The state of my desk at home at the moment...!
The Key to a successful (or at least better) presentation..
This way you don't have to read from a script (loosing your place on the sheet when you glance up) and you wont forget what it is you want to say because it will be an automatic and natural explanation of the image that's in front of you that you are presenting on screen. You may forget certain things you
You should be able to look at the slide and think.. "ah, this is about... I saw this in a magazine... I read about this and wanted to use the same style... I really like this artist and it inspired me to create this... I didn't want my project to look like this example... because..." etc etc.
When you run out of inspiration...
S C A M P E R R :
Substitute, Combine, Adopt, Modify, Purpose, Eliminate, Reverse, Re-Arrange!
Celtx - Free downloadable software for storyboarding and more! http://celtx.com/
When using Anime Studio Pro (8) photoshop layers: save as PNG-24 so will retain the transparency for layers and brush quality!
27/11/11 SWOT and PDP
Next thing to do; create a swot list SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. (See example below...) Its something a lot of businesses use and you need to be brutally honest with yourself for it to work;
PDP or Personal Development Plan - I need to map on some sort of chart / calendar my work and research plans showing how and when I intend to do certain things to help manage my time now and my work.
Notes on Video compression codec guidelines...
MP4 Video Codec / AAC Audio
A codec is the format in
which your video will be encoded. Different codecs have different features and
varying quality. For best results, we recommend using MP4 (sometimes referred
to as H264) for the video codec and AAC (short for Advanced Audio Codec) for
the audio codec. This is the best option for cross platform viewing (Mac/PC),
for size and quality.
Frame Rate - 25 FPS
Most software usually
defaults to 30 fps (frames per second). In Europe we use 25 fps. You will need
to check in the software which famerate you are outputting to.
*If you have used multiple
softwares to process your movie you have to be careful that the framerate is
the same throughout to avoid 'stuttering' in your final output.
Data Rate - 2000 kbits/sec (Standard Def) / 5000 kbits/sec (High Def)
This setting controls both
the visual quality of the video and how big the file will be. In most video
editors, this is done in terms of kilobits per second (kbits/sec or kbps). Use
2000 kbits/sec for standard definition 4:3 video, 3000 kbits/sec for widescreen
DV, or 5000 kbits/sec for high definition footage.
Resolution - 640x480 (SD) / 1280x720 (HD)
640x480 for standard
definition 4:3 video, 853x480 for widescreen DV, and 1280x720 or 1920x1080 for
high definition. If you have the option to control the pixel aspect ratio (not
display aspect ratio) make sure it's set to "1:1" or
"1.00", also sometimes called "square pixels.
Deinterlacing - YES
If you have this option,
enable it. If you shoot in DV, HDV or MTS (h264) formats, this is an especially
important. If you do not deinterlace, you will often get weird-looking
horizontal lines in your video.
*If you are outputting from
3dsMax, this will not be an issue using the AVI-ffdshow codec (mp4), Uncompressed
or image sequences.
Audio - 320 kbps / 44.100 kHz
Choose AAC for the audio
codec. You'll want to set the bit rate to 320 kbps and the sample rate to
44.100 kHz.
30/03/11 Digital Culture - Freud
In my view the subject of the human mind is that we understand very little about how it works. Freud’s views on psychoanalysis are simply his interpretation of how the mind works, how we are all affected by events throughout our lifetime and during infancy.
The trouble with Freud is that from a young age he wanted fame. The subject of the mind is a controversial subject as no one can prove that what Freud was saying was not correct. Only people with theories of their own in psychoanalysis could disagree or question what Freud believed.
This is similar to subjects such as
v Religion and biblical stories
v The Egyptians and mysteries of the pyramid
v Aliens and time travel
Only time and evidence can rule out these kinds of theories making it a perfect subject to gain attention and fame!
28/03/11 Digital Culture - Freud
It would be nice if the interface for Freud could reflect his thinking. I would like to make the design reflect the Id, Ego and Super Ego by creating random sentences and pieces of information that appear, that dont really make sense on their own (Id) the viewer becomes the 'Ego' in being affected by the information and basic instincts / desires for information... and then there is information that can be drawn from selecting little pieces of the 'Id' text and clarifying the meaning of that information in depth tp the user 'Ego'. This will reflect a rhizomatic format for the information as you can select any part of the information at any time.
The look of this interface will reflect his death drive theory... so the destructive and creative elements should be present... thinking that the super ego as a creative element visually pleasing / colourful (influences creative thinking)... the Id text / font design could look dark and faded / worn (to reflect self destruction).
17/03/11 Digital Culture - Character / interface idea
I need to think about how to connect my little robot character / storyboards with the interface design for 'Freud' and decided that he could be made up from pieces that can be related to Freud. Maybe old bits of cloth - (Freuds famous therapy sofa), bits of books and so on... The same can be done with the site design... It needs to reflect his personality and thinking style. More research!
10/03/11 Short of the week.com and British Animation Awards.com
I'm just trying to take a look at other female animators in the UK at the moment to help me understand how they have got where they are in the industry... how they get noticed and to find out what styles are similar to mine and where that might take me.
One of my favorites on here today was actually a French animator; http://vimeo.com/17794275 - The Silence Beneath the Bark by Joanna Lurie.
20/02/11 Digital Culture - Freud
The subject I have decided to focus on for my second project is something that I found very interesting in the book ‘The Freud Wars’ and that is the subject of the death instinct.
Freud talked a lot about the libido and Eros ( the creative, life drive, pleasure instinct ) the instinct of union and to reproduce. He eventually decided that not all of his studies could relate to this theory and began to look for another principle that might exist alongside the Eros. This resulted in his theory of the ‘Death Drive’ or ‘Thanatos’ as described by others.
The death drive complemented the Eros and although both were recognised as separate instincts, the death drive he believed was the ultimate goal within an organism.
These two basic instincts both have their own aim although the ‘death drive’ it would seem over-rides the Eros or pleasure principle.
I began to imagine how this might be illustrated and the first idea was that I could create a little character with an inbuilt instinct or mission to build another identical to himself… this would represent the Eros.
The ‘Thanatos’ would be that the character was a little robot and as he builds the replica of himself over time there is a little clock, which is ticking, a countdown to the end of his life. He has only the time on the clock in which to build his duplicate image and then as he pushes the on button of the new robot, it switches him off forever.
The ticking clock represents the part of the robot that wants to preserve itself until it can reach its final destiny, which is to reproduce (replicate itself).
The on button to which he has been working so hard to create actually represents the end of his life and the true goal of his life’s instinct ( or programming ) to create a self destruct button.
His life although you imagine is to build the new robot is really all about his true over-riding instinct to self-destruct.
