{Insert Summer Holiday Here}
Tuesday 9 June 2009
Sunday 3 May 2009
Animation...
I apologize folks, but I might get a little philosphical on you here. Well, maybe not philosphical, but at least boardering on odd, strange, abstract and profound. What is Animation? Well, essentially, its movement, right? It also apparently means to be alive and active, but these dont really illustrate my point so lets leave them aside for now. Animation is movement. If something is an inanimate object, it does not move. Then how strange is it, that animation itself, is nothing but a series of still objects, quickily shown in order to create the illusion, get me code 5 italics on that "illusion", yes the illusion of movement. If you've read any of my previous blogs, you probably know I tend to anylsis things that really dont need to be looked at. I like to ask questions.
Alot of people find it annoying and think im being critical of them. Its quite the opposite. For someone who is interested in animation, I personally think it is absolutely nesscary to want to understand how everything works. Well, perhaps not how everything works, but how everything moves. You see, the beauty of animation is that it isnt about mimicing movement of the real world. You might think it is, but it isnt. Or maybe it is. Maybe im wrong. After all, no one has ever sat down and taught me how to animate, I've never really met any other animators and spoke to them on length about the subject (I have always wanted to, but I just dont really know many of them, and trying to discuss things like that on online forums tends to just lead to pointless arguments and penis-waving contests). But the way I see it? Animation is kind of like magic.
"Like magic? What the hell, this is some kind of Disney crap right?" Thats what you're thinking. No, im not going to go into a magical debate about the wonders that animation brings to the world and how we should treasure our friends blah blah blah. What is magic? Really? You've seen a card trick, right? How do they work? Well, I just said it. Its a card trick. It tricks you. You are generally led to beleive that something is happening, when actually, something else is happening. Animation is no different. Infact, if anything, its so much more simple (In theory) than a card trick, and no where near as exciting. The human eye. Well, any eye really, but the eye. The eye moves, right? The iris goes from one position to another, depending on where you want to look. But do you ever sit there and think "Hey, I want to look to the left, so im going to move my eyes to the left"? No. Even when you were a baby you didnt. Its a natural reflex. The same can be said of other people. Have you ever sat there and watched someone move their eyes around. Unless they were your boyfriend/girlfriend/stalkee then probably not (And if they were the later, they were probably asleep anyway). But you know what? If people dont move their eyes around, if people dont blink, it makes us really uncomfortable. Its weird right? Something we usually take no notice in, suddenly becomes that disturbs us. Its called staring.
Im not trying to confess to being a stalker or something. I've sort of taken the sceneic route in explaining this, just because I wanted to give you an idea about how much I've thought about this. So, back to the trick right. I think an image is best to illustrate this point.
This is a really simple .gif I made ages ago for a forum I used to frequent to use as an avatar. Its sort of supposed to look like me, whether it does or not isnt really the point here. Nothing in this image is moving. Look at the eyes. Obviously if you look at them for long enough, you notice they're not moving. But it feelsl ike they are, right? It feels natural. All that is happening is that a sequence of images with the pupils in different places are being shown.
Pupils move fast. I mean really fast. You dont notice they're movement most of the time. You know they've moved, but you rarely actually see them moving. Nor do you take notice. Animation is just like that. The little things people dont notice, those are the things you have to prey on to create the illusions of movement. Many other parts of the body are the same. Lip syncing for example. Its very rare for there to be a large amount of different mouth shapes to accomodate a conversation. Why? Because people cant keep up. Many animated peices will get away with 3 mouth shapes through an entire sequence. Its all about timing. Its all about tricking the viewer.
Animation is all about illusion. Animation is just like magic.
Problem is, once you realise these sorts of things, you tend to notice lower-budget productions faults. As always, I could go on, but I have a box of nachos calling my name. So let me summerise what im trying to get at here.
Im not an experienced animator, I've dabbled alot, and I enjoy it, but im not really in any position to give anyone any advice. But this project, which for most people is going to involve animation, is a great oppurtunity to just stop, stand and stare. Watch how things move around. Think about it. Take it all in. Hell, take notes and draw sketches if you're into that sort of thing (Im really not).
