It's the end, imaginary blog-readers!
I know you are all going to miss me and my wonderful rantings about the beautiful world of digital media! Fear not, for I can still be found across the interweb... somewhere...
Truth be told, I was rather surprised by how much I enjoyed this course, and I am fairly bummed that is coming to a close. I didn't know much about this stuff at all when the course started, and now I feel like I have all this wonderful knowledge in my brain. I have learned a lot, about various programs like photoshop, flash and dreamweaver. I don't know if I'm actually any good at this stuff, but I kind of love it. Especially dreamweaver.
I thought following the tutorials each week was a good way to learn, because as I began to understand more, I was able to improvise on them and create my own thing. Plus, I like having basic instructions that I can fall back on later when I am making my own work.
This course has indeed changed the way I look at digital media. I have so much respect for the people who create even the smallest pieces of work now. It takes a lot of effort to create anything!
Liking this course has really put me in a dilemma though. When we were shown what they do in later courses in this genre, I was enthralled. They totally got to me. I never planned for digital media to be something that I would focus on in this course, but now I am seriously considering it. The problem is I want to do EVERYTHING. So I really don't know what's going to happen.
The most important thing I am taking away from this course is that I can accomplish stuff like this. I was doubtful of my skills in this area, and sure, they're not as pristine as some other peoples, but I did fairly well, better than I thought I would. I know it sounds full of cheese, but this class truly was such a valuable and enriching learning experience.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Week 11: A topic of my choosing
Oh look, another one that I have to figure out for myself!
Let's talk about my love for HTML. I have this desire to become an expert at it. Maybe it's just that it seems cool knowing this other language - like I'm deciphering and writing in a secret code. Or maybe it is just encompassing my internet obsession nicely.
I do kind of believe that online media is the way of the future, and I want to be able to contribute to that.
I'm a fan of the concept of web series, and I would probably like to make one some day. Have you seen The Guild? Felicia Day is kind of my idol. Anyway, wouldn't it be cool if I could design my own website for it as well. Really no matter what I do, wouldn't it be cool if I could design my own website? The answer is yes. It would be INCREDIBLY cool.
I wish I had dreamweaver on my own computer but it is bloody expensive.
The problem is my knowledge on website design is rather limited at this point. I came into this course not knowing all that much about it, but I was always interested. I will just have to practice I guess!
Let's talk about my love for HTML. I have this desire to become an expert at it. Maybe it's just that it seems cool knowing this other language - like I'm deciphering and writing in a secret code. Or maybe it is just encompassing my internet obsession nicely.
I do kind of believe that online media is the way of the future, and I want to be able to contribute to that.
I'm a fan of the concept of web series, and I would probably like to make one some day. Have you seen The Guild? Felicia Day is kind of my idol. Anyway, wouldn't it be cool if I could design my own website for it as well. Really no matter what I do, wouldn't it be cool if I could design my own website? The answer is yes. It would be INCREDIBLY cool.
I wish I had dreamweaver on my own computer but it is bloody expensive.
The problem is my knowledge on website design is rather limited at this point. I came into this course not knowing all that much about it, but I was always interested. I will just have to practice I guess!
Week 10: Web 2.0
The internet is a constantly evolving place. Right now we are experiencing what people call web 2.0 - a much more interactive version of the web than the original that was very linear and mostly just informational.
Let's talk about the characteristics of Web 2.o!!
Dynamic Content:
An example of this is flickrvision.com that was on the powerpoint. It's dynamic content because it is "viewable on multiple platforms." This website is pretty much a combination of flickr and google maps, so it shows pictures from people around the world popping up on a map! MAGICAL. It's a combination of applications with contributions being constantly updated from around the world.
User Contribution:
An example of this characteristic is gamefaqs.com which is a website for people who play video games. It provides reviews on games, some walkthroughs, as well as tips and cheats fro beating games. However, ALL of the content is user generated and submitted. You get the how tos from other gamers, which is really cool.
