Week 12: Reflections

Week 12, end of the road... Thinking back to the beginning of the semester I recall not knowing what the course was like, and most importantly not knowing whether I would like it. Well, the end result surprised me...

The course was useful for me as a first year student, as an introduction to different aspects of digital media. It was also important in developing an understanding of the necessesity and presence of digital media in any modern media.

The course was succesful in teaching the basics of different formats of digital media, and most importantly creating an interest (at least in me) about digital work in the modern media.

The most important, and enjoyable skill I learned in this class was the Flash Animation. Flash is important in modern media because it allows the ability to create animation for any platforms, in different formats, whether a commercial or a cartoon. I am considering using Flash in my future studies, and work.

Thank You for a great semester!

Week 11: Daft Punk

This is going to be the last post of online discoveries and findings. I was thinking of things I could do for this week's post when I came upon reflecting all the themes we covered in this year's digital media class. We covered design principles, animation, motion, and most interestingly (at least to me) the evolution of the music videos. I set out to find a music video that combines multiple core elements that we covered in class.

One such video is Daft Punk's "Around The World:"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWMM8EmMZ-E

The video successfully combines the contrast and shapes of different colours to deliver it's message. The motion (though not digital) is executed in excellent synchronization with the music. I also find this video, though unvoncentional, works well in delivering the universal message of global culture.

Week 10: Web 2.0

Here are some of the examples I found for each of the characteristics of web 2.0

1. dynamic content, viewable on multiple platforms

http://www.nfl.com/

The site for the National Football League, is perhaps one of the best examples for this particular characteristics. The website alone offers live updates on games, videos, pictures, news stories about every team, and tonns of special content. The advantage here, is that virtually all of those are available for access from your cellphone. Choosing the parameters through your mobile phone you can get updates on your favorite team anywhere.

2. user contribution (user generated content or user generated value)

http://www.youtube.com/

In the modern world of digital media there is no alternatives or comparisons to YouTube. The website is entirely user generated, where you can post anything from your family vacation to a music video you made about your favorite band. The recent adaptation of YouTube for cellphones is a huge plus for the website on its way towards becoming the most visited website on the Web.


3. social media

http://www.meetmeinto.com/

The local website features perhaps one of the largest online communities in Toronto. Users are able to create a unique profile, write on each other's pages, and view pictures from events around the city. One advantage over Facebook? The interactive forums that encourage you to come up with your own threads for any given the theme or topic.

4. online applications

http://www.musicovery.com/

If you have heard of http://www.pandora.com/ a website that builds a playlist based on whether you like one song or the other, meet Musicovery. What's great about it is the fact that the playlist that is generated for you is based on the specifics of your mood, musical era preference, genre, AND whether you like a certain song or not.

5. harnessing collective intelligence

http://www.blogger.com/

If you are reading this, then you know about Blogger. The website allows you to post anything from your philosophical opinions on the state of the world, to jokes you make with your friends. Tagging text and images creates an advantage in letting your blog be known to the rest of the world.

Week 9: Flaaaash!

18 hours of work over the last 3 days, and the assignment is finally done!

Unfortunately, couldn't post a workable .swf file to this, but here is my artist statement:

The concept for “A Thought” uses the idea of combining drawn components of first animations (the notepad cartoons) and the modern techniques of Flash in an animation with a unique message. The work combines elements of photography, motion, text, drawings, and sound in one, in order to appeal to the viewer. The concept of drawing or doodling on paper in a Flash animation further assists in bridging the gap between the two different eras of animation. While “A Thought” provides an insight into the opinions of the creator of the work, the idea behind the animation is to also raise universal questions from its potential viewers. Thus, the work’s purpose is to provoke a thought or a reflection within the viewer.

While the piece has no specific intended target audience, it can appeal to several different audiences at the same time. Consumerism is an issue that affects all age groups in a modern society, and thus the message of the work is universal. The use of jazz music in the work may appeal to a slightly older crowd, while the photographs of classrooms can attract university-aged audiences. The concept of drawing can be interesting to a younger audience.

