Wednesday 25 February 2009

Logo Development

These designs are my initial ideas that i am going to put forward into 3d max to possible make them into idents. I also want to experiment with them with hand drawn materials and photoshop because I feel that I will be able to express myself more clearly as I am more confident with painting/drawing and photoshop. As you can see below I have 3/4 clear favourites that I am going to mess around with. 

My favourite on this page is the woman coming out of the lettering because I feel that is an expression of my personality. With the right colours it could look lively and excited, which is part of my personality when it comes to new things. The hair is floating to the side to show a flowing, elegant side to my personality. I have also kept the character simple and carton like to reveal a childish nature that will appeal to everyone. 

My 2 favourite designs on these pages are the 'GS designs' in bold that I could animate to be jumping in the air to reveal a surprise. I thought I would keep the text stable yet bold and fun (by having curved edges) to create a respectful but yet again keep the fun/bubbly look to it.

Another design I am in favour of is the eye that blinks to reveal my company name that I want to keep small and unique ( but still in touch with the consumer.) I started with the idea of the eye because it is one of my features that people associate me with that stands out to them.

A Quick Questionnaire 
I asked a few of my friends and family that that thought I would be if I was a shape, colour, texture and movement...
1) A purple star that is fluffy.
2) A green piece of Lego because is fun, easily 'fits in' and moves around a lot (I thought this was one of the more random answers.)
3) smooth circle but with jagged movements
4) flowing moment with a denim like texture but has the odd sparkle in the right light. Maybe flowing flower or a continuously flowing line.

Thursday 19 February 2009

My Creativity

My creativity has always been for me. It has always been there to comfort me, to baffle me and to express who I am at any given time. Without it I wouldn't be me. Although each year I have been in education I am given a task I love bending the brief to my own identity. I put a piece of myself into each piece of work. That is how I got to where i am today and how i intend to succeed in the art and design world. No two people are a like, no one else is like me. 

I find with my work it connects to other people in my life that are important to me. My relationship with those people sometimes influences my work, for example my interactive flash narrative was partly designed for my cousin. i wanted to pass on my favourite children's book to her in a different form. 

Until now I have generally been working with physical art work (paint, pen, paper, sculpture etc) but i wanted a new challenge that has led me to multimedia. I want to create work that people can relate to, interact with (to an extent.) I found Alevel work restricting because the criteria is set in stone so I have been used to working in quite a structured way (that I sometimes bring into my work now. Usually I would have an idea, research, experiment etc but now I have been faced with more tools (3d max etc) I have dedicated more time towards that rather than getting comfortable with painting. Now that I have reached this stage I find that more and more of its my decision in terms of what i do with my creativity and my time

My dream for the future is to work in the creative side of advertising and create art work for fun in my spare time (probably bring it into my work as well.) I would love to design adverts like the Toyota robot/car advert, interactive games and maybe character design but as I have only just entered the multimedia world I want to try website design as well.  

Wednesday 18 February 2009

More animation inspiration

http://www.animationarena.com/mayo-animation-artist.html

This is a still frame from an animation called 'An irresponsible use of frogs' by Philip Child. I really like his style of work. it's like typical pixar but with more character. I love the expressions in the characters faces because of the characteristic 'ugliness' of the characters. What really spoke to me was the fact he was doing a fine art degree and all of this was self taught. It has given me even more inspiration to carry on battling with techniques on 3d max until I know them fluently.

Also I like the process of thought behind his narratives. He starts of with a contradiction, for example one of his stories was about what the consequences of paying for gravity would be. If you didn't pay you would float of into space. 

In terms of my own work a new narrative of my curiosity box could be contradiction in my life that have got me into awkward situations. I could bring this into by interactive game. 

Contradictions/Narratives of My Imagination
1) what if everything that you imagined came to life the next day? 
2) what if humans could fly and birds could walk? 
P.S check out the website and these ideas wont seems so weird...

Tuesday 17 February 2009

http://www.skidzopedia.com/2008/11/21/17-people-who-enhanced-the-web/

I was looking on the Internet for inspiration for my interactive game and how to develop the structure further and develop the overall look for it when I came across this website (on one of the year2 blogs.) Although they aren't initially creative when it comes to the aesthetics it is amazing how they have managed to make websites like google, face book and YouTube that have become such a commonplace in today's modern world. 

Chad Hurley (one of the co designers of YouTube) is of particular interest to me because he has a creative back ground designing logos, but more importantly his idea behind YouTube. His idea is to connect the world through uploaded videos that can now be seen on your laptop, your TV and you mobile. Where ever you are in the world you can be entertained by YouTube. It is the way forward for people like me trying to get a career in the multimedia creative industries.  

Thursday 12 February 2009

I hate second life...


I am so happy to say that I don't have to go on second life again. I hated it. There are no real characters, no one had a decent conversation and lets face it you can have plenty of better conversations in the real world. I thought for my last time that I would take a random look at a beach to see it the graphics are decent. It was cool that they had a dolphin but the place didn't have any character at all. It was the first time that I saw people today. They say there is millions of people on here but where are they.

Anyway I thought second life would appeal to people because of the freedom you might experience. There's no restrictions and you feel as confident as you want but I was wrong. I found a report saying that people can get banned for breaking revelations such as, disturbing the peace, false advertising (fair enough,) and harassment. In terms of identity I think people are just as limited on second life as they are in the real world. There are always going to be rules and regulations. Personally I'd rather experience it in the real world. No matter what I can see it carrying on for years to come people all over the world have alter egos to express themselves in many different from on the Internet. It has become part of our everyday culture.

Logo Design


Logos By Jacob Cass

I found these 2 logos on a website advertising graphic designers, web designers, animators etc. Although they are quite simple I think that they are effective in advertising the companies image. They are both by a student (my age) called Jacob Cass. In my opinion the use of font, colour and symbols are put together in a professional manner. Although these logos could easily be used for any brand I would want to make mine stand out and compliment the rest of by interactive box. Maybe give the logo an everyday symbol that we all associate with a certain company to provoke ideas about what meaning/function my curiosity cabinet has. For example we all know the coke sign but it has been turned on it's head to portray something completely different. It portrays the drug culture that it originated yet none of us think about that when we buy it. This is where Bernaises public relations theory comes n useful.

Everyday I use objects such as the clothes that I wear, my guess watch, the bag I carry etc. I could turn the meaning of them around by revealing peoples inner thoughts of what emotion that object provokes and use that to my advantage to create a logo with an old image but a message.

Today I watched 'the history of propaganda in America' to get some extra inspiration to develop the ideas for my box. It had some interesting issues that got me thinking about who I am and who we all are in today's society. Edward Bernaise (Sigmund Freud's nephew) was the first person to seek out an expression we all take for granted- public relations. Public relations brought about the idea that we all should put number 1 first, we should become consumed by selfish desire and let our inner feelings dominate us. His idea was that everything we want is connected to our dream (unconscious) and sexual desire. 

In today's world that is undoubtedly true. Every object advertised to us is telling us if we buy that object we will become more sexually attractive, more of an individual and that your personality will ooze out of you if you wear/buy that item. You will be a better person if you buy that object. In my opinion Bernaises ideas have completely changed the consumer/product relationship. It makes me wonder how many of the curiosity cabinets we make will use items that we think are important because of the price tag? Why do we think these object describe us? Would we be able to describe ourselves without these objects?

In terms of my own curiosity cabinet I want to try to express this thought through one of my sections. Maybe through the travelling game because it can use objects to symbolise not only who I am but who the masses are within that country. Also watching the start of this series has made me want to look into brand identity more to inspire some ideas for my logo. What logos appeal to individuals and why?  

Wednesday 11 February 2009

Flash Ideas

I have had a few ideas based on interactive stories and games that I could work with in flash, as I want to experiment with online environments as well as virtual environments. (Hopefully something else that will help me choose for next year!) My ideas included creating a more developed interactive narratives of my identity by creating a game or a interactive photo album. Both of which I want to try and add animation into. 

The interactive story was influenced by the illustrative websites that I looked at yesterday as I loved the way the text moved like a comic book on the page. My ideas is to have the pictures move on to the page to tell the audience a story about my past, my imagination and bits of what I hope to be in the future. Also I want to explore this as another way of telling my story of travelling part of the world as it adds to who I am today.

Another idea of mine is to create a game based on travelling the world and integrating the different cultures and experiences into it that I had. 

Jools said today as an after thought to think about the political environment we live in. How much of your work does that? It got me thinking about how our world has been brought together through technology, bringing the worlds cultures into one. For example some art work, graphics etc is made trying to appeal to everyone but to no one at the same time because it has no sense of identity. No one will recognise where it is from, who it is by etc. So I want my work to have a big sense of where I am from, what experiences I have. I think this idea is a good opportunity to do that as I can look at each culture I experienced and make an identity for that and how it is linked to me.