Social Media:
We talked about most of the social media type sites that I know about during the lecture, but here is another example: flixster.com, which is a site that involves social networking, and yet it all revolves around people's love for movies! People can right reviews and comment on other peoples profiles, if perhaps they think they have similar tastes in music. What fun!
Online Applications:
This refers to the kind of programming you wouldn't usually think of as an online thing, and yet there it streams. It's software yet on the web. An example of such a thing is phixr.com which is a photo editor on the web. You upload your photo from your computer and you can edit it right there!
Harnessing Collective Intelligence:
This is mostly talking about the concept of "tagging." You tag something so that it becomes easier for you and others to find. An example of this is quizilla.teennick.com which is a quiz website I used to go on back in like, middle school. Oh how times have changed... Anyway, they use a tag cloud to show what quizzes are popular and what not.
Was that not interesting?
Stay tuned for more awesome in my next post!
Let's talk about the characteristics of Web 2.o!!
Dynamic Content:
An example of this is flickrvision.com that was on the powerpoint. It's dynamic content because it is "viewable on multiple platforms." This website is pretty much a combination of flickr and google maps, so it shows pictures from people around the world popping up on a map! MAGICAL. It's a combination of applications with contributions being constantly updated from around the world.
User Contribution:
An example of this characteristic is gamefaqs.com which is a website for people who play video games. It provides reviews on games, some walkthroughs, as well as tips and cheats fro beating games. However, ALL of the content is user generated and submitted. You get the how tos from other gamers, which is really cool.
Social Media:
We talked about most of the social media type sites that I know about during the lecture, but here is another example: flixster.com, which is a site that involves social networking, and yet it all revolves around people's love for movies! People can right reviews and comment on other peoples profiles, if perhaps they think they have similar tastes in music. What fun!
Online Applications:
This refers to the kind of programming you wouldn't usually think of as an online thing, and yet there it streams. It's software yet on the web. An example of such a thing is phixr.com which is a photo editor on the web. You upload your photo from your computer and you can edit it right there!
Harnessing Collective Intelligence:
This is mostly talking about the concept of "tagging." You tag something so that it becomes easier for you and others to find. An example of this is quizilla.teennick.com which is a quiz website I used to go on back in like, middle school. Oh how times have changed... Anyway, they use a tag cloud to show what quizzes are popular and what not.
Was that not interesting?
Stay tuned for more awesome in my next post!
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Week 9: My animation, a review.
Remember that whole time travel interactive animation thing I was planning? Yeah, well, I did that. I would LOVE to post it here for my imaginary readers, but unfortunately blogger absolutely HATES .swf files. Like, with a passion. Or so I've been told. It turned out decently though, I think. Here's my artist's statement anyway:
Artist’s Statement
My goal for this assignment was to create an animation with a strong interactive component. I wanted people to have to search their way through it.
As someone who is new to Flash, however, this was a very challenging endeavor. I used the resources I had to help me through it, even going through some of the old tutorials from class to determine how I could get the animation to behave accordingly. It was hard, because if, and ultimately when, I messed up, what I did afterwards wouldn’t work properly either. Everything had to be done in steps, and those steps had to be executed correctly. This kind of project, it turns out, is incredibly time consuming, and I found myself working at the computer for hours at a time.
My idea for this project was time travel. I wanted to show various different methods of how people could potentially travel through time. On the main menu, a person can click on an image and it will take them to a small animation of that form of time travel. The animations are not as complicated as I initially thought they would be, but they do their job.
I tried to keep a consistent look throughout the animation, with the same typeface and similarly styled images that I drew right in flash. That way, each frame looked like they belonged together. I used a mix of type and images, which involved a large amount of layers. I also used several tweens to help my animation along.
