Processish

It’s finally done! haha...refer to my previous blog if you need more links! It is best viewed in Firefox…

Check it out here!!

I know I don’t have much process for along the way because I wasn’t documenting it as I went. I was just going and going to get it done. For never ever dealing with HTML and CSS until a couple days ago, this site looks halfway alright. I am proud of it because I generated it all from code – no templates. Of course I had Mr. Lincoln helping me through the bugs of the site today.

My processes could just be easily described as mass chaos, at least for the first part. I was giving myself a crash course in this and creating it at the same time. I had no idea what I was doing, I was just trying to figure out what did what. As time went on, it was much more trial and error format. A lot of the things I was trying I didn’t even know if it would work or not, some did and some didn’t. I moved away from my original idea because that had too many pages to create. In that same idea, I wanted a site that was very neutral so that the images of the site could pop and draw attention. I created a new site map which is at the end of this blog.

One of the websites I critiqued was Blind.com and I was inspired by how they layout their navigation, I did my own take on it with a double navigation in the critique section (click here to see). I just wanted it to be easy to move through and to the point without too much overlap.

If I had a better understand for CSS and HTML I would go back and fix some of my kinks. I couldn’t figure out how to get rid of the “Motion” title and I would have made another review image that goes all the way to the top. I was having issues getting that to align with the top of the page. There were many other small problems along the way, but I worked through them and some I just had to leave for now.

Even though working on this project was such a struggle for me, I actually liked it in the end. It was good for me. I was amazed myself by how much I could learn in such a small amount of time, I feel I have a general grasp of coding now. Its still very confusing, but its fun to pick up something new. I definitely plan on taking advanced New Media next year because I think it’s an important skill set to know and I have so much to learn.

I wish everyone the happiest of Holidays – and I will see you next year! :^D

WEBSITE!

HERE
HERE
HERE
HERE
and
HERE

Website look...

Click here to see! Then go to the website pdf in the list.

Site Map

This is an idea of what I have working. I have tried to put my stuff into website form and its proving to be much harder for me than I thought...I think I will get some help tomorrow in class...

Website TRES

EATING SANDWICHES
http://eatingsandwiches.com/

NAVIGATION:

Is it easy to navigate or difficult?
Its pretty easy if you understand what it’s for. On the homepage it doesn’t have the side bar with all the categories of items. But if you click into any of the work posted it comes up in the next page. So if you were wanting to search something that would be a little tricky unto you got to the second page. Also, they don’t have a button that says home, you just have to know to click on the eating sandwiches word at the top.

Does the designer use a metaphor to get you to move through the website?
Its in chronological order on the home page, but then after that page you can control the subject of artwork in the side bar.
What kind of metaphor are used?
1. Organizational metaphors = organized by type, kind, ect.
2. Functional metaphors = performs a “real world” function (in Photoshop you can
figuratively “cut” and “paste”)
3. Visual metaphor = common graphic elements familiar to most – the traditional
“play,” “fast forward,” and “rewind” buttons found on CD player.

INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE:

Does the information in the site make sense?
Yeah, it just displays some neat happenings in the art relem.

Can you access the content you want easily?
Semi easy, you have to click into a poster work on the first page and then it will go into the side bar with the categories and search bar.

How is the content organized? (by location, alphabet, timeline, category, ect.?)
Chronologically, so maybe time line?

Is there visual and content hierarchy that allows you to easily understand and access the information presented to you?
Not really, its just in the chronological order and then seperates into cetain cadigories.

USABILITY

Is this site easy to use?
Pretty simple to use, I think if you were new to it and were searching for a posted work it would be hard to find the search bar unless you knew where it was.

How do the two above concepts, (navigation and information architecture) work in terms of making the site usable or not? So the metaphors make sense with the content?
Yeah they are trying to get across a chronological, alphabetical, orderly message about the work.

Overall, does the site sustain your interest and engagement?
Yeah it would be good to see what’s going on in the world of design.

MEANING-MAKING:

In what was is the designer creating meaning in this site?
Not really, just trying to get up artwork in a neutral, nonhierarchical, fair way for people to view.

Are they using metaphor?
Organizational metaphor

Is there a narrative story or event that unfold over time?
Not really all all.

Is this narrative linear, non-linear, or multi-linear?
Its linear because the worked is ordered by which is was posted in time.

REFLECTION OF THE USER:

Is there a reflection of you, as the user, on this site? Does it change according to your specific visit? Do you receive mouse feedback? Text feedback? Does the site store any choices you have made? Are you engaged enough in the site to linger and explore?
There isn’t any reflection of the user shown in this site, I am engaged in this site because it host a variety of work and by category so I can view what I like.

