Interactive Portfolio

Cathy Beck
I was not sure when I first went to this site what was going on, then I went to the menu and chose one and was completely amazed at the branching of the tree, It was so cool. I do not have a clue in how to do what she did, but I do think its amazing and I love the idea of the tree branching off of the different aspects of the site. Something else about this that I think I would use in my own is the clean cut silhouette tree with the bright pictures that represent little things about herself, and things like other project she's done. It makes the whole professional looking website feel more user friendly. This site is very professional looking, this is because of the clean cut edges, the smooth movements and nothing is pixelated, no spelling errors and nothing really goofy looking. I think this website is really amazing.

Christian Sparrow
I absolutely love the brown paper/package-looking background, I think this looks very sharp. I also really like all the drop in things that are bouncy, or the little slide show of pictures. I also like how it makes you feel like he is actually talking to you, it's friendly and casual wording but it looks so professional that it just really draws you in to look at everything more. Now, I think that his portfolio is insanely impressive, working for google and Microsoft to the Transformers 2 movie. Not that this is the important part of what I was looking for today, It just makes me wish that one day my portfolio can hold projects made for companies like that too. I like the idea of drop down menus and different sections and lists, it makes this friendly site look even more professional and organized, it can really show different aspects of his personality. I must say that the "Contact" page is my favourite. I love the San Francisco theme! The dropping clouds and the swimming sharks but my favourite part is the light house and its quick flashing light. This site is very creative, it is a very personal feeling but professional looking. I can see how he got so many big name clients.

Now my own portfolio.. I'm not sure what I want to do. I know I like the growing tree, but I'm not sure how to do that and that could take too much time, also that would be very very close to her idea. I like the packaging one, it reminds me of the yearbook from a couple years ago. But I don't think I would do that. I remember you saying something about using a large picture as the whole background, I like that I think I'll use one of my own pictures, but then using the idea from the tree to move to a different part of the picture so original may be just a close up of the one part then shift to a new  part with each button.  Maybe I'll have some things like ribbons flying around the screen, then I could incorporate more later on, maybe just instead on the shift to the page you follow the ribbon. I think I'll go with a black and white picture and then use the ribbons as colour, I like bursts of colour rather than a more set colour scheme. So black, greys and white with colour bursts.

In the outline, you say to have 5 different ideas, but I took you through my tought process briefly to bring you to my final idea. I like that idea. It suits my style, I commonly bring in bursts of colours to my art. I want to use colm sounds, calm music maybe even wind, the ribbon could be blowing. I'm not sure what my "big picture" will be yet, but I want in to represent me so I will have to take one for this and put some planing into it at home when I goto take it.

For my intro tween, I think I'll bring in the picture with a tween making it expand in, along with some music, and have random ribbons plying around that will turn into the menu after or be part of the menu. Actually, i think I will take a "light" picture in my bedroom, because my bedroom really does show me so with the light picture, I can incorporate the ribbons better and move around my own room for different parts, the main focus will be me on my bed and then zoom in on a book next to me for about me. and then pan over to the wall for my art and maybe a final pan to the window to quickly talk about my future plans. 
My section about myself, I don't want a picture of me. That's all I can decide for this page.
My art page will have both media arts and art of mine.

Sound Sculpture - Tree

What I like most... So to begin, when I started this I could not find a tree that I actually like and wanted to use for this, so I came up with a simple solution -- make my own. So i designed my own tree using shapes and bushes in photoshop. I was realy hapy with how the tree turned out, I think it looks great and this made it easier to manipulate to how i want. I also really like the crunching leaf sound, i just find it nice to listen to. One last thing I like about my sound sculpture is the initial fade, that was much more simple than I thought it would be to do, and i took advantage of this new skill, and used at the end as well for the winter fade. 

What I like least is the actual snow tree, I don't knwo why i just think I could have done it different.. Maybe have added some snowflakes falling. Something else I don't like are the sleighbells, that was the only sleigh bell sound I could find for free so I settled with it and it works so that's all the matters in the end. I didn't want to pay $2.99 for nice bells.. and I don't exactly own bells I could record. A last thing that I don't like as much as I could is the flash back from the winter tree to the fall tree to be able to click the other button on that screen. It seemed like a lot of extra work and frames to get it to fade back when I was already getting frustrated with that part, it just wouldn't work so I had tp keep changing things anyways. 

