Class Ten
This was an interesting project for me – I’ve always been interested in kinetic typography, and I decided to attempt that for this project. The song was chosen at random, and was just something upbeat and fun that I had floating around in my music library. Instead of using Flash, I attempted using After Effects, which ended up working out much better in the long run for me. It took me forever to actually get things how I wanted them, and even then there’s still work to be done, but overall I’m happy with the way the project turned out.
Class Nine
This is an intuitive website that throws out the typical web browsing interface: as the url suggests, this site doesn’t allow clicking to navigate links. Instead, links are opened when you use the cursor to roll over them. I visited this website via StumbleUpon, and quickly adapted to the interface. It’s actually quite surprising when you accidentally click for the first time – the ‘error page’ gives me a headache, ugh.
Class Eight
I have an cast iron teapot that I bought from Teavana about a year ago that I like quite a lot. I like tea, and I like having nice tea-related things, and because of this I tend to use this teapot quite a lot. Its oddly-shaped for a teapot – rather flat and long rather than ‘short and stout’. It has a Chinese dragon design on a textured surface, and looks as though it has been aged, which adds to the charm. It came with a cast iron warmer, which you put a tea candle in to help keep the tea hot over extended periods of time. I also have a matching set of cups. And coasters. They all work very well together, I think, and they’re practical, which is a plus.
Class Six
Walter Benjamin believed that the constant mechanical reproduction of art – once thought sacred – now destroys the essence of the original artwork, cheapening it. And when art is no longer sacred, when it is reproduced and becomes mainstream, it is no longer held in such high esteem. Truly new and innovative art is appreciated in underground circles, while mainstream can often be lackluster and bland – things that have been seen before. I can understand this, but I also believe that the reproduction of art makes it more accessible to a wider audience of people, thus allowing more people to appreciate it.
Class Five
There are a lot of awesome websites out there, and I can think of quite a few off the top of my head. If I had to name one, though, I would have to say Deviantart. Here, there’s art of all kinds – art from masters and amateurs alike. I can post my own artwork with ease, which makes it a good digital portfolio. I can also find countless tutorials on just about any subject when I need help with my own artwork. I’ve done that several times for projects I’m working on in this class. It’s also a great resource for stock images, textures, and Photoshop brushes. And when I find myself with ‘artist’s block’, all I have to do is browse the site’s vast gallery of images for inspiration. It’s a win-win situation here, I think.
Class Four
The designs of these two shirts were rather spontaneous. I started doodling little creatures in Photoshop, and chose these two. The Chinese Dragon was by far the easiest of the two images to create. While both were done in Photoshop, the Dragon design was less refined than that of the Bird. It has a sketchy appearance, while the Bird is a simple cel shading with cleaner lines. The first Dragon was done on only two layers, and took around twenty minutes to complete. The Bird, on the other hand, has about nineteen layers. Probably because I was paranoid about messing something up, but I suppose it’s better to err on the side of caution. I think it took maybe 4 hours to complete, perhaps more since I played with the design, lineart, and colors more than I probably should have. The second dragon took the longest of the three designs, and although I’m not sure, I know it much have took me at least 5 hours to get everything the way I wanted it. It’s definitely my favorite of the three designs.
Class Three
I can’t quite imagine having 1000 true fans, even though a ‘small’ number such as this might seem like small change to some. I know there are people out there who would like my work, but buying everything I release to the public? That’s a dedication that I don’t show even for the artists I consider myself a fan of – while I love to support them, my funds are limited and at times I find I don’t necessarily like the music/book/comic/game that they’ve released enough to buy it. I can’t fathom it, but I’d be extremely humbled and inspired to do the best I could to please my fans.
I would probably have a website of my own, or at least a blog, to communicate with my fans. Seeing as I’m not the best web designer, I would probably have to have someone run that for me.
Class Two
http://fx.worth1000.com/contests/24773/cybergenics-12
This one was an easy find – it was actually right on the front page on the day I started searching through the images. I love the amalgamation of organic and mechanical materials, and this one looks so delightfully creepy. I haven’t read the book in years, but it sort of reminds me of the dog creatures in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, which is perhaps why I like it so much.
http://fx.worth1000.com/contests/6370/cybergenics-7
This one I like because it’s so simple, and the literal translation works very well in the image. And it’s adorable. And once again, it’s half organic creature, half machine, but it looks like it belongs in the image, like a normal beetle walking on the branch of a tree.
http://rookery5.worth1000.com/storagev12/3235000/3235205_0f48_625x1000.jpg
I’ve always been a fan of the fantasy genre, and upon first glance I saw that I really liked the mythical creature that the artist had created. The bright colors are great, and is executed very well, just as in the previous two images. These contests were for advanced users, I believe. There were many other images that caught my attention, but not all of them were so well refined as these three images.
Aaand here’s the homework:
