Week 9: A: Full Class Critique

Today was the full class critique for the Logo Opener. In my case, I had done my opener based around the SCP Foundation. As I had explained in my last post, it is a security unit designed to protect humanity from extra -terrestrial, -dimensional, and -universal threats. I got good feed back on the final product.

• The transitions and sound effects worked well
• I could have used a different typeface due to legibility issues
• The typeface also makes the image look a little left-heavy
• An extra second of rest would have worked in favor for the legibility of the opener

Something that I had forgot to mention in my posts that was questioned in the critique was about the background. I had intentionally left it black and white to imitate a government service alert or announcement. Usually government service announcements are displayed as stark with only two colors (including white as one color).
I am also surprised that no one pointed out any issues with the sound effects. To me, I thought the metal noise could come in later.

Spring Break: SCP Foundation Opener Final

The SCP Foundation is a unit designed to protect humanity from extra -dimensional, -terrestrial, and -universal threats. It is a highly classified Foundation, although it is entirely fictional. It has a large cult following, a.k.a. fandom, and has spawned its own website and independent game. Links to the two are listed below:

http://www.scp-wiki.net/

http://www.scpcbgame.com/


Designed above is an opener for the SCP Foundation. This would possibly appear before a national service alert distributed by the SCP Foundation, or it can appear for documentaries or informational segments relating to or sponsored by the SCP Foundation.

Week 8: Outside of Class: Spring Break

Technically this is spring break, but I have completed the video of the motions for the SCP Foundation logo. Of course, there is no audio yet, which I plan to have for the final product. The sliding and locking motion was simpler than I thought it would be, but at one point it was too active when blurred motion was added.

Week 8: B: In progress critique

Today, we had a quick in-progress critique on our videos so far. One of the most reoccurring comments was on the opening, asking either if I was still going to use what I had on my story board, or to do more than just have the logo appear. I do plan to follow my intentions. However, I did not know how to break up the shape further. So this class, I spent towards creating an alternative shape that I call "segments" that will allow for my object to do that.

Week 8: A: Work Day

I had a work day today after beginning work on my animation. I had gotten the later half of it down last time. Here, I had to make some adjustments to make it look more as I had intended it. There may be a small mark on the edge of the object. I was trying to break up the object into further shapes, but to no avail.

Week 5: Outside of Class

 The following is an overview of all the motion projects I have completed thus far.

The first project is giving a line an emotion. It's hard to describe what emotion it is. Pretty much, line A is running away from line B because line B is crazy about it.



The next motion is the sequential dreamscape. This is based around the second half of my dream where I am trying to go home and I choose the worse of the two paths, and then have to rescue my sister and best friend after I escape. This one only uses seven key words that appear in a similar location and textures.

This one motion reflects the concept of rhythm. The idea was to display rhythm through the word Rhythm by utilizing each letter.

The final one is "A Message in Motion". I chose one quote that really speaks to me that was once said by Justin Carmical, a video game critic on the internet who passed away earlier this year. I shortened down the quote to "You're not stupid. Don't ever tell yourself that you are. You're important. What you have in your head may not mean a lot to a lot of people, but its what makes you special. You are important. You mean something."

Week 7: B: In progress video

In class, I began working on my video. I have the second half down well, but the first half is tough to work on. I plan on putting sounds to it so that it sounds mechanical and systematic.

Week 7: B: Illustrator Update

 There were a few things I wanted to fix up with my file, so I was able to get rid of the extra frames of storyboard I didn't use, and frame 01 looks more symmetrical and cleaned up.

Week 7: Outside of Class: Refined Storyboard

The following is my refined storyboard for the SCP logo animation. It was challenging to split up the logo, but I managed. Never mind that last page of blank storyboard. That's just a little extra incase I were to go above two art boards.

Week 7: A: Logo Storyboard Refined progress

 Today in class, my sketched storyboard was approved. Only two frames were cut, so in this refinement, the logo will appear and the words "Secure, Contain, Protect" will appear at the bottom before everything fades to black. Some good feed back that I got was that if it would be timed right, the movement could look mechanical like a container, which is what I was going for. However, the last two slides don't entirely work symmetrically, so those will be omitted. This is the storyboard as it is so far that I have worked on in class.