Then think about how you can trick people into thinking the same thing is happening in your assignment.
Excluding the bits involving Action Script and HTML, This is going to be a damn fun assignment guys!
-Joe
Alot of people find it annoying and think im being critical of them. Its quite the opposite. For someone who is interested in animation, I personally think it is absolutely nesscary to want to understand how everything works. Well, perhaps not how everything works, but how everything moves. You see, the beauty of animation is that it isnt about mimicing movement of the real world. You might think it is, but it isnt. Or maybe it is. Maybe im wrong. After all, no one has ever sat down and taught me how to animate, I've never really met any other animators and spoke to them on length about the subject (I have always wanted to, but I just dont really know many of them, and trying to discuss things like that on online forums tends to just lead to pointless arguments and penis-waving contests). But the way I see it? Animation is kind of like magic.
"Like magic? What the hell, this is some kind of Disney crap right?" Thats what you're thinking. No, im not going to go into a magical debate about the wonders that animation brings to the world and how we should treasure our friends blah blah blah. What is magic? Really? You've seen a card trick, right? How do they work? Well, I just said it. Its a card trick. It tricks you. You are generally led to beleive that something is happening, when actually, something else is happening. Animation is no different. Infact, if anything, its so much more simple (In theory) than a card trick, and no where near as exciting. The human eye. Well, any eye really, but the eye. The eye moves, right? The iris goes from one position to another, depending on where you want to look. But do you ever sit there and think "Hey, I want to look to the left, so im going to move my eyes to the left"? No. Even when you were a baby you didnt. Its a natural reflex. The same can be said of other people. Have you ever sat there and watched someone move their eyes around. Unless they were your boyfriend/girlfriend/stalkee then probably not (And if they were the later, they were probably asleep anyway). But you know what? If people dont move their eyes around, if people dont blink, it makes us really uncomfortable. Its weird right? Something we usually take no notice in, suddenly becomes that disturbs us. Its called staring.
Im not trying to confess to being a stalker or something. I've sort of taken the sceneic route in explaining this, just because I wanted to give you an idea about how much I've thought about this. So, back to the trick right. I think an image is best to illustrate this point.
This is a really simple .gif I made ages ago for a forum I used to frequent to use as an avatar. Its sort of supposed to look like me, whether it does or not isnt really the point here. Nothing in this image is moving. Look at the eyes. Obviously if you look at them for long enough, you notice they're not moving. But it feelsl ike they are, right? It feels natural. All that is happening is that a sequence of images with the pupils in different places are being shown.
Pupils move fast. I mean really fast. You dont notice they're movement most of the time. You know they've moved, but you rarely actually see them moving. Nor do you take notice. Animation is just like that. The little things people dont notice, those are the things you have to prey on to create the illusions of movement. Many other parts of the body are the same. Lip syncing for example. Its very rare for there to be a large amount of different mouth shapes to accomodate a conversation. Why? Because people cant keep up. Many animated peices will get away with 3 mouth shapes through an entire sequence. Its all about timing. Its all about tricking the viewer.
Animation is all about illusion. Animation is just like magic.
Problem is, once you realise these sorts of things, you tend to notice lower-budget productions faults. As always, I could go on, but I have a box of nachos calling my name. So let me summerise what im trying to get at here.
Im not an experienced animator, I've dabbled alot, and I enjoy it, but im not really in any position to give anyone any advice. But this project, which for most people is going to involve animation, is a great oppurtunity to just stop, stand and stare. Watch how things move around. Think about it. Take it all in. Hell, take notes and draw sketches if you're into that sort of thing (Im really not).
Then think about how you can trick people into thinking the same thing is happening in your assignment.
Excluding the bits involving Action Script and HTML, This is going to be a damn fun assignment guys!
-Joe
Sunday 26 April 2009
Back in Brighton
Well, im a week late due to some minor problems, but I am indeed back. I will be attending class monday morning, assuming I can drag my ass out of bed after near enough a month of going to bed at 4am and waking up at 4pm. It will surely be one of the greatest trials of my life thus far.