At one point it seemed almost as if I was being a little too ambitious with the amount of buttons I needed to make this work, especially after Flash crashed a couple of times, but I worked my way through it. I wanted to make the buttons interesting for the user, so I had different things happen when the mouse was over the button, and when they clicked. I felt it was important to add these, because it shows that the button is there, and that it will do something.
The ticking hand of the clock took a lot of time (pun not intended), but I am pleased with the outcome. I even managed to make it loop, by adding an actionscript, so that that second hand will just continue to go around and around until someone clicks on the “Go back” button.
My use of sound in the animation could have been a lot better. I ended up just having some ambient background sound to make it a little more eerie. It would have been better if I had been able to add a sound component for each element, but I was having a lot of trouble manipulating the sound in the right places, and frankly, I was running out of time. I still think it works like this, though.
I learned a lot in creating this piece, because I actually had to take the lessons from the tutorials, and apply them in a different way, rather than just following instructions. You can do a lot with the flash program, and I would be interested in discovering more in the future. My animation might not be the most professional looking, but I am very proud of how it turned out.
Wasn't that lovely? I enjoyed the reaction of the class too, when it got showed off. No one seemed to hate it, at least. Or if they did, they didn't vocalize it. There were a few murmurings of "that's cool." So I'm happy enough. I do wish I had been able to add more sound effects, and to make the animations more complex, but this flash business turned out to be harder than I thought. Or maybe my skills were not proficient enough? Either way, it's finished, and I got a decent mark so all is well.
Artist’s Statement
My goal for this assignment was to create an animation with a strong interactive component. I wanted people to have to search their way through it.
As someone who is new to Flash, however, this was a very challenging endeavor. I used the resources I had to help me through it, even going through some of the old tutorials from class to determine how I could get the animation to behave accordingly. It was hard, because if, and ultimately when, I messed up, what I did afterwards wouldn’t work properly either. Everything had to be done in steps, and those steps had to be executed correctly. This kind of project, it turns out, is incredibly time consuming, and I found myself working at the computer for hours at a time.
My idea for this project was time travel. I wanted to show various different methods of how people could potentially travel through time. On the main menu, a person can click on an image and it will take them to a small animation of that form of time travel. The animations are not as complicated as I initially thought they would be, but they do their job.
I tried to keep a consistent look throughout the animation, with the same typeface and similarly styled images that I drew right in flash. That way, each frame looked like they belonged together. I used a mix of type and images, which involved a large amount of layers. I also used several tweens to help my animation along.
At one point it seemed almost as if I was being a little too ambitious with the amount of buttons I needed to make this work, especially after Flash crashed a couple of times, but I worked my way through it. I wanted to make the buttons interesting for the user, so I had different things happen when the mouse was over the button, and when they clicked. I felt it was important to add these, because it shows that the button is there, and that it will do something.
The ticking hand of the clock took a lot of time (pun not intended), but I am pleased with the outcome. I even managed to make it loop, by adding an actionscript, so that that second hand will just continue to go around and around until someone clicks on the “Go back” button.
My use of sound in the animation could have been a lot better. I ended up just having some ambient background sound to make it a little more eerie. It would have been better if I had been able to add a sound component for each element, but I was having a lot of trouble manipulating the sound in the right places, and frankly, I was running out of time. I still think it works like this, though.
I learned a lot in creating this piece, because I actually had to take the lessons from the tutorials, and apply them in a different way, rather than just following instructions. You can do a lot with the flash program, and I would be interested in discovering more in the future. My animation might not be the most professional looking, but I am very proud of how it turned out.
Wasn't that lovely? I enjoyed the reaction of the class too, when it got showed off. No one seemed to hate it, at least. Or if they did, they didn't vocalize it. There were a few murmurings of "that's cool." So I'm happy enough. I do wish I had been able to add more sound effects, and to make the animations more complex, but this flash business turned out to be harder than I thought. Or maybe my skills were not proficient enough? Either way, it's finished, and I got a decent mark so all is well.
