Inspiration

Inspiring videos

Public Resonance from sam weller on Vimeo.

Photograph Steps

Dsdn 144 Proposal

Panorama

Contact Sheet

Images

Proposal

The first photos I have taken are of nature and the view of the city on Mount Victoria Lookout. However this is not the direct subject I want to photograph. 

Proposal - To explore the structure of different man made path ways from nature to concrete stair ways. Nature pathways being made from dirt and man made ones being industrial and made from concrete. Industrial pathways suggest it leads to a man made place such as a street with houses. A pathway made from natural resources with nature surrounding suggests it leads somewhere purely mother nature such as the bush or a walk track. I plan to construct the composition so that where the pathway leads is not shown and creates a mystery to where it may lead. 

Creative Coding - Lesson 2:

In class today we began to learn how to code using the programme Processing. I understand how to set out the code and use the brackets and numbers. I just have trouble with knowing what numbers to use to get the shapes where I want them to go. This is something I will have to improve on. Here are some screen shots of what I tried last lesson. I didn't screen shot everything that I experimented with because I didn't know we had to screen shot and I didn't save all my experiments.

A basic square with an eclipse evenly in the middle.

This is something I did myself by finding a tutorial online. As I move the mouse around the circles follow, building up many layers of circles. The faster I move the mouse - the less circles and more far apart they are. The slower I move the mouse - The more circles and closer together they are. I was happy with this experiment as it was one of the example codes I found. It's listed in my previous Dsdn142 blog as inspiration. I didn't realise how simple the coding was behind this idea. Maybe as practise I could start colouring this experiment to make it more interesting.

This is me creating a shape and getting confused on where and how to put the line.

I also experimented with the background and stroke colour. I understand that you use different numbers to create different colours which I also experimented with at random. I think that you use RGB colour charts from memory but will have to research this further. I think for now the thing that I really need to improve on is my graphing, working out where the shapes go, how to make them and how to get them there.

Dsdn112 - Interactive Technology. Blog Post One.

Class Reflection

Today in class we had to bring 5 objects for each of the senses. These are the items I brought along:
- Hearing: Two 50 cent coins. Rubbing them together creates a very distinctive sound because of the material and engraved texture on them. Also dropping them creates a very distinct sound that most people will associate with money. The sound is part of the luxury of owning currency.

- Taste: Dairy free chocolate. As I can't eat chocolate, yesterday I was sent some dairy free chocolate that I could eat. It was the first real tasting chocolate I'd tasted in years. To people who normally eat chocolate it may have tasted average but to me it tasted insanely good. It has a very sweet taste and a very smooth texture. Smell is also an important factor in chocolate as it contributes to the indulgence experience.
- Sight: Batman Arkham City PC game. The cover is so original to any other of a pc game. It has a metal case with an ink stained picture on it. Combining only two colours with the black, green for Joker and Red for Batman. The silver of the metal is used as the 'white' or 'skin tones' which is also very stylistic and original. It's just surprisingly detailed and classic for a pc case which I like.

 - Smell: Our Mate, the British version of Marmite. It's a yeast extract so has a very strong smell. As of the taste, you either love it or hate it. I would describe it as possibly being a very salty sort of smell. Despite it being strong, if you love the taste, the smell will probably have you craving it. 

 - Touch: Playstation 2 controller. It's designed very specifically to be held in your hands. Everyone loves the feel and texture of the analog sticks and the feeling of how knobbly and smooth they move. Touch a ps2 controller, overall, is just a very enjoyable and user friendly experience, which is what I like. 

Some other things that people brought along which I found interesting:

For touch someone had brought a type of Plasticine. Before touching it, you expected it to feel like putty. However, the feel was very light and had a type of wet texture. I found this really interesting.
For sight, I find the kaleidoscope really fascinating and distorting.
For sound, people brought high pitched noises and alarms. I find this digital sound to be very irritating, especially at such a high frequency. I prefer acoustic sound to digital sound. 

Mind Maps

We got into groups and made a mind map for one of the senses. The group I was put into was Hearing. We brainstormed many different aspects of hearing. Such as materials, how size and weight effects the pitch of the sound. How people perceive music differently. Different sounds create different atmospheres. Acoustic sound versus electronic sound. Rhythm versus endless drone. Rattling, sloshing and tensions create different sound - movement. Vocals. Instruments. Layering. Distance.

No one chose to go into the smell group. People must see it as a hard one to do. Not many people seemed keen to do taste either. That would be hard as you'd have to think of a hygienic way of doing it and it may require more resources to be refilling things or replacing things for people to put their mouth onto. I'm unsure of which sense I will do yet. I may stay away from smell ans especially taste unless I got an amazing idea for it. I'll look more into sound, touch and sight for now. 

Next week we have been asked to bring along two more objects. One that is functional and one that is fun. I will have to have a good search to bring something interesting. We can't bring the same thing as we brought today. I also might so some research into the senses and some research into materials, just to get some inspiration for this project and begin to think of some ideas. I need to commit to one of the senses and that way I can move on with the project more quickly as not committing to an idea has held me back in the past.

