Blog # 12

Hey guys! I can't believe the semester is over already! But it is, and with that, unfortunately this will be my final blog.

I really enjoyed this class and I think that it was presented in a really interesting way. Laurie Petrou was always kind and approachable and was extremely patient whenever I was having trouble with flash/photoshop/HTML. She taught our entire class new things about what digital media is and what it will be in the next 10 to 25 years.

If I would change anything about this course it would be to maybe make the lecture more digitally interactive. I know this would be hard, but it would be cool to try out some of the stuff we are being shown on the projection screen.

This course has obviously changed me and I would be lying if I said it hadn't. The fact that I know how to create a decent flash animation or photoshop document or anything digital media related is change in itself. I wouldn't have been able to do any of this 12 weeks ago. However Im really glad that I can. I'm also glad that my ignorance about what digital media is has deteriorated. 12 weeks ago my Yiayia asked me what digital media was and I really couldn't answer. Now, 12 weeks later, although I still can't explain it to her in a way that makes sense, it makes sense to me which is all that counts!

What I'm taking away from this course is that if you have an idea, you shouldn't let the technology get the best of you. If you feel like you can create something really great but when you open the software you can't really do it, don't throw away your idea right then and there. Ask classmates, read or watch tutorials to get a better handle on the software. I found that I had so many great idea for my flash animation, but I discarded many of those ideas because they were too difficult to execute. If I could do it again I would put more time into understanding the software so that I could create an even better project.

So that's it guys. It's been fun. And I'm glad that you took the time to read these.

Let's do this again sometime.

Phil

Blog # 11

Hey Guys!

Ooh man, soon I won't be able to address you guys in such a way, because I will not have this blog in 3 weeks time. But while I do, I shall entice you with my Digital Media knowledge which I have acquired throughout the length of this course!

So this week I was talking to my girlfriend about music. And I started thinking about if music could be as interactive as any game, or website is. What if you could program a song to how you were feeling.

Example. I come home and I'm pissed. I mean I've had it! So I run to my computer, start chugging a gatorade and I want to listen to a real angry tune. So I started pumping my favourite song, until suddenly, I begin to cool down. And I don't want to listen to such a heavy song anymore. I want to listen to a melodic rhythm with gentle vocals mixed over top. So the song changes to fit my mood. This continues on for the entirety of the song.

This would probably be very time consuming to create but I think its an interesting idea none the less.

Just thought you guys should know what I've been thinking about.

From Philip

Week 9: Flash Animation

Hey Guys! Today I present my flash assignment. Come to think of it, everyone will be presenting their assignment sometime this week. So....Good for us!

It was definitely a struggle I'll tell you that. Flash seemed like photoshop, except everything is moveable. I found this the hardest concept to wrap my head around. But I guess I did and this is what I came up with.

I decided to design my flash around the station North York Centre, and what a ghost town it is. My first task was to creat my background. For this I found a picture of a TTC car on the internet. "HE COPIED SOMETHING FROM THE INTERNET!???" You exclaim. No, no, no, I simply copied the picture onto my stage and traced over it with various rectangles, pencils, brushes. I found the task of filling in each and every single detail so instead went for a sort of mosaic look. However, I feel I still got the same sort of feeling of a subway car with my finished product.

Then I wanted to illustrate someone walking onto the subway and waiting to go. I went for like a sketched sort of look with jagged edges. I did this for two reasons: One because I found that it was very difficult to try and recreate a detailed representation of any person, and secondly because I felt that a jagged character seems to fit in nicely with the animated subway car.

Afterwards I made a sort of tumble weed. At first the tumble weed was supposed to roll in a certain fashion, but instead I had to resort to it just following a straight line. However I feel the same effect was carried.

But here is the biggest problem of all! My sound wasn't working! Why oh why! I had recorded a really cool westernish song to be played in the background. It had banjoes, fiddles, even the sound of crop dust. What else could you want!? Apparently, Flash wanted a file format that I had never heard of. So although I wasn't able to include audio that started on the push of my button, I was still able to include the "This is North York Centre Station" announcement.