Out of Class Event: Letter Press

 For my outside event, I had decided to attend a letter press session with GID (the Graphic and Interactive Design Club) in the location of Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology. The letter press includes setting up type by hand and then printing it. First, I had to come up with my design through a quick thumbnail sketch. I was originally going to use the term "I am that is. My sword will wield for me." However, we were pressed for time (no pun intended) so I shortened my phrase to "I am that is." We then had to find what typeface we wanted to use and what point size. The largest letter consisted of a wooden type block while the others were made of metal. The typeface I initially used was called "Thorn", which consisted of All-Caps. The next step was to assemble the type, including spacing and leading on a contraption known as the stick. It helps set up the type, spacing, and leading so that when it is ready to print the components won't move. I arrived slightly late to the workshop due to inadequate directions, therefore I did not know entirely how to set up my type in the stick. I asked around and watched those who did know what they were doing. Needless to say, when I proofed my type, the words came out in reverse. I was slightly distressed by this error, but I had to do it again. By the third proof I had it right. Proofing in this case would include removing the type from the stick, carefully, into a tray that I think was called a gutter, and then they would be inked for a relief print. Pretty much, the process is relief printing. If the proof comes out well, the type is placed in this frame-like contraption with more leading and spacing, and springers to compress the area in the frame further. The printing devices are different from the proofing area. It consists of a round pad where the ink is placed, and a lever which pulls up the roller to ink the type and to print. I had to choose red for my prints. Printing was the easiest task. And my prints came out something like this:

I printed out 10 total of these. Only one came out grainy, but that is because I didn't pull the lever all the way. They asked us to leave one of our prints for the next group to see.

 

Week 6: Outside of Class

The following is my sketched out story board of my logo animation. I plan on making it more of an opener than an end tag since it's more likely to see it at the beginning of a report rather than appearing as a sort of reminder of a sponsor.

Week 6: B: Logo Animation Idea

For this new project, we are to animate a logo so that it can be a show opener or an end tag. We are to select a logo that belongs to a company or group that is real or fictional. For my logo, I chose to use the SCP Foundation logo. The SCP foundation is a fictional foundation that has its goals set on protecting man-kind from extra-terrestrial, extra-dimensional, or extra-universal entities, by securing and containing them, as their title stands for. While there is a web-page that exists for the SCP Foundation that describes its purposes and its subjects, the SCP Foundation is entirely fictional. If the SCP Foundation were real, it would perhaps be categorized as a security unit or a form of top secret protection, similar to the CIA. Should there be any reason the symbol of the SCP Foundation were to be televised, it would either be informative, implying that the SCP Foundation has a stronger standing in the Federal system. Or it would be televised as an alert, incase there was an outbreak of any of the subjects.

Week 6: A: Event 1: Day of Design

      For this course, we were required to attend two Day of Design speaker events. The two I attended consisted of Aaris Sherin and Josh Bryant. Since I had seen Aaris Sherin first, let's discuss her presentation.
      Aaris Sherin is the author Sustainable Thinking: Ethical Approaches to Design and Design Management. I will be honest, I haven't read the book myself, however her presentation summed up most of what it was about. In her talk, she described how designers are finding new and different approaches to create things that are friendly to the eco-system. She listed numerous examples of different designers, including Chris Haughton who designs characters for books and has them produced in Nepal, Metalli Lindberg who designs products that are bio-dynamic and eco-friendly products, and Element 21 who work more locally but design things that encourage the community to use waste as bio-fuel. One design that interested me (that I forgot to record the name of the designer) was a radio made out of wood that would be used for charcoal. Normally we think of using metals to craft radios, but this designer found that he could use inexpensive wood that in producing charcoal would be harmful to the environment, and used it to create something that would last. All in all, Aaris Sherin stressed the idea that Designers are problem solvers, and that sustainable design equals a better world for us.

    The next speaker I attended to was Josh Bryant. He is the head web-designer of Journey Group. His company work with creative services such as writing, photography, web and print production, editing, heritage publication, and design, of course. The first idea he had explained to use was the idea of "T-shaped" designers. The horizontal part of the "T" represents expanding your ideas to other groups, communities, etc. while the vertical part of the "T" represents digging deeper into the way you yourself work and how others work. He then explain the different areas of web-design, including System Administration, Back End Development, Front End Development, UX Designing, and Graphic Designing. For each area, he explained what all was involved and what to do for the best quality. For System Administration, he described it as being the deep ends of the websites and what holds the websites such as the servers. Back End Development was application development, and the server-side of programming. The Front End Development is what he described as what is seen on the monitor of the computer. UX Designing was the site architecture, the interactive design, and the content strategy. Then, the Graphic Designing was the brand application and messaging in the website, which also includes typography and images. For each area he described what would be considered the best form of quality in each section. For the System Administration, he had described it as running 100% of the time. For most sites, it's up 99.9% of the time which gives it 45 minutes of down time. He had also said that good quality security is also a quality that they aim for. For Back End Development, it has to be Secure, Fast, and Tested, and meet functional specifications. Front End Development would include matching or improving on the designer's intentions, fast and tested, and accessible everywhere.The Quality of UX Designing includes it being research driven, delightful, and intuitive. The best Quality for Graphic designing would be that it is consistent, and suited to it's purpose, audience, and medium.

  Those were the two speakers I had seen on Day of Design, and I feel that I was able to take away some useful information on their talks, about how to apply different ideas to my designing and what to expect with certain ways of designing.