What makes this a digital sculpture is that I personally made everything about it, make it not like something someone else made. Another, is the sound experience is very real as to what you would hear if this was a real tree, the wind wahsing through knockign some leaves off, or a real crunching leaf sound as if someone was walking over them, or the atmoshpere you would feel as the snow falls covering the trees.

( I don't think these work, but they are on your usb if that is the case)

(but if it does work, they won't be interactive on here as they should be)

Sound Scuplture

Beautiful... I think the sky and clouds are amazing, how they are always changing- the bright, the dark. I also love the sound of crunching leaves and the smell of fall. The wind blowing, wasping through someones hair.
I that fall is beautiful.
I think i could make a beautiful maple tree and have it when they hover it the change from green summer tree, to a fall colourful one. Then when they click they can have the leaves fall to the ground an if they click them on the ground they will crumble and crunch.
With it being just being the tree, it is a scuplture and not a scene like my mind was first drawn to.

Master Painting - The Scream

( The sound doesn't work because of how I saved it; will try to reupload at home)

What I like most about my animation is the scream, I love how terrifying it sounds! Also, I think that I did a good job at recreating what the background behind the man would look like. To make this, I completely erased the man out and made a background layer for itself and the man over top, this really simplified how my animating went. A third thing i think was successful about this was the timing with the scream and opening of his mouth.

What I like least is the smudging-dripping effect it has when leaving the screen, My original idea was for a slither, but as I continued with the animation, the dripping became a more realistic choice. In the end though, I think that it did turn out very well for the route I took. But one thing i would change is "matching" the dripping, I just used the liquefy at random on each piece as it was a later addition to do the dripping. I think i should have changed the original gradually and save it drip by drip, but I already had some changes made and saved to I opened and changed each of those men.

If Evard Munch saw this I really don't know what he would think because I don't know much about him, but I do know he started this painting in the 1800's, so I think he would just be completely amazed at how we can manipulate his work now.. They didn't even have computers in his time, so being able to do this as I have, would seem like an insanely far fetched dream in his time, So, if I was him, i would be astounded. In all, I would hope he would enjoy and find this really amusing, as I do.

Action painting

Edvard Munch -- The Scream, I think that this is the painting that I want to do. I thought about doing a street artist, like Bansky, but I'll leave that for Jordan to cover and do this. I want to make his eyes and mouth grow more, and obviously I'll add a scream for the sound, but I want to make him grow to then all of a sudden shrink and it all go quiet, then his mouth close, eyes close and he likes slivers off the screen because he has a very unnatural looking curve to his body so I think he should look like a snake as he disappears leaving just the bakcground of the picture

My W☼rld Flag

What I like most about this piece?
My favourite part about my flag is the heart.. I tried a few different ways of adding the peace symbol until I finally found a way that it looks nice. I like the heart, the colour, the world in it -- just all of it in general. I also really like the grey with the pink, very nice. Something else i like is the compostion, nothing centered and the heart to the left .
What I like least about this piece?
I'm not sure about the background colours, I'm not sure if I want them darker, or lighter or what. I just feel like its off a bit. Something else that I do not like all that much is the shadows on the middle star. It is too dark i think, just a little different than the other two when I think that for a flag, they chould all be the same. But I didn't notice that until I uploaded it.
Why does this represent a flag for all nations?
The blue is to represent water and the green is to represent land, this is because we all need these things so it is something common amoung us all. The world in the heart obivuousl is to show all the  nations, and the heart is so to show the love that we all feel, no matter who you are you love someone. I put the peace sign aroudn the world to show all the effort put towards gaining world peace. And lastly, the stars are to represent the dreams of everyone, the wishes everyone makes at least once in there lives.. I didn't want to put a 'dream cloud' I thought that it would look rather silly.