From this assignment I learned that Flash is definitely a harder program to use and cannot see myself using it in the near future. Honestly, I don't understand why I would ever use this program considering the amount of stress i felt everytime I discovered I had a "syntax error". Maybe if I master flash in a couple years I'll use it more frequently. But that's not happening.

In reference to my peers work, there's were amazing! You'd think I was in a room full of flash pros. One in particular was Andrew Chachula's. He did a kinetic text flash animation to his friend's band. The music and words were synced to the tee. I was really impressed and just though it was worth mentioning!

So that's all for now.

Ok bhuy

Instead, upload your artist's statement and write additional commentary as follows.] Add a few comments about what you learned from 1-doing the assignment and 2-from seeing other students' work during the critique.

Week 8 BLOOOOOG

Hey guys! How is everyone doing? That good!? NICE!

I'm doing well however I am not loving flash! Flash is a beast that I have yet to tame, however I am slowly but surely getting the hang of it.

It was easy to wrap my head around layers in photoshop. But layers that move!!!!!! That's crazy!!!!

I've just been having a lot of trouble with making certain things move, keeping certain things still, and of course designing a beautiful background for my piece.

I think I have a general idea of what I want to do, but I'm still debating whether or not I'll be able to execute my idea properly. That seems to be my biggest problem. I'll have a really great idea......then I remember Flash and I are not the best of friends.

I'll work it out I hope.

BUT I do have some good news

. during a Macnhester United halftime, I got bored and made this! Isn't it lovely? I used my Photoshop skills to make it. But I didn't stop there. I made another one!!!

I know what you're thinking....and yes, they are cool.

I should probably be working on flash, but my love for Photoshop keeps calling me back.

Back to work!

Blog Week 7

Hey guys! How are you? NICE!

how has digital media changed music culture? That is a very interesting question. Personally, I feel that a lot of bands today are more dependent on their digital media skills and connections than their actual music. I blame www.myspace.com. Bands are able to represent themselves however they see fit, but most of the time the attention is focused on the layout of their page and what colours, images, patterns they've used...and not their music! This is not to say that digital media has harmed the music industry in any way. It has helped listeners connect to music like never before. However, when bands becomes more about computer generated images I'm not feeling it. I really wanted to put a link of band that is truly awful but had a very cool layout. Unfortunately their layout has changed, but their music is still bad (the band is called brokencyde by the way. their lyrics are vulgar so I didn't post the link). But this is just one example of how digital media has harmed music culture. Digital media in music is a good thing! There is a sense of connectivity developed between listener and artist when a fan can see their favourite band's new video, or download their album covers to their ipod's. Although millions upon millions of fans are probably doing the same thing, that one fan feels they know the band/artist better than before.

Digital media allows artists to showcase what they represent. A simple change in typography can represent an artist as a pop sensation or a death metal celebration! Digital media is also a very useful tool that artists can use to change how their listeners perceive them.

I've been enjoying music all my life, but it has definitely been changing over the past 5 years, how I enjoy it I mean. Let's see, I'd be in gr. 8 then. So I don't think I had a myspace account, or an ipod, or enough money to buy CD's. But I did have a TV! I would watch MuchMusic to look for new bands all the time. When I found one I liked, I would quickly scurry to my computer and try and find them on the internet. I could watch their videos, interviews, and where they would be playing next! Everything was there, it was just very slow.

Today, if I want to find a new band, I'll just go on myspace and browse through the top artists category. I can pick a band whose profile picture looks cool and then listen to them. It is much faster than my gr. 8 years.

Design is definitely more important to me now.I appreciate if a band takes time to create nice album artwork or create a really eye catching video. If a band takes the time to do something for their fans, I will do something for them and listen to their album and boost their playcount on myspace.

It's a good thing.

Week 6: Flash Animation

Hey guys! How are you? That's good. This week is all about flash animation. So here we go.

I had the idea of doing an interactive instrument. Essentially the user can click on a certain area of my instrument and it will play a sound. Whether this is a guitar, a drumkit, or an imaginary instrument, like a krodgyallaphone! Either way, I think that the user will get a real kick out of being able to create and arrange their own music with the samples I have provided. This idea essentially came from last week's tutorial when we introduced sound into our flash animations. So I want to make something that is as stimulating for the ears as it is for the eyes.