Havent really eaten today or slept much this weekend (what with the moving stuff back down and getting back into my house) so am not really in the mood to type out a long post. I guess you could say im shaking like a leaf. Got some pasta cooking this very moment. The new module is flash based I beleive? I should check moodle I guess. I'll find out. Meh. I'll see everyone tomorrow anyway.
Peace out groovy dudes.
-Joe
Havent really eaten today or slept much this weekend (what with the moving stuff back down and getting back into my house) so am not really in the mood to type out a long post. I guess you could say im shaking like a leaf. Got some pasta cooking this very moment. The new module is flash based I beleive? I should check moodle I guess. I'll find out. Meh. I'll see everyone tomorrow anyway.
Peace out groovy dudes.
-Joe
Wednesday 18 March 2009
Kill all humans!
Well, today I woke up with a headache at around 12am, which essentially meant I missed class. Awesome. Even more awesome is the fact that I would really have liked to have asked some valuable questions regarding HOW THE HELL DO I BUILD MY SITE? Apologies. I lost my composure for a second. So instead since I have been up I have been grappling with my mouse and keyboard in a vicious battle to attempt to make some form of a working...anything...in Dreamweaver. Now, I've built some websites in my time, nothing astounding, and I'll admit it, its been about 2 years so Im more than a little rusty, but Dreamweaver just doesn't like me. It doesn't. Its not a matter of simple "I dont know how to do it". It is a matter of "You want to do this but im not going to let you do it, and instead move everything around that you had laid out in a way that is both inconvient and wastes a large portion of your time".
Let me try to reiterate that in another way. The more educated among you will be privy to the knowledge that 2+2=4. However. However indeed. What is quickly becoming the greatest enemy I have ever faced, indeed, perhaps even my long awaited "Arch-nemsis", the so-called "Dream" weaver does not need to adhere to this logic. Instead of doing 2+2 to reach the goal of four, it instead decides it want to go on a picknick. The cheese sandwiches were lovely but I have an assignment due next week for the love of god!
Aside from this, I continue to slave away. Though when I say "slave away" what I actually mean is that I am staring blankly at my screen with Photoshop open, not sure what I should do or add to the site layout. On one hand, I am happy with it on a basic level, it looks nice, it seems easy enough to navigate, but im ever so reluctant to add to it. When it comes to building things, and that counts for anything, be it a lego castle or a website, I cant bring myself just "add" things on. Everything has to flow, one thing must lead to the next. There needs to be purpose for everything. This, unfortunately, leads to very bland end-products though. My site at the moment lacks punch, pizzahz. Theres nothing bold about it. But then, does there really need to be? I'm creating a site that is essentially intended to acomodate the elderly. People who get a thrill out of growing things. And not in their stomach, like much of the under 14 female youth of today. What im saying is, from a design perspective, do I really need to re-invent colour schemes as we know them or is it ok to settle for comfortable?
I've experimented with a few layouts and designs, and as usual, simple just seems to work best. I played around with gradients and fades, with fancy boarders, but block colours just appeal to me. Is it just me? I mean look at this page im typing on right now. A simple blue banner with some other shades of blue as blocks towards the left. Coupled with the light brown tabs and headers, its all topped off with white background. Simple. Effective. Easy on the eye.
Is it always nesscary to break the mold? I dont think so. Certainly not in this case and so Im just going to stop trying. Im going to stop saying to myself "Oh, what kind of interesting, amazing thing could I do here?", otherwise I think im just going to end up with a bright pink Polar bear. Stylish it may be to the (In the right person's eyes) but completely in-effective. Maybe im just being lazy, talking myself out of doing more work, but the saying does go "Less is More".
