Critique

After the critique on Wednesday, I really liked how we had a round robin approach of looking at different net art pieces online on different computers. I liked this much more than having everyone present their piece in a presentation. Here we could experience their piece as a user instead of listening to them talk about their project. From this we could click on the buttons and could read and critique at our own time and pace. It was good to get anonymous comments because some of the feedback was really helpful. This also made it easier for people to give constructive critisizm instead of telling them to their face and possibly offending the artist. I also liked how there was a wide variety of different projects. I felt like this made the critique much more interesting as people would experiment with different types of software – either Flash to Processing, etc. There were also a variety of different kinds of designs and graphics that people used which was nice to see. Some people would have graphics of grass to tattoo art. Overall I found it to be a worthy experience as you could see so many different types of personal work.

Final Project

When I was trying to upload my Flash project to the web, I had some problems fixing out the bugs. The professor helped me by moving my .swf file into the www/ file of my cyberduck ftp program. We also had to make the flash project into an html file by opening it up in Dreamweaver. I had to put a title on my work with my name on it. Afterwards I found out that I also need my video files in my ftp cyberduck www/ file. The page wouldn’t load without all of the content which in this case were the extra video files.

Here is the final product.

Links

For the animation – instead of using Javascript for the other links that I wanted to use at the bottom, I used a link feature by adding the url to my Flash project. I probably need to work more on the interface graphics with the Yakuza Koala and clean it up a bit if I can. There is still a bunch of red fuzzy looking lines around the character.

Bottom Links

I need to get some Javascript for my extra content links at the bottom my interface page. I want to let the user be able to click on the link for Yakuza at the bottom so the page can be redirected to a website about the history of the Yakuza Japanese Gang. I also want to put a link at the bottom of my interface called Gummi History which is a link to see a website on the complicated process of how Gummi Bear candy are manufactured and processed. At the moment I’m trying to put in a second video clip that shows the sticky consistency of what Gummi Bears look like after they are microwaved. I want to put this at the bottom linked called microwaved Gummis. Afterwards I need to upload it to the web. I also learned that it was better to make the French rap clip into a movieclip and then drag it to the stage.

Microwaved Gummi Bears

I microwaved a few Gummi Bears and I started using my hand to move it around. I want to use this as a link to another page of content. This is very sticky and has a strange texture.

Microwaved Gummi Bears

Sound Clips

I have been looking for hip hop tracks or soundclips on creative commons and it has been somewhat difficult to find works you can modify. I wonder if I’m not just navigating the site as well as I could or if I might have to try to make my own sound clips on Garage Band. I tried making my own hip hop rhythms but I found them to be kind of bad. There were some clips on Garage Band with cool hip hop rhythms but I couldn’t find a way to record them. I think they are just background music clips to help you out. I do have some gunshot noises that were free to modify. I might think about some dialogue or funny screams from the characters that could be added too.

One hip hop song in French that I was allowed to download.

Flash Lesson

I learned earlier that I need to have an interface for people to navigate the content of my website. I chose the image of the Yakuza Koala candy character as the interface. You can click on the stick or gun, etc, and get different content such as the story, etc.

There are certain ratios that I had to consider when the web content is on the web. I have to be mindful of different video compressions, that if I use Flash I must scale down my images and save it as a PNG-24 file, and should be mindful of the normal bandwidth most people have.

I also need to find some hip-hop music on Creative Commons that is not commercialized and licensed. I should use these as the sound effects and also have the gunshot noises added in.

In addition I need to try and learn how to use Flash for animations. I got a sense that I can make composite works with the different layers on it. The layers also help to organize the different codes, images, and other functions on Flash. I can also rely on the actionscript help for some of the code.

Stop Motion

For a portion of my Final Cut Pro or Flash piece, I am making a small stop motion animation of the actual Gummi Bears fighting the Koala candies. I have the candy city background printed off and then I am using a camera and the intervalometer program on my Mac to make this. My hand kept on getting in the front of the camera but I think it makes it more interesting to have that in the way. I do need to slow this down a bit and add some more frames but here is a rough clip of what I did. I do need to export it on Quicktime player as individual frames and then I can tweak it even more so on Flash or Final Cut Pro.

A portion of the clip that I am working on.

Project Ideas

Here is the storyboard for the animation I want to make with the Gummi Bear Gangstas versus the Chocolate Yakuza Koalas. I want to make like a comic style version for the introduction and then I thought it would be an interesting blend to make a stop motion animation with the real pieces of candy in battle. This could also be a first work out of a series of other episodes or storylines.

I want to use Photoshop and Comic Life for the comic part of the story and I want to use the camera/stop motion technique that was shown in class last Thursday after we watched all of those animations. I think what is also possible for content is having some video clips like what happens when Gummi Bears are microwaved or when Koala March Candies are run over for some interesting sound and visual effects.

Maybe some clips like this can be possible content to branch off this initial concept of candy, gangsters, and animation.

Clip of a chemical mixed with Gummi Bear candy and its reaction.

Energy Of Candy Gummi Bears Vs. M&M’s – Watch more funny videos here

I think this audience might appeal to older adolescents and young adults with the violence and involvement with gangs in this animation. If this was on the web I think it could possibly promote candy in a twisted way and also makes fun of gangster culture.

For the content purpose – I think I want to give some information on the origins of the Koala March candy and Gummi Bears. I think it would also be interesting to put some information on gangsters and what I based some of the design aspects of the story on.

I also want to give an open forum or blog part about animation and comics. I think on the web it would be interesting to have people watch the animation clips and comics and could possibly add their own webcomics and animation clips onto the site. They could also critique and comment on some amateur work.

Here is the storyboard for the comic/animation part.

Here are some ideas for the design of the comic style parts of the story in color.

Gumbo Bear Gangsta who is the leader of the Gummi Bear Gangstas.

Leader of the Chocolate Yakuza Koalas Chizo

The characters live in Candy City.

For the stop motion animation segment I think it would be interesting to use the real candy pieces and have a battle between them.

Gummi Bears

Koala March Chocolate Candies

For sound effects, I thought it would be cool to have it especially during the battle with the stop motion animation of the real Gummi Bear candies versus the Chocolate Yakuza Koalas. I could also possibly use Garage Band and record my own sound effects – like clips of narration that I make or some other distorted sounds to make it less commercialized with the sound effects.

Maybe add some hip-hop music such as this song to the fight scene song for humorous purposes.

Damn it feels Good to be a Gangsta: By Geto Boys

Perhaps there can be some gunshot sounds from this website.

Links for some other possible content for the website.

Lotte website that makes the Koala March candies.

Website on the history of Gummi Bear Candy.

Some content on Yakuza gang or Japanese mafia history.

I also think it would be good to have content about animation and comics on my website. I can include the Gumbo Bear Gangsta blog content into my website.

Motion Graphics

Today in class we watched a bunch of clips relating to animation. I really liked how we saw a wide variety of different types of graphics. We looked at some of the music videos that Michel Gondry made to some of the works from the movies “The Fountain” and “The Silence of Sleep.” I also was fascinated by some of the works by Jan Spankmeyer. He had some strong political content in his stop motion animations.

I am actually thinking of mixing stop motion graphics with some illustrated still images for my project. It might be cool to have some stop motion animation with real Gummi Bears and Chocolate Koala Bears and then have some crazy still images in between. I’m still thinking of how I will deliver more content with this narrative story. Perhaps I can include information about gangs from Japan and America. Either that or provide information on candy. Or maybe both. Haha.

Here is a cool European Sony Website that someone in class showed me. The ones with paint and the colored balls are very colorful and cool.