Final thoughts on #BDC192

Here we are, the final week of BDC 192. A little sad for me - I genuinely enjoyed the course, and counted it among my favourite classes this semester. I felt like I could take something away from every lecture, I threw myself into the assignments with enthusiasm, and made quite a few friends in the lab.
Despite the early lecture time, I didn't find myself dozing off anymore after the first couple weeks. Part of this was thanks to the "cool finds" Laurie showed every week, which I always looked forward to. One in particular that I liked was "Her Morning Elegance" - I actually downloaded the song afterward.

I've definitely been affected by the course. Not to brag, but I think I'm pretty good at After Effects, Photoshop, and Illustrator, and it's sparked my interest in graphic design. My trailer for "White Chicks" in particular is a piece I'm really proud of, and I could see myself doing work like that in the future. Maybe not as my main profession, since I feel called toward on-air work, but it would be really cool to apply myself creatively to graphic design on some sort of professional level.

(c) William Reid

All in all, I think the big thing to take away from BDC 192 is that there is a lot more to digital media than meets the eye, and a lot more ways to apply these media than one might think. Whether in the realm of internet, TV, radio, gaming, or any other branch of digital media, there is a lot of room to be creative.

Interactivity + Web Media

This week's lecture was particularly interesting, because an avid web media user and gamer, the content of the lecture was particularly intriguing. Here are three concepts that particularly stood out to me:

1) Gamer demographics
I was really surprised by some of the statistics related to gaming. I never would have guessed that the average game purchaser is 39 years old, but thinking about it, it kind of makes sense; if the statistic is related specifically to the purchaser, parents are usually the ones who buy games for their kids. Which, as long as middle-aged parents aren't buying Grand Theft Auto for their 10-year-olds, is reasonable.

2) Alternate Reality Games
I'm a little unsure as to whether or not The Sims counts as an ARG. I don't think it does, but from the moment ARGs were mentioned in lecture I was pondering this for the rest of the session. Technically it does take place in an alternate world, but this world shuts down when the player signs off. Plus, there aren't really plot-based puzzles, and it doesn't technically take place in real time. A bit of a shame, really, since I've been an avid Sims gamer for over five years. Perhaps a slightly closer comparison could be made with the Nintendo title, Animal Crossing, which actually does run in real time and continues to progress even when the player isn't gaming. I haven't played the game in years but I think I still have the GameCube disc, so it might be interesting to pull it out and see what's happened in the world of the game since I last played...

3) HTML
Before the lecture, I understood what HTML was and had a basic knowledge of how it works, thanks to my experience on fan pages and message boards. However, I didn't really have a thorough knowledge - not to say that I do now all of a sudden, but I now realize there's more to learn. Essentially, my ability to code HTML doesn't reach much further than embedding content, such as pictures and YouTube videos, as well as basic things like bold, italics and underline. I learned, in very basic terms, how to code a website in high school through Dreamweaver, but clearly there is a lot more to know.

Sneak Peek: Motion Graphic Assignment

Only a few more days until the motion graphic assignments are due! Unlike most people, I'm not using filmed footage; instead I decided to generate my content digitally. Using the movie "White Chicks" as my subject, I've come up with a few cool ideas (at least, I think they're cool).

For my title card, which will end the clip, I thought I'd give the logo a 3-dimensional look, so that it doesn't just look like words on a screen. I used the drop shadow, bevel and emboss, and stroke features in photoshop to do this. Also, I've used stick figures as the I's in both words, because it ties into the rest of my clip.

The movie's plot involves two black FBI agents going undercover as white women, so in asking myself, "how do I convey this extremely bold and profound concept in five seconds?", I decided stick figures would be the most unique way of doing this. Now it's just a matter of getting all my ideas into place to make a really cool trailer!

Internet Memes and What They Mean to Digital Media

This week, I thought I'd talk more about the online sensation that is the internet meme. Of all the topics we've covered thus far in BDC 192, motion graphics have been among my favourite, because I find GIFs so amusing. But GIFs only encompass a small subcategory of internet meme culture.
By definition, a "meme" is "an idea, belief or belief system, or pattern of behavior that spreads throughout a culture either vertically by cultural inheritance (as by parents to children) or horizontally by cultural acquisition (as by peers, information media, and entertainment media)" (UrbanDictionary.com). So an internet meme would be a meme spread throughout culture through the digital medium of the world wide web. This could include virtually (see what I did there?) anything that can be transferred online; pictures, videos, sound clips, etc.
One of the things I love about internet memes is that they make participating in the online world so much more fun. For example, literally anyone with an internet connection will tell you that wasting away hours watching popular YouTube clips is among the easiest things a human can do. Take, for instance, your average adorable cat video:

When someone sees something like this that they enjoy, they instinctively save/bookmark it, send it to their friends via a social medium like email or Facebook, or add a comment about the video in the box below the clip. And so, a meme is born.
Internet memes are also used to express emotions. More and more people take part in online communities, such as tumblr, Oh No They Didn't, and various other social spaces that are either general or more niche (e.g. a Harry Potter community message board). If a user wanted to express excitement, wouldn't it be more fun to post a GIF such as the one below, rather than type, "omg i'm so excited!!"

