From Learning to Life

Design is like Mini Golf

2012-02-18T10:12:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry I haven't written in a while, but school has been somewhat hectic.

However, I did want to share a little revelation that I had about what Graphic Design can be equated to: Miniature Golf. Here's my reasoning:

~The course is usually colorful
~There are new obstacles on every green(job).
~It's possible to sink it on your first try, but highly unlikely
~You only have a set amount of shots to get it right
~Sometimes what you think is the end is really only halfway
~When you play with other people, it's much more fun

I think that's about it. Guess I'd better get back to my homework now.

Gift Superlatives

2012-01-01T21:46:00.000-05:00

So, for some reason, I like to go through my gifts (and who gave them) and think up superlatives for each of them. Not sure why, but for me, it makes them each a little more special. Anyway, let's get started!

First Present: Video Camera
From: my Mother
Why it wins: well...because I got it about two months ago, even though it was supposed to be a holiday gift. I got some other smaller things two, like a paper watchband I can doodle on (great gift for an art student!) and a gorilla tripod for the video camera, but this was definitely the best first present I could have received.

Unexpected Which Should Not Have Been Unexpected: Monopod
From: my twin brother
Why it wins: I was trying to figure out what I wanted for the holidays and I remembered walking through the camera section of a store and I thinking how nice a monopod might be, but that I didn't feel like buying one just then. Then my brother asks what I want, and I remembered this and told him, but his reaction was, "It's a stick?". I replied that, "Yes, it basically is, but it has a screw to put your camera on it so it's more stable than if I used a stick off the ground." His reply, "It's still a stick." So I didn't think he would actually get me one, but he did, and I had forgotten about our exchange and so I was still pleasantly surprised! I can't wait to go hiking with it!

Most Elated About When Opened: Wool Shawl
From: my Grandmother
Why it wins: For the past few years, my grandmother has given me a purse or a hat and scarf for the holidays. Very nice ones, but nothing extremely exciting. This year, however, I received a beautiful grey shawl. I have a green fleece cloak that I wear in cold weather but this grey shawl can be worn indoors (or outdoors in somewhat nice weather) and because of the color, it can go with more outfits. I was so elated about this shawl that I wore it the rest of the day and now I go back and forth between it and my fleece (weather permitting).

Will Take The Longest Time With: Mythbusters Season 7
From: my Father
Why it wins: I know I've seen all the episodes already, but because I now have them on DVD, I can go through them again and again and again. Mythbusters is just one of those shows where you can pick an episode randomly and just watch it and since they're in their 8th-9th season (depending on how you count it) there are so many that you don't really get bored of it.

Cutest: Porcelain Band Penguin Figurines
From: my Fiance
Why it wins:

These are all from a website called Penguin Place and if they aren't the cutest things you've seen all day, you're obviously having a VERY cute day!

Holiday Fun

2011-12-21T12:15:00.000-05:00

Today is the first day of Chanukkah (second light tonight). Thought I'd share some of the fun things associated with the holiday.

First, there's the candles:

click the link to see them sing!

Then there's the food!

like latkes!

There are alot of recipes for latkes, but the one I use is as follows:

3 potatoes to 1 onion to 1 egg (this, of course, depends on the size of your potatoes and onions...) and matzo meal to help hold it together. Fry it all up and top with your choice of sour cream or apple sauce.

and sofganiot! (aka - jelly donuts)

I don't really like jelly donuts, but I eat all the other ones!

Then there's the game of dreidel!

ok, these are edible, but you get the idea?

These are fun to make too! Just stick a Hershey's Kiss and a big marshmallow on a toothpick. Then use another toothpick dipped in food coloring to write on the letters. Check the wikipedia page to learn how to play (though these directions are slightly different than the way I play). See, my family always played with M&M's and the game only ended when there were no more (since we all ate them as we won...)

And songs!

My brothers and I did this as a gift for my father last year when I barely knew what I was doing in AfterEffects

And finally, what every kid should know, the story of Chanukkah!

okay, not exactly, but this is a great book!

So there you have it! That's how to have an enjoyable Chanukkah!