I'm going to make the music samples myself. "What genre will it be?" you may be asking yourself (assuming that someone is reading this), Electronic of course! What screams interactivity more than electronic music? I'll keep you updated as I progress.

Bye guys.

Poster Assignment

Hey guys. It's Phil here, and the last couple weeks I have been working on a poster. Would you like to see it.....Ok, here you go.

The site asked me what size I want to upload my picture as. I chose large so that you could see the detail. DAS GOOD?

I had a lot of fun creating this fictional band poster. I wanted to do a band poster, more specifically; I wanted to do a band poster for an electronic band. Whenever I see artwork or promotional flyers for electronic bands, the images always grab my attention. So I wanted to do something similar to that. Something that would attract a fan of electronic music/culture.

I chose to use the colours of the German flag for the majority of my poster. I find that the red, black, and orange are very captivating and will grab people’s attention if they were to walk by this poster on the street. I chose to repeat the band name, Das Brohas, multiple times behind all of the images for two reasons. The first was to fulfill the CRAP principle of repetition. Secondly, I wanted the colours to descend towards the band name. So that a viewer would instinctively follow the descent of the colours to the band name and information.

I chose to surround the band name and information in a red 5 sided polygon. I purposely made the polygon point downwards so that the text would correspond with the shape. The font I used inside of the polygon seemed very futuristic and digital, which is why I used it.

The model in my poster is Simon Teskouras (my brother). I chose to cover his eyes in all three of the pictures I took. I did this because I found that his eyes would be too distracting and would take away from the overall image of the poster. I used the smudge tool to drag part of my brother’s torso to create a sort of frame for the band name and information. I also used a paintbrush to accentuate each of the band members by outlining their bodies in their corresponding colour.

I cannot say that I encountered many challenges. Although I did find erasing my backyard from the image of my brother quite tedious. The magic wand tool did not work so I had to doo it all with the layer mask tool with a paint brush.

I genuinely enjoyed doing this assignment and am pretty proud of the final result. I had no idea how to work Photoshop five weeks ago. However, I used the information from the tutorials and just fooled around with different images and created something that I think looks pretty good.

From this assignment I learned that Photoshop is a wild beast, but can be tamed if you have the skills! You can lasso and magic wand your images to make them look exactly how you want them to. As I progressively got a better handle on Photoshop, I started to enjoy the project even more.

The class critique was also helpful. Except I didn't really get any "criticism" per-say. I would have liked to have heard more things I could have changed about my poster. But, I'm not complaining about the nice comments. I liked the nice comments as well.

And there you have it. I hope you liked my poster. be sure to buy your tickets well in advance.

Typography

Hello everyone. Let's talk about typography!

This first image is from a hardcore/grindcore(ish) Christian band called, With Blood Comes Cleans

ing. This is the album cover of their album, "Horror". As you can see the typography used to display the band's name is very hard to interpret. Many band's in the hardcore genres a

nd sub-genres choose to use a typographic font like this one that is web-like and hard to read. Is this effective?It's hard to say. For a person

who listens to top 40 radio, it is completely ineffective

. That person will look at this album, and won't be able to distinguish who the artist is. But With Blood Comes Cleansing isn't writing songs for listeners like that. They are writing

songs for people who love hardcore music. So, in a way, this typography can become very exclusive and very effective for the demographic they are

writing for. Bands like these are writing music for the love of the music. If making money was the band's main concern, they would have used Times New Roman instead (a

nd italicized it for some extra spice).

The second design that used typography that I liked is a poster for the movie Green Street Hooligans. There are two different typographic styles used in this poser, each of them being very effective. The first typographic style is the title of the movie, Green Street Hooligans. This font has a military feel to it, and is kind of scratched out a bit in some places. This gives the font a rougher look. And of course "Hooligans" is in a bigger typeface than the other words on the poster. Even though I've seen this movie, I think if I hadn't, and then I looked at this poster, I could guess what it was about. The typography is effective in that sense. The typography allows the viewer to classify this as an action movie, and not that a romantic comedy, children's movie, etc. The words underneath, "Stand You

r Ground" also enhance the message of the movie. By the way it is spray-painted on the wall and the fact that those three words are often associated with fighting. Giving the audience another clue to what this movie is about.