TRANSPARENCY OF DESIGN:

Does the design of the site lead you to pay more attention to the content or to the design itself? Does the design feel transparent or “natural,: leading you to focus on the content and forget the design completely or is attention called more to the design itself?
The site is so neutral to accommodate for the work being posted. They want to work to be highlighted not the website - so they have to have a neutral work that fits for everything that gets posted.

Does the transparency or lack of transparency of the design make sense with what the site is intending to do?

Yes, it does for the reason exampled one question ago

Website DOS

BLIND
http://www.blind.com/

NAVIGATION:

Is it easy to navigate or difficult?
Extremely easy, everything was very clear on what it does.
What visual clues are given to tell you how to interact?

Does the designer use a metaphor to get you to move through the website?
I think they use to functional metaphor because every button is exactly what it is, and under that they have submenus when you go into the actual page.
What kind of metaphor are used?
1. Organizational metaphors = organized by type, kind, ect.
2. Functional metaphors = performs a “real world” function (in Photoshop you can
figuratively “cut” and “paste”)
3. Visual metaphor = common graphic elements familiar to most – the traditional
“play,” “fast forward,” and “rewind” buttons found on CD player.

INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE:

Does the information in the site make sense?
Yes, because they are a design company and have their work in blog form on their home.

Can you access the content you want easily?
Yes, yes yes! Laid out very well, I know where to click for what I want.

How is the content organized? (by location, alphabet, timeline, category, ect.?)
Its by category and what you are looking for, or what umbrella what you’re looking for would be.

Is there visual and content hierarchy that allows you to easily understand and access the information presented to you?
Yes, the main headline says in no matter what page you’re in, but it changes colors.

USABILITY

Is this site easy to use?
I think so, I think anyone who can use the internet can find what they are looking for pertaining to this company in their website. You can even their portfolio things to be displayed in alphabetical or chronological order.

How do the two above concepts, (navigation and information architecture) work in terms of making the site usable or not? So the metaphors make sense with the content?
This is an example of very clean design, easy to use and easy to understand the point. They even have thumbnails of work so you can preview ahead of it before clicking on it and its organized by date, so you know their most recent work. Then in the work they list the agency and other information about their work.

Overall, does the site sustain your interest and engagement?
It does, because it’s a design site. Also, their work interested me, and I even went into their designer bios which was cool to see they had.

MEANING-MAKING:

In what was is the designer creating meaning in this site?
I guess that they get to root of the design problem and solve it.

Are they using metaphor?
The functional metaphor

Is there a narrative story or event that unfold over time?
Not really, just as you get farther into the site you get closer to viewing their work.

Is this narrative linear, non-linear, or multi-linear?
I think its linear, it get down to a certain point. It ends up leading you to what you are looking for.

REFLECTION OF THE USER:

Is there a reflection of you, as the user, on this site? Does it change according to your specific visit? Do you receive mouse feedback? Text feedback? Does the site store any choices you have made? Are you engaged enough in the site to linger and explore?

It doesn’t have reflections of the user, but that would be cool if they did. Everything stays the same but it engages me to look at their portfolio.

TRANSPARENCY OF DESIGN:

Does the design of the site lead you to pay more attention to the content or to the design itself? Does the design feel transparent or “natural,: leading you to focus on the content and forget the design completely or is attention called more to the design itself?
The design of the site was notice about because it was a piece of art in itself, but what they had posted on their site called attention to itself because it was beautiful too.

Does the transparency or lack of transparency of the design make sense with what the site is intending to do?
I think so, I think this site is wanting you to notice their great design, both in their portfolio and their website.

Website UNO

UBIQ
http://www.ubiqlife.com/

NAVIGATION:

Is it easy to navigate or difficult?
It was pretty easy, but on certain pages they didn’t have the home button which I think is key for how I navigate through a space, but most of the links were along the side bar. I guess I liked flipping though products on the home page.

What visual clues are given to tell you how to interact?
On the homepage there were pictures that when you scrolled over they lit up, so it made we want to click on them. Also the side bar had that same effect applied. In addition, quite a few elements reacted by moving in some way, so it made me want to know what was going on.

Does the designer use a metaphor to get you to move through the website?
I know understand the metaphor idea really, but if I had to guess on the provided guidelines I would say it’s more organizational based.
What kind of metaphor are used?
1. Organizational metaphors = organized by type, kind, ect.
2. Functional metaphors = performs a “real world” function (in Photoshop you can
figuratively “cut” and “paste”)
3. Visual metaphor = common graphic elements familiar to most – the traditional
“play,” “fast forward,” and “rewind” buttons found on CD player.

INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE:

Does the information in the site make sense?
For the most part it does. On the homepage if the main image gets changed to some of the other pictures in the viewer I would be a little confused on what the site was about because it says apparel / footwear at the top so it makes me think that’s what the site is about and if you have a picture highlighting a logo or image not related to footwear or apparel I would get confused. Also, I wish this site would have said upfront it was a men’s clothing store because that would be nice to know.

Can you access the content you want easily?
Yeah its has the main points highlighted, except there are to links to account on the homepage and only one works, which I think is weird and something that should be fixed immediately because this site is for buying clothing.

How is the content organized? (by location, alphabet, timeline, category, ect.?)
Its more in a category format, you click the headline and in goes into that cadegory.

Is there visual and content hierarchy that allows you to easily understand and access the information presented to you?
Yes, I can get to want I want easily.

USABILITY

Is this site easy to use?
For the most part, they have a lot of repeat links throughout the site - as in three links on one page to the same page (the homepage has 3 links to the account page, only one works though). Also if you click contact, there are two side bars on the left and right of each side and they have close to the same information. So they could get rid of one and make another longer.

How do the two above concepts, (navigation and information architecture) work in terms of making the site usable or not? So the metaphors make sense with the content?
If its organizational based, which I believe this is – the navigation should be organized and easy to use, which is it.

Overall, does the site sustain your interest and engagement?
For a little while, I can’t buy anything here for myself so it doesn’t make me want to look for anything. If I was shopping for something for my brother this might be a good place to get some ideas or even buy something.

MEANING-MAKING:

In what was is the designer creating meaning in this site?
It has an About page, so it lets you know what the company is about. I wish they would have said more on the homepage, like how it’s a men’s clothing site. Also, it looks like they feature artists, I would like to know more about the artists.

Are they using metaphor?
Just the organizational.

Is there a narrative story or event that unfold over time?
Not really, it just shows you what they sell, but you can go into the blog and read about what their up to, so their story could unfold in there.

Is this narrative linear, non-linear, or multi-linear?
I would say non-linear.

REFLECTION OF THE USER:

Is there a reflection of you, as the user, on this site? Does it change according to your specific visit? Do you receive mouse feedback? Text feedback? Does the site store any choices you have made? Are you engaged enough in the site to linger and explore?

It isn’t a reflection of me I would say. I am engaged to look at some neat men’s clothing ideas though.

TRANSPARENCY OF DESIGN:

Does the design of the site lead you to pay more attention to the content or to the design itself? Does the design feel transparent or “natural,: leading you to focus on the content and forget the design completely or is attention called more to the design itself?

I think it’s a good mix of both because they show some design showcase on the homepage, but other pages like the clothing focus on the product.

Does the transparency or lack of transparency of the design make sense with what the site is intending to do?

Yeah I think it does.

Its finally done! Time to sleep!

Okay - it feels great to have this done! It was just shy of 2 hours to render...but here it is...

Click here to watch!

I couldn't really watch the whole thing sequenced together until it was rendered because it wouldn't preview very good for me in After Effects because the files are so large. I spent along time on this, and mainly because of all the preview rendering. In the end, seeing the whole thing pieced together, I was pleased - but I would change my text at the end that says "in Alfred Hitchcock's" so it goes slower. I didn't think that it would go so fast and I didn't have a way of previewing easily when working on it, and I didn't have a way to change it without rerendering it again for another two hours - so I left it for now. Also, it was my intention to make the red stairs 3d but I just didn't have time and it would have been really complex with all the layers I would have had to create. If I ever go back and work on this projects I will fix both of those.

My main inspiration was the nightmare scene in the movie (click here to see). I wanted a sense of suspense and to seem like you are flying through space and other dimensions. My hope was to recreate the tunnel with Scottie's head at some point in the sequence - so I came as close as I could and put my own spin on it near the end with clouds. To make my text 3d, I watched a bunch of tutorials online. In addition I found the wallpaper textures online. I made several different wallpapers but 3 of the ones I tried didn't work out the way I wanted.

After all is said and done, learning After Effects was a great learning experience and now I am actually starting to like it. Hopefully I will become better with it in the future.

This Is Taking Forever!

So I have been at lab all Saturday - I didn't go to the football game. AND I have been here all day today working on this. It's taking so long because it takes forever to render. I have been having problems with it delaying to move objects. Well this will be done by nine...see you then!

