confusion as to what's trying to be said. . .


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Need to change:

Pacing - too slow
Get new, better images of door(s)
Go with only having one door; make door open on hinge
Cut to white towards end is awkward
Get point across more
Don't stack bunch of images on one layer
Confusion spatially
Change Text
Take text off of doors

New SB

Fear, and how fear instills in us a want to just hide, to just get away from the problems and never having to face them. To face our problems, we must open the door for ourselves – no one else can do it – and face whatever obstacles happen to lie beyond it.

The little boy protagonist is afraid. Afraid of what? It’s unclear, as I wanted to keep that fear, whether rational or irrational at a distance from the audience. The scene pops back and forth between him and the door, because something beyond it, not the door itself, keeps him afraid.

The dragon statuette serves as a visual motif for two things: one, strength, the inner strength, and the second purpose is how a visual thing like a beast of its caliber can instill fright into our hearts and keep us in our places, afraid, and unable to move forward. His throwing of the dragon object I want to symbolize his coming to terms with the task that he must do – go to the door, open the door, and open it and face what’s beyond it.

Animatic

http://jonkeegan.com/subway_tests.html


I came across this guy's work, and out of the several sites that I looked at, his was one that really caught my eye - probably more so for the aesthetic quality than anything. This animation was done in After Effects as a pencil test/animatic for an animation sequence he would later work on. From just viewing this, you can already get a sense of the actual atmosphere of the piece. From the beginning, I seemed to have been drawn in to his world. I was drawn into a familiar yet slightly not-so-familiar/intriguing city world at an almost personal level with its inhabitants as they go about their day, getting to and fro from where they need to go. The main concentration is, of course, the subway itself, the act of getting there, taking a ride, and taking in all the sights and the tiny querks that most people on a daily basis fail to recognize, or often take for granted.

Final Statement

My research topic this semester dealt with dragons, and how I wanted to use the idea/concept of the dragon as a metaphoric icon, replacing more literal depictions with an appropriation of a draconic figure. I have wanted to portray the idea of dragon-as-metaphor in a different light in each of my animations: dragon as destroyer in my promotion/change piece, and dragon as mysterious, untouchable and withdrawn beast in my redone version of the masking practice exercise. For my final motion graphics project, I want to portray the idea of dragon in a positive light through its water-bearing associations in ancient Chinese mythology.

My inspiration for this final piece was derived out of an interest in Chinese myth and how it idealizes the dragon as the bringer of water (a life-sustaining substance we all need) and good omens. I plan to represent the dragon, or aspects of the "good" dragon association through the mysterious, masked stranger who appears towards the end of my final piece. This dragon-masked figure will stand as a symbol of the good omen, despite how dark, daunting, and unpredictable his actual appearance may be, and in the end, a bringer of the rains (after bestowing the talisman/amulet to the protagnist), rain which my protagonist had hoped to come across since the beginning.

Final Project Proposal

Due next week

Organize all created movies - edit, clean up, re-render if needed. . . compress
Will bring them in on built portfolio disk (don't actually burn disk yet)


Final project idea complete with storyboards (detailed!)

Assignment Write-up - Masking

TC
Motion graphics
3.28.2007

The purpose of this assignment was to familiarize ourselves more with masking and how to do various kinds of masks.

My concept deals with dragons, and the various representations of dragons. I took a more straightforward, literal approach with this. Dragons are thought of as mysterious, mystifying creatures, and I wanted to personify this mythical creature's existence. I wanted to portray that aspect by never fully showing the dragon’s face, so as to keep it/him off-limits to the viewer, both his face and his actual expression. Toward the end of the piece, there is a blinking dragon's eye, but it's without a face, still to keep you at a distance, or to wonder what/how exactly this creature feels and thinks.

......................

I did find some difficulty in actually executing/remembering what some of the steps were to do particular masks. I think I just need to work with them more, because I have a tendency to stay away from using masks all together. I do think I'll go back and redo/add to the graphics portion of this at a later time.

Question and "Riot" Show Research

Question for (BLO: http://www.rtmark.com/legacy/bloscript.html):

Did it ever occur to you guys that rather than the parents wisening up and realizing the strange change that had occurred in the Barbie and G.I. Joe dolls on the basis of your intended motives (how they enforce gener-specific stereo-types, but you wanted to get away from that) themselves that they would just choose to throw them out as defective and purchase new and or different ones?