This is a story board of random ideas that could make up a game and text telling the story, for example let me set the scene- you are in LA it starts to get over bearing, people being demanding, it's too commercial/ fake. What do you do? OR You climb ares rock (Australia) but you get dehydrated and tired. Do you carry on? Through answering these questions the aim of the the game is to get as far around the world as you can.

Monday 9 February 2009

Random work I like...Maybe this will help me choose!!!


Aaron Humpheys (graphic/ new media designer.) This design really stood out to me because of the bright colours against the dark background. Also there seemed to be some freedom in the picture because of the different compositions of their bodies.

This is one of my favourite pieces that I found on carbonmade.com. I love the way it look so authentic like a story book coming a live in a child dream. 

3D animation by Anthony Wong (3D generalist.) This animation appeals to me because it oozes character with it's different textured skin and slight reflection in the eyes.
3
3D illustration by David Corbalan. This another favourite of mine. I love the expression in the cartoons face. It makes me want to find out more about what is going to happen. I like the texture in the background. 

Flash animation/ illustration by Brian Johnson: http://bjfad.carbonmade.com/projects/2114814

I'd like to recreate some type of game in flash like the one above. Its fun and light hearted vibe gets people interested in the product. It's something we all can relate to- music.
Character design on carbonmade.com

 This is the classic character design that I like. Simple, full of character and the start of ideas to come.

Website design research

http://suziwan.fr/fr/index.html

This website was different from the style of the others I have looked at because it is more realistic and guides you around the room. This is partly due to its much older target audience (maybe women in their 30s) because of the spotless 3d modelling and it focuses on the kitchen. Plus lets admit it most of the type the stereotype is that women like cooking.  If I am going to take online environments next year I want to work with many different medias film, animation, sound, photography, illustration etc. i can see that website design would enable me to do this. It gives me many different layers to work on. 

http://yourplayground.org/

This website was enjoyable as you got to create your own playground. I got quite into it! It felt like the website was being personalised for me because i got to create something of my own for it therefore it made me want to know more about the website. I could easily take the playful look of this website into my own work to create my own style.


Animation is added in each part as the boy get more friends the landscape changes to keep it more interesting.
http://hookyinteractive.com

I also liked this one as its very simple but effective. The images set off by the simple yellow, white and blue colour screen. It also gives off a fun vibe as the company are advertising jobs/ advertising thought the audience playing a game. I think this is a good way of advertising as it is sutle with its message.
Amazing quality drawings that involve you in their thought process with a game.


Http://www.nawlz.com

This is my favourite website that i found on www.thefwa.com. You've got to go on there. I always thought website design was a bit of a boring option because it seemed so static but this website and my chat with Jools today has got me seriously considering taking online environments next year. I like this website comic book style animation techniques and the way it tells you a story (someone was on a trip when they created this.) I could see myself creating websites with many layers of illustrations, messages and maybe 3d modelling if I get my act into gear and carry on with the 3d max tutorials. 

Cabinet Moodboard

Above is the mood board for my curiosity cabinet as a whole. My form is the curiosity cabinet so that I can express different traits of my character. I want the eyes and mouths to stand out as a link to the other sections (pixilation, interactive website, avatar etc.) I've got to work out how it will work in flash as I want the eyes and mouth to separate form the body and rotate round (e.g. exquisite corpse.) There is an on going reference to boxes above because i thought as an introduction I could get the box/ screwed up paper to unravel into my face.

This is a zoomed in photoshop collage that helped me to get to my final cabinet mood board. All of the super imposed pictures represent a part of me that can lead to a story and unravel physically through the animated paper?

Saturday 7 February 2009

Character mood board- Imagination is the key...

This is my final Avatar mood board. I wanted it to reflect my different characters and how they all add to the final character. Also each each character of myself can be developed into a different part of my box. I choose the contrasting red and green to make the image stand out. I emphasised the eyes to show that they are the 'portal' to the imagination. My USP. 

This was my initial avatar mood board but it wasn't quite right. The background makes me look like some kind of naturist! I tried turning it into a negative to make it look more fantasy/ imagination like but the image lost its clarity. I kept the hand drawn part of my avatar in black and white so it leaves my imagination more open to new ideas. 

Wednesday 4 February 2009


I randomly found this cool animation that is similar to the style I went for with my Lego man pixilation. It was also created on a mac my students at Norwich, working with the BBC. They also made the music in garage band, which I might give a try to make it more my own creation. 