Beginning and Endings

2011-12-16T11:26:00.000-05:00

The fall semester is winding down and so is 2011. I look back and think how fast things have gone, and yet also, at what a normal pace. It doesn't feel like an ending. Because it's not. Life only has one beginning and one certain end and a whole bunch of transitions in between. This is simply a transition between fall and winter, winter and spring semesters, 2011 and 2012. I really can't wait to start the next phase of life. So much will happen in 2012 and I only know of a few key moments that I'm looking forward to, I don't even know what will happen after them, but I'm excited for them all the same.

I don't understand the people who say, "High School was the best time of my life!" or "College was the best time of my life!" etc. (see this web comic). If the best time of your life was behind you, you don't have much to look forward to, do you? I believe that one should look back with appreciation and respect and look forward with anticipation and happiness. The best times of your life are the ones you are experiencing right now and since we experience something new every day, each day should be your new best time of your life.

Things I didn't get to say

2011-12-05T20:56:00.000-05:00

My final project of my Advertising class was a set of PSAs (or Public Service Announcements). Because we didn't have that much time left, our teacher gave us in the advanced class the option to not do any accompanying motion piece and simply do a set of 3 ads like the rest of the class. Everyone else was happy about this, but I still decided to do two motion pieces rather than 3 print ads. I like motion.

Anyway, my two final pieces came out fairly nicely. Though visually they are different rather than looking like they are part of a set, the audio and text are the same, so I think that still counts.

Now, here's the thing...I like these two very much. They say what they need to say without being too complicated. However, I wish I had found a better way to explain WHY autism isn't the same every time you see it.

You see, autism is a spectrum. It can have different symptoms in each person and each person can react to these symptoms differently as well as needing different treatments for them. That's why the first PSA is a changing shape and color. I'm not going to pretend to be an authority on autism, but it's something alot of people don't understand (including myself to a certain degree). I just wanted these PSAs to encourage people to ask "What is autism?" and then go find out. If they did/you do want to find out more, please visit autismspeaks.org

Shopping Outside the Box

2011-12-01T18:12:00.000-05:00

It's December! Hurray! That means all the usual winter holiday stuff - lights, trees, presents, annoying songs that don't stop singing about snow even though we won't get any. I usually like to shop early, as I mentioned before. But I still have a few tricky people on my list, like my brothers. Now, my twin, I still have no idea what to get him, but for my little brother (maybe I shouldn't call him "little" since he's 22) I have a one-stop-sure-to-find-something-if-I-look-hard-enough website: ThinkGeek.

ThinkGeek is a Mecca of geek-tastic gadgets and toys. Now, the reason I bring this up is not only to spread the word, but because of a certain set of items that I admire for their creativity, Giant Plush Microbes!

How amazingly adorable are these!? There are nearly 40 different kinds of diseases and cells to chose from and they are all super cute and cuddly! But besides the obvious cute factor, who's idea was it to magnify a disease 1 million times and then try to create a plush toy out of it!? That is what I call thinking outside the box.

Things that get my creative engery flowing

2011-11-18T16:52:00.000-05:00

I am so excited to do "schoolwork", it's not even funny! Our final project for my Digital Video class is a 3-5 minute short film. It can be about anything we like, since we have to write the script, direct, and edit it all ourselves. Myself, I enjoy stories that have elements of adventure and fantasy in them. So that's what I wrote. I even wrote in a fight sequence, which might have been ambitious of me, but I find myself extremely lucky to be living with a man who has 15 years of martial arts experience (including weapons and teaching!). Together we choreographed most of the fight so that it is at least visually interesting (i.e. not two minutes of a 4-count).

While he taught our other actress, I was taking video to start getting a feel for camera angles we'll need so that filming will go quicker on the day. Since we are going to be filming outside and the light starts to go bad around 3:30, the more we know beforehand, the easier it will be. I'm also going to be bribing another friend to come to the shoot and film more behind-the-scenes footage for me. I can't be behind both cameras and expect good film to come out of both. I just don't want to divide my time like that when the film itself needs to come first and the behind-the-scenes is just an added bonus that I, myself, enjoy producing.

Anyway, for your enjoyment, allow me to present a quick montage of the fight training we did.

Form and Function

2011-11-10T17:25:00.000-05:00

There's an old saying that form follows function. Basically that an object's function will define it's form. However, when you start getting artistic, this isn't always the case. But sometimes, if the form becomes too out there, it ruins the functionality of it. A good example I've found of this recently was when I was scouring the internet for holiday gifts (I get my shopping done very early!).

