BLOG ASSIGNMENT #10 ( THE LAST ONE)

Karim Rashid’s Creative Manifesto:

Karim Rashid is very creative person. In his points, there are several ones speak to me the most.

1.      Never say: “I could have done that” because you didn’t.

To be honest, I choose this point because I strongly agree with him at this part. Being confident is a very important quality in creative life; however, we can not guarantee that we won’t have any other interesting ideas in the future. In addition, however strong you are, there is always someone stronger. We should be confident, but we can’t be arrogant.

2.      Normal is not good.

This point let me thinking a lot. I always believe normal things can be easily accepted by people. If a production can not be accepted by the masses, I even didn’t believe that is a successful piece. After I saw Karim’s design, I started to change my opinion. His designs are the things that we can use in our normal life, but his ideas are not normal. He tries to make his productions looks different, and unusual. I really like the colors he chose for each of his productions. He is good at making normal production become different. Basically, I think it will be help me in the creative process and creative life. I am changing my visual angle for what the real creative life is. Normal is not wrong, but it is not good.

3.      Experience is the most important part of living, and the exchange of ideas and human contact is all life really is. Space and objects can encourage increased experiences or distract from our experiences.

Before I read his points, I believe people’s life need experiences. However, I didn’t realize that the exchange of ideas and human contact is all life really is. After I read this point, I start to think it. When I was creating something, I was actually creating an idea. Then, I can exchange that idea with some other people’s ideas. That’s what we do everyday. When we go to the class, we are contact with our teachers and other students. When we are talking with someone, we are exchanging ideas with them.

4.      Here and now is all we’ve got.

   This is also an interesting point in his ideas. Actually, I agree with him. The passed time is like sand, we can not hold it. The future, we also can not predict what will be happened. We are living right now, this time. What we can hold is right now. Only we try to use every time in our life, we can hold our whole life. This is not about what we can predict; this is about how much time we can hold in our life.

Correlation between Karim’s manifesto and his work:

I believe there is a compact connection between Karim’s manifesto and his work. Because of the understanding of life and creative process, he knows what he needs to do. Also, because of those points, he can fix his weaknesses. The more clearly he understands the creative life, the more amazing productions we can create.                  

 

BLOG ASSIGNMENT #10 (Written response to FREAK FACTOR)

Link to FREAK FACTOR: http://changethis.com/

Written response

Summary/Critique:

           The reading “The Freak Factor” which was written by David Rendall is a really useful resource for all people. He explained a very normal problem that everybody has: our flaws and strengths. He explained his ideas by using nine different parts. First, what’s your problem? In this part, he gave the reader three choices for self-improvement. Those are fix weaknesses, build on strengths, and do both of them. He also mentioned that on one can be well-rounded. In the second point, he pointed out three basic ideas, those are, there is nothing wrong with you, you find success when you find the right fit, and your weaknesses make you different. In the third point, he explained that everybody has different characteristics. Every flaw has a corresponding strength. In the fourth point, he pointed out a real fact which is, we all have limitations. Then, we need to build on our strengths, if we don’t, we lost it. He also explained that we need to find a right spot for ourselves and we need to make our strengths and situations fixed. Basically, in this reading, David told people how to find and use weaknesses and strengths, and using them to make ourselves become success.

Respond:

1. What’s your problem?

I think the first suggestion is the most important one to overcoming weaknesses, it is absolutely valid. The reason is, before we start to improve ourselves, we have to know and understand what our problems are. There is nothing important than understand ourselves, meanwhile, there is nothing harder than realize what problem we have. I am pretty agreeing what David said in this article, no one can be well-rounded. What I thought for myself is, in order to have a better personality, improving my creative skills, I need to fix my weaknesses and build on my strengths every day. It looks like an easiest work during a day, however, that’s not easy if I keep doing that every day. Not just for me, I think it is also hard for everyone.

4. Don’t try to fix your weaknesses.

Many people pay too much tension on their weaknesses. They believed that other people will only focusing on their flaws. The reason I choose this suggestion is no one will be perfect, no matter who you are. Everyone has limitations in some areas. Also, this is equal for everyone. In addition, I think after I put my weaknesses away, I can do better for my job, work, or even some creative projects. If I don’t try to fix my weaknesses, I will have more time on my job; also, I will have more space for my work. Weaknesses like chains, they can lock my imagination, lock my creative process.

