Interaction in Media

In past lecture for my Digital Media class, we discussed the interactivity included with advertisements. This procedure may sound familiar if I mention such ads like the Old Spice commercials. There was not only the hilarious commercial, but the Old Spice man continued online by creating response videos on YouTube to anyone who tweeted @OldSpice. Even celebrities like Ashton Kutcher and Perez Hilton were intrigued and got involved. Below is an example of one of his many video responses, this one is a marriage proposal asked from a viewer: “@OldSpice Can U Ask my girlfriend to marry me? Her name is Angela A. Hutt-Chamberlin #Johannes S. #Beals”

because I just could not help but look at more, here’s one that made me die of laughter…

He really did send her flowers! It’s one thing to do little skits but to actually carry through the act, it’s a whole other level of interactivity! With technology now a days it’s not difficult to connect with others and create conversations with people you probably could never meet any other way but through the interweb. It could also be about connecting people by creating stories with the help of users.

Remember when Arcade Fire had their song “We Used To Wait” used in an interactive film? This was to display the new HTML5 coding and all it’s coolness with Google Chrome. I thought this idea worked amazingly, as it created a great buzz. If you haven’t already go check it out here http://thewildernessdowntown.com/ (Little fun trick: run your mouse around the home screen and watch the birds chase away). The great thing about this was how it was able to involve the fans to create little messages that would then be displayed when you go see the band on tour. Power of interactivity!

Pretty Little Liars Show Trailer

For my latest Digital Media project, I had to create a 5 second trailer, as I mentioned 2 blog posts ago, for a show, movie or book. Obviously I did use the show Pretty Little Liars as the inspiration. This was all put together in After Effects.

It’s not as simple as one may think to come up and then create a 5 second clip, since you have to get the message across in a small amount of time. With mine, I wanted to capture the mysterious theme surrounding the series. I first thought of stop motion, but then felt it wouldn’t display the mood I was going for, so I chose to film (on my lousy digital camera). For this quick scene I have a girl, (who is played by my sister, Sonia) which is suppose to represent one of the four friends in the show, painting her nails. This action is like an exaggeration of the “pretty” factor in the title Pretty Little Liars, also inspired from the opening credits of the show (see other blog post). I started with the first frame zoomed in to her hands with the iPhone in sight, by marking a keyframe, then advanced a few frames forward and added another keyframe that was full zoomed out. This gave the zoom out effect. When she receives the text to her cell phone, I wanted to make the tension rise, as it would in the TV show whenever the girls received a text message. Since in the show most times they get messages from an unknown source labeled “A” and they are mostly threats or warnings not to do certain actions. The music I chose was actually labeled as a children’s theme song, but I thought it sounded a bit too happy that it could turn creepy in this setting. All that’s missing is a creepy clown to pop up, haha.

After the phone vibrates, as visible on Sonia’s face, there is tension. Then all goes cold and silent as the candle blows out, leaving only the iPhone visible. Now this is where the real animation takes place, when the title slowly fades like smoke across the screen. I came across text tutorials for ideas, but it’s essentially a text blur. I first found the proper font for the title, which is Edwardian. Then on the text layer, selected the animate operator and added the opacity and blur tool. Then for the start of the keyframe (positioned right before the text appears) scaled the text up 300%, opacity 0% and blur 100%. Changed the anchor point grouping to “line” so the letters would be spaced out straight. Next was to change the offset, started with the first keyframe at 100% then moved up ahead and had set another keyframe to -100%. This lets the letters to animate out then back in, but then changed the shape of this to ramp down, in the advance area. Creating that nice flow in as you see in the clip. And of course, music always impacts the mood, so when the letter flew in I queued some frantic piano keys. Also, in the background, though it’s hard to tell, there is a piano on the left of her. Perhaps there is someone else in the room that played it….A?

*Note: when uploaded the 1280×720 HD version to YouTube the music was shifted slightly off, therefore I used a smaller version for the purpose of displaying it on the blog. The original and one submitted does not have this problem.*

What’s Your Type?

Typography can be your most important tool when designing. It can in fact enhance a design if chosen correctly. When it comes to creating a visual, typography should not be taken lightly. It can convey a certain mood that deals with the theme in some cases and leave a major impact on the viewer.

Here’s an example of typography used in a lyrical music video…

Jumpstart – These Kids Wear Crowns

Everything about this video is so fun, colourful and energetic! The type is very playful and bounces along with the beat of the song. There are two types of font used, the one in the very beginning would be the actual logo font for the band. The other font is a type of rounded bold, not sure exactly what it is called, but it’s fun looking and matches the theme. It’s definitely appropriate for the youthful audience it mostly targets. My favourite part is watching the words bounce around and even sometimes drag across the screen to stress a certain part of the song.

