Chapter One: Complete

One way to describe BDC 192.

Twelve weeks later… and here we are. I can’t believe I’m finishing up my first semester in university. RTA is such an amazing program and I’m so grateful to be a part of it.

Digital Media, particularly, was amazing! I had a great time, despite the ups and downs and craziness of the technical problems and new techniques. However, I am so fortunate because my high school has definitely prepared me for this course. All of our assignments were things I had already done, so I think it came a little easier for me. Regardless, everyone really surprised everyone and themselves. Everything produced was unbelievable.

Seen this too many times the night before an assignment's due.

I feel that the structure of this course is really effective. Our lectures give us background knowledge and the theory to apply to our assignments. I also liked how the labs were small, so it was easier to receive one-on-one help. Moreover, I always looked forward to the crits because we get to see each other’s work and give feedback.

However, I didn’t like how we watched the tutorial for an hour and then spent the next hour doing it again. I find it hard for me to follow along because I wasn’t doing it myself. Therefore, I think we should be able to do the first tutorial together and then given one similar to attempt on our own. Lastly, I feel that the Photoshop assignment was given too much time, which pushed everything forward, so in the end, we had very little time to do our website. As a result, I feel that we are not as well prepared for it. Other than that, this course was a wonderful experience for me and I am so proud of what came out of it.

Craziness in uni life and how BDC192 is involved.

I now have a fresh and new perspective on digital media. Previously, I have always wanted to pursue graphic design, not really knowing what it included. This course showed me how broad that field is. I was particularly intrigued by the interactivity and transmedia aspects. Moreover, I never knew ARGs existed until now and it really intrigues me how cross-platform storytelling has taken our world by storm. The Dark Knight ARG, especially, was incredible. I would love to be a part of a team that plans that sometime in the future to see how it all unfolds.

RTAers tweet to summarize what they learn and to communicate with others,

To be honest, it is a little intimidating to think about how individuals have advanced media in such unworldly ways. It kind of makes me wonder if I am cut out for it, I mean, would I be able to create something that could top that? Then again, I guess not everyone is going to discover the newest, groundbreaking ideas, and that the small things that I can contribute are just as important.

Despite my career plans veering towards television, this course has given me invaluable knowledge that I can still use in both aspects. In fact, I wouldn’t mind pursuing digital media as a secondary choice, specifically the motion graphics, graphic design and somehow contributing to future ARGs.

The Dark Knight ARG.

I’m so grateful for this opportunity in RTA and I would like to thank Laurie Petrou, Ginger Jarvis and Joanna Lau for all they have empowered me with. You guys are amazing!

They’ve given us the challenge, we’ve risen up to it and now, we have overcome it. Congrats to all my BDC192 classmates and I will see YOU all soon!



#BDC192
http://twitter.com/#!/search/realtime/bdc192

Stressed out

http://hkitten3312.edublogs.org/files/2010/10/stressed-out.jpg

Dark Knight AGR

http://cdn.buzznet.com/assets/users16/panasonicyouth/default/dark-knight-arg-material--large-msg-119698305135.jpg

Game On!

"Life is a game, all you have to do is know how to play it."

--Unknown

Collection of classic board games.

As true as that is, it doesn't have to go that deep. Aside from the philosophical points of it, we are, in fact, surrounded by game-play everywhere we go. Games come in all sort of forms, such as those board games from when we were younger, to computer games, ARG (alternate reality games), console games, card games etc. 

Simulation for satellite navigation for the BaiCES project (2001 - 03).

However, they are used for a wide variety of purposes other than entertainment. They can be used to educate, build communities and break the ice. Government groups such as the military and NASA use forms of gaming, or more specifically, simulations of real life situations for training. Teachers use flash cards (i.e. in the game of memory) to help students remember important terms. Moreover, they bring people together from around the world using forums and online communities to discuss game strategies, share shortcuts etc. Last but not least, they give strangers some common ground to begin to interact.

Memory is an old game that can be used to educate, such as when learning another language, such as Latin.

There are definitely many more uses for games aside from those mentioned. Growing up, I've been a part of and interested in all sorts of games in many different forms.

1) Console games - RPG (role-playing games) 

Final Fantasy X-2, from the Final Fantasy series.

The Final Fantasy (FF) series takes place in a make-believe world with very magic-like characters and environments. There are many different FF games ranging from I-XIV (1-14). However, at their cores, all of the situations, problems and scenarios are very realistic and possible. For example, they take the idea of warring, environmental issues, struggle for power etc, but just placed in a fantasy world. Therefore, not only is this game a form entertainment, but it also contains many practical lessons and possible scenarios.

2) Internet games - Multiplayer 

Online multiplayer game.

