F-L-A-S-H!

For the past 2 weeks we have been looking at flash animation, although i must admit i am still completely in the dark about it, I have cs4 at home wheras we are using cs3 at school which doesn't help as the overall layout/look is quite different. I think i shall revert back to cs3 until i get the hang of it! 

So i feel very behind the rest of the group, as I still haven't come to grips with the software. If only we were given handouts to accompany the session, then i wouldn't need to spend so much time trying to take notes! I could do the work and forget about the notes! this is how it was done last year, (or the year before?) when we were inducted into photoshop- we were all given detailed step by step handouts that covered everything we were doing in that session!

Oh well, I wish i'd applied to be student rep now cause these are the sort of things i would be asking for cause I feel it would benefit the whole group, and it makes sense to have notes as reference, I hate being the only one taking notes also cause it makes me feel as though I am the thickest one who can't process data in my head so has to take notes! 

anyway i just wanted to post some animations I have been looking at which were doing primarily using flash.

this first one is a students first attempt at flash, I think it's prety cool! 

In this one below, which is another student animation, I like the way 

he/she has used transparency in the opening shot of the bushes parting 

and in the end where you see the gunslinger fade.

This last one here is from an animated show called "Broken Saints" which started

out as an internet series about the inter-twining and revolving lives of 4 people,

the series became so popular that the creators were given backing to have the entire

show recreated on dvd, they stuck to using flash but have tweaked the show here

and there.

The show has now won the sundance film festival award and is over 5 hours long.

500 word summery on Subliminal Seduction (although i have gone over again despite being asleep at the time)

I wrote this at 4am this morning and was actually physically falling asleep as I wrote it! so I hope that it makes sense!

Subliminal messages in advertising took place over 2 key periods, the first in the late 50’s focusing on James Vicarys claims that he had inserted split-second “invisible messages” into films telling people to “buy popcorn” and “drink coke”.

This was discussed in the book: “Hidden persuaders” by Vance Packard (1957) in which he talked of a new jersey cinema that played split second clips to customers urging them to purchase branded goods.

These images cannot be seen by the naked eye but are supposedly taken in by your subconscious mind and then later transferred to your conscious mind- making you want to do these things or consume goods.

Vicary fed the press with information about how he had influenced movie goers with his subliminal techniques and just to add credibility to his claims he citied studies that verified his claims that subliminal advertising had increased popcorn sales by 57.5% and coke cola sales by 18.1%.

Packard focused on industrial psychology being used to manipulate the general public into wanting to buy things.

This caused a negative stir among the masses, cold-war era consumers feared this “new” brainwashing and mind-controlling technique, Newsday called it: “The most alarming invention since the atom bomb”, The national association of radio and television broadcasters banned the use of subliminals by it’s members and the NY senate unanimously passed a bill outlawing the technique.

 

All of this media attention only served to confirm that subliminal messages not only existed but that they were a powerful and dangerous tool, It also served to make Vicary a very rich man, and far from shunning the controversial new practice corporations clamored for his services.

Movie theaters, TV and radio stations began trying out subliminals, running subliminal slots and sub-audible radio time, where they would charge for “soundless” slots for their “hidden” messages to be embedded into peoples brains.

However the media eventually became suspicious of subliminal persuasion tactics and as a result the FCC held an official demonstration in 1958 limited to government officials and the press.

The phrase “eat popcorn” was flashed at 5 second intervals during a TV programme, however afterwards no-one found themselves to be craving popcorn, needless to say, James Vicary eventually shut his business down, “subliminal projection company” in June of 1958, later admitting in an interview that he had fabricated the whole thing to boost business.

Little did he know that that “fabrication” would become the pre-cursor to a much-debated controversial subject that would be around for years to come, especially in education institutions.

Wilson Bryan Key rekindled the frenzy that was “subliminal advertising” in the 1970’s with his book: “subliminal seduction” which unlike Packard’s book, which concentrated more on industrialism (and was backed up with industry sources),  Key ignored the industry and went on to claim that pretty much every ad out there for liquor, cigarettes and other such everyday items was riddled with hidden imagery such as skulls, sexual imagery and donkeys that he believed had the power to invoke emotion and cause consumers to buy things because they were subconsciously being told to.

Keys belief was that the general public could not see these messages as every element of these ads had been carefully selected with a certain banality to ensure that they could not be seen for what they really were.