One World Flag

Things we all need/things we all share:
Food
Water
Love/Care
Shelter/Land

Flags have few colours, 2-3 of them. Everything looks clean cut and nice, they are in general very simplistic.
I am right now drawing a blank.
Hmm...
I do not want hands. They all have hands.
Maybe a heart, surrounded by water to show we all can love one another, and the water can show survival.
Then with a peace sign in the heart, or maybe a globe.
I think I could offset the heart and make a line between land and water. But with the idea of land and water i could use a tree and the leaves could be hearts.

Culture Jammer - Taylor Torture

 What aspect of your cultural jam do you find most successful and why?




It's amazing how things can be twisted..

I love the little blurb I changed that is mocking the company... I took the base from there advertisement and twisted it around to make fun of them. Also, I like seeing Taylor Swift all distorted and odd, it is not every day I am behind making a celebrity look funny and kinda disgusting, so I really enjoy that and thinks she looks very much like a guinea pig/bunny cross over. Now I really think my bunny is successful because, though that isn't that bunnies actual eye, it is the eye of an animal tested animal so it really is a reality. I really enjoyed this project, I liked having the opportunity to make fun of something for a marks.

What aspect of your culture jam do you find least successful and why?

I think I could have found some way to make Taylor animal like, but I was also looking for her to still look human. Also, a better name for the project. The message could come across more clear than it does being called"naturesense", but I didn't want to keep it "natureluxe", and I was struggling to come up with something else.

If you could do this project again, what changes would you make to improve it? 

If I could do this project again something that I would change to improve it would to find the actual font, so it's a perfect match. I also think I should have done a bit more research than what I had done, and take the time to find the exact products that they test on animals and use those, I wanted to use the Taylor Swift line which is why I chose this line of products when this could be a line they do not actually test on animals... or who knows maybe all there products are. Maybe I'll check someday.

Culture Jammer - Covergirl

So, I did some research and found that Covergirl still does some animal testing. So I thought I would find a way to use this and manipulate pictures and ads. I want to exaggerate the make up and make them look really silly, maybe change them to look like animals.. But i don't want to over do this, I want it to be maybe a simple nose.. Not a whole face.
They have a new line of "Natureluxe" make up, and it's represented by Taylor Swift, I want to use this line of make up, having such a young idol as the "victim" will make it more relatable than like Eva Longoria or Drew Barrymore or someone like that.
Covergirl's slogan is "Easy, Breezy, Beautiful, Covergirl", Maybe I could change it to "Easy, Breezy, Animal Testing".. Or something along those lines. I'll have to think about that or maybe just use that. I think it's kinda clever.

Culture Jammers

1.  What company does the advertisement represent/subvert?

This doesn't represent a specific company, but just people in general and how we all conform to technology and trends.

2.  What kind of product(s) is being advertised? 

Technology, live tv addiction, music etc.

3.  What imagery is used in the advertisement to subvert?

they use cute little icons and toxic symbols to represent different aspects.

4.  What message (text, copy) is used in the advertisement? 

The text in this piece tells us that we all are living in a toxic and addictive environment.

5.  How are the elements and principles of design used to convey a message?

They use bright stereotypical things, which is suitable for the subject, they don't have anything directly centered.

6.  Who is the target audience of the advertisement?

This ad actually targets not just one specific group, but everyone in our culture. Anyone who watches tv, is on tv, listens to music - so pretty much everyone.

7.  Does the ad jam convey a clear and successful message?

Yes, this one is actually rely specific and does not actually have much to make you think you look and now.

8.  How could the ad jam be improved?

this one could probably be improved by making some point that makes the viewer think - you look you know exactly every little piece of information that you are suppose to get from this.

1.  What company does the advertisement represent/subvert?

McDonalds

2.  What kind of product(s) is being advertised? 

Fast food

3.  What imagery is used in the advertisement to subvert?

They use the McDonalds logo and manipulate it

4.  What message (text, copy) is used in the advertisement? 

It actually took me a bit to understand this one, but I realized that it represents the "Golden gate", saying if you are to eat a lot of fast food you will find your way to the light all the faster.

5.  How are the elements and principles of design used to convey a message?

This image is just manipulated, it a simple manipulation with a big message

6.  Who is the target audience of the advertisement?

Fast food consumers - so most of the Americas

7.  Does the ad jam convey a clear and successful message?

Clear - no, not at first. but in the end once you get it - yes.

