EEEEEEEEENNNNNNNDDDDD

So school is basically over. here's my opinion about this course.

It's a lot of fun. but its also alot of work. The difficulty of learning so much new software is stressful. I found Photoshop the hardest to get a handle on. but it was satisfying.

One problem that I had with the course is the lectures. They just didn't seem very useful. and don't get me wrong the audio productions class also has this problem. and Digital Media Lectures are much more entertaining. But still, its a pain in the ass to get up so early for a lecture that doesn't feel necessary. I come from a family that has a long standing motto; "A Castonguay doesn't cut class." so I didn't have the choice of not going, otherwise I wouldn't complain.

But in terms of what worked well, I think that both Laurie and the TA were very helpful when it came to teaching us how to use the programs. I also think that the twitter accounts were a fun way to stay connected to the prof and to our fellow students. I also liked these blogs. even if I forgot to do them most of the time.

Also If Laurie reads this, please don't give that statistic about genders in gaming. I know the study that came from and while the numbers are correct the conclusions drawn from the data is not. those conclusions would be acceptable but the current conclusion is flawed due to the inclusion of a double independent and unrelated variable. Of course adult female gamers play more than males under 17. They have access to more free time, more disposable income, and less social interactions than a high school student constantly surrounded by his peers. If the results you showed had displayed teen female vs teen male, and adult male vs adult female, then

I don't think this course has changed me, I still want to work in television production, but the aftereffects stuff that I learnt could help me make title sequences. and Photoshop could help me create pitches for the shows I want to make. but If it has showed me anything its that I'm not that creative visually and probably shouldn't make these things for a living.

The most valuable skill that I learned this year was Photoshop. learning to edit images will have tons of uses in my future media work i'm positive.

Thanks for the great year.

Interactivity. it kicks alot of ass

When we started the lecture on interactive content I was really excited for it. Interactive art and games are some of the most fun things that creative people can make. I remember a few years ago a creative group created a system where texting a number would allow you to play tetris, with the game being displayed by lights in the City Hall office buildings at Nathan Phillips Square shutting on and off. Myself and my family went and played a game of it and it was very impressive.

Also the Fan Fiction section struck a chord with me as many of my friends write it, I tried my hand at it once writing something about a show called Doctor Who. It was an embarrassing mess that will never see the light of day but it was a fun experience writing it.

 And finally the Henry Jenkins bit about collective intelligence is another thing that I have alot of experience with. As a brony (adult male who unironically watches My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic because its a fantastic show) I can tell you that communities of people, especially online fans get really passionate about their fandom. all one needs to do to provve it is google "Pony Dubstep" to find out just how much content is created by these fan groups.

Aftereffects Artist statement

This is a trailer for the Joe Hill novel Horns that I made for my digital media class. 

So there are Four basic animations here. There are the Horns, the Pitchfork, the Tail, and finally the Title.

In making the horns I drew them on a layer in Photoshop on top of the head of the stick man using paintbrush tools, then I used an eraser to sharpen the image. I transferred that layer into aftereffects but in aftereffects i had the horns on a lower layer than the stick man. Then the animation was just moving them up over time, giving the illusion of growth.

Making the Pitchfork rise was a similar process but in this case it moves up from off screen. I would like to note that that pitchfork it symmetrical down to the last pixel. I put a lot of work into that.

The tail was both the hardest thing to draw and to animate. I had never used the pen tool before and so i had no idea how to use it but after thirty minutes i had it down and made a tail that I was happy with. The animation however was much trickier. All on line tutorials say to use an effect called write on, however this is a third party effect and not available on the computers i was using. So instead I made a black object to match the background and, both moved and shape shifted the object over time. This slow uncovering of the object created the illusion of growth. The hardest part of the shape shifting was getting the arrow of the two end points of the tail arrow to grow in the right direction, coming off of the main arrow point instead of forming in mid air and meeting the arrow point.

