NM2208 Online Journal

2007-02-22T06:27:00.000-08:00

Assignment 3: U C what I C

Visual narrative – Telling a story with not more than 10 pictures.This exercise is for understanding techniques of visual representation.
Write/Select a short story and try to communicate the story using only visuals (not more than 10 pictures)

I was inspired by a deja-vu comic strip by bill wattersons but there very many constrains such as showing the phone/alarm clock ringing in the photo so I gave up on that idea. So after thinking for a week, I came out with this. Since this is a visual assignment, looking at the photos should tell you the whole story. Enjoy!

Are you able to understand? I hope so. Some of my tutorial-mates suggest that I should capture a photo that shows the noisy guy sitting at down at the side feeling relieve that the other guy is gone. This is a good idea. I'll retake the shot and produce a better storyboard.=)
Meanwhile, thanks to my actors Yingtat and Eric for helping me out with this assignment.

2007-02-13T05:42:00.000-08:00

Making images talk

This exercise is for developing skills in controlling visual message. This assignment requires us to select an object or activity or location and create a representative image of the object.
The process of abstraction is one of distillation, the reduction of multiple visual factors to only the essential and most typical features of what is being represented.

Abstraction toward symbolism requires ultimate simplicity, the reduction of visual detail to the irreducible minimum. A symbol, in order to be effective, must not only be seen and recognized but also remembered and even reproduced.

Smiliar to the previous assignment, I thought of many objects. However, either they were too difficult for people to visualise or that it couold be distill to an abstract object in less than 5 steps. Eventually, I chose the snack vending machine.

[images to be uploaded]

Some comments from my class and tutor:
- I should have included the actual photo of the snack vending machine. They had problem visalising it as a snack vending machine in my first level because it looked like a telephone from far.
- The abstract representation was not exactly the correct representation. The one that I had chosen had all the details removed and what was left was the outline of the machine. However the 3rd stage where I removed the snacks from the machine was abstract enough because people will know that that's a vending machine but it's ambiguous because it might be either a drink or snack machine.

2007-02-10T05:21:00.000-08:00

The final stage requires us to develop the roughs into prototypes and print them out on A5 paper. This was the hardest part in the assignment, because I had neither the photoshop nor the freehand experience, and I could not make it for both lab lessons that teach the basics of these softwares. After looking at the help and figuring out myself, I got the final designs out.

[snake design to be uploaded soon]

some comment from peers for the I love:
- it is obvious that I love watermelon because of the round watermelon that was used as a dot for the 'i'
- it could be improved by having the name arranged like a slice of watermelon. will further work on it.

some comments from peers for the I hate:
- the yellow and orange background should be removed because it steals the 'limelight' of the snake that I want to portray as the hate.
- Colours of the snake can be changed to a more 'hateful' colour so that people will know that I hate snakes. Thus, I will use a dull and dirty scheme to show that I hate snakes.
- the snake was too small. I will make it big and scale it to A5 size.

What i learn this week was the printing skills. Initially i set the canvas size as A4 and wanted to scale it down to A5 when i do the print thinking that A5 was merely half of A4. However, the ratio was 3:4 to 3:2. Therefore, my printouts were cut off at the ends. I couldn't get my snake printed out on A5 so I copied them to powerpoint and printed it from there using 2up. However, the image was much smaller than the usual A5 size. Therefore, what I should do is to set the canvas to the correct dimensions and then work from there.

2007-02-04T04:04:00.000-08:00

This is an introductory exercise to help you learn basic tools and process of designing and presenting.
We have to come out with one love and one hate. This assignment consists of 3 stages.
The first stage requires us to draw 4 thumbnail concept each for the 2 words that we have chosen. After much consideration I decided to choose the snake and watermelon as my subject. Many other things came through my mind, but I had difficulties expressing my name using such pictures. Most of time letters that gave me trouble were w, y and g. Items that I thought of includes music, books, animals, insects and fruits in general.

[images to be uploaded]

The second stage requires us to develop the 2 best concepts for each word into full-scale rough sketches.

[images to be uploaded]

comments for the snake:

-the first one does not portray to others that I hate snakes. Though it can be seen that snake is my topic, but many thought that I love snakes because the snakes were drawn too neatly.
-the second sketch was a failure, because I broke the snake into pieces and also by using brown, they had the impression that it was an earthworm.

I'll take the comments in mind and do a better job in the next stage.

2007-02-03T05:40:00.000-08:00

This blog is set up for my peers to comment on my designs throughout the whole semester. I hope that you all can give me valueable feedbacks for me to improve on the designs. Enjoy!