Cyberdrama

For this blog, a game that I play that I would like to analyze is NBA 2K12, which was made by 2K Sports.

There are hardly any limitations by the creator in this game. I can play as any team I want, and use any player I want. As a player, I am definitely immersed in the game as I have complete control over my player and can make him do just about anything I can imagine.

As Janet Murray said in "Cyberdrama," "Stories and games are also both distanced from the real world, alhtough they often include activities that are done "for real" in other domains. The stock market, for example is a betting game, but real world resources are exchanged and people's out-of-game or out-of-trading-floor lives are profoundly changed by events taking place there."

To make an impact in NBA 2K12, I can play better with my team than my opponent and beat them by measure of total score in points.

In dynasty mode, you have the option to stay locked on one player throughout the entire game and can see his abilities develop with experience. This is a great asset to the game.

Theatrical Concepts in Human/Computer Acitivty

For this blog, I analyzed "Travels in Argentina and Bolivia." This is an audio slideshow about a few people who traveled through South America, specifically Argentina and Bolivia.

Action: The slideshow showed action with pictures, describing how they danced the tango and climbed a volcano.

Character: The slideshow showed several characters in photos, but there was only one voice narrating. The narrator described the native people and how they viewed life.

Thought: There was hardly any emotion or depth to the story, only a narration of the trip.

Language: The narrator spoke in a clear, easy-to-understand English tone. The narrator didn't use any other variations in telling his story.

Pattern: There was light background music throughout, and on occasion there was some use of natural sound. Mainly, however, I just heard the narrator and the background and natural sound was just to keep it from being silent. This was a nice touch on the author, as it wouldn't have been right to play this slideshow without any background noise. That method would be best for a solemn moment or story.

Enactment: The photography by Beatriz and Eric Stollnitz was truly phenomenal. They captured the view of both Argentina and Bolivia, using a wide variety of landscape and portraits. As it should be, the photography was the highlight of the slideshow.

Transmedia

The goal of transmedia is to unite people who interact from all platforms while following a story according to nmincite.com. The website says transmedia is on the rise, as you can see from this graph.

When Disney acquired marvel for an estimated $4.3 billion it was expected to produced transmedia-focused content. The site says that transmedia is something that is always growing and is never "finished." Clearly, that is the case.

Remediation, Immediacy and Hypermediacy

"Succinctly put, remediation is media used anew in other media. Not mainly the content, but (part of) the form is reused in a new media form."

That, according to Mediated memories, is remediation in a nutshell. The blog post goes on to talk about immersing oneself in a story.

Comps like these show that the bigger an image is, the more it becomes real. Clearly, immediacy and hypermediacy are not mutually exclusive. Rather, there counterparts reinforce each other.

Time Barrow of Contemplating Digital Orality has a different take on immediacy, hypermediacy and remediation. He says that immediacy has a lot to do with access, understanding and interaction, and how easy it is to do these three things. Hypermediacy, however, has to do with things being very easily interactive, but not necessarily transparent, the blog says. For remediation, Time says that it depends on what else has been put out, via new media and more. He argues that there should be a difference between viewing a painting in person and viewing a painting online. However, for whatever reason, this is not the case.

Digital Narrative

"Distributed narratives are stories that aren't self-contained. They're stories that can't be experienced in a single session or in a single space. They're stories that cross over into our daily lives, becoming as ubiquitous as the network that fosters them."

That quote defines what Jilll Walker's piece "Distributed Narrative: Telling Stories Across Networks" was about. Although her piece was just an intro to further research, the document said a lot about narratives and the different ways of telling stories online.

For this assignment, I chose to review "The Toll Bridge" by Nathan Oser on themoonlitroad.com. The author does a good job of drawing you in by using clear language and even phrases such as "Are you listening?" to keep you honest.

For a change of pace, a lot of this story was dialogue. For example:  

“Where are we?” Tommy glanced left and right along the road and squinted to read the street sign through clinging layers of fog. “Graves–way–Lane?”