Finally the text. I used a very similar technique to the tail uncovering.

The music I chose was just some horror pipe organ music from the copyright cleared library. But it really makes the project and adds a certain “muahaha” factor that I really like.

If I was going to change something I might add a smile at the end just to have a little something more after the rest finished growing. The only reason I didn't was because to do that means the other animations would happen too fast. Also I might have chosen a better colour for the title to make it “pop” more.

Typography

                                   www.creativethriftshop.com/Exhibition/2006htm/PR_XMen198.htm

the 198 is a comic book miniseries based on the X-Men in which the remaining Mutants (people with superpowers) are forced by the government to enter a concentration camp-like environment. I chose this as my first example because both the text and the colour scheme are very evocative and mirrir the feel of the story. aditionally I like the barcode background for the title, It makes things seem very impersonal.

                                                 http://ifanboy.com/comics/generation-hope-12/
Generation hope is another X men comic book and an ongoing series. the cover art for this issue is actually an ongoing theme in the comic book industry in which the writing is that shade of white blue and the lead female character is panicking. this is due to an event that is taking place in the Marvel universe. the lighe blue colour and white background do increase the "insanity" feel of the image, but what I really like about the font is the angular look. Generation hope is supposed to be the next generation of X-Men. and the text's angular letters seem futuristic. also the "X" inside the "O" in "HOPE" is an iconic logo.

                       darklordbunnykins.wordpress.com/2010/02/22/beastly-books-horns-by-joe-hill/
the scratched wood look in this type looks cool for the horror/thriller book that this cover is actually for. I also like how the brightest text happens in the darkest part of the picture. also the difference in text sizes is interesting, the author's name is slightly bigger than the title giving it even more emphasis.

Week - I dont know I lost track...anyway this is aftereffects

So starting out with aftereffects I feel confident. I used to use flash player so I was familiar with the principles of the program. Learning how to use the interface was the only challenging thing. The tutorial was simple enough. we just added a moving text box to a pre-existing slide.

Since I finished that really quickly I decided to screw around with the aftereffects effects. First I played with hue. making the colours change over time resulting in a weird 60s 70s tie dye sort of thing. Then I decided to play with brightness creating a slow white out at the end leaving just the text of my production company behind (Rusty Cyborg productions). The last thing I decided to was fade out the text. By fooling around with the opaqueness settings. So I feel like I'm much more confident with this software then I did the previous software.

So in terms of ideas for this project I'm mainly thinking about two sort of ideas (knowing full well I probably wont get to use either). The first idea is a bathroom sign person growing horns and a pitchfork and a tail. This represents my favourite read of the summer, Horns. The second idea is a Coffee cup that slides into place and as it slides in it uncovers the word Baristas. this is based on an idea I have for a web show about a coffee place.

soooooo yeah. in summation. Aftereffects, not so hard thus far. I have two solid ideas, and I'm not worried...yet.

Artist statement

For My Photoshop assignment I had several Ideas but they were all too complicated untill I had the idea for a movie poster. The Poster would contain three people one in the foreground seen from behind holding a knife, the person in the middleground would be wearing a piece of vibrant clothing that I could accentuate, and the person in the back would be blurry and mysterious. The photo would be entirely in black and white except for the person in the midground who would be in full colour The poster would be for an action movie called Assassin. And I put a plot synopsis in my last blog.

When I took the photo I went up to a semi-busy street with my sister for the midground model. Setting up a tripod at a low height I first took several photos of her with her standing at different angles and in different spots and poses. Then I took a photo of myself in the background. Making sure that the spot I stood in would be unobstructed by my sister. Finally I took photos of myself (in different clothes) in the foreground. With my back to the camera.

In photoshop I used my sister`s photo as the background, Then I cut myself and my shadow from the photo of the far back person, and put it in a new layer on top of the the background layer in the same position that it was in the background photo. Finally using the same methods I cut the foreground picture out of its photo and put it into a new layer.

