Team music video, final

watch it and enjoy it.

team music video, first take

Here’s my personal edit, it didn’t make the cut but whatever.

blob bitmap and triangle thingy, the metal is back

bitmaps are badasses.

Music Video critique- Nikki Smiths

I thought that overall Nikki’s video was very successful.  Making significant usage of simple After Effects tools proved to be a very dynamic way to approach the song,  keeping the audience in tune with a constant changing animation–The audience could not take their eyes off of it.  However, there is still plenty of room for improvement here.  In her refined edit, there are parts of the animation where looping over and over again is clearly visible, and that awareness triggered a loss of excitement for me once I witnessed it.  Actually, because of that little flaw I think that the first edit may have been more successful.  It was shorter and had more substantial “prey” in it that kept me wanting to see more.  That is all.

Personal music video, final product.

click this picture for a link to the flash movie.  It may skip during the first loop, i recommend watching it for at least two loops.

Here’s the original edit-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pzxj6d5Gk3M

here’s an idea. cool.

You know, we always discuss in computers class with Mr. Sean Cohen ideas to innovate, rethink the the ways we perceive the world and the ways we ought to function in order to make great things happen.  Whenever one of our classmate’s does a sweet flash animation or illustrator/photoshop project that’s favorable or interesting, usually the first response by Sean or any other members has been. “cool”.  Well, what is cool? it’s certainly interesting, something that is unique, but it has definitive attributes aside from those other two words that makes us turn to using this word ALL THE TIME.  The reason is, “cool” implies vitality, zest, flavor, an aesthetically pleasing attribute that is taken a step further with its vigor and maybe a hint of edgy in the mix.  Naturally it is a word that we cling to.

Lets take things that are generally cool and compare them.  I like to surf and skateboard, those things are cool.  Why are they cool? Aside from a history of utter badassness,  they are cool because they are EXTREMELY LIVELY sports that not only require keen interactivity within their environment, but also a deep sense of CREATIVITY to manipulate a board and do something very body-oriented with it.  Plus, like it’s history and insane limits it has an EDGY trait to it that puts it in a genre of an elite class of underground society.

Wait a minute, creativity and manipulation of tools huh? sounds a lot like art and topics that we discuss every day in computers class with Sean Cohen to me…  My point is this– if you want to stir thoughts, attract minds or make artwork that is bad ass and cool, you gotta have a good conception of what the fruits of life are all about, when does your adrenaline kick in and how? How do you give life and flavor and push something over the edge to the admirable point where someone out there might say, “cool”?  Once you understand you’re capabilities you can push you’re creative limits to places people can’t even imagine, because you thirst for it and live for it.  that’s what “cool” is all about.

Interesting flash website

http://sectionseven.com/ I think this is a very effective and aesthetically pleasing flash website, especially for the design firm that it represents.  The layout is simple yet unique for its horizontal-scrolling and consistent notebook pattern design, which has like a postmoderny Josef Brockmann style to it.  I think its layout is very successful for 1) drawing the viewer in with it’s easy and colorful appeal, and 2) not exposing the entire website in one viewable page.  I like how the viewer is forced to confront the rest of the site by scrolling horizontally, and the creators have made it simple for them by just dragging the mouse to the right or left sides of the webpage and the site will follow, it gives them direction without clicking.  Finally, when you click on one of the organized pages in the foreground, it folds out like a spreadsheet exposing all of the work for that given project.  Oh, I forgot to tell you, all of the pages in the foreground of the site are projects and work done for the company, so i think this site functions great as a efficiently navigable portfolio as well.

object I like: this fisheye lens

I Like this camera lens.  It’s called a fisheye lens (nikon FC-E8), and this is a lens that produces extreme wide-angle distortion in photography.  It looks very modern, minimal and shiny.  It’s a very heavy object for how small it is.  It contains cold black metal on the outside with a thick round dome of dark glass protruding out from its cylindrical narrow shell.  I believe that it is well designed for its functionality, minimalism and texture, which is sleek and dark yet containing shiny and matte areas in certain parts .  This gives it a very profound, exquisite quality of fine craftsmanship that I appreciate.

Response to The Free Age

Clearly, the general point here is that “free” comes with a price.  This understanding in the world of today is crucial for acknowledging that there are tons of personal attributes that we ascribe to object fulfillment, like personalization, interpretation, authenticity, etc.  ACTUALLY, when we take those things away, it becomes visible that in most cases the real “thing” we are seeking disappears.  You see, this lesson is that NOT ONLY do we as human beings require convenient fulfillment for the things that we want, BUT the thing that we want is not exclusive to certain functions of our wants and needs, or in other words, true fulfillment of what we are seeking comes with a world of complexities.  The object alone that we are seeking is typically never enough, so total fulfillment will always come with a price when it’s applicable.

power point presentation

day in the life power point.