Creative Coding. Blog Post One.

Class Reflection

We write out instructions to describe an object and then got people in our group to try and follow these instructions alone, without knowing what the object is and draw it. I chose the chap stick in my pocket. The first person who tried to draw this took the instructions too literally such as "each side of the tube has a flat circle." However the other two who drew it did it well but maybe they realised what the object was which helped them. Some of the people in my group wrote instructions for a grid and an x/y axis. I found these instructions a little confusing as they were written very quickly and weren't explained very well. Also as I was only drawing lines and unsure of that the object was, I didn't know if I was connecting them properly or not. I realise now that the instructions need to be more precise and go through step by step.

http://openprocessing.org/sketch/65279

This code is effective because of the build up of colours and shapes. The thin lined shapes slowly build up with more emphasis in different corners, creating a good composition. The idea is simple but because of the many complex shapes building up, it becomes to look like a very complicated technical drawing.

http://openprocessing.org/sketch/65382

I love this one for many reasons. Firstly, the colours black and white are very simple but extremely effective in this idea. The negative space helps to make the black stand out. The black looks like ink, it comes in at a fast pace but then slowly eases off and becomes faded as the opacity is lowered at the tips. The lines move very smoothly and jagged farthing this illusion of ink and also creating a creepy atmosphere. The black creates very interesting, branch looking shapes. The black is more deep in the centre as it gradually branches off and fades out.

http://openprocessing.org/sketch/65438

Again, the colours are simple and help the user to understand that the splashes are ink. I like how this design is interactive. As you click the ink splashes and drips down. I feel like the ink splashes are too sharp though and the ink that drips down is all identical. This would be more effective if the ink splashes looked more natural and the drips were different shapes, sizes and ran down at different paces. Another thing I like about this design though is when you click the right mouse button the screen clears itself again, ready to be clicked on again. Also how the older ink splashes fade out into the background, allowing a layering effect to be built up.

http://openprocessing.org/sketch/65448

Here is a picture I made on this code, this is a screen shot.

The circle follows the mouse in this code. What I liked about this idea was how the slower you moved the mouse, the more closer together the circles are. The faster - the further spaced. This created some really intense patters as shown above. I think this code could be made a lot more interesting with more colours and a different shape. Or possibly a variety of different shapes.

The Clip

The most important and fascinating aspect of a Bachelor of Design Innovation in Media is the idea of a virtual escape. Every element of media design (film, photography, animation, special effects) all evolve around being a virtual experience. The most virtual escape possible is gaming. “Offering not just passing entertainment, but complete new worlds in which to become immersed,” (Parsons, 2010, pp. 354-353). In media design, not only can one become immersed in a game but have the experience of creating and developing a new world.

Game designers have the ability to immerse others into a world, showing them new ideas. “Artists and political activists can design games either as a means of creative expression or as a way to focus attention on social issues,” (Parsons, 2010, pp. 354-353). Rajagoploan and Schwartz argue that in the past, the idea of learning to create a video game in college classes was outrageous. However, now game development as a cohesive industry is extremely young and as an academic discipline certainly in its infancy (2005). Students at Victoria University who’re studying media design are part of a very new and innovative moment in history. The course is unique as it offers an understanding of design as well coding, animation and 3d modelling. “Games are made both better and faster when everyone has a good sense of design,” (Rajagopolan, Schwartz, 2005, pp. 29-32). Rajaploan and Schwartz also suggest that programmers are unable to develop games without artists, and vice versa (2005). Virtual experience design is the way of the future as “games are now ubiquitous in popular culture. More than 40 percent of U.S households own some kind of game system. Kids now spend more time playing games than watching television,” (Rajapolan, Schwartz, 2005, pp. 29-32).

The animation will show the development of an idea, from sketching to coding. It will then explore the effect of a virtual escape where even the creator is sucked into his own imaginative world in which he’s created. The idea is not only showing the most important aspect of media design – a virtual escape, but also the exciting and innovative process of Media designers. The virtual escape will express the idea of a “new way of seeing.” The colour palette will include black, white and purple. This keeps it simple and helps the main subject, the character, to stand out.  Purple will add vibrancy and fun to the film. Claymation will be the style of the stop motion as this creates a 3 dimensional effect as opposed to drawing, tying into the theme of media design. Also, the plasticine is very mouldable and the main character can be ‘sucked’ into the television while playing a video game.

Reference:

Parsons, S. (2010). Critical play: Radical game design. The Knowledge Engineering Review, 25(3), 353-354. doi:10.1017/S0269888910000068

Rajagopalan, M., & Schwartz, D. I. (2005). Game design and game-development education. Phi Kappa Phi Forum, 85(2), 29-32. http://search.proquest.com/docview/235184685?accountid=14782

The Clip

The Clip - A Virtual Reality from Ally Baldwin on Vimeo.

Music: http://www.freesfx.co.uk/soundeffects/industrial/

Storyboard