8.  How could the ad jam be improved?

I think maybe adding a shining light, though then this would draw away from the typical Mcdonalds logo design, it could make a more clear message -- finding your way to the light at the golden gates.

1.  What company does the advertisement represent/subvert?

McDonald/Fast food again

2.  What kind of product(s) is being advertised? 

Fast food

3.  What imagery is used in the advertisement to subvert?

I love the imagery here! The heart rate machine showing McDonalds golden arches.. SO clever.

4.  What message (text, copy) is used in the advertisement? 

"Big Mac Attack" -- A heart attack brought on by a Big Mac. McDonalds raising heart problem risks.

5.  How are the elements and principles of design used to convey a message?

No centered images, good colour and the eyes flow where they need to be.

6.  Who is the target audience of the advertisement?

All fast food consumers... Specifically McDonalds consumers.

7.  Does the ad jam convey a clear and successful message?

Very clear.

8.  How could the ad jam be improved?

I'm not sur ethis one could be, I love this one the way it is.

1.  What company does the advertisement represent/subvert?

Calvin Klein

2.  What kind of product(s) is being advertised? 

Perfumes

3.  What imagery is used in the advertisement to subvert?

Since Calvin Klein usually uses sweaty skinny models, they have a women leaning over a toilet as though she is puking... Striving to be the women in the real ads.

4.  What message (text, copy) is used in the advertisement? 

Obsession, For women.. They actually have a perfume called this.. And its links so well together

5.  How are the elements and principles of design used to convey a message?

Soft colours, and not centered.

6.  Who is the target audience of the advertisement?

Women

7.  Does the ad jam convey a clear and successful message?

I believe it does, we all at some point become envious of the bodies in ads and clothes or looks...

8.  How could the ad jam be improved?

I do not really have an idea of how this one could.. maybe her leaning forward more or showing a tear on her cheek to show its not a happy good thing to be bulimic or anorexic.

3D work

What I like about this is...
I love the apple worm piece, it just in general looks awesome and even without glasses it looks cool. It pops out so well. I didn't even mean to take pictures for the assignment, I just liked the worm being attached to the apple.. It's amazing how you can get your best work by accident.
As for the Jordan one, though it looks to over exaggerated without glasses with the glasses I was so surprised as to how it actually worked which is why I posted. I was pretty amazed at in the end. I think it looks good.
What I don't like about this...
It does bother me a bit with the worms tail.. But how would i get a worm to hold still, especially when we disturbed it? But that's the only thing I don't like about it.
In the second one, I don't really like the school.. It just looks weird, i think i should have cropped it out or something just so it doesn't fuzz so much. I aligned the camera, maybe had I done something else it would have done that.
This is art because...
It is photography, we took time and put the skills we know in photography to work. Also, we had to compose the pictures in photoshop and think about what we wanted to pop and what should be set back, to make the 3D most effective.

Post Apocalyptic

What I like about this is..
I really like rail road track it pops out very well, and looks really neat. I also like the windmills how with the galsses they multiply to be a whole bunch of them, they just look like a big field of them which is awesome. Also the car tires look pretty awesome. I really like my bug, it's cute.
What i don't like about this is...
The tree, I feel like i could get it to look just right and not too fizzy. But i did my best. I am also not too fond of the grass, being green it made for a good middle ground but i just feel the texture could be better.. I don't know, i could have put more time into it.
What makes this art?
This is art because it has colour, and its creatively designed, thought and effort and follows the rules to make it art not a communications project. It's 3D too, which is better potrayed through art rather than commercial things and it is potraying an unrealistic thought, a creative out-of-this-world kinda feel.

My Post-Apocalyptic World

10 things I think would still exist in our world after an apocalypse are...