Spiderman 3 opening credits

Opening credits like this are my favourite, where the words are placed in a cool way that it matches the theme of the story. In this case, the words seem to match the silvery web and then scatter away like a broken glass. The font would be original, so I guess you could call it the “spiderman” font. This typography is effective because it creates the feeling of scattering through a web, while we are being shown a bunch of scattered events that occurred throughout the previous Spiderman movies.

Harry Potter is one of the most iconic series of this generation, and when you think of it, you probably would imagine this sort of typography and a lightening bolt perhaps? This poster specifically, shows that very bent and jagged font. Harry Potter was known for his famous lightning bolt scar, therefore the designers most definitely incorporated that into the design of the font, by adding a lightning bolt on the end of the “P”. This proves very effective by being consistent with the imagery of the Harry Potter theme.  Also alignment of the words were most certainly considered since the words are on an angle to complement the angle in which Harry Potter is leaning.

Burnt Toast & Stop Motion Graphics

One photo. Two photo. Three….

Sounds pretty straight forward right? Try creating a story with over 2,000 photos, then you’ll understand the intricate process of creating a stop motion film. How about creating a stop motion music video using toast?

The band OK Go usually have the coolest buzzworthy music video concepts. In the past using treadmills, dogs, marching bands, and giant obstacle contraptions in their awesome videos. They decided for their song Last Leaf to create a stop motion video using burnt toast. Not randomly burnt however, each were laser-etched to create an image. The toast display a forest, some animals pushing a shoe off the edge, all while the slow ballad sings of the patience of love. There were 2,430 toast used, and 15 still shots for every second. I can’t imagine working with all that toast!

Poster Project

My Digital Media class assigned a photoshop project where we had to create a poster or CD design. I decided to create a poster for an upcoming concert event.  A friend of mine is the lead singer in a band called Another Intention and they will be opening for the Montreal band The New Cities.*  This is a really exciting event for her so when she told me about it, I thought of this assignment.

To begin I started looking through my old concert photos of The New Cities at a show last year. I found a decent shot of them, and then found a picture of a city scene. With these two pictures I wanted to merge them somehow. My first layer is a bluish gradient background, then I changed the opacity on both pictures to make the background colour fade through. I noticed where the pictures met in the middle of the poster it a bit of an awkward transition, just an evident line of where the pictures met. I didn’t like it, so I used the lasso tool and roughly made an outline across, then filled it in with the paintbucket tool to give it a rough paper-like tear. The words probably took me the longest to figure out. I tried out many different fonts and colours. Thinking of the CRAP principles (read previous CRAP blog post below) I created repetition with the blue gradient colour in the words “The New Cities” and the date. I created contrast with the yellow font and blue font, and the big to small fonts. Blending Options were used to create the effects on the fonts.

*This event has been postponed due to The New Cities now opening for Avril Lavigne on her tour. I’ll change the date once it is confirmed and post it.

Some C.R.A.P. in Designs!

The acronym CRAP stands for the principles of design: Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity. It is useful when thinking of designs for a poster, website, book, etc.  Using these principles could create a cool effect on the final layout.

Contrast is when there are two aspects visibly different, like mixing complementary colours or big font with small font. Repetition is when some aspect is repeated throughout the design, for instance a typeface or shape continuously used. This creates a kind of cohesion look, making it visually appealing. Alignment is all about where and how you place things, such as words. If done properly, this creates a great visual connection. Proximity is the grouping of related features, how you organize ideas in the picture or website.

Below are some designs that include these principles…

Album Cover

There are a few examples of contrast shown on this album artwork. First, notice the contrast of the yellow over the dark purple background. On the colour wheel these are complementary colours. Then there’s the vertical large font for “LIGHTS” and the horizontal small font for “the Listening”, also creating contrast. The alignment of the words here are drawing attention to the bottom left, by placing the words “LIGHTS” vertically and “the Listening” horizontally.

Repetition - Painting

I found this painting in a Toronto restaurant, the Rivoli. Just like its name, this painting displays Repetition. There is a Police poster painted on three times, in different colours. Contrast is created with the colours chosen, the black, orange and white on a blue backdrop.

Elle Magazine Cover

All the girls are wearing dresses and red bottom heels, creating repetition. The alignment on this cover is clear, with the girls lined up diagonally along with the flowers, and this leads the attention towards the word “ELLE”. Also proximity is created with the girls grouped together against the group of flowers on the runway.

Red Riding Hood Poster

This movie poster displays contrast with the fonts and sizing of the words. At the top it starts with small font, and then the main title has a larger, different font. Repetition is kept with the same font used for the tagline and the release date.  The colour red used for the title and the girl’s red cloak also displays repetition. The alignment is mainly center for the words, and the girl in the middle follows suit. This creates a clear focus to the girl and the title.

The principles of CRAP could prove to be beneficial when used properly in designing. These principles will create an organized and cohesive look to the project. Using these principles will bring the attention needed to the design.

My Las Vegas Postcard

Created using Photoshop.