For my first example, let me start small.

This is a dreidel. It's a wooden top with four sides with four different Hebrew letters on it. You spin the dreidel and whichever letter falls facing up, something different happens. That's the bare bones of the game. Here is a dreidel I found online that is completely ornamental.

via Judaica Mall

This has a lovely form, but no function. (It's also super expensive). If you want to play the game, I would not suggest using this dreidel. It goes on the shelf. Now, there are some dreidels that can be both beautiful and functional like this one:

(even though I find the round edge makes it harder to tell which letter comes up)

This is pewter, so it's fairly durable (but I wouldn't use it on a glass top table if I were you) and it has a nice form.

Next, just in case you didn't know, here are the two forms that most Menorahs come:

via Judaica Mall

via Judaica Mall

You have a standard branched menorah with 4 arms on either side of the center or you have a stand with eight holders and one taller one to one side. This is the layout for most of the menorahs you'll ever find. However, some people have gotten more creative in their candle placement:

via jewishsource.com

via naturallywoodcreations.com

Same design, different arrangement. Each of these menorah have eight holders each on different rotating arms of wood. You can move them around to create any arrangement you like! I've even seen one where each arm is a different level so you get a staircase effect!

Like this but they rotate! via Judaica Mall

So really, form may follow function, but sometimes the form can reinvent the function.

Making a Mixed Motion Graphics Piece

2011-11-03T21:55:00.000-04:00

There's a fine, sometimes indiscernible, line between animation and motion graphics. I'd like to show you the process of going through a motion graphics piece that mixed motion graphics with live video.
(Note: This is NOT a tutorial, just an overview)

First, you begin with storyboards, or an animated storyboard called an animatic. These should give the pacing of a piece in addition to a feel of what it should look like at the end.

Next, we shot the live action video. This actually took me a couple of session since the first one I shot had a gritty background. It's really nice to have a partner who doesn't mind pouring liquids over and over again until you get just the right timing and stream consistency. We had 30 takes the second time round (and that was after we figured out what we were doing!)

Then, the fun part! Picking out and playing with particle systems! If you haven't played with particle systems in AfterEffects, you don't know what you're missing! Also, took this time to mess with the Levels of the shots to get a nice solid black background. Plus, I had to cut the zoom out to reveal the beaker because here's where I began masking the arm. Believe it or not, that was the hardest part of the whole thing! At this point, I also scratched the idea of having the letters of the different fields of science be poured out since they were too hard to read at speed.

Finally, adding the last bits of hyper-realism, some glows and motion blurs.

And that's the final bumper/ID tag (whatever you'd like to call it). Took me about 5 weeks to pre-vis, shoot, edit, composite, mask, and render.

Nice Shot

2011-10-25T22:18:00.000-04:00

Like most people, I really like movies. However, it's only been in the last few years that I've started to watch them in the sense of looking at their cinematography. Most of the time, I can just watch the movie for it's own qualities, but sometimes I stop and say, "Hey, that was a really nice shot!" I'd like to share some of those recent moments. (Warning: If you haven't seen these movies, these shots or my commentary might disclose spoilers about the plot, so if you hate spoilers, you might not want to continue!)

1. Pride and Prejudice (2005)

In the movie: This shot comes right after a shouting match between the two protagonists. According to the director's commentary, it's part of a small montage to show looking at yourself in a new light.

As a shot: I love the framing. I like that as it continues, the character walks down the hallway and goes out of focus, but the unlit candle stays in focus. I like that it's a very monotone shot, but that even though the character is moving, the candle can draw attention to itself.

2. My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

In the movie: This shot shows the two sisters (one is being held by the other) waiting at the bus stop to give their father his umbrella when he comes home from work. He's late. The older one is just about to meet Totoro, the forest spirit.

As a shot: This is a classic example of the Rule of Thirds. The light and focus is on the girls under their umbrella, one third in from the right of frame. It doesn't matter that there isn't an elaborate background to look at, the darkness and simplicity add to the quiet nature of the shot. It's not meant to be scary, just slow.

3. Hogfather (2006)

In the movie: The heroine is going out to begin unraveling the mystery of the missing Hogfather (Santa Claus). She is the granddaughter of Death and so has a few supernatural powers such as walking through walls and stopping Time. In this scene she has stopped time and is walking through the falling snow to Death's White Horse (named Binky...don't ask) around the corner to begin her adventures.