MapleStory is an online, multiplayer game where players create a character and battle in different worlds to gain experience and money. There are also guilds and teams that can be formed to battle common bosses and enemies. These teams can also go on quests that are impossible to complete individually. This builds an online community among the players, who may be from half way around the world.

3) Card games – Multiplayer

Cards from the Yu-Gi-Oh series.

Drawing from the popular TV show, Yu-Gi-Oh, it directly mimics how the characters battle against each other. Players have a deck of cards with monsters of varying strengths and weaknesses and power ups. It is a game of strategies and thinking to bring the opponents Life Points down to zero. Student bring these cards to school to 'duel' against other classmates. Friends meet up at cafes or teashops to play. Also, like many other games, there are tournaments with prizes, which allow 'duelists' to meet others like them and break the ice to warm up or practice.

Many games nowadays, such as those for the Wii console, allows groups of people, such as a family, to play together.

Among these are thousands of other games that are played, ranging many age groups. Despite the negative image gaming sometimes has because of its portrayal of violence and explicit content, it actually has a very positive contribution to society and relationships.

Quote

http://thinkexist.com/quotation/life-s_a_game-all_you_have_to_do-is_know_how_to/250199.html

Classic Games

http://topicden.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/KidsBoardGames.jpg

Simulation

http://www.ifen.unibw-muenchen.de/research/Simulation_Anflug.jpg

Memory

http://www.inrebus.com/vocabgames/latinvocabularygame.jpg

Final Fantasy

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq9hYTwFINhMrZ610Wg_cDFIqHybglqOO2Q95qWP7qgqyVXPqao8PFo07qqZBznx4xiLykqfonZt8w8GalFg0j0esx4kPsvwjczPgHzPORU8ZkbD1SwOqoG1gdwmXmmk3Y8vDQ8JOZkmc/s1600/view_345270_1_1243521101.jpg

MapleStory

http://cdn.gamingangels.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/maplestory.jpg

Yu-Gi-Oh

http://cardsandcomicsconnection.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/yu-gi-oh20cards.jpg

Wii

http://www.ifen.unibw-muenchen.de/research/Simulation_Anflug.jpg

The Last Song Teaser - Motion Graphics Assignment

The Last Song is about eighteen-year-old Veronica Miller reconnecting with her estranged father the summer after her graduation.  She rediscovers love in various forms and learns to forgive and move on.  This is my favourite movie because of its great writing, its happy ending and my emotional connection to it. 

*Spoiler Alert*

The concept behind this trailer is a foreshadowing of the end.  When her father passes away, Ronnie packs his belongings in boxes, some of which include photos.  Furthermore, the setting (the beach and water) plays a key role in the film and its climaxes.  Therefore, I took pictures of objects and scenery that represented some of the key images and points of the film and had them collect in a pile on top of a water-like background.  The photos appear in almost a chronological order, with sheet music representing 'the last song'.  These photos symbolize the film in a condensed way.

Ronnie's Song (the last song): Ronnie finishing up the song that her dad started for her because his cancer got worse.

The target audience for the film is majorly teenaged girls to young female adults and for this particular trailer, even more specifically, photographers and music lovers.  The photos represent the beautiful and natural scenery shown throughout the film and the music, representing the greatest theme, is revealed by the chosen track and the title.  The tone of the music also indicates the more serious and deep feelings and messages of the film.

A lot of the film takes place on the beach in a very scenic, natural and calm setting.

I used Adobe After Effects for the video aspect and Pro Tools 9 to edit my music.  I used keyframes for position, scale and rotation on a 3D plane to create the effect of the photos floating in.  I also put a white boarder around every photo, using parent connections to move it with the images.  Furthermore, I moved the keyframes to fall in time with the louder hits of the song.  Lastly, I used keyframes for opacity for the fades and position to reveal the music lines.

Keyframes were used to make the photos float on screen and a white layer beneath each image was used to create a photo-like effect.

My original ideas included a) the title being revealed by waves from a beach; b) video footage of a piano and sheet music; and c) having the photos collect in a box or being washed away by a tide.  However, due to the weather and time limit, I decided to make it simple.  In addition, AE was difficult to get used to at first.  The 3D effect and many layers caused some images to cut into each other as they intersect on different planes.  Therefore, I opted to only use one plane to rotate the images.  Also, I decreased the Z plane, in respect to position, to bring the image ‘closer’ to the viewer in order to get rid of the overlapping of images.

Keyframing the size and position on the z-axis gave the impression that the photos were falling on to the screen.