Rough Draft Video

Click Here for a movie sequence!
This video is not even close to done. Believe this or not, it took me 7 hours to figure out to do this. The beginning will have something else instead of the black void. I hope to keep creating those channels for the rest of the song...

I hate After Effects!

I have been trying to recreate the tunnel scene in Vertigo (click here to view) for the past 7 hours! This might not look like much, but I am trying my best but it has been an uphill battle with After Effects. I finally have something that might work, but I am still questioning it...and I still have to fix it. I already know I am going to be a disappointment tomorrow's for critique. Sorry everyone in advance.

Start of Storyboard...

My mind has been anywhere and everywhere but homework. I have a lot going on to say the least (and I am sure everyone else does too) and this class has mainly been the one suffering due to my craziness.

Here is my edited sound clip... click here!

This is going to be a long process...this is the start, I will be updating often...It starts with white lines coming down, and then horizontal lines come from the side, making a grid. It will eventually hone in on one line and that will be the basis for the stair lines it will form.

That's all I have in pictures for now. My idea is to have the line create stairs and the names of the stars will shoot off of them. Then the stairs will reach the top and it will be a trip for your eyes with red and blue circles glore!

Compositions!

Here are my 5 compositions for class...
The main goal I wanted to get across for these compositions was dizziness. I am still pretty lost for this project.

I am having issues converting to JPG, and linking my PDFs of these...here is the link to my directory and you can just click the Vertigo 1-5 PDFs.

http://oregonstate.edu/~bristowk

music POSSIBILITIES

Here are a few ideas I had for music...

Stress by Justice

And that's it for now!

fONTS!

Creative Brief - YEAH!

PROJECT DETAILS
Date: October 19th, 2008
Prepared by: Karissa Bristow
Project name: Vertigo Title Sequence
Design Lead: Karissa Bristow
Hand-off to Production: (10/15/08) Product Release: (11/??/08)

PROJECT CONCEPT
The purpose of this project is to create a title sequence for my movie Vertigo using After Effects that is one minute long. The title sequence needs to qualities or themes from the movie to create an overall mood to set the tone of the movie.

OBJECTIVES
The object of this title sequence is to set the tone for the movie so the viewer knows what they are getting themselves into. I would like to fear, anticipation, and mystery to be the main theme.

AUDIENCE
The audience would be a wide variety of people, mainly those interested in classic movies and thrillers, so age varies for that.

PERCEPTION/TONE
I would like to focus on a darker serious tone of the film which is fear. Also I would like to portray the feelings of vertigo, which are a dizzying sensation of tilting within stable surroundings. This also ties to the fear that the main character has which is acrophobia (fear of heights). I would like to focus in on sharp graphics.

COMMUNICATION STRATEGY
I was thinking along the lines of using stairs and line as the main element in this because they are a key role in the film and they can portray feelings of dizziness and a loss of balance. I am still in the process of trying to think of something not so obvious, but it definitely would get the job done.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE
Alfred Hitchcock’s Classics all deal with the same kind of feeling…
Psycho
The Birds
Rear Window
Rebecca

SINGLE-MINDED MESSAGE
Anxiety

MOVIE SEQUENCE!

For this I watched Vertigo - I am a huge Alfred Hitchcock fan. I actually had not seen Vertigo, but I enjoyed it watching it. It was sort of a slow movie until everything made sense in the very last minute - that was great!
Also Vertigo's title sequence was very plan but had these cool graphics in it that seemed a little futuristic...
I am not really sure what I am going to do yet, but I want to find the music first before all else.

Text Animation!

Hallelujah!! Their all done! The picture next to this is me done with the flash file...as you can see, the last one I completed was the text animation - my restriction was that I could only use black and white, which I was inspired by a newspaper. For this I also edited my sounds so it would be shorter...

Here is the new SOUND!

Everything went pretty smoothly, except in the beginning I was confused on graphics again (well changing colors), but then I worked through it and remembered how to change it. Here is the link to the actual flash file....the only thing is the link makes the screen bigger than what I was working with...so some of the text you see at the side isn't suppose to be there...but enjoy anyways!

Text Animation!

Abstract Animation...

Wow! This feels like it took forever! Each frame had to be created my hand...but its done! Along with my first project I completed, I changed the length of the sound to be around 16ish seconds...and I made it so the swf will not loop.

Here is the new SOUND!

For this I wanted to use the restriction of 1 found object to base the whole visual language off of - I chose some yarn I have. Its very fluid and and constantly changing just like the wind chimes. I tried to keep the pallet in the same colors of the yarn as well.