Again there was a media frenzy of religious and political speakers striking out against this “subliminal conspiracy”, legislations were put in place to try and prevent subliminal selling.

One of the things that came out of this was the surge of subliminal self-help tapes ranging from “acne aides” to “parenting help”, even prisons were using them to try and change the ways of their criminals!

In subliminal seduction Key discusses the hidden messages in various ads and their effects and goes on to say that the only way you can protect yourself from this type of mind invasion is to learn how to decode them for Key believed that the only way for them to be effective was if the viewer was consciously unaware of them.

However Moore disagrees and argues that subliminal stimuli are often so weak that they are not noticed by observers and that if they are- they are nullified by all the other stronger stimuli present at the same time” I have to agree with Moores statement, I find it absurd that a weak image that cannot be seen or processed by your conscious mind can have that much of an effect.

In the 1990’s subliminals had returned but this time were known as a pulse or a visual drumbeat, the 80’s saw subliminals become a marketing gimmick and now we have to wonder just why they are in ads? My guess is just to keep the “idea” going and for a bit of fun, I certainly don’t think that this subject should be taken too seriously and I seriously doubt that subliminals work, possibly in a lab, strapped to a chair with nothing else to see but subliminals, but not in the real world where we are faced with daily distractions and a richness of visual information at the ready.

Notes to accompany video project

Notes and Storyboards to accompany "how to" project

second life, third life, 4th life??

We had a stab at second life last week, (I was supposed to write about it then) and as we are meant to write our thoughts about it well here i am writing this post!

I wasn't sure what to write, It looked ok, having played alot of 360 games lately such as dead space, bioshock, assasins creed etc i struggled to find it interesting visually, but the concept behind the whole 2nd life thing is "interesting" I haven't really gotten into it in enough depth to give a full evaluation, I played around with it briefly last year and after meeting a series of virtual chav's, (yes they exist here too!) and some annoying naked women who were going around performing sexual acts and strip-dancing, (yes they can do that too) I just thought to myself, "what the hell I am doing here?" and decided to stick with the real world, plus my home PC at the time was absolute garbage, (smashing it up a few months ago felt so good in such a bad way) which does not help! If your going to go on it make sure your on a decent machine!! not a garbage toaster like i was on! I don't know much about specs! The cool thing about 2nd life is that you can fly and teleport from place to place, but so far i've not found anything interesting that i would want to spend time looking at.

Customizing your avatar is fun, and you could easily spend hours faffing about it! I chose a basic avatar this time as last time I used second life i remember actually spending hours on this aspect! It's funny for me, how "exposed" you feel say for example if you took your avatars clothes off, stupid i know, but that avatar is representing you and i feel that some users could become totally sucked in to the place and just practically live there, after all you can build houses, sell cars and work! 

when I was there the first time, there was a group of people i was talking to, some of them were giving me gifts, such as better hair, shoes etc which i thought was very nice of them, hell that doesn't happen in the real world! then a girl there took her clothes off and started erm spinning her "tassled tits" to put it frank! then she said she was off to work in this strip club(!) and who was coming to watch, a few of the guys there went with her and apparently they would have to pay real money to get in! I just thought the whole thing rather bizarre! I also went for a ride in someones car which was quite cool and the car could fly, so this person was in effect controlling my avatar which was pretty neat, I didn't have to hold down a shift key for example to stay in the car and we were talking along the way!

There's obviously alot more to 2nd life than meets the eye, and i think as technology advances it will become even better and of course everyone will have it as they do a mobile phone! or it could be that it will always just be an online virtual community such as facebook that some people will use and others won't, i mean alot of people, mainly the older generation are just starting to "get" using a computer and the internet, so will they absolutely hate 2nd life? or will they prefer the whole 3d environment aspect? one of the main things with it is that it just comes across as a game, so gamers will adapt to it straight away, whereas non-gamers will be drawn to the colourful environments and themes of escapism.

Speaking of games I was just playing the first silent hill game made in 1999 for the playstation that i paid £15 for on E-bay! I won't be playing anymore of it simply because the controls have advanced so much now that it's too frustrating to return to the old ways! I did this with the earlier resident evil games and a few others, paying a fortune to get them all, (as they are now advertised as "rare classics") but now they're just sat there, there's no way I'm going to play them cause i just find the controls so annoying! but i guess i just have them for collection sake.