The third image I found that has really cool typography is the album cover of southern-hardcore Christian band, Maylene and the Sons of Disaster. This is the cover of their album, "3" or "III" as it's written. I find this typography very effective on many different levels. First of all, the words are placed so elegantly over a rickety ol' southern bridge (assuming it is in the south). The letters flow together very nicely and paint a pretty clear picture to what the band is all about. At first glance I look at this picture and think, "Oh cool! Maylene has a new album out!? I am going to go 'buy' it!". While an old man in Alabama might look at this album and think, "This album looks pretty southern. I want to see what the kids have done to the southern music scene these days!". This typography is effective because it is true to the southern roots of the band, and allows others to clearly understand what type of band this might be before listening to their music.

This is where I got these awesome images from (in the same order the images are displayed)!

http://img.imeem.com/ai/WDL2LKUSPYTCOV774Z7WDIDNWVK4Q2KZ.jpg

http://www.listal.com/image/productsus/1000/B000FBNG1O/dvds/green-street-hooligans.jpg

http://leeswinford.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/maylene_iiicover1.jpg

Bye guys.

Phil

Find 3 designs (posters, flyers, billboards, magazine ads/layouts, album art, political propaganda, product labels, product packaging, DVD covers, whatever) and discuss the typographic choices made in the design. Is the typography effective? Why or why not? Does the typography effectively address a particular target audience and / or support the central message or theme of the design? Etc. Try to identify the font used if possible.
You may photograph or scan the designs, or find them on the internet. Give credit for where you found the designs.

Week 3 Blog

Hey, how is everyone's week going?....That's good.

So for this blog I have chosen to write about the poster I have been working on for our assignment.

When I first heard about the assignment, I immediately thought, "I'm going to make a fake German Electro band!", So I did!

I knew that this would be the best way to utilize all the different concepts we have been learning in Photoshop over the past few weeks.

So, I took some pictures of my brother that I would essentially use in my poster. I found the Magic Wand tool very helpful in deleting the image of my backyard from the photo of my brother. The layer mask tool was also very handy in deleting the pixels of shrubbery that appeared beside his arms in the photo.

I've been working with different colour saturations with three different images of my brother (Simon Tsekouras). I've coloured one of the images red, one orange, and one black.....yes, it's the German flag!

Layers are not as hard as I once thought. They are actually pretty easy to use and have been helpful in adding text, and determining which images come in front of others.

I am also trying to use the CRAP principles as well whenever I can. It's a very easy formula to put into practice when I started my poster.

I hope you are as excited as me to see the final product.

Ok, so, I'll see you around?

Phil

CRAP again

Hey guys, or should I say guy (I hope more than one person reads my blog)?

I was just looking at my last post about the crap method and realized I did not cite any of my sources! So here they are.

This is the Nike ad:

http://www.runnerspace.com/members/photos/181/1611_full.jpg

This is the Pauly Shore ad:

http://www.thecinemasource.com/moviesdb/images/PaulyShoreIsDeadDVDContest-300.jpg

This is the Brazilian Beer ad:

http://contexts.org/socimages/files/2008/06/bitcopa1.jpg

This is the Brothers Solomon ad:

http://www.cappie.nl/images/36-The-Brothers-Solomon.jpg

Sorry again. Now you know where to find these pictures and make them your desktop backgrounds.

CRAP Method (Week #2)

Hello again!

This week in our lecture we talked about Robin William's CRAP method. This is a method that is used in all sorts of digital media to help the advertisers grab our attentions and to sell their products. If a form of digital media follows the CRAP principle (Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, Proximity), the creators can almost control where your eyes look first and what image or images stay in your head long after you've seen the ad.

