Kinetic Typography

 

This is a video called "Do it." It is a motivational video using kinetic typography. This video is based on the idea to just go for it and do things.  The target audience for the video is basically anyone. It was made for anyone who wants to do something. The main idea is to inspire people to try things because it is the only way you can succeed. It talks about how not trying things will not get you anywhere. There might be a few failures along the way, but it is only natural. They can help you learn lessons for next time. It simply tells you to try hard to achieve anything you want in life. I would describe this video as non-fiction. Some techniques used in the video is the use of music. There is very soft, slow and happy music playing in the back. It helped create a calm mood when I watched it. Also, the music was not too loud and aggressive overpowering the voice over. I could really focus on what was being said by following along while reading the words. There wasn't anything making me lose focus or distracting me.

This video is called 'Be water'. It was made from a famous quote by Bruce Lee. This video is based on the idea to "be like water. " It is based on the idea to to be more flexible and think outside of the box. This video was made for pretty much everyone. I think there is more than one message in this video. The main idea is to inspire people to be more flexible. The message is being conveyed by using water as something to relate too. Another message I think comes across is that everything can have two sides to it. The water can be smooth flowing or violent. I do not think that is comes across as fictional or non-fictional, but more as philosophy. The video uses an audio voice over and pictures with the writing. The visuals were great to help me stay interested.

This is also a short and sweet video I found that I liked. It used some audio from "The pursuit of happiness".

Field Trip to the AGO!

Our class recently took a trip to the Art Gallery of Ontario, also known as the A.G.O. This was my second time visiting the gallery after my first visit last school year. Although that trip was more geography based (too look for various geographic landscapes). This time around our main goal was to look at the different paintings and observe the different styles.

We got the change to look at some famous artwork and look for inspiration for our own work. The pieces ranged from paintings to sculptures and much more. I really enjoyed seeing the real life paintings rather than in books or online because I could get a better, closer look. It's much different looking at the paintings up close and observing the different brush strokes and such.

 These are  pictures of two of the paintings that really stood out to me. I realized that they stood out to me for more than one reason. I realized that I really liked abstract pieces. Abstract pieces stand out to me because they are so simple, yet they can look very good. It amazed me how these pieces can be abstract while allowing everyone looking at it to see it differently in their own way. I also liked the different colours used in both paintings and how the colours look together as a whole. I really like how the first painting is very crisp and clean. The repeated colours look great.

I found out the many techniques of the different artists and how they painted. We also learned about the history behind some of the pieces and when they were being painted. it gave us a better understanding about why they were painted in a certain way.

Something else that really stood out to me which was not a painting were these bottles. I liked how each one was so different. I thought they were very cool!

We had a great time at the gallery once again and I sure wouldn't mind visiting it again. If you are interesting in seeing different types of art the A.G.O is the place to go! :)

Skull Composition

This is my skull composition. For this piece I used a lot of shading and value with my HB, 2B and 6B pencils. I am going to talk about the principles of design I used to accomplish my composition. 

The first principle I used was variety/contrast. I had to use this principle to distinguish between the darks and lights in my composition. I created thin and thick lines alongside dark and light lines to give the piece a 3-dimensional look. A range of different values really made it stand out more and look a lot more realistic. 

Another principle I kept in mind was balance. I tried to keep the composition balanced even with an odd amount of objects. The objects were purposely placed how they are to create Asymmetrical balance. I did this by placing a bunch of little objects together on top of each other while putting a much larger object beside it. This balance created a sense of activity and interest. No one side is not too overpowering and that makes the piece look balanced. I also achieved this by not putting anything in the center of the page because√ that would cause too much of a center point of focus. I did not want the cup for example to be the main object sticking out and extremely noticeable. That is why I thought it was a good idea to put everything off to the side and not center them. I have also created balance by putting similar amounts of dark areas on each side so that is stands out as a whole and not just to one side. 

The last principle I used was movement. I wanted the viewer's eyes to move a certain way through my piece. The swirl on the left brings your attention into the entire piece while the role of paper makes sure your eyes stay inside the picture. Then the cup brings your attention upward towards the skull. I have also tried to create movement in the sheet on the ground of my objects. The curved lines bring your eyes into the main part of the piece. 

