After trying to decide on an idea for a number of weeks we finally decided to create a script using famous movie qoutes and shoot it with two action men acting out the qoutes.

It was an immensly difficult project and I would be happy never doing stop motion again, that said I am happy woth how everything turned out and the overall look of the piece.

The set itself took four days to create and was  very difficult t0 work around from the couch we made from childrens building blocks that kept falling apart to the gun rack which kept falling. All this though was taken in good humour and is was fun creating the set.

I was given the role of taking the pictures for the entire piece and i apologise for how jumpy the first have of the film is as we had to film without the use of a tripod.

Putting the images into flash proved more of a challenge than we had originally anticapted, as flash decided to crash every five minutes. Eventually though we got all 500 pictures in and were able to put audio to the piece, which were the qoutes from the actors themselves as they said it in thier respective films.

Stop motion I learned is difficult to do yet if done right can look amazing.

This week in Working in Digital Media we visited the Dáil.

Having very little knowledge of town I was surprised that I arrived not only on time but early as well.  I was pretty surprised by the Dáil as it is where our govenment sits and where all irish people look to for leadership I expected a grand, impressive building inside and out. What I got disapointed me in ways I cant describe.

The Dáil is a cramped overly converted husk of the orginal country house that was built several hundred years ago. While the buildings history may be an important symbol more prestigous and modern sites are available, not that I think that by reading this blog the irish government will decide to find a new place to sit. But it really was a disapointment to see this building as a cramped clostrophobic environement.

The tour itself was very interesting, if not yet again, a little bit of a let down. We were led through the Dáil by a fine gentleman who had such a thick dublin accent that you could easily mistake him for someone who stands outside Croke Park on match days selling scarves.

Understandably I am coming off in a negative way here but as someone who, at work tries to achieve a certain standard of professionalism and at times can be described as the definition of the word perfectionist the staff at the Dáil were a dissapoinment in not such a sense were they didnt know their history about the Dáil but in a body language and manner sense. For me there was a heavy sense of disrespect among the staff from the bar maid who gave out to Ronan for not ringing ahead and telling her the group was on it’s way in and it would be appreicated if there was tea made available for us, to the cleaner who had his coat flung on a table in the Dáil chamber.

The Seanad was also a surprise the best way I can describe it is a small function room, the seats are packed in tightly together and there is very little room to move around in. Also when going through the entrance that we were brought through it felt as though we were about to brought into an attic storage room.

I realise over the course of this entry that I have been very critical but as the Dáil is where our government sits and is where important foreign dignitaries get a first look at life and politics in Ireland I had hoped and expected more. The tour itself was very interesting and I enjoyed learning the history of the house and I thank Ronan for first bringing the idea forward but as stated I hade hoped for something that would stun me and was disapointed.

This week in Working in Digital Media our lecturer was Fiona Kelly from Glimmer Digital Design whose lecture today focused on inspiration and where we find it.

She started by telling us that no idea, no matter how original, is just building on something that has already been created and when working on new projects she will visit a number of sites like iStockphoto, etc in order to draw inspiration in creating new designs.

She has worked with many companies since becomming a graphic designer the first of which was with scooterisland.com a site which alows you to trade your moped in for a different one , a strange idea but it seems to work. Fiona explained to us that she took inspiration from many sites in developing the retro graphics for scooter island.

She then began working with Fat Kitty Films, again being asked to design a retro logo using old style fonts and images taken from the 50′s. She again explains that shse was able to develop her idea by searching through the web and finding interesting ideas. She finally settled on one grahic from several original models.

Fiona tells us how the same approach to gaining inspiration is applied across the board in order to develop her ideas. This approach has helped her immensly since she began her work as stated, and allowed her to create a hugley popular banner and island ad for MyHome.ie which recieved several hundred hits after the ad’s were broadcasted.

More recently she worked with PUCA in redesigning there site. once again after recieveing certain guidelines from PUCA Fiona searched through the web to find creative and interesting ideas finally designing a site that both she and PUCA could be happy with advertising.

This “inspiration” lecture I found bordered on playgurism, but I suppose borderline playgurism is not really playgurism and therefore if appraoched carefully, like Fiona does, can help to create good looking graphics.

This week in Working in Digital Media our lecturer was Ron Crabb from Ron Crabb Fine Art. Once again this was a recorded lecture as the original guest speaker we were supposed to have cancelled.

Ron has worked in with many prestigious companies. Most notable is his work in Hollywood working on motion graphics, while also directing and offering advice were needed. Later he went into working free lance while still working with some companies in L.A.

He goes on to explain how he first started in the graphics field working in KABC thanks to a friend. He tells us how when he first began there was no software that would help in creating graphics so everything he had to create was hand made, I honestly cant imagine how difficult that must have been for him and how hard it must have been meeting his deadlines.