The animation was created in Adobe Flash with graphics drawn in Adobe Fireworks and Flash. Some of the central graphics in the work include the dollar sign, a person’s face, and the dollar coin. The most prevalent technique used in this Flash animation is the motion tween. This kind of tween is used to animate instances of graphics as well as text in the work in order to make it more appealing and presentable. Several movie clip symbols on their own separate layers are also used in the work to create the repetition effect (most noticeably the moving background of lined paper and the rotating earth). The work also uses a combination of two separate audio tracks to convey the message behind the animation. Another aspect of the work features stop-motion photography. This is created as a result of placing consecutively taken photos on frames in succession in order to create the effect of motion.

One of the anticipated challenges for this work was the organization of thought and recreation of the speech in form of images. The biggest challenge in reality however, was effectively synchronizing the sound with the motion on the screen. Because there is no way to check bits of sound for each frame, the movie had to be watched over and over again after making minor adjustment in order to perfectly synchronize the sound with the motion on the screen. This challenge was dealt with through tedious work and attention to the detailing in layer construction, because certain motions were used for specific phrases in the speech it was easier to add more detail after the essential “skeletal” animation was laid onto all of the layers/

The assignment further reinforced theoretical material that was taught in lecture and helped secure the knowledge of Flash concepts such as different tweens, action script, and the meaning of symbols in a flash animation. Although the work turned out not as grandiose as perceived in my mind at first, it is a satisfying effort. The work successfully addresses several target audiences with its universal message.


I think the quality of the work in my section was very high. What surprised me the most though, were the storylines and ideas behing some of the animations. Good job to everyone!

Week 8: Evolution of the Music Video

Previously I have discussed the advantage (or some might call it "disadvantage") of living in the digitial era and having everything at your fingertips. The reality is, we don't use the web just to get information anymore. We live, work, and interact within it. The rise of the Internet, and recent introduction of Web 2.0 has enabled average people to create work and use the Internet to broadcast themselves. It has proved a successful medium for broadcasting not only creative work, but sharing thoughts and ideas.
Where is all this going? Well, a perfect example is the evolution of the music video. Considering the fact that some fourty years ago, there was no such a thing as music videos, it is pretty impressive that virtually anyone can make one today without leavinng their house. The music industry has successfully learned to adapt to the new age of browsing, and has captured the potential of the internet music video. In some cases, bands and record labels have even made calls for fans to submit their own music videos to the songs picked by the artist. NY based artist Moby, recently announced a reward for a fan with the best video to the single from his 2008 album "Last Night."
The success behind internet music video is largely a result of the interactivity it enables for the viewer, and the encouragement for them to create their own work to go with someone else's. Videos that look like they are made at home are often created with some sense of satire.

Here's a beautifully done video to one of my favorite songs Fake Empire, by a band called The National:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KehwyWmXr3U

Week 7:Third time is the charm? Not really...

This year's Nuit Blanche was anything but amazing. A lot of people were complaining after the last two years about crowds, long walks, and a generally low impressiveness (is that even a word?) factor. The promise for this year was a general improvement but the result left myself and many asking for more. Less road closures, longer walking distances, and really dissapointing set-ups made a night on the colder side of the thermometer hardly worth leaving the house for. In fact many installations looked much better in the information booklet than in real life.

The thing I most looked forward to, was Blinkenlights. The projects in Europe were a great success, and Toronto's installment promised to razzle, dazzle, and amuse. According to the brochure it should have looked something like this:

the result however turned out to be a major dissapointment:






















I'm not sure if it was the fact that the two buildings were curved, or the huge ramp blocking half of the view from up-close, but the images depicted were hardly recognizable (if at all). Not even a game of low-resolution, indistinguishable PONG on the wall of City Hall, could made up for the lackluster spectacle of this year's Nuit.

Week 6: Doodles

A possible idea for my flash animation assignment could be based on doodles. The first forms of animation were notepad drawings with pages constantly flapping. I am considering making my assignment a new take on the old technique. The idea came to me as a result of watching people around my classes. At one point or another everyone doodles. Whether it's just a small drawing of a stick person, or an elaborate sketch, people devote a lot of time to drawing in their note books. I thought that I could elaborate on the idea of doodling to create an animation with a storyline.

