This is the end of this module for me... 2359 is coming in 53 minutes time.
I had enjoyed doing assignment 1 the most. Just taking photos. Actually perhaps if the module is not revamped, it would have been more fun. I was looking forward to taking photos more than photoshopping honestly. But some things can't be helped.
:D
Friday, November 18, 2011
Untitled
I really should not go into details, as all that are needed to know are already presented in our report. So I shall just start from where my job was concerned. Just a brief summary, we met up a few times and were baffled over our concepts. As mentioned already, there was none in our group of 4 who had any skills in flash or catalyst. Jael was the only one who had little experience in catalyst prior to this project. So our concern was to keep the interactive part as simple as possible, while we focus more on the concept. But it was not easy, as even though we knew that we had to keep the interactive part as basic as possible, we did not know if our ideas would work for the interactive part because we simply did not know how and what we can do with catalyst at all. Thanks to Jael who enthusiastically went to figure out and play around on her own, at least we had a better idea of what catalyst could offer us.
The concept was a difficult one, we changed a few times due to the uncertainty of whether the technical part would be feasible. In the end we went with the idea that we presented in tutorial class, the one about many objects in a room( or just a setting in general) revealing stories of their own when users click on them. The class seem to like the idea and gave quite a few valuable suggestions that we took in and better improved our idea with. So it evolved into a final concept-
The Hoarder.
Our third concept(out of 3) focuses on the life of a hoarder, who collects all sorts of junk from all sorts of places. We felt that the myriad of objects lining the walls of a hoarder’s apartment would provide a very interesting tapestry of stories. Naturally, having come from different places, these objects would have very fragmented stories behind each of them. Clicking on each object would then reveal to the user the story behind it.
We also decided to loosely tie these fragmented stories up with an overarching theme of loss so as to give the idea of how people are tied to each other in subtle, implicit ways– whether they are aware of it or not. Loss may manifest in many different forms, may it be in the physical or emotional sense. These items in the hoarder’s cluttered apartment will depict loss in one way or another– for example, a child’s lost toy, the loss of a life, etc.
To make our lives easier, we decided to use images that are already available on the net to piece the collage together. However the interactive part we will use original content( video, photos, illustrations).
So as the rest were busy too, I decided to do the photoshop part of this project for the next tutorial where we had to present it to the class. Searching for photos are actually not as easy. I had to find the type that suits our theme and also skewing them according to the perspective of the room that I had found.
I went with this anyway, as it looked more realistic as an apartment.
This was what we showed during tutorial:
A very rough mock up of how our final prototype will look like.
And groupmembers gave feedback that we needed to add much more objects around the house. So here's the 2nd draft:
But Lydia said it was not cluttered enough, so here goes, SOMEMORE!
raw
with filters to give it a more cohesive look:
#1
#2
#3
#4
Personally I prefered #1 and #3, I was fine with #2 too. But I thought #1 may be too dark, so I would have pushed fr #3. But Jael used #2 in the end, and desaturated it.
My job was pretty much done already, so we got together for another meeting regarding the interactive part, and I did an illustration for the doodle story.
I passed it to Jael to scan it in and subsequently to Siauyong to make a flash animation out of it. (That was the only thing that Siauyong had contributed to the whole project apart from her reflection...)
Then I helped Lydia with a bit of the report while we waited for Jael to complete the final prototype which turns out to look like this!
when chandelier is clicked, the whole room is lit up.
when object is hovered over
examples of interactivity (when certain objects are clicked)
video
text+image
flash animation
images
when we click on the white translucent space, it brings the user back to the original image.
Finally, my reflections on this project as taken from the report:
This project is interesting in that it forces us to create from scratch, whether it was the idea, the concept, the implementation, and then consider feasibility and if our own abilities allows the idea to become a concrete piece of work. Since from the start we already knew that none of us had the technical skills of using flash, we tried to keep our ideas as simple as we could. The brainstorming process was not an easy one, because even if we simplified our ideas, we had to include some form of interactivity, but we do not know if it was workable as we were not familiar with flash. At the same time, we do not want to be limited by our lack of skills and create a work that is too simple. Hence, we decided to focus heavily on the concept to make up for the simple interactivity. As my job was to create the image using Photoshop, I had to make sure that the individual objects piece well together from an aesthetic point of view. From searching for the right individual images to making choices from a few alternatives, it was a task which requires much focus on details such as painting in the shadows and light casting on the individual subjects. The angles and intensities of these two quantities are different on every object as the light source comes from the window from the centre of the room. Hence, as objects are placed all around it, I had learnt how to gauge where the shadows should be casted and so on. I also had timely feedback from my group members, such that their suggestions helped me improve the overall aesthetics of the piece. Although making this collage was a tedious task due to the large number of individual and random objects, I thought it taught me about perspectives (foreground and background and following the angle of the room) to really zoom in on details at every corner and also choices of placement of each object.