This project kind of turned out to be a combination of all my sketches for it. My main battle with this was trying to line up the lines with the sounds, I think it turn out well. What do you think?

Abstract Animation!

Referential Animation

Oh Boy! Its finally done! But it was a definitely a challenge, I learned so much doing this first animation. My idea was to switch my sounds so that the drill would be my referential piece. Then I came up with the sound representing something just as cringing as the drill - nails on a chalk board! I decided to have my restriction be only still photographs - so I rented a camera from the library and got my beautiful friend Siri to come with my to Fairbanks and photograph her hands running down a chalk board. Next I went back uploaded and edit the pictures in Aperture then imported them to my flash piece.

Only five pictures in the the swf froze one me! This happened in class too! Luckly I wasn't too far in so I just reopened and started working again. I realized it froze because the images were too big - so I went back in Aperture and resized them and reuploaded. Figuring out how to resize in Aperture was not easy, but I figured it out thanks to google. :^D

Then I noticed my sound was too long, so I had a fisaco in trying to figure it out in Flash on how to cut it down. I got help from a variety of people but no one could figure it out. Eventually I took it to Garage Band, lol, and cut out the sound I didnt need. Then figuring out how to export it to something I could add back into Flash was another ordeal - but I worked through it and found out you have to export to a CD then you can have it save as an aif file.

Click to here to hear the edited SOUND!

Then everything started going to plan and I made it to the end. I got some help from the upper classmen on how to make it stop looping, except they forgot you need a space in the action script, so I figured that part out. The whole process too much longer than what I explained but it was a great learning experience and I feel more confindent in my skills now.

Click here to see the final ANIMATION!

SKETCHES! and such...

So, the Flash tutorials took forever to watch! But I am done with them and up to speed on where I am suppose to be at! Yay! ... but now for business -

ABSTRACT ANIMATION - the wind chimes have been chosen for this animation! My idea for this was to have it make a lot of ripples like its calling out to someone. I find the sound of wind chimes reminds me of my childhood, but it also reminds of being alone and calling out to someone.

TEXTUAL ANIMATION - dentist drill sound!! I was thinking of just using one sharp letter form for the whole thing - and there would be a lot of fast sharp repeating parts, but I am not sure if I am getting myself in over my head for this.

REFERENTIAL ANIMATION - this would be the elevator sound, I am not sure what to have it refer back to...in my sketchs I have stairs, windshield wipers, and balloons. I was trying to think of objects that were similar to an elevator's function or movement. I think this animation I am going to have the hardest time with designing and coming up with more ideas for because I am not really set on any of them.

This is what I have working thus far...but nothing is set and is subject to change a great deal...

5 Obstructions

Today in class we watched the movie 5 Obstructions - it was really interesting semidocumentary on a film maker remaking a previous project, but with a set of rules. I thought it was interesting and what he shot was really beautiful, but for some reason I don't know if the experiment was "successful" - which I don't even know what the goal of the experiment was, but I just got a feeling of him learning, but not taking the lesson to heart...

Oh- for something random! I have sounds for the project!

Sound 1
Sound 2
Sound 3
Sound 4
Sound 5
Sound 6

The first three are the ones I am going with... :^D

Fresh From the Womb

Even though this morning started off with a bad start (aka. blowing out all the circuits in my room), it turned into a pretty good first day of school. In new media, the class I am writing this for, I was absolutely clueless to what Krista was talking about when she was asking everyone's experience to the programs. I am a fresh baby from the web/motion graphics womb, entering into an unfamiliar world, but a world I eventually must face. Pretty much it felt like she was speaking a different language to half the class, after all babies don't understand words at first; I wish she would have came around individually and asked us our experience in the programs instead of embarrassing the unexperienced people like myself. I know that's what I am taking the class for - to learn - but I couldn't help but feel vulnerable/lame. I cant really explain it; I just know I didn't like it, it felt like I was being called out in front of everyone and I hate that. Well its done and over with now, no one will remember or care so why should I?...moving on...

The first project I am excited for, except I don't really understand what I am suppose to do, I get it, but I dont...its hard to explain, I guess I am really lost. I don't just don't get it, it wasn't explained well to me at all because I don't know the programs. But later when I was talking with Lindsay at P&M she explained her first project and then the project started to click more. I think just finding the sound clips will be a good starting point and things will fall into place, I am not worried about it...yet...

All I know is I am looking forward to when this class is over just so I can look back and see my growth. :^D