Motion Graphics – “Drive”

Farewell, but not goodbye ….

pon reflection and in looking from the beginning of my posts to the end it is obvious I have been humbled by the challenges in this course. While I did come in with an understanding of much of the adobe suite as time progressed  realized more and more how elementary my understanding was especially 2

 my abilities and speed in something as simple as erasing backgrounds.  The many hours I spent on my projects produced a lot of material which would prove to be cast off the cutting board and as time progressed with both major projects I began to get better at getting the program to do what I wanted it to do in the simplest way. The end result of this progression has been me feeling as if these programs are extensions of my physical body, especiallly when interfacing with my graphics tablet I also have a newfound respect for anyone involved with animation as it is such a tedious and time consuming activity of which I experienced first hand

These projects in RTA 104 provided me with a  real chance to suss out my owm artistic style that I would categorize as a mix between pop z art and surrealism. n addition I have incorporated some of the style of Saul Bass into my motion graphics assignment in particular with the use of silhouettes and uneven lines and the focus upon the human fugue as the moving part.  Throughout these projects I was really forced in a way to develop a solid work ethic. Pre-RTA 194  could simply stay up all night the night before an exam and I’d actually usually manage to pull it of as much of the work in my last program was focused on simple memory retention. However to contrast this in 104 I really learned the techniques necessary to create disciplined schedule in which UI allowed myself time necessary to work through the stages of a project. This proved invaluable in my motion graphics assignment due to the sheer amount of work necessary in working te frame by fame and faux 3d scenes. However I learned another key lesson when working upon my frame by frame in that I couldn’t just wildly throw myself into creating the frames without carefully monitoring the work I was doing and its congruence with the project itself.

Without a doubt the most important lesson I learned from this class as whole is the reak need to know and foster an understanding of all the intersecting programs. Knowing which program is sited for which task as well as how one program wil interface with another and how to make the most of the strengths of each program through this interfacing.

Week 11: Games

 Are you a gamer? Online, cards, board games? How did this lecture shift your perspective on gaming culture, if at all? How do you see future storytelling properties (TV, movies, books) impacted by gaming culture? What is your impression of Jane McGonigal’s notion of gaming for a better world?

While I do not consider myself  a gamer in the traditional archetypical sense  that is not to say I do not game. The lecture in question regarding video gaming and it’s lack of inclusivity helped me to challenge challenge these conditioned archetypes of what a gamer is. To be quite honest I did not reven realize my notion of what a gamer is was that of an archetypical caricature  and perhaps that is the most frightening aspect of this lecture that these stereotypes can exist as the manifestation of external media and internalized without me being any the wiser. I was shocked when the statistics regarding the representations of minorities within video games as well as their often the caricature they are often are reduced to. While I do not believe an industry can be fundamentally racist in and of itself rather it reflects upon the consumer purchasing the game and what they are seeking in gameplay. It seems to me these caricatures  play a part in a cycle of negative reinforcement in the representation of minorities, game reflects a compartmentalized simplified and debased iteration of the minority and they do this because that is what the consumer has come to expect, and when the consumer’s expectations are realized this negative image is reinforced further.

My hope for the future of the media’s representation would be that they for one being fleshed out as individuals rather than taking upon the cartoonish and often offensive qualities they do now. I would also hope that with time we see these characters as protagonist rather than the sidekick role they often occupy in today’s media. I think another key element that needs to evolve is the diversity of the media maker so that that an authenticity can be brought to these characters which in my view is often very difficult for someone of another culture to properly appropriate.

For me Jane McGonigal’s otion of gaming for a better world was both far-fetched and ridiculous. While I understand the claim she is attempting t make in suggesting that gaming helps foster certain skills these skills are often restricted and constrained to the gaming world. If we all spent If we as a society collectively spent the 21 billion hours a week she suggests we must spend gaming to save the world in in working out problems and helping our neighbours in the real world we would see a very different side of society.

