review and questions

In order to construct narrative, I knew from the beginning that I wanted to tell the story of a dying flower. However, my concepts of beginning, middle and end changed as my work progressed. I originally was thinking only on a small scale but as I got further in, I realized I wanted to add a new beginning - one that showed how the flower got taken away from its family. Because of this addition, I was able to add perspective into the narrative. To keep the viewer engaged I was able to add sound to boost the narrative. The first few seconds are filled with noise that is harsh and jarring, to reiterate the pain and confusion that is occuring in the narrative.

In terms of sound, I am not a very sound conscious person. After these projects I realized how much sound is out there, even if we are not aware of it. I never thought about sound in relation with my work before, but can now see the difference that it makes, and the whole new level of interest that it can add. Even if sounds are not perfect, they can add another element to your work that you may now have been aware of, and this adds a whole new depth. It can also take away from your work. It can change the meaning of your work, or overwhelm it. In terms of my personal work, the sound is usually non-diegetic, and serves as more of a background mood. I also made use of promiximity to accent the closeness of an object to a viewer.


Question for GradComD:

As technology advances, how does a designer find the solution between an online based world and a traditional print based world? What is the difference in audience between these two groups and how does that affect the design? How do we balance these two mediums to keep them as one even more powerful tool.

What is the best way to engage an audience?

How does working with others influence our designs? Does looking at a larger context defeat what our original idea was or improve it?

What does a school with a traditional curriculum have to do in order to prepare its students for work in a world that changes in the blink of an eye, without compromising its core values. What is the most effective design approach? Does design have to motivate or change someones values or opinion in order to be considered good?

Does our school need a class that discusses design theory and current design trends in a information and discussion based approach? What can our school do to be more progressive about the way the students think about design.

Regarding sound

The animation process has been a long and difficult one! My animation is finally at a point where I am happy with it. In terms of sound, it has evolved from my original idea. When I first began thinking about sound I knew that it had to be soft and easy to listen to. My symbol is based on the words earthy and romantic, and that definitely shy away from using a sound that was too loud. However, when browsing sounds i had found some "mystery" sounds that I really liked. I combined these with a pretty guitar riff that my boyfriend had created, using audacity. The sounds synced to the animation because of the movement of the heart. I linked the "mystery sounds" with my "creature" taking deep breaths, building tension, and then jumping. However, after getting feedback from the class I realized that there was still too big of sound difference between the sound effects and the guitar. The sound was "bigger" than my animation. In order to fix this i decided I needed new sounds. I did some research (aka - listening to my ipod) and an Iron and Wine song caught my attention. I tried to use this song in my animation but it just did not sync up properly. After a little more research, I found another song by them that I actually preferred. The new song loaned itself better, and I like how it doesn't just fit the romantic and earthy words, but it also fits with quirky.
As the animation "evolves" (it bursts from an egg, develops appendages, breathes, and then flies away) the music accents these motions. I used audacity to crop the sound how I needed, and created a fade out to emphasize the logo as it flies away. I think that the sound suits my animation now and they work together, where as before, they were fighting.

I really like the way my animation has turned into a little creature. The elements are so abstract that its nice to see that they can work together to form something. The quirky symbols can be seen as eyes, while the earthy symbol can be seen as legs. The romantic heart is the life force behind the logo and is what propels it to breath and then fly. It becomes free and follows its own path, which can be seen as another representation of me. The interactivity is nice as well. The last version of the animation had the logo just being there. I was stuck for a long time about how to add length to my animation. But by adding the hatching in the beginning which is triggered by the button, you see how it develops and can recognize the individual parts as well.

New logo

The words I ended up using are: earthy, romantic, and quirky. I liked the symbols that I had originally come up with, but after getting feedback, decided to work on some combinations with symbols from another idea that were bolder. The word romantic I had wanted to use, lent itself to another symbol that I had drawn that could be interpreted as being heart or leaf shaped. The word earthy has a very delicate shape, and needed to be balanced by a bolder shape, which I found in the symbol for quirky. I played with rearranging the elements until I found a combination that I liked (last image) The process of combination and collage was useful to see the variations that I did not originally see.
I like my hybrid image, it reminds me of a sort of carefree bird creature. I like the combination of recognizable objects (leaf/heart symbol) with the more abstract bubbles and branch (quirky and earthy).
As far as the animation goes I plan to have a construction/deconstruction theme going. I can picture the bubbles rolling and bouncing across the screen. I think the fact that they have an inner circle as well will help make it even more interesting. The heart symbol would be interesting to pulsate like a real heart. The earthy branch could perhaps flutter as if it was in the wind or grow into the three leaves. I haven't thought too much about sound yet, but it will probably be gentle and soothing because it reflect my personality more than something loud.

logo idea

Final Movie

sound

After completing this project, I became much more aware of sound. I now hear it it in places I never noticed before. While watching tv the other day, I noticed the choice of background music they were using to enhance tension, even though the tv show was a reality one. Before this exercise, I had never really given sound a chance, because I am not a musically inclined person. It is refreshing to know that sound does not have to relate to only musical instruments, or those with a good sense of rhythm (not me!) I liked being able to create sound out of everyday objects, and still have it work to create mood in an animated piece.

The project where we swapped sounds in class was very helpful. It is interesting to see how random pieces will still sync up to your images. This helped me realize points in my animation where I could work at making the sound sync up and add more depth. I also noticed the use of a steady beat in two of the works (both the male members of the class!) and the importance of using a variety of sounds.

My challenges for this project were finding sounds that would work with the mood of my piece. Some sounded too happy, and others were too machine sounding. I think that in my piece I made use of background mood, selective sync, object movement, and allusion. A flower dying would not normally have sound, but it was added to emphasize the pain and sadness it would experience.

sound!