Anyway I got to the part where you chase the girl into an alley way? go through the metal gate that says dogs beware? then they've done some really cool stuff with the camera angles and mood, so they have this creepy music and the camera keeps changing, (these are set cameras) so one minute it's behind you, then it's above you, or below your feet etc and your cutting from one scene to the next, as you journey through this strange angular alleyway, (it took me ages to get through it this time round, walking into walls, instead of turning left as I walk, the character just stops moving and turns to the left!) on one part the camera shakes as your coming around the corner which I thought was mega cool,  It reminded me of a more recent title for the 360: "Alone in the dark" in which alot of inventive camera angles are used and as rubble and stuff is dropping alot as you play there is the camera shake thing too, (this game was highly frustrating due to awkward controls, but look at how bad they were back in the 90's! and we managed fine then, I could easily fly through such games but now due to the advances in controls it's almost impossible to step back and why would you want to?) then you get to the scary part in which you see a skinned corpse hanging on a railing then you are attacked and killed by 2 dwarf like obscenities.

Playing a while ago i felt no emotion whatsoever, I just thought the music was cool, and was more aware of the technological aspect of the game than anything else- absorbed in the game? no. When I played this back in 1999-2000 I remember being shit scared at this part! and when seeing the skinned body being shocked at it's grotesqueness! but looking at it now it was just a pixelated blob with angular edges and no detail! In bioshock all the dead bodies stay on the floor and you can kick them and they'll flop around, or you can shoot them in the face or set them on fire and throw them at things, (not that i enjoy that kind of thing...ok i do but that's the whole point of a game! lol) anyway my point, (I'm not sure that i even have one or what I'm talking about anymore) Is just how fast technology grows, that was made just before the millenium, a year later the PS2 arrives with games such as timesplitters, final fantasy, tombraider and then pushing the playstation to it's limit with the stunning "shadow of the collossus" and the visually breathtaking okami, (following in the footsteps of cartoonish style zelda- windwakers for the gamecube but adding a japanese scroll painting style of art) and then of course 2006 sees the release of the current range of games consoles, such as the x box 360, the wii and the playstation 3 introducing online and vicarious gaming. So Imagine what will be out there in the next 10 years! (que all the sci-fi films) anyway I'm going to close here, I've been rambling on for far too long! 

500 word individual evaluation

I started this project by generating some visual idea's in my sketchbook for a possible how to video. I wanted to go with something interesting, maybe even a bit bizare, I had some idea's along the lines of how to catch an alien,  how to annoy a cat, how to be a samurai etc. I decided to go with how to loose weight, thinking of those silly weight loss adverts on the shopping channels as my inspiration. However as i went along the darkness crept in as usual and i ended up making the whole thing a little dark, and during the animatics it got a little abstract toward the end so i aimed to try and keep it simple for the live-version.

I started by creating storyboards, scanning them into photoshop and then piecing them together as an animatic using Final cut pro.

This gave me more confidence in using final cut and proved to be crucial to my overall work during this brief.

The first half of the brief was to create the animatic which realisticley can be done in a day, I think i did get the first one done in that time but then instead of moving onto the live-video i wanted to do the animatic again not happy with it's visual style after seeing some of my colleagues work.

For me i'm glad i did this, because i'm much happier with the second animatic, although the key element in it was the sound which is the same in both, the visuals are more pleasing and have a more professional look as a pose to the scruffy and random images used in the first animatic.

For the second half of the brief, making the live-video i feel i could have done alot better but am still happy with the outcome due to the sound and editing involved. This was alot harder than it needed to be due to the amount of footage i had recorded, for example, I had hoped to film each scene individually from different angles, and then they would be edited together to form the full film. however my partner in this case was not the most patient of people and being the actress in the video also i found difficult to direct them, finding that they would go straight into the next scene without pausing, therfore some scenes did roll on when i would have preferred them to be individual.

I had forgotten most of the settings on the camera by the time it came to filming, but to be fair i was only talked through this once before and did not get the opportunity to take notes.

This resulted in some very poor quality shots in some cases- especially with lighting as i did not know which setting to put the camera on and because i had limited time with actors i just had to film whilst they were available.

for example the scene where the postman is delivering a package, that was a random person i saw outside and asked them to do the part, i didn't have time to get the lighting right or anything as they literally had to stop what they were doing and play a part in my film for 2 minutes, i could not ask them to do it again and again so i had to use the first and only shot, i also missed them knocking on the door as i should have hit record some seconds before the knock! 