Although the final product is not what I initially planned, I am happy with the outcome.  Some of the key skills that I`ve obtained is how to use the 3D planes, add audio and pre-compose many layers.  I enjoyed using the 3D effect because it gave depth to my project, and the music, even though only five seconds long, helped make my piece even better and less dry.  Lastly, the pre-compose option really made editing all of the layers much easier because I didn`t have to do them individually.  All in all, the AE unit was fun, despite the frustration and long nights.  I would definitely give it another shot if the opportunity arises.

Ronnie's Song
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Film/Pix/pictures/2010/4/28/1272467297179/THE-LAST-SONG-004.jpg

Nature
http://mettelray.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/the-last-song-still-7.jpg

Motion Graphics Update

Two weeks in and AE’s beginning to drive everyone crazy—me included.  Thinking about how much I still have to do, I’m kind of scared now.  It’s not so much the concept that I’m worried about (I have that figured out… I think), but it’s the execution of it AND the surprise of how it would turn out.  I mean, wouldn’t it be the worst if it came out not as I envisioned and then I have to start over?  Okay, negativity speaking there, but can you blame me?  AE is a scary thing—ask anyone in BDC192.

Anyway, seriously speaking, my new idea is to have the photos float from off-screen and rotate on many axes to on-screen.  In the end, they would all gather in a pile.  Because I’m not at that stage yet, I haven’t decided about where the trailer would go after.  It would either:

a) reveal that the photos are in a box and a cover with The Last Song would be put on top of it

OR

b) show the photos being washed away by a wave to reveal the title

So far, I have about ten or more photos to animate and depending on how it looks, I may take a couple more or not.  Furthermore, I have a transparent layer on top of a stop motion of close-ups of my marble table.  The pattern on it makes it look like waves, especially if I play with the colour and tint of the layer (to make it a little more blue, rather than white).  However, I’m still deciding if I should keep it, or if it would be too much going on at once.  I also have some music picked out that I just need to cut and edit to fit five seconds.  All of that plus some breathing room to fit into seven days…   Wish me luck!

Here’s my work-in-progress…

What do you think?

Kina Grannis - In Your Arms Stop Motion Music Video

If I had that many jellybeans... I’d be set for life!

I don’t even know how I stumbled upon that video, but I’m so glad I did.  I was so awed when I was watching it—my jaw dropped.  Working with Stop Motion before, I know how tedious it can be to have to take thousands of pictures just to have 3 minutes or so of footage.  Also, it’s one thing to do it using real backgrounds.  In Kina’s music video, the backgrounds were made up of jellybeans.  That means that every frame required the tiny thousands of jellybeans to be moved.  Now add to that, the requirement for her lip movements to match her song.  Then there were also the little details of how her clothes and hair were laid out to represent movement and all of the additional props. 

There were also little aspects of the video that relates back to my other classes (which I will briefly touch upon) that made it that much better.

Audio Production


Softwares such as Pro Tools 9 can be used to edit and create audio for post-production.

-the SFX to create the environment (i.e. crickets, birds landing, the balloons popping, snowball sounds etc.)

-editing her voice to establish the environment (at 1:25, when her voice has a little reverb because of the cave that she is in; at 2:43, her voice is muffled to create the illusion that she’s in space)

-the use of Foley to recreate the sounds of human movement (movement: her footstep sounds; prop handling: hand grabbing onto the balloons; and clothes movement: her clothes fluttering in the wind and when her ski clothes appear)

Media Tech Theory

The human persistence of vision is 1/10 of a second, so our brain holds an image that we see for that long, even after we have closed our eyes.

-using the persistence of vision to create smooth movement using still images

-at 3:16, the ‘television screen’ shuts off progressively, ending in the middle

Digital Media

Similar to Pro Tools, Adobe After Effects can be used to edit videos in post-production.

-at 2:37, either video effects were used to create the red flash or there was the use of external lighting in each frame

After watching this I had three burning questions:

How did she make the lip movements match her song, especially since she was doing stop motion?

At first, I thought they green screened her singing and just placed it on the thousands of still images of the jellybeans, hoping that it would all work out.  I figured that they took the length of the song and calculated how many frames were required and at which frames she would be singing.

How in the world did they visualize each frame? 

I wondered if they storyboard each frame after calculating the length of Kina’s song and then hoping her green screen would match with each background.  However, I figured that there was too much left up to chance by doing that.  I also wondered if they just did what I did in my previous projects and moved each row of jellybean up, down or across one by one... but then that might take forever.  This brought me back to the persistence of vision lesson I learned in Media Tech Theory... so did they move a couple rows of jellybeans each frame?  I thought there was still a better way... but I just couldn’t wrap my head around it.

How did they position each frame so it would be the same size after each shot and not be completely off from the previous frame?

Most likely, they positioned a camera permanently above the image.  However, did they slide jellybeans across the image?  If not, how were they sure where the next movement is, compared to the last frame?

