Blog 9B

Collapsus

Blog 10B

“Never say: “I could have done that” because you didn’t” leaped out at me when reading his ten points. The reason this leaped out because it is very true. People are always acting unimpressed by something someone does but while they are wasting there time being unimpressed they could be out there either doing the same thing, or something new they could be proud of.

When looking at the work he does I see a direct correlation between his work and manifesto because what he says is shown through is work. I think his spirituality is what makes him think the way he does which is why he is able to do what he does. So I would say that this means his spirituality does inform his art.

-       Always do what you plan on doing

-       When you have an idea start on it then and there, otherwise it will never get started

-       Look at the whole picture

-       Never do what you think is expected, only what you expect

-       Go for the gold even if you don’t think you can obtain it

-       Don’t think about tomorrow, focus on today

-       Compliment more then you criticize

-       Look at all the colors in the world

-       Dream as if you’ll never fail

-       Don’t count minutes, count smiles

From all the things I have written about and talked about in my blog I have come up with these ten points. These ten points I believe will not only help me creatively, but also they are things I should follow in my everyday life.

Blog 10A

Freak Factor

The article “Freak Factor” is about finding your strengths and weaknesses. Once you do that it tells you how to embrace your weaknesses and how to work on your strengths. Some of the suggestions are about working on the weaknesses while other parts of it suggest leaving your weaknesses alone because your weaknesses are actually a good thing and help people be different. The article also explains that one persons weakness can also be seen as a strength, or the same vice versa, somebody’s strength can be seen as a weakness. This article gives suggestions on how to best embrace a person’s strengths and their weaknesses.

The first suggestion “what’s your problem” is important to me because I have been in a job that has evaluations. In this job my boss had a sheet with what I was doing well and what I could improve on. We were given these evaluations every two weeks and I found it important to work on the places that she said I was having trouble. Sometimes it would surprise me where I was lacking and because of the evaluation I would know what to work on. This is why I believe it is important to find out what my problem is with my creative works so that I can fix them and make the best work possible. It is hard for the creator to realize that there is a problem or maybe that there isn’t a problem. Some artists need to be told they are done. I have always had the problem that I go a step too far and ruin something that was already done and looked good. By going that extra step I sometimes ruin things where as if someone had told me “your good” I wouldn’t have to restart or do a lot of work to fix it.

I believe “Build on Your Strengths” is an important thing to do. Sometimes when I am good at something it covers up for the weaknesses I have. An example of this is the fact that I am not the most amazing drawer but I have a huge imagination so the ideas that I come up with shine brighter then the actual drawing and just by drawing it I was able to show my ideas. I think that if I spent less time workingon my drawings then I could spend more time working on the ideas I have and expanding my imagination because my imagination is my strength. If I focus more on my imagination and the ideas people will care less how they see them.

I also think that “Find the Right Spot” is important because it’s true everyone’s flaws can also be there strength when it comes to the right situation. I have always had a problem of being too loud and so I have been taught to hold in my thoughts and just sit there. Then I became a camp counselor and my loudness was my biggest strength. My loudness helped the campers have fun. The same goes with creativity. Some artists are told there art isn’t art where others will pay millions of dollars. This is a perfect example of that artist finding the right spot to sell her there art.

When it comes to the creative process I find that I have many strengths and weaknesses. My main strength is the imagination I have. I usually think of things in a different way. My imagination is very random and that is what makes its special. My weakness is how I get my thoughts out into the world. I have trouble when I need to draw things. I know what I want something to look like but I always have trouble getting those thoughts onto paper.

Blog 9A

During our presentation I could tell that the audience did not understand how the game was laid out. By this I mean they didn’t understand how the levels were put together. I think we should of explained more about how each level becomes more difficult and the different aspects that make it more difficult. The audience seemed to think all the levels were the same but really as the levels advance there are more obstacles put in place and so we should of explained these obstacles deeper.

What we did get across was the concept of this game. It was obvious that our game was about being a hit man. We showed that the person that plays the game gets to become a hit man and kill a target and receive money for doing so. I believe the audience understood the concept just not how it was accomplished.

I believe the hardest aspect to address was the rules. The rules are hard to explain because there are so many. It is hard to explain the procedures without actually playing the game because you may forget a step and that may make the game seem as though it is an entirely different game. There are also many different delimiters to remember. There may be a delimiter that says that the player can only be caught a certain amount of times before having to restart the whole game. This is an important restriction to know but it is easy to forget because there are so many delimiters. An easier aspect to address are the goals because it is easy to explain that what the  player needs to do is get to the next level. It is easy to explain that this is what the player is working for. It is also to explain the mechanics  because a lot of games use the same controllers and most controllers use the same buttons when determining what each button does. The objectives are also easy to explain because these are stated at the beginning of each level and for this game it was just that they had to kill a certain person.