Then I selected my sister, inversed the selection to select everything but my sister and Black and whited the whole thing. Played with the brightness in the contrast until I was satisfied and repeated the Band W preocess with the same contrast and brightness settings on all the layers.

It was at this time I realised that the dimensions for the photo were wrong. When I resized the photo it looked slightly stretched. So I decided to make my photo into an album cover. Resizing it again.

For the fonts I wasnt satisfied with what I could find in default photoshop so I searched online to find two fonts. One for my band name and one for my album. I found an interesting, angular font for my band name, and I found a grungy damaged looking font that looked like it belonged on an old worn out warning sign.

I positioned the artist name at the bottom of the screen where things were mostly empty. To try and separate the words from the album art. I put the Album name inside of a black area created by the person in the foreground. I did this to connect the album name to the artwork.

In terms of touch ups and other tools I used; I blurred the edges of all three people to smooth them into the background, and blurred my sister`s face to make her more mysterious and make the album name make sense. Also in all the photos you could see some sort of shiny stain on the street left by juice or beer or something, so I used the clone stamp tool to get rid of the shiny stains.

My target market for this cover is 18-25 year old hipsters with an interest in indie grunge. I target that market with the darker tone of the photo (knife, black and white, night time in the photo).

What I like About this photoshop is that I was able to use it effectively for my first time, and I feel that I had a good concept. I think I pulled all three people into the photo effectively so that It looks like they were all in the photo at the same time.

Something I wish I`d done better is the colouring of my sister. When I tried to brighten the scarf and the her coloring, it looked wrong and fake. I also wish I`d gone with a different font for the album name because it looks somewhat confused.

Week 4 - workin on stuff and junk

So winding down to the first assignment's due date. and I'm filled with much more confidence then I was last week.  I have a fairly solid concept and I've practiced the skills that I'll need to complete it and do a good job. I'm doing an action movie poster, and although i wont describe whats in the poster so i can use it in next weeks post, I'm going to give you the information about the movie.

Its gonna be called Assassins. It opens with a young woman named Chloe getting ready for her night out, going to the club. Before she leaves she gets a call from a cop telling her that her witness protection will pick her up tomorrow and advises her to stay home. She refuses (wanting to enjoy the last night of her life before she leaves her life behind). At the club, she meets a guy named Oz. He's nice and charming until some burly looking guys come after them. Oz fights both men beats the crap out of them and then escapes with Chloe. when they're safe he tells her he's an assassin sent to kill her because she witnessed some sort of crime, but he turned the job down after observing her for a while. The rest of the movie is just crazy action with hit men trying to kill him and her, and the police trying to catch him thinking that he abducted her.

The tag line for the Movie is going to be "THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS IS THE TARGET" or something like that. I'll have more on the actual project for next post when the project is finished.

week 3 photoshop 2

So this week was the last photoshop lesson.

I'm really getting worried because the stuff we've been taught hasnt helped me enough. I still dont feel like I know enough about photoshop to complete any sort of decent looking poster. Let me just go over what I've been taught so far: I know how to edit hue and colour saturation, I know how to make different objects on different layers (sort of), I can select different things on a page with the same colours, and I can make things blurry.

But these things are not enough to create, what I feel, is the expected quality of the poster. I feel that We should also be taught about things. Things like what all of the buttons on the sides and top of the window do, or how to create certain elements that can be used in our posters. While I understand that class time is limmited, having access to written tutorials that explain what the buttons do, or explain various common elements and techniques on the university website would be useful. We were given links to a site full of tutorials for making posters. But all of those tutorials require a functioning knowledge of photoshop techniques and terminology.

So its really worrying me that I dont know how to make my vision for my poster come alive. what I want to do is a poster for the book Neon Court. One of the key things in the book is messages left in graffiti.
A key message left is "It's waiting for you at the end of the alley". And I want to take a picture of a dark alleyway. With graffiti saying that photoshopped in. also adding a filter to give the poster an ominous creepy effect. And I havent been given the knowledge I need to do that.