Week 8: A topic of my choice
I actually have to pick my own topic for this entry? You would think that would make it easier, but it doesn't.
So let's talk about... ARGs, perhaps?
ARG stands for Augmented Reality Games, and they are quite fascinating if you ask me.
It's a game that involves different mediums and even real life scenarios to involve players in a grand scale. Usually they are used to promote something, like a video game or a tv show.
I actually kind of participated in an ARG a few years ago. It was for one of my favourite TV shows, which I was very obsessed with at the time, called LOST. I never followed the game to its end, because frankly I found it difficult to keep up with. These games involve a LOT of dedication. You have to really want it.
I did follow it for a while though. One aspect I specifically remember was a fake ad they inserted into the regular programming during the airing of an episode. It was for the Hanso Foundation, an organization that had only very briefly been mentioned on the show. The ad presented a phone number at the end of it, which I proceeded to call. On the other end of the line there was a recording of a message from a girl named Persephone who had more information... it continued on. There was also a full website for this fictional organization, which when explored would start to "glitch" and reveal various things. It led to other websites, of people decoding video, or advertisers that I'm still not sure how they related. They also brought the game to real life when a girl who was apparently part of the game gave a message during the question and answers component of their San Diego Comic Con panel. These things can get rather complex.
But for those willing to participate in them, I think it's an incredible way of promoting a product.
So let's talk about... ARGs, perhaps?
ARG stands for Augmented Reality Games, and they are quite fascinating if you ask me.
It's a game that involves different mediums and even real life scenarios to involve players in a grand scale. Usually they are used to promote something, like a video game or a tv show.
I actually kind of participated in an ARG a few years ago. It was for one of my favourite TV shows, which I was very obsessed with at the time, called LOST. I never followed the game to its end, because frankly I found it difficult to keep up with. These games involve a LOT of dedication. You have to really want it.
I did follow it for a while though. One aspect I specifically remember was a fake ad they inserted into the regular programming during the airing of an episode. It was for the Hanso Foundation, an organization that had only very briefly been mentioned on the show. The ad presented a phone number at the end of it, which I proceeded to call. On the other end of the line there was a recording of a message from a girl named Persephone who had more information... it continued on. There was also a full website for this fictional organization, which when explored would start to "glitch" and reveal various things. It led to other websites, of people decoding video, or advertisers that I'm still not sure how they related. They also brought the game to real life when a girl who was apparently part of the game gave a message during the question and answers component of their San Diego Comic Con panel. These things can get rather complex.
But for those willing to participate in them, I think it's an incredible way of promoting a product.
Week 7: Scopitone
There were three topics to choose from this week. I decided to focus my blog entry on the wonderful (though dead) world of SCOPITONE VIDEOS!
Oh look, here's one now!
(Don't laugh now, but I feel incredibly cool for knowing how to embed that video into the post. SKILLS.)
The Lady is a Tramp by Buddy Greco is an example of one of these very videos. It is very different from the music videos of today. For one, there is a CLEAR difference in the amount of money people spent on making these videos. The scopitone videos definitely had a smaller budget. There is also an obvious difference in video quality, which is natural because of the time period, and the special effects are sub-par. Pretty much, scopitone videos were just a lot simpler. A lot of the video is just the singer with a spotlight on him, and the rest is him singing in various simple settings. One thing it did have in common with modern videos however, was scantily clad women. Some things don't change so much...
Here's another example of a scopitone video:
This one is slightly more complex. There are even choreographed dance routines! But it is still mostly just a video of the singer singing their song.
I think that back then it was more about the music, whereas nowadays a music video is a way of branding the musician or band a certain way. It becomes how they present themselves to the world.
Oh look, here's one now!
(Don't laugh now, but I feel incredibly cool for knowing how to embed that video into the post. SKILLS.)
