Flash

Today we did a tutorial on flash, learning how to create simple action buttons. The idea is simple but i found that creating just a single button is quite complicated. First we drew a cirle and made it into a button by clicking Modify>Convert to symbol>and selecting 'Button' from the options.
Next we changed the colour of the button depending on the interaction, so if you hover over it with the cursor it changes and if you click it, it changes.
We then made 2 new scenes with still photographs on them and linked the buttons to the pages.
As i said, the idea was simple but it takes alot of thought and one wrong step and you may have to start over.
I was happy with the outcome and may try to use it in my final outcome.

Illustrated Stop Motion

This video, along with others, (William Kentridge-Automatic Writing) gave me some inspiration to put some drawing into a film, i want to take some simple photos of a person walking along and use them to draw out an illustrated animation.

Stop Motion: First Video

This is the first video we shot in a group, it was just to form a basic understanding of how to make a stop motion video.
The process is very simple, you use the camera to shot still images, if you want it to be smooth you have small movements in between shots, if you want it quite jolty you use larger movements in between shots.

Social Networking

We looked into social networking, the first thing that pops into your mind is Facebook or Myspace, but we quickly discovered there was a lot more to it then that, you have to consider all the different websites and software and hardware involved and we discovered that this technology has quickly evolved over the past 20 years.
First we came up with as many social networking media as possible, these included; Facebook, Myspace, Skype, Flickr, Online gaming, Spotify, even phones and texting services.
These mostly link to sites such as Youtube and Google maps which use geotagging and embeded urls to work seamlessly with other sites.
The hardware we use to utilise these applications are things such as Computers, Mobile phones, Games consoles,TVs and even sat navs.
15 years ago none of this would have been possible and it made me realize how dependent we are upon modern technology to communicate and plan our day-to-day lives.

Stop Motion

After looking at Stop Motion animation i have decided to research it and find out exactly how it works. The idea is to take a series of stills or short motion capture (no more than about 2 seconds) and to put them together one after another, this creates a jolty but interesting video. You can use different varients such as light and dark, and using different objects, to make scenes more interesting and make it look as if things are dissapearing and re-appearing.
For example, Eadweard Muybridge used a camera to take the above images back in 1879 he then used his 'Zoopraxiscope' which was a drum with small slits in it (Inspired by Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope), to show the horse in motion.

Various Artists

We looked at some film directors and watched some videos based on the idea of journeys and also some different technical shots. The 3 artists we watched were Spike Jonze, Michell Gondry and Johnathan Glazer. Johnathan Glazer has done many adverts such as one for 'Wrangler', which shows the journey of a man in his Wrangler jeans, who is hitchhiking across America and seeing the sights along the way. Spike Jonze uses camera effects such as recording a video and playing it backwards to create a more interesting video.
Some of these videos reminded me of a video to the song 'Right here, Right now' by Fatboy Slim, it depicts a single celled organism going through the journey of evolution and eventually ended up as a man. I want to have a look into how this was done and try to replicate it , maybe in a simpler form.

Koyaanisqatsi

We watched a section of a video this morning called 'Koyaanisqatsi' it was described as a 'feast of sound and imagery' and has apparently been the influence of countless directors in everything from music videos to tv programmes. It was recorded in the 70's and features many camera shots of different environments ranging from deserts and wastelands to busy cities. The soundtrack over the top is one peice of music which changes with the mood of the video, it tends to be more intense when images of explosions and damaged environments are shown and more relaxed when there is a more calming city or countryside image.
I can see how it may have been very influential to many directors, as it uses shots such as streams of lights from cars which i have seen in many other films after Koyaaniqatsi was made.