The concept was a difficult one, we changed a few times due to the uncertainty of whether the technical part would be feasible. In the end we went with the idea that we presented in tutorial class, the one about many objects in a room( or just a setting in general) revealing stories of their own when users click on them. The class seem to like the idea and gave quite a few valuable suggestions that we took in and better improved our idea with. So it evolved into a final concept-
The Hoarder.
Our third concept(out of 3) focuses on the life of a hoarder, who collects all sorts of junk from all sorts of places. We felt that the myriad of objects lining the walls of a hoarder’s apartment would provide a very interesting tapestry of stories. Naturally, having come from different places, these objects would have very fragmented stories behind each of them. Clicking on each object would then reveal to the user the story behind it.
We also decided to loosely tie these fragmented stories up with an overarching theme of loss so as to give the idea of how people are tied to each other in subtle, implicit ways– whether they are aware of it or not. Loss may manifest in many different forms, may it be in the physical or emotional sense. These items in the hoarder’s cluttered apartment will depict loss in one way or another– for example, a child’s lost toy, the loss of a life, etc.
To make our lives easier, we decided to use images that are already available on the net to piece the collage together. However the interactive part we will use original content( video, photos, illustrations).
So as the rest were busy too, I decided to do the photoshop part of this project for the next tutorial where we had to present it to the class. Searching for photos are actually not as easy. I had to find the type that suits our theme and also skewing them according to the perspective of the room that I had found.
I went with this anyway, as it looked more realistic as an apartment.
This was what we showed during tutorial:
A very rough mock up of how our final prototype will look like.
And groupmembers gave feedback that we needed to add much more objects around the house. So here's the 2nd draft:
But Lydia said it was not cluttered enough, so here goes, SOMEMORE!
raw
with filters to give it a more cohesive look:
#1
#2
#3
#4
Personally I prefered #1 and #3, I was fine with #2 too. But I thought #1 may be too dark, so I would have pushed fr #3. But Jael used #2 in the end, and desaturated it.
My job was pretty much done already, so we got together for another meeting regarding the interactive part, and I did an illustration for the doodle story.
I passed it to Jael to scan it in and subsequently to Siauyong to make a flash animation out of it. (That was the only thing that Siauyong had contributed to the whole project apart from her reflection...)
Then I helped Lydia with a bit of the report while we waited for Jael to complete the final prototype which turns out to look like this!
when chandelier is clicked, the whole room is lit up.
when object is hovered over
examples of interactivity (when certain objects are clicked)
video
text+image
flash animation
images
when we click on the white translucent space, it brings the user back to the original image.
Finally, my reflections on this project as taken from the report:
This project is interesting in that it forces us to create from scratch, whether it was the idea, the concept, the implementation, and then consider feasibility and if our own abilities allows the idea to become a concrete piece of work. Since from the start we already knew that none of us had the technical skills of using flash, we tried to keep our ideas as simple as we could. The brainstorming process was not an easy one, because even if we simplified our ideas, we had to include some form of interactivity, but we do not know if it was workable as we were not familiar with flash. At the same time, we do not want to be limited by our lack of skills and create a work that is too simple. Hence, we decided to focus heavily on the concept to make up for the simple interactivity. As my job was to create the image using Photoshop, I had to make sure that the individual objects piece well together from an aesthetic point of view. From searching for the right individual images to making choices from a few alternatives, it was a task which requires much focus on details such as painting in the shadows and light casting on the individual subjects. The angles and intensities of these two quantities are different on every object as the light source comes from the window from the centre of the room. Hence, as objects are placed all around it, I had learnt how to gauge where the shadows should be casted and so on. I also had timely feedback from my group members, such that their suggestions helped me improve the overall aesthetics of the piece. Although making this collage was a tedious task due to the large number of individual and random objects, I thought it taught me about perspectives (foreground and background and following the angle of the room) to really zoom in on details at every corner and also choices of placement of each object.
Urban Fantasy
This was the most difficult assignment. I had zero inspirations as to even start. So I went to google Urban fantasy and a couple of similarilities can be seen (mostly looking like storybook covers)
what I observed:
1. usually consist of an antagonist in the foreground
2. given the definition from wikipedia, the setting is in the urban areas
3. colours are usually dark/ surrealistic feeling
4. eyes+moon (this is extra)
So following these examples, I went on to search for my main character, and I've decided to use BoA's hurricane Venus promotional photos. There were quite a few, but i figured too many willl saturate the picture. So I chose the weirdest looking 'creature' like photo.