By the way, if you bought any of the books we were told to get ahold of at the start of the year, take a flick through "A Pratical Guide to Digital Design". Theres alot of information and cool tips about colour usage and typography in there, both on an asthetical level and a psychological level. If nothing more, its worth just referencing it so you get that book research mark. ;)
Well thats enough about site designs. Lets talk about life. I gave vegeterianism a go for 2 weeks. I'd never really considered it before since I dont really buy into the whole "Killing animals is wrong" bit. Dont get me wrong, I dont support processed animal farming. I buy Free Range eggs and avoid the cheap stuff, and unless im dying of hunger and theres no place else, avoid McDonalds/KFC/Burgerking. But you know, Lion>Gazelle and all that. Human beings have removed themselves from the food chain I'm afraid, its an annoying fact, but I just don't have time to go spear a boar when I get home in the evenings. Its true, we don't live and eat naturally now-days, but we could get really philosophical about this and say that who is to say what nature is? Like all animals are forced to adapt to changing environments or die out, humans have adapted to the creation of society, the introductions of butchers and farmers. But I'm going off on a tangent again. I don't want to get into the philosophy here. I tried it. I was happily surprised. I didn't find I missed meat to much and gave the various substitutes a go too. However, at the end of the 2 weeks I found myself asking "Why am I doing this?", I have no real reason to be a vegeterian as I previously explained. I respect people who feel differently, but I decided I wouldn't stick with it. Still, its nice to try new things I guess...
Well, I guess I'll wrap this up. On the animation front, if you want to see some good robot-smashing anime, check out Casshern SINS. Im afraid its only available as subs at the moment, but its got some amazing aniation and its a very deep anime too. Lots of deeper messages running through it, I really thoroughly enjoyed watching it. Check it out if you dont mind subtitles and you're into anime.
Oh, im also thinking of writing up a short story i've had floating around in my head for a while, so I guess i'll post a link to that if I ever write it out a chapter or two.
Catch you in Class
-Joe
P.S. No images today, my desktop and photoshop is currently littered with website images and files.
Let me try to reiterate that in another way. The more educated among you will be privy to the knowledge that 2+2=4. However. However indeed. What is quickly becoming the greatest enemy I have ever faced, indeed, perhaps even my long awaited "Arch-nemsis", the so-called "Dream" weaver does not need to adhere to this logic. Instead of doing 2+2 to reach the goal of four, it instead decides it want to go on a picknick. The cheese sandwiches were lovely but I have an assignment due next week for the love of god!
Aside from this, I continue to slave away. Though when I say "slave away" what I actually mean is that I am staring blankly at my screen with Photoshop open, not sure what I should do or add to the site layout. On one hand, I am happy with it on a basic level, it looks nice, it seems easy enough to navigate, but im ever so reluctant to add to it. When it comes to building things, and that counts for anything, be it a lego castle or a website, I cant bring myself just "add" things on. Everything has to flow, one thing must lead to the next. There needs to be purpose for everything. This, unfortunately, leads to very bland end-products though. My site at the moment lacks punch, pizzahz. Theres nothing bold about it. But then, does there really need to be? I'm creating a site that is essentially intended to acomodate the elderly. People who get a thrill out of growing things. And not in their stomach, like much of the under 14 female youth of today. What im saying is, from a design perspective, do I really need to re-invent colour schemes as we know them or is it ok to settle for comfortable?
I've experimented with a few layouts and designs, and as usual, simple just seems to work best. I played around with gradients and fades, with fancy boarders, but block colours just appeal to me. Is it just me? I mean look at this page im typing on right now. A simple blue banner with some other shades of blue as blocks towards the left. Coupled with the light brown tabs and headers, its all topped off with white background. Simple. Effective. Easy on the eye.
Is it always nesscary to break the mold? I dont think so. Certainly not in this case and so Im just going to stop trying. Im going to stop saying to myself "Oh, what kind of interesting, amazing thing could I do here?", otherwise I think im just going to end up with a bright pink Polar bear. Stylish it may be to the (In the right person's eyes) but completely in-effective. Maybe im just being lazy, talking myself out of doing more work, but the saying does go "Less is More".
