Opening Sequences

For my practical piece of work, I wanted to explore the opening sequence further.  I wanted to see how well the themes of the film or game are put forth in the few minutes an opening sequence has.
To do this, I would need to find a well known narrative that spans several media. Alice in Wonderland seemed like the perfect choice as there have been several film and game adaptions. By analysing the opening sequence we can see how well the medium has conveyed their adaptation of the original material.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang - title sequence analysis

The title sequence immediately connotes the film's noire themes. The music and art direction is stylized suggesting mystery and the rich life style usually associated with film noire. The opening sequence weaves between each sequence hinting the plot and general direction of the narrative while the various vibrant colours captivate the audience and keep them interested in the film they are about to experience.

One reason that this sequence may have been so successful is that it is a kind of homage to Saul Bass' work. This opening sequence was made by Prologue, a company specialising in film opening sequences. They are known for producing interesting and stylish opening sequences including Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes and the Spiderman series.

Social Media and Communication

New media works through engagement and involvement.

Promotional collaboration between advertisement and audience for Halo Reach (above)

Viral ads a re now part of daily conversation

Kony 2012

‘the most successful manipulation of our new media ecosystem to date’ (Naughton, 2012)

- The internet is the biggest idea since the wheel

New models of creativity created by the internet
 - larger teams
 - online communities
 - ideas now have a broader range and can be communicated quickly
 

visual communication

Denote/connote and cultural context

 Cultural connotations of the building have been 'wrapped up' and thrown out by artist Christo

-  ‘How does meaning get into the image? Where does it end? And if it ends, what is there beyond!’

     Roland Barthes ‘The Rhetoric of the Image ‘ in  Image,   Music Text 1977 p.32

Communication

Cybernetic theory is useful for researching how as a designer your work makes effective communication

Three levels of potential communication problems -

Level 1  Technical  Accuracy

  Systems of encoding and decoding

  Compatibility of systems/need for specialist equipment or knowledge

Level 2  Semantic  Precision of language

  How much of the message can be lost without meaning being lost?

  What language to use?

Level 3  Effectiveness  Does the message affect behaviour the way we want it to?

  What can be done if the required effect fails to happen?

Semiotics

Three basic concepts-

- Semantics

  - the meaning of a sign

- Pragmatics

  - context of a sign

- Syntax

  - relationship between signs

- Communication as the extension of the mind and of the nervous system

Rhetoric - useful for thinking how you are going to communicate certain affects to an audience

 

Unity

Unity is an open source program used to design games. One of the best things about Unity is that the game you create can be played on the PS3, Xbox and mobiles.
After being shown the basic toolsets in Maya, I found it easier to work in Unity. At it's basic fuction, Unity is essentially a drag and drop tool that allows you to easily place assets wherever you want them to go. Unity has to be used in conjection with Maya and, in turn photoshop, to create a good game level.

To get our heads around Unity, we were tasked with making a simple level featuring basic assets, textures and lighting.

Here are my results.

Game art

Some weeks ago we were introduced to the new module, game art essentials and we need to create a game space from one of the following three ideas.

- A fairy tale setting

- UFO crash site

- A digital recreation of Kirkstall Abby.

I plan on choosing one of the first two options as I want to give myself the creativity to make something from scratch. These options are also very open so I should research as many ideas and to try and bend the brief as much as possible.
I'm leaning towards the fairy tale setting from playing too much Rayman Origins and Psychonauts.
Both games have a distinctive style that I plan to look into. As I tend to make concepts that are quite realistic, I was hoping to try different styles so that I can develop and expand my skills in concept art.

Here are some images to try and get some ideas flowing.

Gerry Judah

I have recently come across the work of Gerry Judah.

Gerry Judah: Paintings from Sam Marcuson on Vimeo.

He creates these models, breaks them apart and cakes them with paint to make them look like ghostly and eerie ruins. He then props them up to produce a birds-eye view of the painting.
To me they resemble some sort of abandoned base on the moon or the aftermath of a nuclear winter inception-style.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fashion as Photography

- Photographs are a good way to see the development of fashion
- Fashion photography has developed into a new medium altogether
- Fashion just for the camera

History of Advertising

Creative Advertising

- Message is told in an interesting and innovative way
- Imagery provides entertainment
- ' Advertising, from the moment it was born, was trying to entertain us'
- Art in advertising can be used to disguise its 'ugly' side, e.g. cheap labour in third world countries
- Good advertising requires strategy

Media Specificity

Tools are an extension of our faculties

- We use microscopes to extend the physical capabilities of our eyes, machines to lift heavy objects and sensory devices to detect substances that we can't.

New technologies tend to mimic older versions

- The car, at first, was an engine strapped to a carriage

Medium specificity is the view that the media associated with a given art form entail specific possibilities for and constraints on representation and expression, and this provides a normative framework for what artists working in that art form ought to attempt.

 

An artwork, in order to be successful, needs to adhere to the specific stylistic properties of its own medium.

  “Gotthold Ephraim Lessing 1776

 - Truth to materials

The medium becomes the media which is simply an extension of our own faculties