5. Build on your strengths.

What an important suggestion is, people are proud of their strengths. In order to make our strengths stronger, we need to build on it forever. I agree this idea is valid because many people spend too much time on fixing their weaknesses, time after time, their strengths have no improvement. The result is they are just normal person without any characteristics. No special weaknesses, no special strengths. For myself, I believe that building on my strengths can make my characteristics more clear and special. Also, during the process I build on my strengths, I can find out and create what my creative way is, what my style is.

My strengths and weaknesses (the creative process):

When I try to create something, I always care about what other people’s attitude on my work. I think that’s not a good habit. The reason is, when I start to caring those attitude, I will waste too much time on thinking about what will happen after people look at my project. I care about that too much, if they like my works how can I improve it in the future; if they don’t, I will spend more time on why they don’t like it. Actually, I just start to create it, however, I am thinking too much. It will block my creative process.

My strength is, I think I have a great imagination. Actually, we need a good imagination when we create something. To be honest, I think it is really important to be a successful creator.   

BLOG ASSIGNMENT #9 (Audio response to Collapsus)

 

 Link to the collapsus: www.Collapsus.com

BLOG ASSIGNMENT #9 (Reflection on the Gaming presentation)

Game Design - 








Reflection :

For the game design, our group did a RPG game called Aberdeen. I think we still need some works for the rules in our presentation. It is a little bit hard to explain the rules for our game, especially the point that players can switch between the protagonists when they are playing. We didn’t write that players can switch only between Carson and Adele. Also, I think we need more rules when we switch protagonists. For instance, we can add some different special skills for each one, such as the man character (Carson) is good at fighting with the evil colleague( Donovan), the woman character (Adele) is good at finding the lost piece for the time machine. Therefore, if you need to find the lost piece now, you can change to the woman protagonist, or if you need to fight with the evil colleague, you can switch to the man protagonist. I think that will be more specific and clear for our game.

Objectives in our game are also a hard part to explain and understand. If the player didn't win the fighting between Carson and Donovan, he must restart the level which he failed. So, when the players finding all the pieces for the time machine, our game is end. 

       I think we did pretty well for our goals, and I really thought our game can be invested to a game company. Our audience is young adults who are interested in history and steam punk, because our ideas for the outfits and clothing were came from steam punk. So, I think the visual effects could be amazing. In addition, we have a clear goal list, which are finding missing pieces of time machine and progress though levels of increasing difficulty. Those are very clear and easy to understand what the audience is going to achieve in the game.

Mechanics is the part which I believe is the easiest part for a game design, because when you are design the mechanic, you just decide which button used for what function.  

       

BLOG ASSIGNMENT #8 (Written Reflection on the Hero/Villain)

This is my character (Bubble Bath Man--Hero).

This is Madolyn's character (Dr. Dirty Nasty--Villain).

This is our animation.

Written reflection--First team.  http://clongstreth.blogspot.com/2011/02/hero-vs-villain-characters.html?spref=bl

          In the first team, they created Petroleum Man as their hero. For this character, they used blue and yellow to paint his diving suit. Also, in order to create the shadows, they used a little dark blue for the diving suit. Also, in lighting, they give the hero a body shape like a human being. Because of the light and color used, it can attract audience’s eyes. The lighting used for the diver’s body is contrast with his background which color is darker than it. Therefore, they hide this character as the main object in this picture. For the lighting they created on the hammer, it is a symbolism which showed the audience this character’s power. They used lighting to create a serious mood for the hero. It looks like that the hero is ready to fight with the villain.

      For their villain, they did Merman. They covered Merman with yellow hair, blue upper body with turquoise fishtail, and also a hand crutch. In order to create the shadows, they used darker turquoise for Merman’s fishtail. In lighting, they used an extremely white background to give the villain’s body shape. I think that they want to focus on the fishtail. In addition, they hide this character as the main object in this picture. They also drew a red mark with a white background on the character’s upper body, and give the light to make the mark as a symbolism for the villain. Meanwhile, they gave the villain a serious mood, as he was ready to fight with the hero.

       Contrast/Affinity:

       This team gave their characters similar color, which shows they want to create an affinity effect on the color.

       For the contrast, they created different lighting background for each character.

       Text/Subtext:

       In their two images, there are no text which can tell the audience their idea, so they use subtext to tell the audience what their characters are and what the main power their characters have. 