Actually, from her series of photos, I almost went with the concept of a tree goddess/spirit/guardian & the urban forest or something alike.
Search for the background:
I had some photos of marina blvd that I took for assignment 1 which i didn't use so i thought there may be one that I could use. And bingo!
And to add on, I love this shot of mine from taipei101,
so i used it in the background as well.
As I was photoshopping, I somehow came up with an idea about the insecurities of women in the night in this male dominated work society. Also, as venus is the greek god of lust and seduction, I thought it was apt to portray how in this cold glass cities, we should keep a look out always of who are going to backstab us anytime. Hence, the hand in a pool of blood too. But I decided to add some flowers around it to give it a softer touch, at the same time presenting the irony surrounding this flower-surrounded blood pool. Flowers are supposed to be lovely but ironicially what they present to us is a gruesome bloody pool. It also hints at the unsuspecting aspect of what jealousy can bring people to do. I also made the hand look more solid, giving it a metal look. This steel hands is also together with the concept of powerful women and their insecurities in the dark. It represents how they will not stop to get what they want.
The eyes also represent this omniscient view that someone is always watching you so you should watch your back. Of course I used the character to represent women in the night. "Venus in its ugliest form" - Lust, seduction, stopping at nothing to get what she wants. Hence also, the initial title: In the Black of the Night (Venus)
But I guess during that time I couldn't really convey my concept to the class as it was very scattered in my brain, so Jing also suggested that I just leave it untitled, for others to interpret. & that was exactly what I did. The class also suggested that the eyes were unecessary. Hence I removed them as well. So here's the final work.
Untitled.
what I observed:
1. usually consist of an antagonist in the foreground
2. given the definition from wikipedia, the setting is in the urban areas
3. colours are usually dark/ surrealistic feeling
4. eyes+moon (this is extra)
So following these examples, I went on to search for my main character, and I've decided to use BoA's hurricane Venus promotional photos. There were quite a few, but i figured too many willl saturate the picture. So I chose the weirdest looking 'creature' like photo.
Actually, from her series of photos, I almost went with the concept of a tree goddess/spirit/guardian & the urban forest or something alike.
Search for the background:
I had some photos of marina blvd that I took for assignment 1 which i didn't use so i thought there may be one that I could use. And bingo!
And to add on, I love this shot of mine from taipei101,
so i used it in the background as well.
As I was photoshopping, I somehow came up with an idea about the insecurities of women in the night in this male dominated work society. Also, as venus is the greek god of lust and seduction, I thought it was apt to portray how in this cold glass cities, we should keep a look out always of who are going to backstab us anytime. Hence, the hand in a pool of blood too. But I decided to add some flowers around it to give it a softer touch, at the same time presenting the irony surrounding this flower-surrounded blood pool. Flowers are supposed to be lovely but ironicially what they present to us is a gruesome bloody pool. It also hints at the unsuspecting aspect of what jealousy can bring people to do. I also made the hand look more solid, giving it a metal look. This steel hands is also together with the concept of powerful women and their insecurities in the dark. It represents how they will not stop to get what they want.
The eyes also represent this omniscient view that someone is always watching you so you should watch your back. Of course I used the character to represent women in the night. "Venus in its ugliest form" - Lust, seduction, stopping at nothing to get what she wants. Hence also, the initial title: In the Black of the Night (Venus)
But I guess during that time I couldn't really convey my concept to the class as it was very scattered in my brain, so Jing also suggested that I just leave it untitled, for others to interpret. & that was exactly what I did. The class also suggested that the eyes were unecessary. Hence I removed them as well. So here's the final work.
Untitled.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Class Exercise4
1. What’s the difference between Appropriation and plagiarism
Appropriation is defined as the artistic practice or technique of reworking images from well-known paintings, photographs, etc., in one's own work, whereas plagiarism is the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own.
2. Does the strategy of Appropriation encourage or hinder your ‘creativity’?
It encourages our ‘creativity’ according to the two videos that we have watched ‘everything is a remix’ and ‘freeing culture’. We are influenced by the things we see every day. Appropriation allows us to extend our creativity based on existing works.
3. Does the strategy of appropriation in conflict with the copyright legislation in our school? Please explain.
It is not. According to the definition of appropriation, it is not in conflict as long as we give credit to the source.
Oh Wei Sheng u090773B
Ng Ga Aik Jael A0070419J
Regina Liew A0071149H
Tan Shi Min Rachel U087149E
Appropriation is defined as the artistic practice or technique of reworking images from well-known paintings, photographs, etc., in one's own work, whereas plagiarism is the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own.
2. Does the strategy of Appropriation encourage or hinder your ‘creativity’?
It encourages our ‘creativity’ according to the two videos that we have watched ‘everything is a remix’ and ‘freeing culture’. We are influenced by the things we see every day. Appropriation allows us to extend our creativity based on existing works.