Prototype Stills and After Effects Post

Below are a few stills from my After Effects prototype. After effects has been really challenging me as it is a very different beast than either illustrator or photoshop with which I’ve had experience before. While some basics do cross over the whole layout is different and of course their’s, well, motion to the graphics. I have been knee deep in tutorials to really figure out what I’m doing. The beautiful thing about After Effects is that if you can dream it up, theres a near guarantee it can be done, and thusly their is a relevant tutorial about it. I’ve already watched ones on techniques as specific as creating a nebula galaxy with light effects, making a 2D image 3D, creating a wind animation, and creating a neon sign from near scratch as well as navigating the z-space as it’s called. There is quite a satisfaction to rendering a piece after working on it for hours… At any rate I’m doing the movie “Drive” and my graphic is composed of three micro scenes. The protagonist walking towards his car (frame by frame animated), him driving down the night street (z-space and wind effects + shake effect) and finally the camera coming upon a billboard that reads “DRIVE,” which has light effects, transformation effects and navigates and utilizes the functionality of the virtual camera.

Week 9: Storytelling & Transmedia

When I began this course the concept of “transmedia” made me nauseous. It seemed loaded with pretention and it seemed to be unnecessarily tangling the wires of the artistic mediascape. However, as of late I have reconsidered my initial diagnosis, transmedia as it means to me can mean just about whatever I’d like it to. In fact I realized that much of the art I do could be considered transmedia as it mixes various mediums as a means of story-telling. While making this concession I must make it clear I remain obstinate that the book does not need to be “hacked” and that in many cases there is no need to propagate the stories we tell to the medium with the slickest veneer and freshest car smell.

I in fact do not have to dig deep to think of an example of transmedia that jives with my own dispositions, and I found it on what a platform I had long dismissed as recursive and juvenile.  For me thisisnthappiness.com was a welcome diversion from the streams you usually come across, filled full of ten frame gifs and handbags. The creator acts as a curator and expresses her own emotion through cross-posting from other sources. In addition in the style of Roy Lichtenstein she refigures old cartoon’s putting her own thoughts into the speech clouds of the characters seen here: http://thisisnthappiness.com/tagged/comix.

Personally I am still sticking to my guns regarding transmedia, while digital technologies are great tools for artistic expression and indeed necessary in my own I have yet to see too many examples of true transmedia done right without coming across as gimmicky and unnecessary.

The Crossroads of Platforms

As I’ve been working on my motion graphics assignment I am realizing more and more the importance of learning and mastering all the various skills that go into creating even a ten second animation. Prior to this assignment I had greatly favoured two-dimensional graphic art as my artistic means to an end. Photoshop in particular has been my artistic work station of choice.

I am now realizing how much I had limited myself by not considering the other tools at my disposal. With my poster project I began exploring illustrator and while there was something of a learning curve the beauty of the Adobe suite is it’s universal interface, that is not to say if you learn one you can use them all, rather it was akin to learning a different dialect of the same language. And with this new dialect I was able to express myself with that much more authenticity and specificity.

As we’ve progressed and introduced the medium of animation into the fray I am beginning to understand the reason why a feature film has five minutes of scrolling credits. While in the world of big budgets and movie studies having a myriad of specialists is a given, as amateurs it is important have at the very least a basic understanding of the various roles an artist must play in order to see their project through, if not grasp some level of expertise in each of these fields. God knows that’s my hope. The way I see the more myriad a individual’s field of expertise the more appealing they are to an employer. Whats more is this tool belt so to speak will help us as artists to be able to better realize a project from it’s conceptual beginnings to it’s end.

 

AfterEffects Typography Tutorial

Motion Graphics

I chose the below motion graphics because of the impact they’ve had on me often in the most subconscious sense. That is to say I have only just begun to appreciate these little pieces of artwork recently as we’ve covered the subject in class. Often times before I would just see them as a part of the cohesive aesthetic which of course is exactly what a successful title sequence does.

As of late I have been watching title sequences on their own via http://www.artoftitles.com and I have come to appreciate them in and of them selves. And In many cases a good title sequence as it turns out can stand by itself. Naturally in the context of a movie it does not stand by itself however it can often be a tool for plot foreshadowing. If nothing else it brings the audience “up to speed” by immersing them in a particular aesthetic.

