Website redesign: before and after

I went to this photography portfolio website and was appalled that it lacked a static featured image. It instead included rollovers of tiny images. There were even areas where you would expect to hover and find an image, but there wasn't one. 

So I spruced it up a bit, making for a better user experience.

Artifact Blog

What does Sterling mean by "authenticity"? What does he mean by being a "consumer in a product technosociety"?

Sterling used the term "consumer in a product technosociety" to describe his late father, Bruce Sterling. His father was a plant manager for an oil multinational

What do you consider "authentic" in your personal world? Can you find a "gadget" that has engaged your interest, imagination and is representative of your personal history and culture?

Lastly, find an object that triggers nostalgia in you. Include a picture or photo in your blog with a written description about that object.

Kirikou and the Sorceress Analysis

Michel Ocelot directed and wrote “Kirikou and the Sorceress,” a film about how a newborn village baby copes with evil from his town. This was Ocelot’s breakout film, as it won best animated feature at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival 1999 [8] and best European feature at the British Animation Awards 2002.

Most notably, Ocelot uses a very unique choice of color. Not silhouette, but dark for skin. Toward the end of the preview, the film shifts to the sorceress, in other words, the bad guy’s domain. These colors, of course, are black and white, and the air is fogged up.

The opening music sets the tone from the get-go, showing that this is a village neighborhood. The animation techniques are clearly computer drawn and Ocelot uses multiple camera angles to convey the tone of each scene. For example, in the first scene with the pregnant mother Ocelot varies between close-ups and wide shots to stress importance. The camera goes close on the mother’s face when she announces to her newborn son that his father is fighting.

Although this was only a five minute preview to this movie, the storyline immediately became enticing. The young boy talks himself out of his mother’s stomach (literally), and then immediately looks to help his family fight the sorceress. One family member doesn’t even believe the baby is related to him. He tricks his way into getting a ride on his head by hiding under a hat, but soon finds himself at the hands of -- what seems to be -- an evil sorceress.

Persepolis Analysis

"Persepolis" by Marjane Satrapi is a great example of why exaggeration is an important part of animating. I like how Satrapi used exaggeration in this animation to emphasize parts of the story. Strapi certainly did not over-exaggerate.

Exaggeration does not mean just distorting the actions or objects arbitrarily, but the animator must carefully choose which properties to exaggerate. If only one thing is exaggerated then it may stand out too much. If everything is exaggerated, then the entire scene may appear too unrealistic.

For example, a common use of exaggeration in "Persepolis" is the height of kids vs. the height of adults. The nuns look like they are 10 feet tall compared to the 3 feet tall kids. I think it's important "Persepolis" used exaggeration because it was in black and white. It helped distinguish and emphasize characteristics more easily.

It is important not to emphasize too many things with exaggeration because then it is hard to differentiate what is being exaggerated and what is not. I think exaggerating height is frequently used in animation, and it's something I definitely would have used if I had animated something with children and adults. However, I understand its ability to emphasize characteristics of people, objects and sound as well.

The Piano Animation Analysis

What techniques, camera angels, perspectives, colors, timing and other devices are employed by the animator? Could you use these techniques your self in you music project?
In The Piano, Aidan Gibbons does a phenomenal job of using shadows. The music is amazing, but the animation plays off it even better.

When the ghost of the wife appears, it is clear she is a ghost because of her transparency and glow. Gibbons uses the transparent/glow theme for the boy as well, who unwraps a toy horse to ride.



Gibbons uses several camera angles, and all effectively. Sometimes there will be close-ups of the hands, while other times it will be wide shots of the entire scene. This is something I really would like to do in my projects. However, I am worried that the animation of hands is too complex for my level in Flash.

Another thing I found interesting was the background use. Sometimes it was all black, while other times they were in the piano room.

Poetry Animation Analysis

The Search for Lost Lives - James Tate

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/poetryeverywhere/uwm/tate.html

Two things made this animation ineffective. First, the type over the animations were completely unnecessary since there was a narration. I could handle subtitles, but the text over the animations was not aesthetically pleasing, especially since it was hard to read most of the time.

The second part that made this animation ineffective was the dull voice of the narrator. Could they have chosen someone any more boring?

Nights on Planet Earth - Campbell McGrath

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/poetryeverywhere/uwm/mcgrath.html

This animation was far more effective than Tate's. Both downsides to Tate's were positives for McGrath's. One thing I didn't like about it was how literal each animation was based on the lyrics.

I think this animation was helped by the poem's words. It was perfect for an animation.

Animation Analysis

Blackfly - Christopher Hinton

Despite the characters having very basic designs, the entire animation captures detail with every action. For example, Hinton follows the cable lines closely. He generally uses close-up views opposed to wide shots, which I think goes hand-in-hand with the upbeat song. Because the view is so close, it allows the camera to move quickly, which matches the pace of the song.

Hinton uses a ton of scenes to organize his story. For a five-minute production such is this, one has to break it up in many scenes. 

I definitely believe this was a successful animation, mainly because of the music being synchronized with the animations. That alone makes it visually appealing, but because the storyline was humorous too.