1. machinery, but not in its normal form; parts missing and distorted. Ready to be fixed.
2. skyscrapers, and buildings, but in piles of rubble and some parts standing.
3. vegetation -- Mostly trees and flowers, rather than weeds. All growing fresh to start a new beautiful world.
4. roads and train tracks, lifted in places looking old or worn, but useable.
5. mountains, caves and natural tunnels. Standing strong in the fallen world, looking for inhabitants.
6. bugs & creepy crawlers -- things like beetles can survive through a lot, so i believe they would be in our world still, where most mammals and reptiles would die off.
7. fish & Other water creatures, I imagine that most land will be destroyed leaving the seas to thrive, and be ustilized by me to eat, drink and live.
8. random house pieces - like doors, broken windows, picture frames and counter tops from multiple houses.
9. bits of technology, , cell phones with no network towers, tv's with no stations and stereos with no speakers or music to play.
10. me. Because for some reason god would choose me to recreate the world with what is left.

Spirit of Endurance Final

How does this image show The Spirit of Endurance? 

I wanted to show a fight against cancer, at first look i wanted it to be deceiving and seem sad, but as you looked deeper into the image, you find yourself looking into a sad picture. Though, the colours easily portray a happy feel, I find that mixed with the black and white effects slowly adds sadness.

The radiating rays, make you want to be happy - which is okay cause in the end it can be a happy ending so why not have a happy feel to them - but also they are to represent radiation treatment.

What aspect of your image do you find most successful and why?

What I really find most successful about my piece is the happy to sad emotions - I love how the colours of the "happy" turned out, in contrast to the sad background images and colours. The colours are bright, and calming but the pictures are sad and dull, which in the end takes away from all the added colour.

What aspect of your image do you find least successful and why?
I found that my least successful part of this was the images, a lot of the pictures are just sad people, which was part of my message, but I wanted my main message to be sickness.. But it was rather hard to find pictures for that, especially with so much being blocked at the school. I would add more sickness, or medical pictures next time.

**note: I saved it in a lower quality to upload it faster!

The Spirit Of Endurance

B r a i n s t o r m i n g . . .
How Will I show the Spirit of Endurance?
My first thought when I read the assignment was the fight so many people fight everyday.. Cancer. So I want to go with my first instinct and do this. A fight against cancer is a more realistic endurance that more people face than should and affects so many peoples lives.
I want my main focal point to be a cancer patient who looks happy but the backrground filled with drugs, wigs, tears and just try to show the pain they go through every day.
I really want light colours, not only cause it is usually not directly related with pain and suffering, but because it can possiblle make the viewer think of a hospital and, hopefully make then feel the feeling of being the one in the hospital bed. I want to incorporate yellow, so represent radiation, I could put lines in that will make the eyes of the viewers flow.
I want the original feel of the poster to be happy. Then as they look more, feel worse and see the little details, a slow drag down of reality.

Animation Reflection

What I Like Most...
I really like my blob. I am glad i chose something other than a person to do because everyone did a person and this made mine more special and unique. I also like my background alot, I did it all myself and used the perspective skills you taught me :). I also like how it moves, though that was quite a bit of work it was worth it to make it look better. Something else i like it how the lollipop with the radial colour fill turned out, i think that helped bring it all together. One last thing that I like it his facial expressions through out, they change and make me laugh, even though I'm the one who came up with them for him.

What I Like Least...
Something i really don't like about my animation is the final transition from carrot to ball, i wasn't really sjure on how to change it back so i did like a colour flow type thing and it looked okay, but could have been improved. I also do not really like his left side at points, it goes straight but because of the amount of frames this was on, it would have been a major chore to fix. A last thing about this that i do not really like is how the ball "melts" I wish the colours would have looked better through out of this.

Yearbook Summative Brainstorming

I d e a s . . .
Book Doodles , Bright Colours and Crumpled Paper.
• have a paper backround and use many different, exciting colours avoidding stand blue and yellow... but not red :). Have a little doodle guy that when animated jumps around the pages.
Magazine style (Main Feature picture being Cosmo)
• Have a magazine called SHHS and use cosmo as the feture shot and come up with creative sub headings like "Flash back of 2010-11 year" etc. And have cosmo mave or something and carry the magazine idea through the other pages with articles/magazine style things.
Black colours, light bursts and eye grabbing
• Use darker colours and pictures of the school and cosmo for the art featured, with light textures and other cool brushes for a bright effect and eye grabbing colours.

I am going to do my last idea. I am more drawn to it than all the others and i think it will make it more my creation than the others would, I think this will allow me to use many brushes and take a more cretive route with this project.