The Lady is a Tramp by Buddy Greco is an example of one of these very videos. It is very different from the music videos of today. For one, there is a CLEAR difference in the amount of money people spent on making these videos. The scopitone videos definitely had a smaller budget. There is also an obvious difference in video quality, which is natural because of the time period, and the special effects are sub-par. Pretty much, scopitone videos were just a lot simpler. A lot of the video is just the singer with a spotlight on him, and the rest is him singing in various simple settings. One thing it did have in common with modern videos however, was scantily clad women. Some things don't change so much...
Here's another example of a scopitone video:
This one is slightly more complex. There are even choreographed dance routines! But it is still mostly just a video of the singer singing their song.
I think that back then it was more about the music, whereas nowadays a music video is a way of branding the musician or band a certain way. It becomes how they present themselves to the world.
Week 6: A "Flash" of Inspiration
My idea for my flash assignment is, shall we say.. a journey through time. Like, actually. I plan to make an interactive animation that shows various forms of time travel! Time travel is something that has always interested me, and so this is a natural topic for me to choose.
My plan is to have a main page where you can click on different images to view a different animation sequence. Each image will represent a different form of time travel. Right now I am thinking there will be a wormhole, the TARDIS like in the awesome british science fiction show Doctor Who, a time tunnel which is also from a tv show - one that I've never seen mind you, but that my lab instructor is rather fond of, maybe the car from Back to the Future and possibly others. The final link will be to an image of REAL time travel. You know, traveling forward in time - turns out we're all time travelers! haha.. oh the cleverness...
This is going to involve a lot of button making, because I think it will be a lot more interesting if the interactivity is a strong component.
I don't know if any specific animation inspired me to do this for my project, though all the examples shown on blackboard really portrayed just how much one can do with this program, but this certainly helped me grasp the concept of time travel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAxRSe8mOTY
This is relevant, because it is one form of time travel that I will be focusing on in my assignment.
My plan is to have a main page where you can click on different images to view a different animation sequence. Each image will represent a different form of time travel. Right now I am thinking there will be a wormhole, the TARDIS like in the awesome british science fiction show Doctor Who, a time tunnel which is also from a tv show - one that I've never seen mind you, but that my lab instructor is rather fond of, maybe the car from Back to the Future and possibly others. The final link will be to an image of REAL time travel. You know, traveling forward in time - turns out we're all time travelers! haha.. oh the cleverness...
This is going to involve a lot of button making, because I think it will be a lot more interesting if the interactivity is a strong component.
I don't know if any specific animation inspired me to do this for my project, though all the examples shown on blackboard really portrayed just how much one can do with this program, but this certainly helped me grasp the concept of time travel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAxRSe8mOTY
This is relevant, because it is one form of time travel that I will be focusing on in my assignment.
Week 5: CD Cover Assignment
So for class I made this delicious looking cd cover:
Et voilà my Artist's Statement, because apparently I am an artist now!
Artist’s Statement
I started out this project by scanning an image that I had drawn to use as a background. The background was the original inspiration for the design, and is probably the part I am most proud of. To make the image clearer, with the darks darker and the lights lighter, I adjusted the brightness. It gave it a much crisper look. I actually like the use of lined paper in the background. I think the hand drawn pattern is a really interesting effect.
I played around a lot with blurring and smudging tools, but I decided just to add a slight border around the lettering to make it more visible against the eccentric background. This way it would not detract from its environment. The typeface is on the plain side, but is very bold, so that it is easy to read. The lettering had to be clear because the background is so full of life.
I chose to add the colour red, firstly to add a strict contrast to the black and white background, and secondly, to fit with the name of my fictional band, “The Strawberries.” I even used the paintbrush tool to draw a strawberry of my own. I made the title of the album, “Jump.” in large lettering because it’s a single word, and that really makes it “jump” off the page. It actually took me a lot longer than expected to pick the typeface that I thought was appropriate, and even longer to position it on the page. I tried to use the rule of thirds to help determine where I placed the words and such, which is why nothing is directly in the middle of the page.