By the way, if you bought any of the books we were told to get ahold of at the start of the year, take a flick through "A Pratical Guide to Digital Design". Theres alot of information and cool tips about colour usage and typography in there, both on an asthetical level and a psychological level. If nothing more, its worth just referencing it so you get that book research mark. ;)
Well thats enough about site designs. Lets talk about life. I gave vegeterianism a go for 2 weeks. I'd never really considered it before since I dont really buy into the whole "Killing animals is wrong" bit. Dont get me wrong, I dont support processed animal farming. I buy Free Range eggs and avoid the cheap stuff, and unless im dying of hunger and theres no place else, avoid McDonalds/KFC/Burgerking. But you know, Lion>Gazelle and all that. Human beings have removed themselves from the food chain I'm afraid, its an annoying fact, but I just don't have time to go spear a boar when I get home in the evenings. Its true, we don't live and eat naturally now-days, but we could get really philosophical about this and say that who is to say what nature is? Like all animals are forced to adapt to changing environments or die out, humans have adapted to the creation of society, the introductions of butchers and farmers. But I'm going off on a tangent again. I don't want to get into the philosophy here. I tried it. I was happily surprised. I didn't find I missed meat to much and gave the various substitutes a go too. However, at the end of the 2 weeks I found myself asking "Why am I doing this?", I have no real reason to be a vegeterian as I previously explained. I respect people who feel differently, but I decided I wouldn't stick with it. Still, its nice to try new things I guess...
Well, I guess I'll wrap this up. On the animation front, if you want to see some good robot-smashing anime, check out Casshern SINS. Im afraid its only available as subs at the moment, but its got some amazing aniation and its a very deep anime too. Lots of deeper messages running through it, I really thoroughly enjoyed watching it. Check it out if you dont mind subtitles and you're into anime.
Oh, im also thinking of writing up a short story i've had floating around in my head for a while, so I guess i'll post a link to that if I ever write it out a chapter or two.
Catch you in Class
-Joe
P.S. No images today, my desktop and photoshop is currently littered with website images and files.
Monday 2 March 2009
Country Living - The Silent Killer
You'll have to excuse the title, I've always wanted to work "Silent killer" into one of my blog titles. Although I suppose you could say that with a large portion of O.A.P's migrating to the country side in their golden years (Or is it silver years? I'm never sure about that one) the country life IS something of a silent killer. I should make a graph to demonstrate this. One moment whilst I open paint and grapple with my Wacom tablet.
As you can see, its all very clear and scientific. I had the boffins downstairs figure it all out for me. Ok, im done with my stupid introduction. But you didnt honestly expect anything else from me, right?
So lets discuss what happened today in class. We had a lecture from a lady called Dawn (It was dawn, right?). It seemed like pretty solid stuff and alot of it made sense. Unfortunately when it comes to listening my Brain can only really function at full capacity for about 20 minutes at a time, max. The lecture lasted about an hour and a half I think, so after the first 20 minutes I was forced to start taking notes since I couldn't really take in what she was saying. Due to my note taking to be sub-par however, I later looked at them and realised I had simply written down what most likely were, at the time, key words like "Demographic", "Acessibility", "Semi" (What the fudge right?), "Incoperation", "Feedback" and the all to useful "Profiling". Profiling was underlined. Twice. (That means its important, for those who arent on the "up and up"). However, the meaning behind these words are now completely lost on me. So I apologize Dawn, I will try to utilize every second of the first 20 minutes of your lecture to the best of my god given ability whilst working on this assignment, to atone for my crude (damn no-swearing policy...Damn you julie! Damn you examiners!) note taking.
Following this, we went to lunch. Lunch was the highlight of the day. I had steak. I havent had a steak since I became a student. Enough said. I also believe there was some entertaining conversation, but I rarely pay attention to that kind of garbage.
You may make a note of the fact that this is actually being posted on wednesday the 4th, not monday the 2nd (Which, according to the canon of my life, is when these events took place and I am supposed to be posting this post). This is due to some unforseen events that occured on monday as I was typing this all out, involving me getting on a bus and going into town, which left this particular post in a "draft" state, to be forget and rediscovered today when I went to add a new entry. So I am just going to finish this off with a "I dont remember what else I was going to write about on Monday". Well, that concludes this post, I hope someone reads it. As always, I'll see you in a couple of days Digital Media Design team (who all seem to have abandoned me at the back of the class where I now sit all by myself). This is me, setting sail for fail!