(Jill-posted question)Do some artist construct new canvases to broadcast their ideas outside of the old structure?

The guys from Graffiti Research Lab was a major example of artists constructing new canvases. Their canvases werne't typical in the sense of when we think painting canvases, but theirs were actual buildings they used to project holographic-like imagery and text upon. With exhibiting their work or attempting to make a statement, they went on a much broader level than most non-professionals are able to. They broadcast their injustices and wanted freedoms in areas where they would really be seen by a myriad of people near and far.



"Reasons to Riot" Show

There was an installation by Derrek Adams entitled "Playthings." It featured several traditional African dolls that were dressed up in varying fashions and strewn about a monopoly-like game board that was designed to be a neighborhood. Above the piece, where photographs of the dolls which had the light and angles manually manipulated to appear somewhat life-like and real. I found this piece really interesting and aesthetically eye-catchy. It makes me think that the artist wanted to portray African s/African-American as having a very prominent place in the United States, and in the world itself, more so than history has often subjected us to be. With the depiction of the dolls in various contemporary, flashy, average-looking, and business attire, it seems that the artist wanted to reflect on how African-Americans can be and are unique in their own ways, and that we are all not baggy clothes-wearing, skimpy clothes-wearing, crude, ignorant people as is so often depicted in modern cinema, like music videos, tv shows of the past and present, books, etc. We move around the world with a sense of our place within it, in tune with our communities and outer communities.

Spring Break work

Due after spring break:

Review one of the pieces in the show in the main gallery “Reasons to Riot”

Look around house, school, job, country, etc. and/or planet and figure out what you want to be different than it is right now. (culture of TN, culture of bedroom, etc.)

objective: change the world
- Do composition in AE that visually illustrates what needs to change.

5 sec loop, 30 second comp, whatever.

Final Proposal

T. C.

Dragon as Metaphor
(Iconic Dragon Evolution)

I want to use the dragon image as an iconic metaphor for all the discourses we associate the word with. Rather than use the stereotypical image of a dragon we all probably know better than others (ie: the Western rendition of a winged, four-legged reptilian), I want to aim at portraying dragons in various forms and under various circumstances and conditions. Not literal, stagnant depictions, but in subversive, metaphorical pictorals.

The icongraphic imagery will, hopefully, tell the story through the use of their placement as elements within the compositions themselves, their functions or purposes, their aesthetic (color-wise) properties, and generally the way in which they are presented, or their duration, on screen. Dragons will correspond to a number of sayings that aim at their implications, like "in the mouth of the a dragon," to imply the probable cause of getting "burned" or hurt in some way, or the "eye of the dragon," like the eye of the storm, to indicate furry and chaos that is to come.

Final Idea Proposal - Research Project

Metaphoric Evolution of the Dragon



Dragons, and the idea of a dragon or dragons means different things to different people. Other than being strictly associated with fantasy, the unreal, the illogical or inconceiveable, dragons have a long history of associations with various emotional discourses, metamorphisis, and states of being that come attached with them.

I want to use the idea of dragon to move from a literal viewpoint to that of being strictly metaphor. I want to aim at portraying the implications of dragons through their type, color, body structure, movement, temperment, placement, and role within the composition in order to get at the implications of what those various elements mean (when conjugated with accompaniment elements), and how they can successfully be portrayed in a metamorphic, metaphoric translation of the concept.

Soap Self-Critique

3.7.2007 [Critique suggestions]



Things to consider and redo:

- scribbled text on tv screen: don't make it so sporadic, give it some order, and maybe a darker color.

- woman's face is dead: let her eyes blink, or her pupils move from side to side, especially in the close-up shot. Give her some life.

- non-gendered feeling in tub scene: maybe show her leg, or both legs, or a feminine arm hanging over the side of the tub. She's looking too much like just a genderless blob.

- Choppy transitions: don't need cinematic, drawn out transitions. Maybe could do with just short, hard transitions.

- Zoom: don't allow audience to see start or end of zoom-ins and outs.


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As I go back and watch my commercial to do a self-critique, I start to see and realize more things about it that I previously had not.

