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.