Those are some of the main principles of design, which I used in my piece. If were to make it better I would probably fix up the shading a bit to make the light parts stand out even more. Overall I am happy with this piece. Enjoy. :)

Oil Paint Filter!

I recently started using Photoshop CS6 and have learned about a few of it's new features. One of the new tools we were introduced to was the Mixer Brush! the mixer brush was a cool new brush designed to mix different colours to create a painting effect. Although I found that really cool I recently found another new way to create that painted look using a filter. The new "Oil Paint" filter. You can change settings to determine however you want your picture to look like stylization, cleanliness and much more according to your preference! I think it's a very quick and easy way of creating something great.  Here is a link to an oil paint filter tutorial if you would like to try it out, enjoy! :)

Mask Type Tool

This is my assignment using the new technique we learned called "Scratch Art". The word I chose to use for this project is "SMILE". When I thought about this word many things came to mind. I could think about at least five things that would make me happy and smile. I thought this was perfect because my word has five letters in it, that could all represent one picture.

The process of making this piece was quite simple. I used Photoshop CS6 to make this. First I opened a new canvas and covered an entire new layer with black. (using the paint bucket tool) Next I picked the five different pictures I wanted to use from Google. The pictures I chose are cupcakes, a smile, rain, flowers and the beach. I re-sized each picture and placed them in a horizontal arrangement in the order that pleased me, each on a different layer. Then I went back to the plain black layer and wrote the word "SMILE" using the mask type tool, making sure that each letter was on top on its' picture. Lastly I used the eraser tool with a diameter of 1px and started to scratch inside the word.

I chose to use this font because it seemed happy to me. I liked the way it was sort of bubbly and not very sharp and strong. If I could change anything about this it would definitely be the way I wrote the word. I would try and make the different types of pictures I used more noticeable because it is hard to tell what exactly the pictures are of. I think a bolder bubbly text could have made the pictures a bit more visible. 

Scratch art is not extremely difficult and is a fun way to experiment by putting different words and pictures together with a cool scratch effect. Try Scratch Art if you haven't already!

Obliterate it all

The word I chose is Obliterate. The definition of obliterate is to remove from existence and/or destroy.

The original intent for my still image was to Show a repetitive picture of a girl. The girl was supposed to be very dark and gradually fade away nothing.  The original concept for my video was to make it really sad. I wanted to show more of the emotions relating to the word obliterate than objects actually being destroyed. A few ideas I had in mind where to add in the girls tears. I did not end up shooting this clip for my video. Also I was planning to put sound/music playing in the background throughout the entire video.

The image I used for my still is a shot from one of the clips in my video. It is a girl sitting alone. I repeated the photo again on its right but this time I faded it away. There is a picture of a flame over the two pictures, but mainly on the picture which is faded.

The still expresses my word because the girl was being “destroyed” as she faded. I put more of the flame on the faded side of the image because on that half she is actually wearing away.

In the video I chose to use clips of a girl. The girl is in the room, yet she is not there. It is like she is removed from existence through others eyes. There are clips of her all alone and then her with people but left out. It seems like she’s in the room with people, yet she is all alone. She is being destroyed emotionally. I sequenced them in this particular order because it shows her being invisible mildly and then something big happens destroying everything. Then gain this repeats. I chose not to use music throughout the entire thing because this way the small sounds build up and the big sounds surprisingly come up. There were not many affects or transitions used. I used a flashing affect in the beginning to create suspense.

The process for this video to be made took pretty long. It took longer to get the ideas and clips than it did putting my video together. Once I had all my ideas, it was not as big of a challenge making the video.

I think I did quite well on this project because I believe the message/word I was trying to show came through. In order to shoot these clips, I had to use a Nikon D3100 which I did not know how to use before. I learned how to I enjoyed doing this project although it took a lot more time than I thought.

Phoenix Animation

    

This is a short stop motion animation our class created together using  our fingerprints!