I enjoyed the editing process, i found it very redeeming as i felt the footage could have been better i tried to make up for this by putting as much time and effort as i could into editing the clips to go with the sound, and trying to make them flow a bit better.

One scene worth mention was the eating scene at the start, when filming i had a fit of the giggles, and could not stop laughing, we tried this scene 5 times then the actress lost patience and refused to do it again, as a result of my laughing of course the camera was shaking and kept getting put down as i just couldn't film at one point for laughing. during editing i had to pick out all the bits that seemed "sturdy" and put them together, i like the overall effect this has given, as it starts with her eating on the beat of the music and each eating clip comes in and out with the sound.

I am happy with it as a piece of experimental student work definitely, as i feel i did the best i could with what i had and my time-limitations plus the fact i started the course late and didn't have a partner, as a professional piece of work- no, it would need to be alot better, but i feel i could easily achieve higher standards if i were to do this type of work again which no doubt we will be!

If and when i do this kind of work again i will plan a work-flow and make sure i get the shots/footage i want as this is vital for later editing! 

New and Improved Animatic!

Here is my finalized "Animatic" which i have spent an extra 3 days on as i have drawn all the pictures again from scratch on photoshop and then have made the video again basically!

Although i'm not sure if my tutor is happy with me! as i have prob spent too much time on this as it was meant to be a basic storyboard like the first one was, and of course i need to be moving on to the live-video, and then there are all the research notes etc to go with it! so i just need to get the live-vid done now! hopefully when i'm finished they'll be happy with the overall result! I just really got into this and when i get like that i get a little carried away! but it's the first thing i've had that feeling for since we started back! (because i was on another course which was not suitable for me and have transfered to digital media just last week!) anyway enjoy! comments welcome.

(Error uploading- will upload to youtube and copy onto here instead)

Animax/Animatrix/Animation/ Whatever it's called! basically an animated slideshow that you do before the final film!

This is just my "Animax?" which i've done as part of my current project which is to create a "how to" video that must visually explain how to do something of your choice. I chose how to loose weight in a day, my aim was to make it kinda dark but humorous, this is just the first draft, I'm gonna do a couple more if i have time!

                                            

Some of the Best!

here's a few of my favorite animes: starting with Paprika by satoshi kon, (millennium actress, paranoia agent) which is a visually stunning kaleidoscope of imaginative characters and situations all chucked into a surreal blender and served as a cocktail of mayhem and madness at it's most beautiful hour. this film is visual poetry.

second is a film called: Tekkonkinkreet, (Micheal Arias) this film is amazing, at first i found it difficult to watch because of the character style, which i initially found "cartoon-network" looking,  but the story is so engrossing that you soon forget about it. You have to see this film, anime fan or not it's a beautiful mind-numbing piece of film and will be in your head for months after watching! don't be fooled by the child-like quality of this film! it is far from being a kids film with some very depressing moments of darkness balanced out beautifully by the light, which in this case is the bond between 2 young boys living on the harsh gritty streets of treasure town! don't miss it!

lastly, (I could list hundreds but I'll just stick to 3 for now) has got to be katsushiro Otomo's 1988 film AKIRA. without it anime wouldn't be where it is today! this was the first big hit anime full length feature film to go global and bring Anime into the spotlight! has an original and innovative plot line, good use of sound, very advanced visually for it's time, if you haven't seen it you may as well go live under a rock! or you can redeem yourself now and watch it!

Oh and i have to add ghost in the shell, Mamoru oshii, (1995) another cyber-punk anime which blends vivid storytelling with some interesting theory's and alot of philosophical speech, but it's nicely balanced out with strong visuals, an engaging story and plenty of action! another must-see, influenced the matrix films and has since become a franchise consisting of music cd's, 3 movies, 2 26 episode series, clothing, toys, games, paraphernalia, etc.

(and this is just the intro)

1.

2.

3.

4.

some of the best title sequences ever! often overlooked it's these sequences that bring us into the film and can make or break your decision to watch!

Another awesome show you just gotta watch! sweet intro too.

and i just had to post the intro.....classic!

Anyone remember this?

Anyone remember this? absolutely awesome show from the 70's-80's, Don quixote and the tales of la mancha, 

adapted from the japanese shikoko knight, but was originally a spanish show! I love the voice-overs, it's just an

amazing show i used to watch when i was a "little un" they don't make cartoons like this anymore!! watch the clip, it's one

of the best episodes!!

please leave comments if you remember the show and loved it as much as me!!!