As a shot: This one doesn't work quite as well as a still, but it's still a nice Rule of Thirds. The neat thing about this shot is actually how as the heroine moves, snow parts from her and creates this little tunnel you can see as she's just leaving frame. (I figured it would be too hard to explain with no figure since the scene is so dark). But I do like the shadows that are cast on the snow. There's something about black on white that you can't really go wrong with.

4. Silverado (1985)
(Let's switch gears a little and go from dark and calm to a bright Western!)

In the movie: This comes at the very end of the movie where the Good Guy and Bad Guy are facing off in a regular old-fashioned western duel. You only get two guesses as to who wins.

As a shot: This is more of a comparison of shots rather than stand-alones (though the second is very nice by itself, but you get a better effect when you see the other side too) But here's the thing - even out of context, you can probably tell who's the good guy and who's the bad guy! It's a great juxtaposition between the white church in the "good" background and the desert in the "wasteland" background.

5. Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010)
(Let's end with some end credits!)

In the movie: These are part of the end credits for this movie. They do a graphic, shadow puppet show of the key scenes in the movie.

As a shot: I love graphic silhouettes on bright colored backgrounds. Actually, I really love the texture in the second one. As a designer, I enjoy the challenge of creating simple shapes that can be turned into symbols and have meaning. Alot of movies in the past few years have been going all out on their end credits and it's funny to see better graphics and special effects than in the movies themselves!

Inspiration and Motivation

2011-10-13T09:35:00.000-04:00

This past Monday a wonderful type designer and graphic artist, Gail Anderson, came to our school to give a talk and to help inspire us graphic designers in a short assignment. The talk was very inspiring and working with her in the classroom was extremely motivating. Our assignment was to create a text-based poster for our school's 30th anniversary by 5 p.m. (Note: We were starting at 1:30!) Myself, I enjoy motion graphics more than almost any print, so I asked if I could do a motion piece instead. She said as long as I thought I could finish it, I could. So I did:

Now, granted, I edited it for another hour or so when I got home, just to tweek out the timing and such, but still, not too bad for a half-day project. (I've done worse!) All of that type was vector files she gave us. Wasn't that nice? Most everyone was elated about it. Me...I think it looks pretty cool, but it's not my style of design, but you know, to each her own. I'll probably still find a place to use it again. No use looking a gift horse in the mouth.

Throughout the whole time we were working, she kept showing us kinetic typography pieces done by her grad students from the School of Visual Arts in NYC and THOSE made me pretty jealous. It also made me want to do my own. Unfortunately, I don't feel like I have the extra time to put in to create such a stunning piece right now. I guess it's good to know your own limitations, but I don't think it helps when trying to exceed them.

More shots, please

2011-10-02T16:18:00.000-04:00

So, my first project in my Digital Video class is a music video. Now, I've done some music video's before, but using other people's/movie's footage and just cutting it together. This is the first time I've had to actually organize and direct my own footage all by myself with no help from instructors.

I did storyboards for the whole shoot, so I'd know what I needed to get. However, once you get more than one other person to act together, it gets exponentially more difficult with the addition of each new person. I had four. Consequently, there are alot of useless shots of people just talking and not doing what I actually needed them to do, which was laugh and smile. Human faces tend to have a default setting of "neutral" and getting it into "happy" takes a bit of work.

Anyway, I was editing alot of my footage today (even though I know we'll have time in class, I just enjoy editing) and I found that while putting certain aspects of the story together, I was missing a few continuity shots. For example, the biggest problem I found was that near the end, I have a small dog enter the party, but I don't have her leaving or even being put back on the floor. So there are these two shots of the dog, and then nothing else! I enjoy reading about goofs on IMDb, but I don't want my video to have them. (On a side note: I hate when there are "continuity" issues in the goofs section for an animated movie. These things are drawn and may not have had the same animator shot to shot!)

So in conclusion, I really wish I had a better idea than the storyboards had given me about what kind of shots I wanted. I also wish I had taken more shots and asked my talent to repeat actions more so that I could have been more accurate with what my video depicts. I guess I'll know for next time.

[And yes, I promise to post the video when I'm all done making it.]