Link to the second team: http://erviro.blogspot.com/2011/02/character-developmentation.html?spref=bl

              In the second team, they created both characters having a human body look. For the hue, they drew these two characters by using very similar colors. They both have brown, black, white, grey, red and a little bit yellow and blue. Here, they used black and white, which are complementary in color schemes. In their villain character’s image, they chose red as their specific hue in the background; however, they also used monochromatic way to make it having different values and saturations. In their hero character’s image, there is a big circle after the character, I think they chose grey as it color, but they used monochromatic way to make it became hyaline. For the brightness, I think they used almost the same level for their two images except the bottom in the villain image’s background.

         Contrast/Affinity:

         The main tone for their two images are very similar, those are affinity. They also gave both of their characters human body shape. However, the villain’s background is contrast with the hero’s background. They created a gradient color for their villain’s background, but they created a mixed color for their hero’s background, which are dark brown and light brown.      

          Text/Subtext:

          For their villain, they didn’t put any text in the image, audience may guess what the exactly power or function this character has. That’s subtext. However, they gave their hero a piece of paper which wrote “CITY LINITS” in the image. Therefore, audience can understand which power this character has and what job this character has. That is text.   

Link to the third team: http://evriordan.blogspot.com/2011/03/8b-herovillian-reflection.html?spref=bl

            In the third team’s animation, they created a straight ahead action for their hero at the beginning. After the girl (hero) shoots the villain, the villain became mud. Here, they used squash and stretch to express that effect. For the overlapping movements, when the villain was run after the hero, the hero’s legs were moving faster than her arms, which showed a different rate at the same time. For the parallel movements, the hero moved slower than the villain, however, the hero can jump when she was running after the villain. For weight, because of the smaller size of the villain, they created a faster movement for that. Also, they created a slower movement for the hero, because she has a heavy weight.

         Contrast/ Affinity:

         The size of the hero and villain is contrast with each other. The hero has a bigger human body, and the villain has a small circle body. Also, the hero can jump can jump very high, but the villain can’t. In addition, these two characters have different movement rate, the hero is slow and the villain is fast. 

         Text/Subtext:

         This piece of animation used a subtext way, the creators didn’t give any words for the explanation. They want to focus on their animation, and let the audience understand the play and the characters by themselves. 

BLOG ASSIGNMENT #8 (Audio response to This American Life)

Link to This American Life :www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/178/superpowers

Superhero tat has the power  that I wish I had ---the fortune teller.

                                     

Blog Assignment #7

 Both videos have been posted below.

Meng Li

Eric R. Williams

MDIA 203

Feb 28^th, 2011

Blog assignment #7

Joke Videos

Based on the two joke videos my team produced, I want to focus talking about the movement and the line for each one.

First, the movement we created was contrast between each other. The first video which has a warm and yellow old style overall, we changed the movement to very fast for each character. The reason is we want to create this one like a short situation comedy. Also, we used fast movement to create a joke effect. We also use point of interest to produce the conversation between the two characters, even though they were talking by using a phone. Because the two characters were all sitting at a desk, so basically, there was no direction for their movement. For the second video which has a black and white style, the movement for the girl was medium, just like general walking. Also, her movement showed her direction, toward to the man who was sitting in the room. To be contrast, the man’s movement was faster than the girl because he was a successful and arrogant lawyer. He was more confident than the little office girl. Meanwhile, to shoot the girl’s movement, we used a simple horizontal move. The girl’s movement was also an object movement.

Second, the line we used in the first video was contrast with the second one. In the first video, both characters were sitting at a desk, their bodies both showed up curvilinear beside a desk. To be contrast, the second video we shoot was using both straight line and curvilinear line. When the girl standing in the lawyer’s office, the girl showed a straight line and the lawyer who was sitting there showed a curvilinear line. So, both straight line and curvilinear line were showed in one frame this time. Last but not the least, in the second video, we have an extreme close up shot for the lawyer, in that shot, there was a virtual line for where the lawyer’s eye looking at.    

For these two videos, they are all old styles because of the main color we used. One is a kind of warm and yellow color, the other one is black and white color. So, these videos are affinity in this part.

In the first video, the audience will look at the words about what the characters talking about on the screen. Actually, here, we used subtext telling the audience what the joke is talking about. For the second video, the audiences can here the explanation and the texts at the same time. So, we used text for the second video.                       

Character Design

 

this is my character.

this is Madolyn's character.

 

This is our animation.

Joke Video#1

Joke Video#2