The first image I found is a movie poster for The Brothers Solomon. The poster uses primary colours that make the viewer subconciously can the poster from top to bottom. The viewer sees the vibrant blue shirt of Will Arnett which is in close proximity to Will Forte's head. The viewer follows Forte's shirt right up to the title of the movie and the lead actors names. This poster would be an example of two of the four CRAP principles. Those principles being Contrast and Proximity. Contrast because the colours of the shirts are so vibrant they compete for your attention and inevitably left my attention at the actors faces. The actor's faces are comical, so you immediately know that this is a comedy. Secondly, the proximity of the poster really helps to sell the movie. Because Will Arnett's body is right side up and Will Forte's is upside down, the viewer follows an almost invisible path to the title. Which is exactly what the creators of this poster want. They want you to know that The Brothers Solomon is a silly movie just from the poster and that it looks funny enough to go see.

The

second image I found uses a great deal of repetition, the second CRAP principle. The main repetition in this poster is the list of celebrities in the same, grey, nondescript font. This instinctively made me read through the list of celebrities, close enough that I could actually read them, when I was surprised by the title, Pauly Shore is Dead. The title immediately grabs your attention with it's larger font size and colour. In this case the repetition in this ad is dull and boring so that the title will really stand out, and i

t does! Not only is the font and colour surprising to the viewer, but so are the actual words in the title. This made me wonder if maybe Pauly Shore was actually dying. Is he close to death? These are all questions that could only be answered if I saw the movie. It is also worth noting that the red on Shore's shoes match the colour red in the title. Could this be foreshadowing? Does Pauly Shore have some sort of fatal foot disease? Or is this just a blatant advertisement for Adidas?

This image uses the CRAP principle of alignment. The text is aligned around the "butt" so that the viewer sees the product on the body first, and then reads the text around it. The text follows the shape of the body so that every line you read, you read along with the curves of the product. This keeps the viewers focus on the script, but also to what Nike is trying to sell you. The colour pink is also used a lot to so that women can associate with this ad and that it is not a sports illustrated special for men.

This advertisement for a brazilian liquor uses the CRAP principle of alignment first and foremost. I immediately saw the beer and followed the neck of the bottle right up to the holders breasts. I'm sure I would have noticed the breasts otherwise, but the creator of this ad has made it so that you see the product first, and what their product is associated with. I got the impression that this company was all about having a good time, playing in the sun, and enjoying an ice cold Bit Copa. The format of the ad is what gave me this impression. There are bright colours, pictures of flowers, and women in bikinis. All of these elements form a great frame for their product.

I feel that the CRAP principle is definitely a great tool if you want to create a successful piece of digital media. You can see what your creation might include already and what it may be missing. A digital media creator can manipulate where the public looks first and what they remember about their advertisement. Which makes this a very effective principle.

Phil

Blog Number 1

         Hello! My name is Philip Tsekouras and I am from Thornhill. I am very excited to begin the Radio and Television Arts program at Ryerson and look forward to learning about the different aspects of this field. So let the blog begin!

 

         I really was not sure what to expect when I entered the Digital Media lecture. I was quite ignorant to the meaning of the word. To me, digital media meant media that is made digitally. As in media displayed through televisions and computers. I was unaware that digital media was associated with so many different types of media like text messaging or magazines. 

 

My impressions of digital media definitely changed immediately after the first lecture. Mostly because now I actually understood what digital media was. I felt a lot less overwhelmed knowing the programs I would be working with and what types of projects I would be creating. Upon leaving the digital media lecture, my feeling of confusion for what the program was exactly quickly changed to a feeling of excitement to begin the course.

 

         I think an RTA student should take a course like this because it allows us, the students, to become more familiar with the various types of media there are today. As our world evolves, so do our methods of sending information. This course will allow us to stay up-to-date with those various methods and we will be able to utilize all of these different mediums when we graduate.

 

         McLuhan was definitely right. Although the information we send to each other has stayed relatively the same over the past 50 years, the way in which we send that information has done quite the opposite. There are so many different ways to communicate with each other everyday, and inevitably, the medium  becomes the message, not the message itself.