Reflecting on Units

21/03/16

Unit 1, 2 & 3 - Media Passport

I guess what went well was how I survived through this without trying to blow a gasket. I learned in Unit 1 about the process of making a film, the different members of production, camera shots and rules.

What went well in Unit 2 was how primary and secondary research works in getting information. I learned that primary research is done by one-self, while secondary research by or obtained from different people. I carried out a survey that i posted on Facebook for the members of my class were to take. Only five took my survey, I expected more people to take it. I learned that there are other ways in carrying out a survey, such as, hand out paper copies or ask them in person. The purpose of all this is to see what people think about postcards - to choose a target audience. To be honest I really don't know what I would do differently.

Unit 3 I learned about layout on Adobe programs, such as, InDesign.

Unit 4 - Christmas Card

I had some fun with the christmas cards, because I can just let go of my christmas imagination based on a few ideas from Pinterest. I became more comfortable with tracing over the scanned original drawings. At that time I was quite comfortable with the task when we were using the computer mouse.

Unit 5 & 6 - Caller Unknown

I wished I had a bit more time to come up with more ideas for my Caller Unknown film. I learned that you have to suffer to make a film in a sense that you cannot put in a lot of your creative energy into it, because of the restrictions on the brief. As for the audition, I really think I need those performing arts students to engage with their judges or at least acknowledge that at least one of them is going to be picked for a film. The equipment front has been a challenge as well, such as recording the dialogue outside, because of the blustery wind getting into the mic, so I learned that I could record some dialogue inside a quiet room. I had also learned that I need to check if the camera or microphone had a memory card or if it is full.

Unit 7 - Steve

I enjoyed basing my construction toy off of something from a game - The Elder Scrolls. Though the one thing I do not enjoy was that i had to create a whole original system of child construction. I dare say I progressed well, such as grouping shapes or creating a 3d effect on InDesign.

Comic Project Review

17/03/16

I think of what went well was how I was able to make most things historically and culturally accurate, while most other people did contemporary. I guess I did this for the Ninja Spider to make people learn the actual term and nature of a ninja.

Maybe one thing I could change would be the redesign of one of the characters: Shogun Sasori, maybe improve better shape of his tail and claws by giving them a bit more detail.

I learned that by joining the lines in Illustrator, they become one whole thing, overall I did get better at using it. The skill would like to learn to do is learn how to use the frame tool.

CPR Campaign

15/03/16

I thought up this poster after I heard about a court case of many people who took selfies with a man who needed help. After hearing this, it sickens me of how people can be so ignorant when another person's life is at stake. So I drew a smartphone with the picture of a dumb person, posing for a selfie while there is a dead person in the background! I also drew out a rhetorical question whether it's even a good thing to be taking a picture with a dying or even dead man. Answer: neither of them is good!

Comic Panel experimentation

10/03/16

Perhaps maybe to change this, I could make one panel bigger than the others to dominate the page.

I don't really know why I made this panel bigger, but maybe it was possibly to establish a scene of the character's introduction.

I just randomly chose these panels, mostly because I thought we were going to do something that was not relating to the brief. I had to work my head around on what would happen in the first panel and then work my way on the other panels. I choose the black and white because it would give this simplistic effect as Yojimbo Usagi did.

Comic panels

10/03/16

Light

02/03/16

Key lighting is an important setup for a cameraman or photographer. The key light is used as a highlight the dimension of a person or object.

Fill lighting is used to brighten one part of the shot that the key light could not reach. It is useful when trying to show all the details of the object or character.

Backlighting is used as an illumination from behind the subject. It also gives the subject a nice illuminating effect.

Illustrator Tutorial

03/03/16

The Complete Beginners Guide To Adobe Illustrator

It mentions that there are 19 episodes of Illustrator tutorial. After you sketch your design on paper, you can trace it over in Illustrator, mostly by adding shapes and brush lines. I have learned that colour squares are added on the poster designs to collaborate the colours to printers.

Vox Pop

07/03/16

I went into a group to ask a lot of random people a question, but the problem was, we didn't had a subject for our question! Instead we chose a the most generic question on earth: What is your favourite animal?

We had our question, except the people in my group could not make up their own minds on who to ask. They had the confidence of a frilled neck lizard. We had the interviews filmed.

Comic book review

01/03/16

The comic I will be reviewing is 'Usagi Yojimbo' by Stan Sakai.

In the first panel, Miyamoto Usagi comes across a Japanese fortress town on top of a hill. As everyone should know it tells about a ronin (master-less samurai) rabbit who goes on pilgrimage of Japan's countryside giving his services as a bodyguard. I do like the layout with the grey sky with white clouds above the town and the mountains surrounding the grassland area. I also do like how the scene suggests the direction the wind is going, because Miyamoto's ears can draw the viewer's eye across the page. The wind suggestion also promotes a feeling of 'greater calm' to the scene and possibly the reader.

 

The second are five panels with two panels of Usagi fighting on horseback against enemy warriors and winning. I do like the overall simple black and white style. Although it was just a way of saying money, but it's okay because it doesn't need flashy colours. I like the facial expressions, but I also want to point out that the detailing is too intense and thought it should be more simpliefied. Tomoe Ame's quote "He's fighting like a demon!" is a simile comparing to the way Usagi fights whether it's in a positive or negative contrast. I do like the full-plated samurai armour that Miyamoto is wearing because of the authentically drawn design.

Personally I think Usagi Yojimbo can really help with my Ninja Spider project, because it stays faithful to Japanese culture and history.



Reflection on construction toy poster

01/03/16

For some weeks i had to come up with a construction toy and it had to be original idea and I felt like this had my brain injuring itself as the task was very challenging. I had to do some research on existing construction toys such as K'Nex, Zoobs and Toobez, then that's when I had the idea of connecting sticks. But that was then I felt like I needed to get this further out to other people. So then I thought 'What could be the most coolest thing to make kids buy it?' I thought of Lego Ultrabuilds, but instead of DC/Marvel Comics or The Legend of Chima, I decided to go with Skyrim and I guess it made me feel better.

I showed what Stks looks like with the detail connecting, including the side view. Illustrator was not as simple to use as photoshop, considering I had more experience with Photoshop than Illustrator. I didn't exactly feel more confident after that, it had no paint bucket. If I did the project again I would add the arms and improve my grammar.

HEY I'M GRUMP! I'M NOT SO GRUMP! *Warning: explicit language*

01/03/16



Game Grumps is a video game commentary show featuring Arin Hanson AKA Egoraptor and Leigh Daniel Avidan AKA Danny Sexbang or simply Dan. In these shows they normally comment on about weird things that happened in their lives, talk about made up funny scenarios or talk about how good a game they're playing is or how bad. The reason why I like these Game Grumps animated is the fact it has this fitting hilarity, especially with what they say and how the animator(s) fitted the commentary and the action of the cartoon. Part of the comedy comes from their frustration or the contrast of different moods. I may just see that as my FMP (Final Major Project), by taking different parts of the commentary and animate them.