The Strawberries are probably an indie band, because they tend to have strange looking album covers, rather than a photo of the band members, for example. The target audience then, would probably be young adults.
This design is about contrast. There is the contrast of the white background with the black lines. There is the contrast of the bright red of the strawberry and the title on the background. There is even the contrast of the the more simplistic lettering over the detailed background. The typeface is not very sharp because the background has a lot of edges. There is even the contrast of a hand drawn design versus a computer design.
The whole idea is for this CD cover to catch someone’s eye. It does that with the big, bright word, ‘JUMP.’ Then the goal is to maintain that attention with the intricate background design. This will hopefully be long enough to garner the interest of the customer, so that they might check out the actual music concealed inside.
Was that not fantastically written?
I am also supposed to tell the blogsphere what I learned from the class discussion of my work. Truth be told however, my assignment was the last to be viewed, and there were zero minutes left in class by that point. So my CD cover didn't actually get discussed, like, at all. But I did learn from discussion of other works that the artist name should go above the album name. So that's good to know.
I wasn't sure I was going to do well on this assignment, because my photoshop skills are rather limited, but I actually fared pretty decently. I love being surprised by good marks.
Et voilà my Artist's Statement, because apparently I am an artist now!
Artist’s Statement
I started out this project by scanning an image that I had drawn to use as a background. The background was the original inspiration for the design, and is probably the part I am most proud of. To make the image clearer, with the darks darker and the lights lighter, I adjusted the brightness. It gave it a much crisper look. I actually like the use of lined paper in the background. I think the hand drawn pattern is a really interesting effect.
I played around a lot with blurring and smudging tools, but I decided just to add a slight border around the lettering to make it more visible against the eccentric background. This way it would not detract from its environment. The typeface is on the plain side, but is very bold, so that it is easy to read. The lettering had to be clear because the background is so full of life.
I chose to add the colour red, firstly to add a strict contrast to the black and white background, and secondly, to fit with the name of my fictional band, “The Strawberries.” I even used the paintbrush tool to draw a strawberry of my own. I made the title of the album, “Jump.” in large lettering because it’s a single word, and that really makes it “jump” off the page. It actually took me a lot longer than expected to pick the typeface that I thought was appropriate, and even longer to position it on the page. I tried to use the rule of thirds to help determine where I placed the words and such, which is why nothing is directly in the middle of the page.
The Strawberries are probably an indie band, because they tend to have strange looking album covers, rather than a photo of the band members, for example. The target audience then, would probably be young adults.
This design is about contrast. There is the contrast of the white background with the black lines. There is the contrast of the bright red of the strawberry and the title on the background. There is even the contrast of the the more simplistic lettering over the detailed background. The typeface is not very sharp because the background has a lot of edges. There is even the contrast of a hand drawn design versus a computer design.
The whole idea is for this CD cover to catch someone’s eye. It does that with the big, bright word, ‘JUMP.’ Then the goal is to maintain that attention with the intricate background design. This will hopefully be long enough to garner the interest of the customer, so that they might check out the actual music concealed inside.
Was that not fantastically written?
I am also supposed to tell the blogsphere what I learned from the class discussion of my work. Truth be told however, my assignment was the last to be viewed, and there were zero minutes left in class by that point. So my CD cover didn't actually get discussed, like, at all. But I did learn from discussion of other works that the artist name should go above the album name. So that's good to know.
I wasn't sure I was going to do well on this assignment, because my photoshop skills are rather limited, but I actually fared pretty decently. I love being surprised by good marks.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Week 4: Typography
This week our challenge is to find effective uses of typography on posters and the like.
I got all of these images from a lovely website found here.
This is a very beautiful poster of a tree made of words. This a very effective design because it uses text as a shape.
This poster looks awesome because of the typeface that the creator made. It's colourful and appealing to the eye. The text is made to almost be exploding into the background!