“Yeah, Old Man Hickley’s.” Ricky flicked him in the chest and capered across the street. “Come on.” 

“Didn’t know this place was here,” said Tommy, wading through the fog. 

“Sure you did. Remember swimming lessons? The old pool used to be just down that way.”

Although the story was only told through text, the author did a good job of capturing moments by using descriptive language such as "laughed" and "easy as cake."

Overall, I thought the piece was strong, but not as strong as some of the multimedia pieces I've followed. Having huge blocks of text in a blog-like format isn't always attractive, and having photos and videos to navigate through at all times is always a plus. This story didn't have much of a multimedia element.

Interactive Narratives

While reviewing "Shirtless Others" by Jason Ockert on BornMagazine.org, I had difficulties understanding how to follow along. I think the general idea of cutting into the shark to show more of the story is a good idea, but after trying to follow along for a while, it didn't come as easy as hoped. The story definitely does a nice job of using sound effects, as I really do feel like one of the people next to the caught shark on the beach with the sound of waves and seagulls. "Several baby sharks spill out onto the pier and gasp. They writhe in the air with unblinking black eyes." That part was unexpected, but a nice spin to the narrative. The next scene turns to black and you can see the baby sharks on the ground next to the blood. Powerful writing here: "I wait to see what the thin woman will do. I am prepared to cry out if she skewers them, protest, maybe point a finger. But she lets them be, dying like they are on the dock." Artistically, I think changing the scene to black and inverting the colors really set the tone for that final line. The blood is accentuated, as is the overall tone of the scene.

For my second review, I was very impressed with "Go a Hippy Tribe" from SBS.com. Not only was it very comprehensive, but the motion background and overall solid design helped make it feel real.

The sound effects were subtle, but it made for a realistic environment. It's actually surprising just how easy the site is to navigate and follow the story. The layout actually gives off a video game-type feel, allowing users to feel their way around the site. Video plays seamlessly, introducing the tribesmen, and although I didn't connect, apparently it's very easy to share the story or parts of the story to Facebook. This was definitely one of the better narratives I've followed along online.

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.

Week 5 Animation Analysis (Part 2)

The Danish Poet - Torill Kove

This was definitely the longest animation thus far, but reasonably so, as it told a comlete short story. The movments in this animation were very smooth, but the characters and design weren't very detailed. I think the narrator was definitely vital to the animation, as so much happened in a 15-minute span that I wouldn't have been able to figure out what was going on.

Week 5 Animation Analysis (Part 1)

Bitey of Brackenwood - Adam Phillips

I thought the characters' movements were exceptional in this animation. From the fat, farting yellow creature to the witch in the treehouse, the actions were very fast and real looking. I also liked the use of light in this animation: i.e. the sunlight shining on the treehouse and Bitey shown from his backside as a shadow.

Side note: This was definitely my favorite animation I have seen up to this point!

Week 4 Animation Analysis

Meat Love - Jan Svankmajer

It was definitely weird to switch from penciled cartoon animations to an actual piece of meat animation. I am trying to figure out how this was made. I'm pretty sure it's a combination of video footage and animation. The part at the end when the meat begins to boil has to be video footage, but the rest I think can be done in Flash. I hope I learn how to make this!

Week 3 Animation Analysis

Bathtime in Clerkenwell - Alex Budovsky

This animation was very fast paced and synced with the beat of the music. The music really drives the animation since it has a rhythm so you know what to expect.

Week 1 Animation Analysis

How a Mosquito Operates - Winsor McCay

Immediately you realize there is no sound whatsoever from the characters. Many movements seemed to be exaggerated by repeating it (looping, a central technique in Flash). Perhaps this was to help the viewer not miss any subtle movements. The mosquito biting a human was a good example for showing motion because the entire process has a lot of movement and generates different facial expressions.