3. Does the strategy of appropriation in conflict with the copyright legislation in our school? Please explain.
It is not. According to the definition of appropriation, it is not in conflict as long as we give credit to the source.
Oh Wei Sheng u090773B
Ng Ga Aik Jael A0070419J
Regina Liew A0071149H
Tan Shi Min Rachel U087149E
Saturday, October 8, 2011
I was actually excused from this class due to a performance.
But I do know a lot of things from photoshop as I had actually started using it since secondary school out of my own interest in graphics design and editing. So I played with it a lot and explored the many functions over these years. :D I am quite sure these can be seen from my works.
But I do know a lot of things from photoshop as I had actually started using it since secondary school out of my own interest in graphics design and editing. So I played with it a lot and explored the many functions over these years. :D I am quite sure these can be seen from my works.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Ketai Phenomena
I was thinking how to make this assignment unique. Took me quite a long while until the spark came.
Initially the only idea I had was quite similar to the example that Jing showed us in lecture. Phone portraying a different 'you'. Also, how phone has become so pervasive in our daily lives that you practically see people with phones everywhere.
Why not portray the functions of phones. SO the idea came and I had a trial with my friend who agreed to help by being my model.
+
+
=
comic effect added
I was thinking since this concept is fun itself, might as well make the photos turn out postcard-quirky. So I decided to use comic effects on the photos, and also got my models to wear vibrant colors.
I wanted to show 4 phenomena - GPS at random place, entertainment(game) in mrt, entertainment(music) at bus stop, convenience at phone booth.
But turned out I only managed to capture 2 out of the 4. The photobooth and mrt photos didn't turn out nice so I discarded that series. While I was taking the photos another idea came to me, which is the close up perspective of the same phenomena. Since it won't hurt to take extras at the same scene, I took them as well.
Final drafts:
#1
#2
#3 - with spark on phone
#4 cut out effect
2nd perspective:
---
Final drafts:
#1
#2
#3
2nd perspective:
process:
nice background, but the number of people increased and did not lessen, so we had to move.
failure on my model's part to take good shots. Then 2 people came and sat there, waiting for a car to come when all the buses that stop by that busstop had passed. So again, we had to move.
Phone booth:
The background for both were just too messy.
The mrt shots were too near, so I discarded this as well.
Due to the lack of time (my 2 models needed to study for exams too), I did take one more on the concept of weather forecast with jael on one saturday afternoon at west coast park. But I thought it would not fit as a series of 4 photos because it would be wierd if I used 2 models in the first 3 photos, and a different one in the last. So my final series include 2 macro view and 2 micro view. I liked the idea of it as well, at least it would not be that expectable as a seires of work. There is still an overarching theme that ties in the 4 photos but at least the aethestics presented have an element of surprise in it.
Initially the only idea I had was quite similar to the example that Jing showed us in lecture. Phone portraying a different 'you'. Also, how phone has become so pervasive in our daily lives that you practically see people with phones everywhere.
Why not portray the functions of phones. SO the idea came and I had a trial with my friend who agreed to help by being my model.
+
+
=
comic effect added
I was thinking since this concept is fun itself, might as well make the photos turn out postcard-quirky. So I decided to use comic effects on the photos, and also got my models to wear vibrant colors.
I wanted to show 4 phenomena - GPS at random place, entertainment(game) in mrt, entertainment(music) at bus stop, convenience at phone booth.
But turned out I only managed to capture 2 out of the 4. The photobooth and mrt photos didn't turn out nice so I discarded that series. While I was taking the photos another idea came to me, which is the close up perspective of the same phenomena. Since it won't hurt to take extras at the same scene, I took them as well.
Final drafts:
#1
#2
#3 - with spark on phone
#4 cut out effect
2nd perspective:
---
Final drafts:
#1
#2
#3
2nd perspective:
process:
nice background, but the number of people increased and did not lessen, so we had to move.
failure on my model's part to take good shots. Then 2 people came and sat there, waiting for a car to come when all the buses that stop by that busstop had passed. So again, we had to move.
Phone booth:
The background for both were just too messy.
The mrt shots were too near, so I discarded this as well.
Due to the lack of time (my 2 models needed to study for exams too), I did take one more on the concept of weather forecast with jael on one saturday afternoon at west coast park. But I thought it would not fit as a series of 4 photos because it would be wierd if I used 2 models in the first 3 photos, and a different one in the last. So my final series include 2 macro view and 2 micro view. I liked the idea of it as well, at least it would not be that expectable as a seires of work. There is still an overarching theme that ties in the 4 photos but at least the aethestics presented have an element of surprise in it.
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