The typeface is in this poster is extreme. It's big, bold, and gritty. This is effective because those characteristics are part of modern trends in design right now.
Until next time,
- Sarah the Spectacular
I got all of these images from a lovely website found here.
This is a very beautiful poster of a tree made of words. This a very effective design because it uses text as a shape.
This poster looks awesome because of the typeface that the creator made. It's colourful and appealing to the eye. The text is made to almost be exploding into the background!
The typeface is in this poster is extreme. It's big, bold, and gritty. This is effective because those characteristics are part of modern trends in design right now.
Until next time,
- Sarah the Spectacular
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Week 3: Colours
Many interesting things have been happening in the Digital Media course by now. This week in the lecture we mostly discussed colours. As it turns out a "hue" is the exact same thing. While saturation is more about the intensity of said colour.
We learned a lot about how the colours of the design influence it and who the target audience is. For example, primary colours usually suggest that the product is for children. However, we are not supposed to make any assumptions, as colours can be used for anything if paired with different typefaces and designs.
Certain colours do look better together though. A "triad" is when there are three colours used that are equally far away from each other on the colour wheel.
Then there is the monochromatic style, which involves a colour being shaded with white or black.
There are analogous colours which are two colours on either side of another colour.
I already knew about complementary colours; they are opposite on the colour wheel. They just look really nice together and are very often used in design.
It's actually insane how the colour of something can change it's appearance so drastically.
It can give things a crazy flair.
Or some emotion.
Colour changes everything.
We learned a lot about how the colours of the design influence it and who the target audience is. For example, primary colours usually suggest that the product is for children. However, we are not supposed to make any assumptions, as colours can be used for anything if paired with different typefaces and designs.
Certain colours do look better together though. A "triad" is when there are three colours used that are equally far away from each other on the colour wheel.
Then there is the monochromatic style, which involves a colour being shaded with white or black.
There are analogous colours which are two colours on either side of another colour.
I already knew about complementary colours; they are opposite on the colour wheel. They just look really nice together and are very often used in design.
It's actually insane how the colour of something can change it's appearance so drastically.
It can give things a crazy flair.
Or some emotion.
Colour changes everything.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Week 2: CRAP
This week's top secret assignment: Explain how four different images follow the "CRAP" principles.
Contrast
Repetition
Alignment
Proximity
These lovely images of flowers from this website for instance, use contrast to enhance the image. Particularly, they use complementary colours which are opposites on the colour wheel to really add to the polarity.
This next image, found here, uses the technique of repetition to add to the design. All those lights gives it a nice effect, don't you think?
This image from this website, is an example of alignment used in an image. The diagonal lines really connect the picture and make it very visually appealing. This image also has some nice contrast.
The image above, found here, is a demonstration of the design principle, proximity, though it encompasses many others as well. Related items are grouped together to give the viewer something to look at.
This blogpost was just FULL of CRAP, wasn't it?
But in design that's a good thing apparently.
Until next time, Agent Sarah out.
Contrast
Repetition
Alignment
Proximity
These lovely images of flowers from this website for instance, use contrast to enhance the image. Particularly, they use complementary colours which are opposites on the colour wheel to really add to the polarity.
This next image, found here, uses the technique of repetition to add to the design. All those lights gives it a nice effect, don't you think?
This image from this website, is an example of alignment used in an image. The diagonal lines really connect the picture and make it very visually appealing. This image also has some nice contrast.
The image above, found here, is a demonstration of the design principle, proximity, though it encompasses many others as well. Related items are grouped together to give the viewer something to look at.This blogpost was just FULL of CRAP, wasn't it?
But in design that's a good thing apparently.
Until next time, Agent Sarah out.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Week 1: It begins.
As per the assigned question, this post is my reaction to the Digital Media lecture.