Blog 8A

This American Life

Blog 7

Joke 1

Joke 2

To create differences in the videos my group focused on different aspects of making a movie for each of them.  To do this my group focused on line and shape in the first video, while we used text and subtext for the second video. All of this created big differences in movies that have the exact same plot.

            The first video focused on giving the audience ideas without them knowing by using line and shape. The first time this happens is when the dryer’s lines are all set up in a straight line to create depth. By doing this, the room seemed larger then it was. When Jenny walks into the living room she has lines pointed at her from the fireplace. This sets the audience’s attention on her. She is also standing while Matt is sitting; this shows that Jenny has more of the power in this relationship. The last thing that is put into the scene to make the audience think without realizing it is Matt’s shirt. Matt’s shirt has circles on it that went along with his circular head, this makes him seem as though a jolly kid before the audience ever hears him speak.  All of these lines and shapes were put into the movie to focus the audiences attention and give background meaning without the audience knowing.

            The second video focused more on text and subtext. There are two major changes between the first video and the second. The first is the way Nick’s character which was Matt’s in the first video acts. The second is that there is a new character added, the dad. The text for the joke is the same in both videos but in subtext Nick’s character displays the joke in a way that makes it easier for the audience to understand. The father in this video not only makes it easier to see how the kid is going behind his parent’s backs when he says the last line but also creates a rhythm when he walks through the same way the kid does..

            The two movies have a lot affinity in the fact that they are the same joke and genre. The contrast is shown by the differences in the character of Billy in both movies and the different ways that Billy is portrayed.

Blog 8B

Hero/Villain 1

The illuminator uses color well to show the way the superhero uses its power to create brightness and darkness. During the animation brighness changes from bright to dark back to bright. This is done by using saturation.  When the animation is bright there is a lot of saturation, but when the animation is dark there is a lot of value. The only thing this animation did not use was hue. All of the colors were the same type of blue, purple, or whatever the color was there was no variation. I understand that it is difficult to do this in pencil but maybe if there had been more hue the animation would have displayed the concept of the animation even better.

            This animation also uses tension and release to create more meaning to the concept. At first the animation is bright with the illuminator in it. Then it keeps the illuminator as the familiar, but adds darkness to which is not familiar. Then at the end of the animation it is returned to the familiar with the brightness being restored.

            In this animation the creator made this clip active. The creator showed what the illuminator can do, but it does not show how it affects the world or whether this is a good thing. This is a choice the audience can make. By doing this the creator has made this an active animation because the audience decides what they think of the illuminator.

Hero/Villain 2

Anne Archy in the UK uses a lot of movements in their animation. There is a lot of overlapping movement used to make the body move forward. An example is at the beginning when the legs and arms are both moving when the character is try to move to the side. The legs are moving at a different rate because they are trying to go somewhere while the arms are just moving to show movement. Weight is shown with the heart. The heart appears bigger and it takes a longer time for the arrow to go all the way through it and deflate.  There is parallel movements when the character is jumping because it stays the same shape just moving for three frames.

This animation is another active theme. The creator did not really show whether or not the hearts were the bad guys or good guys. All we know is that the character shoots at the heart. This could be the villain or the hero, but the audience has to decide its self.

There is contrast and affinity created between the character and the heart. Both of these appear in the animation as things that can float. The difference is the heart has a color to it while the character is all black. Also the character is able to throw things while the heart was only able to float.

Hero/Villain 3

In this animation color was used to create differences among the hero and superhero. By doing this a contrast and affinity was created. Both superheroes were created with the same shapes but the colors were different to show which was the hero and which was the villain. The hero uses brighter colors with more saturation. This was done by using a bright orange and bright greens. The hero also has different hues of green. These different greens are all bright and most superheroes are made with bright colors to show that when the superhero comes to the rescue they are noticed right away.   The villain uses more value to create a darker image. The villain also does not use hues as the superhero does. Instead it sticks with only black, a dark red, and a dark purple. All of these create a differences between the two characters to show which is the hero and which is the villain.

This animation unlike the other has a didactic theme. This animation tells the audience to root for the hero. It does this by shows the villain as evil, and in the end having the hero win. These two things make the audience root for the hero unknowingly.