Image analysis excersize

This was originally on my previous post in time for the deadline, however the whole thing disappeared when google decided to disable my blog! (and do not have to give me a reason or reply to my message apparantly- let's hope they don't do it again!)

Image analysis Exercise

Kelly Bruce Critical Studies BA Graphic Design

The uncle sam range (1876), by Schumacher and Ettlinger is an advertising image that shows us an Americanized Ideological viewpoint on the uncle sam range.

What we are subjected to is an advertisement for an uncle sam range cooker that is plastered in American westernized semantics, such as American stripe clothing, curtains, furniture etc, the painting is very patriotic and is aimed at the middle classes, as the lower classes would not be in a position to afford this item and the upper classes would most likely have owned one already.

the second painting, which is a poster by Saville Lumley (1915) again is aimed at middle class American families and tries to pressurize middle class men into signing up for the war, of course at this time these men still had a choice of going to war or not.

The poster uses peer pressure to get men to sign up. for example, the look of unease on the fathers face as his daughter points to a picture of “the great war” and asks: “Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War?” bearing in mind that the war is still ongoing at this stage, alerting us to the fact that this man has not indeed signed up. His son is playing with war toys on the ground beside him, which may or may not be signifying British forces by their red uniforms, which also points me in the direction of the print on the curtains and chairs which is also linked to Britain by the red rose and royal crests...

Basically the poster is assuming that the war has been won, and that the “Great War” will be talked about in books and on tv etc for years to come, they have even began to call it the “Great War” even though the war had only just started at this point!

The question is posed, “Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War?” so it’s asking precisely that, “what DID you do?”, “How are you going to explain to your children that you did nothing for your country?, that you did not fight in the Amazing Great War?” It’s basically a Propaganda poster using blackmail and peer pressure to make men feel that they are not real men unless they go to war, and that it may seem OK now to avoid enlisting but that one day they will have to deal with the consequences of not signing up!

The first poster has a similar art style and again is a persuasive poster aimed at the middle classes, uses crude advertising tactics in the sense that there is a cynical, stereotypical undertone and an overall smugness coming from Americas ability to feed the world!

For example the “globe” is reading a bill of rights which shows the food that is eaten by every nation all over the world, birds nest soup for China, just potatoes for Ireland, etc.

Uncle sam sits smugly at the table gesturing toward the cooker that will be able to feed the world lots of beautiful amazing and most likely, American food.

This advertisement was created after 100yrs of American Independence which is apparent in the excessive use of the stars and stripes theme and colors. 

The typeface used in the picture is similar to that of a western saloon bar, again very Americanized, and the clock on the mantlepiece shows us the date of the “Declaration of Independence- thus signifying American Independence. 

The children at the table represent states dixie and west and new england, and the globe represents the rest of the world- displaying Europe, Asia and Africa to be specific.

Overall this piece is selling you “American greatness” and an ideological lifestyle, with the wife serving dinner from the cooker, buy this cooker and you will have it all! is what this advertisement is aiming for, whereas the second poster uses more of a guilt trip method to get men to sign up.

so overall both these posters are selling ideas, but in two very different ways.

Something that was brought to my attention!

Well am back again posting already in the same day! I must be in a good mood! I just wanted to display some work that was brought to my attention during a critical studies session last week, It was by an Artist known as Kandinsky and the general response to his work in the class was a negative one and the tutor, James? informed us that someone in the previous session had yelled out: "that's shit", when asked why their response was because a 5yr old could do it! but I beg to differ, Although i wasn't looking at the image as it was supposed to be viewed, I was seeing something else entirely, which when it was pointed out what the picture was i still felt my interpretation was better so decided to just see that whenever i looked at it! (which was cute anime-style characters, not men on horseback as it was meant to depict) anyway i decided to "google" the artists name to see what else there was and have picked out these as my favorites:

what do you think? work of a 5yr old?

or do you beg to differ? lol

(the first image is the image from class- cossacks by kandinsky)

First Post!

Hello Bloggers! yes this is my 2nd Blog as my first was "disabled" for no apparent reason, and according to Google, they do not have to disclose a reason, and when E-mailed i was greeted with a nice little message that stated thanks for contacting them about my disabled account, however they do not have any obligation to reply to my message! gee! ok thanks! 

My macbook, ahem, battery is going to die any second so am just going to post this unfinished and add to it later!