As far as effectiveness, I'm not quite sure right now what would be more effective (until my audience informs me otherwise), but I just know that the aggrandization (however sublte and subliminal I wanted it to be) could have been pushed somemore. Maybe graphics or effects-wise, and not so much content-wise.

The images could have been a bit cleaner, and the lines variations thicker and thinner to give everything more of a "pop." The tv commercial that the woman is watching was probably the major point/climax of the piece, yet the build up is kind of weak. In my head, it was much stronger. I think this, too, could be resolved graphics-wise. More emphasis and detail needs to be put into the host, and the "words" on the tv screen need to be more noticeable and stand out, like most good advertisement. The tv "text" is too bland and doesn't do much justice.

Soap Commercial Assignment Write-Up

The purpose of this assignment was to aggrandize a bar of soap. My hopes are that my commercial will appeal to a female audience, a female audience within the age range of early twenties and beyond. Since it's a general consumption that most females enjoy cuteness, I wanted to go for an airy, cartoonish aesthetic feel.

I wanted to puruse a subtle, subliminal approach with my commercial -a commercial within a commercial. The woman is watching tv that is advertising soap that she already has (which probably affected her buying it in the first place). Throughout the piece, she has a mezmorizing stare on her face as she takes in the tv advertisement, which later entices her to take a bath.

Next Wed.

- Complete soap commercial (will render out in class).
- Have concise research topic in mind.

Due Next Wed.

1.) Go to classmate's blogs, and comment on their research topics via a post (what would work/what wouldn't, etc.).

2.) Work with spacial/temporal graphs.

Create various shorts comps illustrating the different techniques of spacial and temporal effects/movement using some of your project stuff. [organized folders w/ names - experimentation - don't need final project done - can just experiment with specific objects in specific scenes, not neccessarily the entire scene done.]


+Will be quiz over shortcut strokes, temporal/spacial cycles. . .

Research topics

T.C.
2.14.2007

Research Topic(s)


From my original list of ideas, I singled out three topics for research that I thought could be the most interesting in various aspects, and ones which I hope to get a lot out of working with. The three topics I chose were: fear, grounding one’s self, and dragons.

1) Fear: I wanted to aim at portraying fear in both rational and irrational senses, and get to an understanding of the underlying hows and whys we as people fear, or may fear, what we do. I wanted to explore more deeper concepts, and incorporate a dark, somewhat gothic aesthetic value to the pieces I would create if I did go with this topic.

2) Grounding one’s self: I came to this topic due to the fact that I’m very interested in and intrigued by the ideas of meditation in various forms, and how one must ground themselves in a deep state of calm and relaxation in order to reep the utmost benefits of the practice(s). As society grows and technological advances grow and lead us to lead more fast-paced, stressful lifestyles, it is highly important that we take the time out every once in a while to just relax and gain/regain our bearings. The idea of grounding, in conjunction with meditation, I wanted to portray it dually through the use of using the phrase “grounding one’s self” as a metaphor for keeping one’s head “straight,” their thoughts and actions present in the now, and not always in the what will be or what has been, but keep themselves rooted in the current situation at hand.

3) Dragons: (Metaphoric evolution) Though dragons in the typical western sense are nothing more than imaginary creatures which probably never were to begin with, there is no denying their mystifying existence as it stands within the genre of fantasy. They are wondrous, magnificent creatures that have been associated with various ideas/emotions in various cultures throughout time. What I had in mind for “dragon(s)” as a topic was based around my wanting to explore the legends and myths surrounding dragons in the areas of their historical context and treatment. I wanted to delve deeper into their mysteries, and shed some light on the great beasts, in the way they were perceived then and now, and somehow connect both those factors. I want to strive to portray both the good and bad sides of dragons through their evolution through history, and in the end, I want to attempt to get away from concepts of literal dragon depictions and associations and allow the dragon itself, both in name and image, to become a metaphor for various enmities (greedy, hoarding, courage, ferociousness, bad, life-bringing, water-carrier, omen of good fortune. . .) in my later pieces. Dragons have been known as great beings of evil (in the West), who are ferocious and hoards stashes of treasure which is pretty useless to them, or as creatures of good fortune and life-giving essence (in the East), such as bringers of the storms and the water that gives life to all plants and animals. Two very conflicting views of the same creature, and so many different stories to tell. . .