Well, luckily, there is a behind-the-scenes video.  If not, I think I would’ve died—those questions would have bothered me forever!

After two years to create this video... I wonder if the jellybeans are still good...

Kina Grannis – In Your Arms

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOu0DuxFAT0&feature=feedu

Audio Production

http://media.soundonsound.com/sos/jan11/images/PT9_01.jpg

Media Tech Theory (Dana Lee’s Week 8 Lecture)

https://courses.ryerson.ca/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_group=courses&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fcontent%2FcontentWrapper.jsp%3Fattachment%3Dtrue%26navItem%3Dcontent%26content_id%3D_1732859_1%26course_id%3D_56911_1%26displayName%3D08_video101_display%2Btechnologies.pdf%26href%3D%2F%2540%2540%2FC9EBD407B85B62D24B21646F98ABD572%2Fcourses%2F1%2Fbdc111_f11_01%2Fcontent%2F_1732859_1%2F08_video101_display%252520technologies.pdf

Digital Media

http://www.createdigitalmotion.com/files/2006/oct/aelynda.jpg

Kina Grannis – In Your Arms Behind the Scenes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIH4MJAC2Tg&feature=youtu.be

Motion Graphics Assignment Part I

Here comes the second week of After Effects… are we ready?  I think we are.  The tutorials have really helped me get used to the software.  Coming into this section of the course, I was a little discouraged and unenthusiastic.  Last year, we used tutorials online from Video CoPilot, but they were so dull and tedious because they were pretty long (20-40 minutes).  As a result, we didn’t have much time to explore with the effects before our class ended.  However, now that we’re shown the basics of AE, I find it much easier to experiment and come up with effects by myself during my lab time.

Fonts and Shapes tutorial.



Type Animators tutorial: animating a whole word letter-by-letter, instead of creating a layer for each letter.




This is the original trailer for the movie that I want to base my Motion Graphics assignment on.



Some of the keywords and images that are significant the movie are beach, music (piano), family, friendship, forgiveness, letters (from Ronnie`s dad) and love.  Using them as a starting point, my initial idea was to go to a beach and write the Last Song in the sand and record it being washed away.  In AE, I would reverse the footage, making it look like the waves pulled back to reveal the title.  However, the weather has been pretty horrible.  Therefore, I scrapped that idea and went back to the drawing board.

Ronnie moves in with her estranged dad in his beach house for the summer, where she meets Will, a boy she soon falls in love with.

Now, instead, I decided to show the images through photos.  In Photoshop, I would add a white boarder to them.  Then in AE, I would animate them to gather in a box, representing the protagonist (Ronnie) packing her father’s belongings in boxes at the end.  To reveal the title, I would have someone put the cover on the box.  Other possibilities that I`m thinking of are to somehow create the illusion of waves washing the photos away or winding blowing them away to reveal the title.

Ronnie`s little brother, Noah, is upset by news he receives as summer comes to a close.

The inspiration for the photos flying into the shot is from Lindsay Lohan`s music video for Confessions of a Broken Heart, which coincidentally is about her father as well.  At 3:00 in the music video (below), the photos fly from the ground and her bed to stick on the window.  I`m hoping to reproduce a similar effect for my trailer, using the 3D axis and stills that I have taken.

The Last Song Trailer and Ronnie and Will
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwLmQqRanvM
Noah
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_VdwVr-Ua4
Lindsay Lohan - Confessions of a Broken Heart
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leg-vg2YQDM&feature=related

What's Your Type? - TWLOHA

Poster for the campaign, To Write Love On Her Arms (from the Poster Assignment).

It mainly uses a very simple, but powerful typeface, Arial.  The biggest area of writing and contact information/call to action uses just Arial, in a white colour, bolding key phrases.  The area below it uses a bolded version of Arial in a light blue/cyan colour.  The name of the campaign uses a white coloured Arial Black font (a thicker and bolder version of the bolded Arial). 

These fonts are effective because they state the point of the piece and information in an uncluttered way.  Although there is a lot to read, the main focus is the name of the campaign; therefore, it is much bolder and it pops out more than the rest of the information.  As well, the alignment and placement of the text really helps with the visibility and clarity of the piece.  The simplicity of the font and its in-your-face, direct characteristics help to reinforce the importance of the campaign and its urgency.  Although, suicide, depression etc. are a complicated issue, the first steps to getting help are not.  Therefore, TWLOHA wants to make clear that those steps are simple and not lose its meaning in the intricacy of the font. 

Overall, as simple as the typeface is, the poster’s choice is very effective in delivering its message because of their choice of colour, font and placement.

TWLOHA
http://www.glogster.com/media/1/1/49/36/1493676.jpg