Another option is an album cover but I cant think of a photoshop job complex enough to deserve a good mark in the project.

Week 2 - Digital Footprints

This week was all about digital footprints.
Basically whatever you do on the Internet is recorded. If you're not careful, those records can come back to bite you on the ass. but either that's untrue, or I'm some sort of super spy because there's nothing on me. when I'm looked up on Google, Yahoo, Bing, Spezify, the only thing that comes up is this blog on google. I can be found on Facebook but you cant learn much about me or what I'm like.

I don't spend a lot of time trying to erase my tracks but if i did, here's what I would be doing.
1 - LIE
its the most under used technique to hide yourself online. websites that require membership are the ones that keep a record of your activity. they all ask for a name so give them one. just not your real name, or not your full name. I have four online Identities: one which I use for facebook, and another which I use for online Gaming, and one more for twitter. I also have just recently made a new one that I use for Ryerson activities.
What I'm trying to communicate here is that staying on one identity isn't a good idea. you don't need a thousand names but you should have more than one.
2 - Check Yourself
Keep on top of your image. Google yourself to see what comes up. look yourself up on facebook to see what others see. the goal is to stay on top of perception. if you see something you don't like then change it. while you might not be able to retake what you wrote or did, you can certainly overshadow it. if you made a dumb statement on twitter and cant take it back, tweet more till your old stuff cant be seen anymore.
3 - Keep Groups in Mind
When I made this blog it was an assignment for my media tech class. For the same class I made a twitter account rather than just using the one that I already had. I consider myself to have three groups. I have my social group for just my friends which contains my email and Facebook. I have my school/professional groups which has a separate email and twitter and this blog, and i have a third group which involves my chat rooms, gaming and other things where I interact with strangers.

I haven't ever intentionally covered up my steps, but I have done these three things and I think that they really help me to keep some of the worse things about myself out of view. and while I don't have many things in view, maybe keeping up this blog will change things. 

Viva las Vegas

I made this postcard! Admittedly it was a tutorial with very few ways to get something wrong but still, this was all me (at least 75 percent me)! in terms of the stuff weve been learned this lab its that Photoshop is very intuitive if you know where to look for your tools. This took me like thirty minutes and Ive never used the program before. My friend Maija is taking a class on Las Vegas at the moment, so this will probably seem super trivial for her.

My Thursday update this week will be about our digital footprints.

Section 1 - The Theory

In hindsight, I realize my expectations for the digital media course were entirely too limited. I was expecting to only be learning video editing and learning about online enertainment media (mainly youtube videos and music online). What I missed in my prediction was the aspect of social media online. I wasn't anticipating writing a blog, nor was I anticipating being graded on my twitter feeds; and while I'm excited by the ideas and implications of those things it does make me slightly cautious of these social medias .

I think that coming into the course I was most looking forward to learning the tools of the editing trade.
In my initial understandings of the course I was expecting to be creating and editing videos. Photoshopping things that nature hadn't made quite pretty enough, and while I knew that there would be more; I hadn't considered the seemingly large role of social media in the course. I have never been one to use social medias to a great extent. Only using Facebook to show my support for things, organize with friends, and send less than heartfelt birthday wishes to the 500 people who are less than my friends.
 
There are many reasons that one would take up this course. A small reason is because its mandatory. But a much larger reason is for the knowledge that you will be getting. If youre like me and haven't the faintest ideahow to use photoshop or edit videos/music, it's a really important course to take. Its also a great course if you're a fan of social networks like twitter and facebook and blogger because I get the feeling from being in the course for a day that its a very focused on aspect of the couse.

So to sum it up: while i'm cautious of the social media aspect of the course, there also seems to be alot to look forward to. In class we discussed what tools we'd be using and I'm unfamilliar with all of them. And while that's kind of scary its also expanding my abilities.