Here is on of the examples I found on the internet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooCRGT8IoiY

Week 5: Cd Cover

The assignment is in! Mine just so happened to be on an Alberta-born Cadence Weapon, whom I got to see perform live at the UofT frosh (hence the close-up pictures). If you have not heard any of his music check the link out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL3Qeot5KvE (warning: explicit lyrics)





















The submitted work is a concept design for a CD cover featuring an Alberta born rapper Cadence Weapon. The pictures for the design were taken at a live performance during the University of Toronto orientation week, where Cadence Weapon was one of the headlining artists. The artist performs and produces music with DJ Weasel, who also appears in the background of the design. “The Youth Crew’s Back” is the name of one of Mr. Weapon’s latest, most popular songs. The CD design was created in mind with the single “The Youth Crew’s Back” or as a possible idea for a future album with the same name. The objective of the idea is to convey to the listener the unique sound of Cadence Weapon that comes from a combination of rap singing and electronic music. Another point of the design is to promote the potential buyer of the CD to attend a live performance by Cadence Weapon. The target audience for this design, and the potential CD are persons between the age of sixteen and twenty five. Cadence Weapon’s music would appeal to that demographic, and that is the most prominent demographic at his shows.
The design was created in Adobe Fireworks. The polygon lasso tool with a feather edge was used to cut the images of Cadence Weapon and DJ Weasel from two separate pictures, followed by a scaling down of the images to an appropriate size. The amplifier in the background had also been outlined with a lasso tool and then inverted in order to select the whole background, which was then adjusted to less saturated tint. The colour of the amplifier also appears in the text. The text for “The Youth Crew’s Back” had been converted into a bitmap image, rotated and then blurred in order to look more realistic on the speaker in bottom left corner of the design. The letters of the “Cadence Weapon” title were also converted into bitmaps and moved to create more symmetry and alignment between the two words.
The biggest challenge in creating the design was selecting an appropriate colour scheme. The design was not intended to be colourful but it wasn’t supposed to look bland. Colour of the amplifier was used in the text to make the CD design more appealing to the eye. The text contrasts perfectly against the dark background.
The design was important not only in exercising Fireworks skills, but also using creative judgment about what would make it look most attractive. Selection and arrangement of the pictures that would eventually make the design is as important as being able to put the images together. The image meets the objective of attracting the potential listener and creating a first impression of a young energetic artist that Cadence Weapon is. Though the design uses subtle colours it successfully addresses the target audience with the detail and the action in the design.

Week 4: TXT in the modern world

Bell: A recent advertisement for Bell Canada, uses text to encourage the purchase of new cellphones with Instant Messenger options. The fonts here are designed to simulate the ones a person might see on MSN Messenger or in the text messages for their phone. The selling point of this ad is the awareness and familiarity of the viewer with the given font.

Wicked The Musical: A poster for "Wicked" features slightly pointy fonts with a lot of angles. Come to think of it witches are pretty pointy themselves: pointy hats, pointy fingers, pointy noses, pointy broom sticks, etc. The font use here is effective in creating a gloomy feeling of witch presence and thus selling the ad.

Nuit Blanche: A relevant (more on Nuit Blanche in later posts) topic of Nuit Blanche has a minimalistic yet eye-catching poster. The use of typography here is effectiv in making the title of the event slightly bigger than the rest of the text and thus grabbing the attention of the viewer. The text is tightly knit together create a specific effect. The font used in this design is minimalistic as well, which only adds to the effectiveness of the poster.

Images discovered at:

http://messengergeek.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!E3785B1281BBDA1!413.entry

http://www.wickedlyobsessed.zoomshare.com/

http://www.tysonwilliams.com/2007/09/

Week 3: In The World of Colour

Much like last week with the CRAP principles, I decided to do some exploring on the web and found several pictures that represent different colour schemes.


Triad Colour Scheme - The Beatles album, Yellow Submarine combines blue, red, and yellow hues perfectly to create the scheme. The highly saturaded yellow and red of the submarine stand out perfectly against the gradual tint of the less saturated blue background.

Analogous Colour Scheme - Three variations of hues in the sunflower create an analogous scheme of colours beside each other on the wheel. The sunflowers have low saturation of colour and good contrast between the dark shade of the middle and the tint of the petals.

Complementary Colour Scheme - The complementary colours of the poison dart frog against the green hue of leaves, act as a warning to its potential predators. The frog contrasts against the leaves with the highly saturated colour of its skin.

Monochromatic Colour Scheme - Another Beatles album cover, Revolver, uses elements of hand drawing and picture editing to create a monochromatic scheme. The different shades and tints of the faces are effective here because of good use of proximity. The plain white background also creates a good sense of contrast against the shaded drawn eyes.













