Week 3A

In class we viewed a few of the Dreamscape projects and guessed their meaning. Also in class there was a quick presentation on Rhythm and Motion, in which we learned about our next exercise. The next exercise is to take the word rhythm and create rhythm out of it. The first part is in after effects.

So far my idea is to have all the letters starting around the edge of the frame, flipping together to make the word, entering in different ways, pulse as if to a beat or rhythm, then flipping back out so it can loop correctly. Below is a screenshot of what is looks like with the R,H and Y animated; they are currently at the 'large' part of the pulse section I discussed above.

Week 2 - Out of Class

I read over my dream post a few times to really get the feel of it. During this I wrote down words that came to mind then I searched for textures that, to me, represented these words. Once I felt like I had enough I started working in after effects. Below are the textures I started with. From there I first placed in all of the textures and put them at about the duration I wanted them to be at then I added the text. I chose the font American Typewriter because the idea/ dream is based off a book I read before bed, so I thought to reference that in my type.

After choosing the duration of the text and adjusting the duration of the textures to coincide with the text I had finished my first draft of it. I asked a few of my classmates for their opinions. First it was suggested to change my first few opening textures because they did not reflect the words well enough, "they did not pack enough of a punch". Secondly, it was suggested to re-do the last frame's colors to better reflect the word. I applied these changes and asked others and they felt it worked. Below is the second draft.

The multiple colors in the beginning represent the colorful lights of Disney World at night. The awe and wonder that was felt just being there. The fading of these wonderful colors is what I used for the word confused because it's like the happiness is fading. Then the unease begins to set in because I see the villainous characters and I feel watched so I used the repeating words to display my flurry of emotions. I also used a texture that I felt was uneasy and had a lack of color to create contrast with the beginning emotions. Then I used verbs to create tension during the chase scene of my dream. I used a picture that had a pavement texture to it to give the feel of pounding of pavement. Finally I made the final frame white with the word to represent waking, to represent a change.

Week 2- On Campus Event

Today I attended the talk on campus where Joshua Buckwalter spoke. He is creative director of the company Inovat and is the President of AIGA Central Pennsylvania. He started with telling us that his career out of college did start with him having “crappy jobs” which was sort of refreshing and scary to hear. It is refreshing because I feel that for most of the design talks I attend they talk about how they landed all of these great jobs through all the connections they have. This is scary because being a sophomore in college; I do not have many if any connections.

 He discussed user experience and user interface and the difference between the two. Being a User Experience Designer consists of a large amount of skills overall, while being a User Interface Designer is more about prototyping, aesthetics and interface design. He explained in detail two case studies from his career, Engine Yard and 403 Labs. Through these case studies he showed as many different ways to get needed information from clients to create overall better designs. These included giving them many descriptive cards so the designers would know what the company thinks of the product and what they want out of a web site. Another exercise he mentioned was giving the clients a scale of formality to fill out. This is another beneficial way to get information for the people a designer is working with or for to understand what they think of their own company.

Lastly, he talked about AIGA and what a great resource it is. He had mentioned in the beginning how after he joined AIGA how much it helped him in his career. This is because of all of the events they offer, job postings and the fact that in general it is just this great community for designers and budding designers. As a whole I found this talk very useful to my future career especially when he mentioned all the job fair-like events that were being offered just this semester.

Week 2B

The class viewed four peoples' projects on the projector. Then as a group we went around to view everyones. The picture on the right is of the feedback I received. My word was Indecisive; group two thought scared/ hesitant, group one thought shy and group four thought reserved. I feel that all of these guesses were fairly close. What I could have done to make my word more obvious would be to have the line turn and then turn back more in the video to show that it can not decide. Next in class we learned how to export and upload our projects. We covered some basics in After Effects. Then wrote about our dreams (in a separate post). Then we got to start on the Dreamscape homework.

Dreams

One time I dreamed I was in DisneyWorld at night and I was walking around and it was like completely dark so it was like really creepy but I could get into rides. I read a book about Disney after dark before bed one time so I think this is where it came from.

 I was in all different parks so I would walk through the castle and be in Animal Kingdom and I was getting lost because no where made sense. The characters were walking around on there own and the villains were in the shadows and I was trying to stay away from them but one of them saw me so like soldiers and animal soldiers were chasing me but every time I turned I was in a different place and someone different was chasing me so I ran to the island. I hid in the fort and shut the door. They ran into the door and starting pushing on it so I laid on it...then I woke up.

Week 2A

Today I watched and took notes on the given videos of the After Effects CS5 Training.  Some interesting things I learned was how to bring in illustrator documents with its layers into after effects so I can manipulate the layers separately. Also, I learned about after effects interface and the five basic transforms which are, anchor point, position, scale, rotation and opacity and how to manipulate them.  The pictures are of the notes I took while I watched the videos.

Week 1 Out of Class

Out of class I finished up the Linear Representation of Movement exercise given  at the end of class on Thursday. This was my first time working in flash so the program it self took a little getting use to but knowing the tools and through problem solving it was easier than I expected. My motion exercise ended up being longer than the minimum time because I have my line moving slower. I used the Wacom tablet to create my line. I re-did a little in the beginning to try to make it smoother and I went back to change its direction a few times. Below are two screen shots, the lower one is the entire trail of my line and the top one is the last two thirds of it. I have a shown a few people and the correct word has been guessed at least once.