These are but a few examples of why internet memes are changing the way people engage digital media, but in my opinion, it's definitely not a bad thing!

AfterEffects Motion Graphic: A Work in Progress

With the Motion Graphics assignment looming, everyone's slowly moving from the planning phase to the production and implementation phase. I guess this would also include myself, however my idea is still more of a concept and in the relatively early stages. In talking to Laurie, I've decided to go with one of my two ideas, which was for the movie "White Chicks" (a personal favourite).

http://www.movieposterdb.com/poster/716f3e63

The movie's logo uses white lowercase i's overtop black lowercase i's to give the illusion of male stick figures, but that's as far as the figures are used in the film's branding and marketing. My idea is to take this branding a step further in my motion graphic. For starters, I plan on creating my own stick figures inspired by the ones found on public restroom doors -- in Illustrator, at Laurie's suggestion. The plan is to have two black stick figures move, in stop-motion, through some sort of screen and come out on the other end as white female stick figures. This summarizes the basic plot of the movie: two black men go undercover as white women. The music would go from something more urban (stereotypical, I know, but reflective of the film) to some sort track that would be more identifiably feminine. At the end, I think I'd have the name of the film in a similar, but not identical, typeface to the one shown above, though I don't want it to look like a copy. For now, I'll have to work on nailing down a solid concept, but I'm excited to get to work!

Week 7: Typography

1. PlayStation 3

(http://tinyurl.com/n6gwl7)

Although the PS3 logo has been revamped since its launch in 2006, its initial logo was what is referred to as "the Spider-Man font," taken from the most recent Spider-Man franchise. Although the article this image is sourced from does point out that a factor in PS3 using this font was that its maker, Sony, already owned the Spider-Man rights, the use of this typography is still effective in channeling the system's target demographic; the Spider-Man viewer audience of young males is also the target consumer group for video games, so using the identical typefaces was certainly a clever decision on Sony's part.

2. The Walt Disney Company

(http://tinyurl.com/3qdl7sd)

The Walt Disney Company logo is one of the most iconic and easily-recognized in the world because of how distinct it is. The use of its founder's signature as its logo creates an emotional familiarity between consumer and corporation, one which the Disney brand is synonymous with. Disney fans are known to be extremely loyal as consumers, and the fact that the logo has remained the same basically since the company's inception has helped to keep this loyalty strong through the ages.

3. Nike

(http://tinyurl.com/3wk7q6h)

Like the Disney logo, Nike's is also iconic, but largely because of its signature "swoosh" symbol. The simple typography used on the word "NIKE" serves not to distract from the image. Seemingly made in "Impact" font, the typography is also italicized which works well given that Nike is a sporting goods company; the italics could be seen to represent swiftness, speed, or movement. 

Motion Graphics - aka, my top 5 favourite GIFs

As an avid internet user, I'm already very familiar with motion graphics. My area of expertise lies in the realm of GIF files related to internet memes, popular on such websites such as Tumblr. I actually have over 530 GIFs in a folder on my desktop, so it is literally impossible to pick one as my favourite. Instead, I'll compile a top 5 list of my favourite motion graphics!

5) Arthur - "Haters Gonna Hate"

This GIF pretty much embodies what I love about internet memes: taking something and putting it into a different, usually humorous context. Also notable is the fact that the colours have been slightly edited from the original media, seemingly to give it a glossier look.

4) Excited Beyonce

 I really like this GIF for two reasons. First, it's edited really well; GIFs are essentially looping animations, but in this one it's hard to tell where exactly the loop cut is - it flows really nicely. Secondly, the maker of the graphic edited it so that Beyonce is the only person moving in the clip - everyone else is frozen in each frame, which makes it look very cool.
Plus, I really like using this GIF whenever I refer to a song/movie/generally any other piece of media I consider "my jam" (i.e. "that's my JAM!!!")

3) Pocahontas - "Hey Gurl Hey!"

This GIF, aside from being humorous, also shows off another cool thing about motion graphics in general: the many ways to use text. Instead of having the entire phrase up for the duration of the loop, the creator lets each word flash for a few frames. Just an interesting detail. Plus, I've had "Colours of the Wind" stuck in my head literally this entire week, so I had to include my girl Pocahontas in my blog somehow.

2) Woody - "I Can't"

This one's really only on the list because I made it myself, without any prior training in photoshop, so I was pretty proud of myself to figure out how to make a GIF almost entirely on my own (except for an online tutorial or two). The "I can't," well, I'll let Urban Dictionary explain what that means in internet lingo: http://bit.ly/rgvJNg

1) The Oprah "Ugly Cry"

This is my favourite motion graphic, probably ever. GIFs of Oprah Winfrey crying are abundant on the web, and it's well-known that no one does a full-out ugly cry quite like Oprah. This GIF is perfect for expressing a wide variety of emotions: extreme joy, extreme sadness, extreme excitement, etc.