Enter the Void – Title Sequence

The Enter the Void sequence for example has a frantic look and feel which acts as a segue in immersing the audience in bring them from a place of stasis before it begins into the bright neon and disturbed world of it’s  dystopian take of Tokyo at midnight. In addition the typography, and colours chosen in addition to the light effects bring throughout bring about  a psychedelic sensibility that plays out throughout the film.

Cowboy Bebop – Title Sequence

The Cowboy Bebop intro is a great example of a motion title sequence done right, it has a very similar look and feel to Saul Bass with it’s matte representations of characters and other elements.  In addition they did not just simply settle for drifting graphics of the key characters, rather they brought these static images alive bring an active element to them in reminiscent of something like James Bond or the Pink Panther. What really sets this graphic apart for me is its impeccable use of audio. The song Tank! with its fast paced jazz feel adds a cool veneer to the whole look and feel. Instead of coming across as childish with its animation the audio matures the whole look and feel while retaining the slick playful sensibility.

House of Cards – Music Video

Radiohead’s House of Cards music video is a haunting atmospheric masterpiece that shows the importance of experimentation. Withe experimentation comes risk that many shy away from, but this video displays the benefit of being open-minded to both new and unconventional technologies. The entire piece was made without a camera and instead utilized laser technology used to map Thom Yorke’s face. The end result is a purely data driven visual which again takes account of the world around it in a different way than we can with two eyes.

For me the above video’s each displayed a different core principle of motion graphic’s design that I hope to emulate. With Enter the Void the typography and colour scheme are paramount, for Cowboy Bebop it is the stylized simplicity and House of Cards has a kind of hyper-realism which almost borders upon the surreal. I want to create a motion graphic for Drive as it never had one. I chose this movie as a basis because it has a defined aesthetic that in my view is very compatible with the format in question. I’m going to try and emulate the Cowboy Bebop sensibility with silhouettes and symbology being the focus. I also want to introduce a 3D element to the still I will animate to bring life to the piece. As mentioned above I have come to appreciate in particular the impact sound has and luckily for me Drive does also have a particularly evolved sense of sound aesthetic. It will by my goal to simultaneously introduce new sound uniquely mine while still echoing the same emotions that flow through the movie.

Digital Diary and Infographics

 Before I undertaking this digital diary exercise I had always considered myself something of a luddite when t came to my online participation. Having only a facebook account and using it strictly for communication I had always felt more disconnected and technologically conservative in relation to my peers. But without that relativity to fall back on my digital diary painted a different picture. While I only share the occasional song on facebook I follow my friends activity almost religiously. In addition I spent the better part of three hours posting and checking out the posts on Reddit which is a social media platform in it’s own right. Overall my findings from my digital diary coupled the findings of my friends online sharing activity I was somewhat shocked by the level on which we are all active. When one distills all this you cannot help but think while we are interacting it is a a sort of disembodied interaction that leads me to believe we are all living life at an arms length.

My digital footprint

I have always been aware of the buying and selling of meta-data but this lecture really opened my eyes to how pervasive this is. Every click, like and tweet consolidated into a digital dopple-ganger of sorts. I don’t have much of an online presence in the traditional sense, I only have a facebook account as far as social media goes. However being that I am online quite a bit, and since I have a gmail account I am constantly logged into I’m sure that the dragnet of data collection that google has quite the compilation of data. I am something of a luddite when it comes to social media and I’ll likely continue in this way. I don’t like the idea of communicating with glorified digital avatars. The way I see it whether consciously or unconsciously we all craft personas, and in the online world this phenomenon of crafting ones identity is that much more deliberate and controlled.

Below is my photoshop project. Being that I have a lot of previous experience with photoshop I wanted to challenge myself and add Illustrator to the mix. Despite my experience I had never created something with the express purpose of representing an existing piece of work. I chose True Detective because of it’s unique and defined aesthetic, I think this project would be much more of a challenge if I had chosen a more abstract work to emulate. Nevertheless the art of the work came easily, for me it was the design of the rest of the poster that I found surprisingly difficult. Deciding on what I thought were little details like the typeface and the framing of the work was fickle. While the work in a piece of artwork is much more subjective and perceived flaws can be often attributed to artistic license as far as design goes it became clear there are certain rules to follow certain principles to work by.