Let me first say, that coming into this program, I know very little about anything to do with digital media. Yet, I was startled to discover during the lecture, that the whole thing sounds incredibly interesting. Before the first class, I wasn't even certain what the term digital media encompassed. Because of my utter lack of knowledge, my impressions did indeed drastically change after the first lecture. I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy this class at all, but the lecture has got me all pumped up to start learning about Photoshop, Flash and Dreamweaver. I only know a small amount about those programs, so this is definitely going to be enriching experience. These skills will be useful outside of the workplace as well.
Digital Media, it turns out, is everywhere. It's on billboards and posters and album art and pretty much, as said, EVERYTHING. This makes it a key component for any Radio and Television Arts student to learn about, even if they don't plan on doing anything in that field. It is incredibly beneficial to know about other areas of the industry, but it is also very important to learn about digital media, because, as was taught in the lecture, humans have a tendency to judge a book by its cover. Or anything by its cover, really. I know that even I have turned away from a CD or even something like a store, because the design of it was just plain mediocre, or unpleasant looking. Our work needs to look professional on the outside too, if we ever want people to take us seriously. An intriguing look will make people interested in a product.
A good part of the lecture focused on Marshal McLuhan, the man most famous for saying, "The medium is the message." I happen to think that McLuhan was right in a sense. The way you portray your ideas, influences what you are actually trying to say and becomes part of the message. Communication is a key factor in shaping out ideas. McLuhan also believed in "technological determinism," that we are living an age of growth and advancements. McLuhan also predicted a "multisensory community experience." Maybe it's just my love for science fiction, but the video we watched in the lecture really got to me and I completely believe that McLuhan's ideas are possible for the future. The way we live our lives, McLuhan kind of predicted right. We are constantly being bombarded with various types of media, often many at the same time. We have grown accustomed to it, and often people don't even notice the experience.
This is going to be an interesting semester.
Well, we get really bad internet reception around the rings of Saturn, so I'm gonna have to check out. Until next time, my alien friends.
Let me first say, that coming into this program, I know very little about anything to do with digital media. Yet, I was startled to discover during the lecture, that the whole thing sounds incredibly interesting. Before the first class, I wasn't even certain what the term digital media encompassed. Because of my utter lack of knowledge, my impressions did indeed drastically change after the first lecture. I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy this class at all, but the lecture has got me all pumped up to start learning about Photoshop, Flash and Dreamweaver. I only know a small amount about those programs, so this is definitely going to be enriching experience. These skills will be useful outside of the workplace as well.
Digital Media, it turns out, is everywhere. It's on billboards and posters and album art and pretty much, as said, EVERYTHING. This makes it a key component for any Radio and Television Arts student to learn about, even if they don't plan on doing anything in that field. It is incredibly beneficial to know about other areas of the industry, but it is also very important to learn about digital media, because, as was taught in the lecture, humans have a tendency to judge a book by its cover. Or anything by its cover, really. I know that even I have turned away from a CD or even something like a store, because the design of it was just plain mediocre, or unpleasant looking. Our work needs to look professional on the outside too, if we ever want people to take us seriously. An intriguing look will make people interested in a product.
A good part of the lecture focused on Marshal McLuhan, the man most famous for saying, "The medium is the message." I happen to think that McLuhan was right in a sense. The way you portray your ideas, influences what you are actually trying to say and becomes part of the message. Communication is a key factor in shaping out ideas. McLuhan also believed in "technological determinism," that we are living an age of growth and advancements. McLuhan also predicted a "multisensory community experience." Maybe it's just my love for science fiction, but the video we watched in the lecture really got to me and I completely believe that McLuhan's ideas are possible for the future. The way we live our lives, McLuhan kind of predicted right. We are constantly being bombarded with various types of media, often many at the same time. We have grown accustomed to it, and often people don't even notice the experience.
This is going to be an interesting semester.
Well, we get really bad internet reception around the rings of Saturn, so I'm gonna have to check out. Until next time, my alien friends.
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