Preview images - Soap advertisement

Storyboards 2/2

Meant to target a "gaming" audience in general. The soap is basically a tool of sorts used to clean video game disks, much like the popular liquid cleaning solutions (or alcohol) used to clean/fill in dirty and/or scratched video game disks, like for PS, PS2, PS3, Game Cube, etc. The soap is meant to be a rub-on type of substance.

1.) What is advertisement trying to sell?: Soap-like cleaning product for game disks.

2.) What feelings is it trying to create?: You must have this, because it's the product to end all other product-buying.

3.) What audience is the ad targeting?: Gamers.

(Read from bottom to top from previous post. . .)

Storyboards 1/2

(Read from bottom to top. . .)

Deconstruction Assignment b.

Objective: Bring 5 ads that present interesting image that convey identities/messages about how one should act/be.


- Axe Shower Gel



Calvin Klein ad (older one). Mostly, they feature men, women, or both together, in provocative poses, as if they're trying to "welcome" you in to join in their little presumed escapades. Most of the time, on the women, they let too much go bare, but try to cover it up in the way a pose is or by the twist of the body.


Cover Girl - General Advertisements
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1566580275566907209 - Keri Russel's ad

Provocative lip gloss advertisement - like they all are - attempting to get young women/girls to buy their products. A lot of the times, the situations don't really make sense, or sometimes they're a bit overhyped. They always feature a pair of picture-perfect lips on an extreme close-up, and the "perfect" face and hair and eyes and nose and facial structure to go with it.



"Music is in my soul"
It's a tricky sort of image, because while the caption says: "Music is in my soul," it doesn't show any musical instruments of any sort, or the woman holding sheet music, or even her in a recording studio with instruments behind her or hanging on a wall somewhere. It does, however, show her as being in a rather passive, adorable/sexy/innocent, provocative pose that's meant to attract attention not to what the message is actually saying/trying to say, but to her body and beauty.


Fanta commercial: drink fanta, and you'll be great and popular, and everything's all happy, happy, happy.

Deconstruction Assignment a.

1.) Victoria's Secret underwear commercial
- viewed on tv, and first thought was how skinny those women are, adn that the underwear they're sporting is very tiny! Never influenced me to actually want to go out and buy.

2.) Willy Wonka sweet tarts squeeze tube
- colorful commercial attempting to sell new kind of candy – squeeze tube sweet-sour candy that out like (edible) gel. It got me interested in it, thinking how its texture might feel against my tongue.

3.) TGI Fridays ad – Boston Market ad
- Made me want food at the time I saw them, and I hadn’t eaten in a few hours. It made me want the dishes they were displaying.

4.) E-harmony ad
- made me wonder just how successful the site is, and how many people use it. It didn’t make me want to use it.

5.) Samstown Tunica
- made Tunica seem so lively and extraveagant, so great, the best place in the world. I don’t gamble, so it had no effect on me to go to it or anywhere near it.

6.)Mom
- telling me not to walk to school at night, to be careful walking to and school during the day – everyday, like usual.

7.) Friend
- tried to get me to taste a sports drink that I had never tasted before. After some silly protesting, I finally gave in and tasted it. It wasn’t good.

8.) Car commercials
- would be effective if I had a car and drove.

9.) Aruba – vacation commercial
- fun in the sun, traditional shows, and food and dancing, fishing, scuba diving, boat rides, scampering on the beach – fun. Influenced me to want to take a vacation for absolutely no reason. Very effective. Hah.


10.) Monkey comer (adbuilders.com)
- “It’s tough working with monkeys, and we’ve had enough” – slogan.
- Showed cute monkey in a pink dress picking its nose – reference to lazy, slackers who goof off or are good for nothing.

11.) Barbie girl commercial
- makes me think of how America’s youth are being corrupted at such early ages, plaqued with ads everywhere internalizing the “ideal” body, and how young girls readily try to imitate these things. What’s even worse now than Barbie are Bratz dolls and all their accessories and fashions and glamour, and all the hype, and how girls imitate the dress/looks of those dolls by actively seeking out clothing combinations – they’re spoiled rotten.