Images courtesy of:

http://design.bloxi.jp/images/1151_0cbhdf_o.jpg

http://www.isdproductions.com/thebeatles/beatlesdiscographyandlyrics.html

Week 2: CRAP (in a good way)

After covering Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity in class this week, I noticed that any picture can be judged according to those for elements of design. Here are some of the pictures that stood out in my mind.

I find this well known classic from the James Bond series, interesting in a few ways. Firstly, there is the concept of the viewer looking at the agent through the barrel of a gun. The contrast between black and white of the barrel is juxtaposed with the black and white suit of the agent, against a white background. Also, the the corners of the picture are dark, making the centre stand out more by contrast. The alignment of the picture works perfectly, as the repetitive swirled shape of the barrel leads the eye of the viewer to the main theme of the picture: the silhoutte of the character. The pose in which James Bond is standing, is effective too, contrasting the uniform symmetry of the swirl, and the circle of the barrel, making him stand out.

This is the cover from "Breaking Kayfabe", an album by Edmonton based rapper Cadence Weapon. There is a great amount of contrast in the picture the author worked with blue, yellow, orange, red, black, purple, and gray to recreate the image of the artist and the title. The title of the artist and the name of the album are both contrasted to look more interesting, as well as the swirls around the words, that make it look like the picture was roughly hand-drawn. The artists' hair, eyes and lips are drawn in the same color to stand out agains the background. The picture also makes good use of proximity. With the name of the artist, and the album around the face, the album cover brings the viewer's attention to to the concentrated center. The slightly rotated alighnment of the album title and the circles leading to the artist's mouth make it look almost like he's breathing the name of the title out through his teeth.

A preview picture for the upcoming release of another installment of the Need For Speed games. The most effectively used elements in this picture are alignment and proximity. The front car is slightly ahead of the second which is slighlty ahead of the third, in a close chase. The cars are aligned really close, so that the viewer's eye trails from the first one to the last, ending with the name of the game in big font against the backdrop of the city. There is also a contrast between the faded yellow sky and the dark of the road and cars, splitting the image in half, with the title standing out right at the centre. Because the image is imitating a high speed chace, the author effectively blurred the colors in the image, creating the sensation of high speed. Special attention has been given to fine detail in this image. The road looks wet with drops of water flying away from the tires, and the cars reflecting in the pavement create an effect of repetition.

This painting is by American artist Thom Evans is called "Repetition". The obvious repetition of the haystacks on the ground is mirrored by contrast in the clouds, seemingly dividing the picture into halfves, bringing the main character in forefront to attention of the viewer. The repetition used here, not only helps create a sense of perspective, but also makes the viewer interested as to what is on the horizon, beyond the viewable part of the painting. The caracter in the painting is sitting on the side, leaving the space for the viewer to fully see the repetitive stacks both in the sky and on the ground, as if they are the main point of the paintings. The color of the man's clothing matches the color of the surrounding nature. His jeans are the colour of the sky, the shirt is like the clouds, and the hat is the golden brown colour of hay.

Links to pictures:

http://www.thomevans.com/gallery4.htm

http://www.cadenceweaponmusic.com/

http://www.gamewallpapers.ru/3015-need_for_speed_undercover-5.html

http://legitexpect.wordpress.com/

Week 1: Zeros and Ones

Today, one is hardly surprised to hear the term "digital media." As a society we are moving away from the real world we can touch, smell, feel and see, to a much bigger dimension of the Internet. We go online to check the news and weather, do work, and socialize with other people. It is only appropriate then, that the new breed of media is emerging today. There isn't a TV or Radio station that doesn't have it's own website with up-to-the-minute updates, megabytes of mega material, and stories just about anything that is going on in the most remote parts of the world. Whether you care or not. News material doesn't just stream at us from televisions or radio sets anymore. It is on billboards, bus stops, sidewalks, elevators and even our washrooms. And as we get more used to this constant bombardment we learn to adapt and recognize its place in our everyday life.

Learning about this new form of media is especially important for future broadcasts. The influence of digital media is increasing everyday. Future broadcasters need to realize the potential of this form, its advantages and disadvantages, so that one day they can tap into this form and use it effectively. Just like digital media itself, today's writers, producers, and directors have to be versatile, and able to work in multiple fields. That is the importance of learning digital media.