- Joe
As you can see, its all very clear and scientific. I had the boffins downstairs figure it all out for me. Ok, im done with my stupid introduction. But you didnt honestly expect anything else from me, right?
So lets discuss what happened today in class. We had a lecture from a lady called Dawn (It was dawn, right?). It seemed like pretty solid stuff and alot of it made sense. Unfortunately when it comes to listening my Brain can only really function at full capacity for about 20 minutes at a time, max. The lecture lasted about an hour and a half I think, so after the first 20 minutes I was forced to start taking notes since I couldn't really take in what she was saying. Due to my note taking to be sub-par however, I later looked at them and realised I had simply written down what most likely were, at the time, key words like "Demographic", "Acessibility", "Semi" (What the fudge right?), "Incoperation", "Feedback" and the all to useful "Profiling". Profiling was underlined. Twice. (That means its important, for those who arent on the "up and up"). However, the meaning behind these words are now completely lost on me. So I apologize Dawn, I will try to utilize every second of the first 20 minutes of your lecture to the best of my god given ability whilst working on this assignment, to atone for my crude (damn no-swearing policy...Damn you julie! Damn you examiners!) note taking.
Following this, we went to lunch. Lunch was the highlight of the day. I had steak. I havent had a steak since I became a student. Enough said. I also believe there was some entertaining conversation, but I rarely pay attention to that kind of garbage.
You may make a note of the fact that this is actually being posted on wednesday the 4th, not monday the 2nd (Which, according to the canon of my life, is when these events took place and I am supposed to be posting this post). This is due to some unforseen events that occured on monday as I was typing this all out, involving me getting on a bus and going into town, which left this particular post in a "draft" state, to be forget and rediscovered today when I went to add a new entry. So I am just going to finish this off with a "I dont remember what else I was going to write about on Monday". Well, that concludes this post, I hope someone reads it. As always, I'll see you in a couple of days Digital Media Design team (who all seem to have abandoned me at the back of the class where I now sit all by myself). This is me, setting sail for fail!
- Joe
Thursday 26 February 2009
And so a new chapter of Digital Media Design begins...
With my last assignment over and a complete failure, I have decided to have another go at the blog. Last time around I ended up not being able to get my production log up here due to some technical issues between me, my keyboard, blogger.com and a shoe. More over, a large update I posted before having these "technical issues" was completely lost due to the colleges crap internet, which was pretty disheartening. But on to bigger and better things! I'll have to work harder on this assignment to make up for the slack of the last one!
The new assignment is webdesign, not something im all together familiar with, which is also probably for the best. If im familiar with something I tend to want to do it MY way and go off on a little crusade that in the end has me making something that has nothing to do with the actual assignment at hand (See; Trying to fit Flash based animations into every project possible).
The age groups we've been set are pretty random, I think im leaning more towards generation X personally though, since that way I can just badger my parents for ideas. I was originally thinking of doing film, and using something like Empire magazine as a reference, but now im not to sure...film websites are a tad...overdone? We kind of live in a time where everyone has an opinion, and thats essentially what most film websites are about - reviewing cinema. I suppose I could try to hit it from a different angle, but why try to fix something that isnt broken? No no, I think I'll give something else a go.
Other then that, I haven't really decided much else. The website has to have 6 pages I beleive, so I guess I should start thinking about what kind of content im going to have on those pages. Is it just going to be 6 pages of different subjects around the content, or 6 pages containing completely different information? Who knows?
Well thats about it, I dont want to banter on. If you're bored and you were at all interested in the animation recommendations I've made previously, check out Princess Mononoke. Another one of Studio Ghibli's. Damn good television (well, cinema...animation...).
-Eoj
Monday 26 January 2009
Production Log Week 4
This was originally a long post, explaining my thoughts and ideas behind the short sequence im making for the assignment, with my trademark babbling and going off on tangents, but for some reason Blogger.com decided it didnt want to post that, and just wanted to post a blank post with just the title...ah well.
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