The organisation called global digital creativity go around the country giving workshops to underprivileged children. I thought this was really cool that the creativity of animation is helping the society on a different level for everyone. Animation is more than esthetically pleasing, like any film can be it is a reflection of your character, and can be a reflection of other peoples lives and identities.

Thinking of the Future

Today was a bit of an eye opener. I realised that I definately don't want to do AV. Although I enjpy watching film it doesn't spark as much passion as virtual enviroments does. I am going to have a look at online environments as well to see if they provoke as much interest as animation etc has so far. Maybe look at online tours, online games, interactive websites, interactive narratives etc...

It was interesting hearing what every ones interpretations of each other was in such a short times span but Jools said something to me that was spot on- " that to me it isn't about the technology. It is about creating something for me. To reflect my personality. " I think I have the confidence to do that. I was also quite surprised that he suggested game design as I haven't really played on a PlayStation etc since I was 12 (a long 9yrs ago!) Also thinking about the future my main hurdle at the moment is working out the technology! Once I have got it I will be happy. It's so frustrating at the moment to have these ideas but not know quite how to put them into an animated form. I am just thinking of it as a tool to reflect my identity and imagination. 

As well as game design I am going to research character design and I like the idea of story telling through my images.

Whiteboard Photoshop experimentation

With this photo I tried posterising it to change the tonal range and the way the objects look against the background. I like this one because it is bright and cheerful so it grabs the audiences attention.

In a way I prefer this inverted version because the colour aren't standard to the whiteboard animation I have seen so far (see previous posts.) Also by inverting the colours it makes the music notes stand out more so it emphasises that music is part of the bond that make my flat get along.

The is the tidied up version of my original photos. I wanted a slightly neater presentation just to keep the pen inside the lines a little more so it looks more professional. This was VERY tedious. (I used the cloning tool.)

Another one of my objects to help tell the story.

The original photograph.

Whiteboard animation idea expanded

Although you can't see very well from the picture above I have started another pixilation to see which one represents myself better. i started off by doing a basic storyboard to generate some ideas for images that can tell a story about my life at the moment. I decided to do images that help create my identity by action and people I see every day. I have followed a similiar theme to the lego man pixilation of other people adding to your identity through friendship. At the moment this is very fitting for me as I have obviciously not been in Nottingham very long, started a new course, meet new people etc. I wanted to reflect how my life has changed and how the people I have become friends with contribute to this. 

Object that symbolise my life at the moment-

shaking hands= new friendships etc,
alcohol,
music= want I enjoy listening to while I work,
flat= next years plans,
bold, bright colours= part of my personality.

Also I made a brain storm with a few of my flat mates who are involved in the pixilation to reflect what we have in common therefore what has helped us all combine our identities to make friends. 

Monday 2 February 2009

More ideas- whiteboard animation

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=u46eaeAfeqw

What started the idea. I really enjoyed making our first whiteboard animation when I joined nottingham trent and it was a good way to get to know a few of my course mates. Looking back at it months after gave me the idea to create a short white board animation about my identity and how it is influenced by new friendships, new starts and new experiences since I have started uni. I am influenced my the animations below and I am going to take on board what they have done to make themselves unique.
e.g. different colours, lines, sometimes textures and different props.

Screen shot of 'catch me if you can' white board animation. I like this animation because of it's good use of other objects such as a hand, game console etc to make it stand out in the simple narrative. 


This is also onne of my favourite whiteboard animations because of it's smooth running from image to image. Also they different colours, lines and interaction they have with the hand drawing them appeals to me. Even though they are only simple additions to the piece it improves the quality of the animation.





Sunday 1 February 2009

Last week of second life-YAY!

I thought I'd see what Paris was like in second life. I thought it was really bland becuase its first land mark surprisingly wasn't the Eiffel tower. It was Moulin Rouge. All it had was some boring picture of different avators in the building that you had to pay for. Yet again there was no one around. I thought millions of people were on second life!

I got bored of Paris so I searched for snow boarding and it came up with where to find a ring. You had to sit in the chair and it acted like an individual roller coaster. As far as the identities of the different places I have been the only place that stood out to me was China tracys version of China with its brightly coloured fireworks and roller coasters.

While I've been looking for ways to explain my practice for the presentation on Tuesday I have come across this animation that advertises E4. Some of my favourite advertisements have been on E4. I like there playful, cartoony style that defines their identity against the BBC for example with their more serious icons. They are one of the companies that have inspired me when it comes to animation because (to me) they have turned around their adverts grabbing their attention rather than making people change the channel.