Once the Quantel Paint box became available he began working with this in KABC at nights designing one or two graphics a night. This he explains is how he became interested in motion graphics.

Later he started working in Matte painting, creating a scene that doesnt exist so film makers can use it as a set, most notably working on Xmen 2 by creating the dam that bursts at the end of the film, which would have been incredabily difficult to do.

Once again it was slightly strange watching a pre-recorded lecture but it was very interesting and show’s how the digital world has developed over the last number of  years.

She explained to us that during her two years in NCAD she was challenged to think differently from how she had previously as web designers are accustomed to taking very logical approach’s towords problems were as artists are thought to think “outside of the box”.  Her first project that she undertook as an artist was The Cheerup and frankly I have to admit it is one of the most inspired, humourous pieces I have eve rcome across.

The idea is that a person stands on a small mat, as they do two speakers that are attached to the mat erupt in applause, the longer you stay on the mat the louder the applause gets! For someone with a massive ego(like myself) this is a mastery in her field and I would love for it to be sold commercially. Unfortunatly though the only one in existence remains the property of Emma.

For her final year project she mixed her digital skills with her art to develop “Rexotrek” a look at how animals see the world around them. This I enjoyed less as involved watching a five minute long video of her dog running around with a camera strapped to his collar, sitting in that lecture theatre it got very awkward.

Since leaving NCAD Emma has worked on numerous projects including teaching a photoshop course a nights in America. Most recently however she was hired to work in Limerick on a project of her choosing.

Emma chose to explore the science behind hugs. She created a number of devices that when strapped around a person simulated the feeling of being hugged, this I suppose was a further development on her “Cheer up” project.

I dont believe Emma’s lecture had much to do with working in the digital world as it was mainly focused on her art. Art, while I have an interest in it, is something that I would never want to do professionaly it was interesting however to learn how someone who started working initially on web based applicationds ended up in doing art.

This week in Working in Digital Media our guest speaker was Ian Cudmore a free lance editor from Chutney Films. This was the first time he had ever given a lecture and honestly he didn’t really seem to sure on how to approach the lecture. That said it was probably one of the most enjoyable lecture I have had in a long time.

Ian showed us some of the work he has been doing for the last number of years ranging from flash animation’s to music documentaries, it was very interesting to listen to him explain how his life in the digital world has developed over the last number of years.

Ian first started work making mobile ringtones the likes of the hugely unpopular Crazy frog tone and such then moving on to creating music documentaries. The first of which he did for a scotish folk singer who had just released a new album. At this point he made it very clear that until you become succesful in the film making industry it is very hard to make substantial money and the income he does recive would only be enough to sustain him until his next job. This I found slightly worrying as if I do end up working in this field there way be points were I am out of work for a number of months and thus not earning any money, which could be problematic.

After filming a small number of documentaries Ian became acqauinted with Liam Mcgrath, the driving force behind RTE’s hugely succesful show Naked Camera. Ian worked on in the editing deparment for this show and explained how difficult it is edit the program to fit the 24-26 minute time slot allocated for them. Currently he has been working with Maeve Higgins, also from Naked Camera, on her recent RTE projects once again editing and working a small bit on camera as well.

He warned us that getting any type of work at all within RTE is very difficult and that we have to be consistently working in order to attract them.

Ians lecture was very enjoyable, watching his work was a nice break from the usual standard lectures and I hope he is succesful in his future projects as he is an exceptional editor.

This week we watched a recorded lecture from last year’s digital media crowd. The lecturer was Edward Melvin who has been a  project manager at ICAN for the last eight years. ICAN is an advertising and digital communications agency, based in Dublin. ICAN is involved in helping its clients “make the right decisions”, (I highlight this because while I believe there are certain ways not to go about attracting new customers but there is no definite way of attracting new business and therfore ICAN can only assist in an advisory capacity), when approching an advertising campaign.

ICAN also provides:

Web design, Multimedia design, Online PR  and Advertising campagins, to list a few of thier services.

The main thing I learned from Edward’s lecture was to plan ahead and get as much of a clear idea as possible of the end result of a project from the first development stages as many clients who approach ICAN are sometimes unsure of exactly what they want to achieve. 

People choose ICAN because, while appearing to be a small company, they have a reputation of excellence and have been the driving force behind many succesful advertising campaigns, popular websites, etc.

It was interesting to get our first insight into the digital media world and learn how projects are approched from the initial meeting which may take place in ICAN or even in a restaurant, which I found a little strange, but whatever approach brings in new clients I suppose is a good thing right?

As stated before when undertaking a new project ICAN’s clients may already have a specific idea in mind for thier website, advertising campaign, and so on, while some may only have a brief outline of what they want. It is then up to ICAN to develop the idea into a working succesful project that both clients and end users will enjoy. Edward decided to warn us here against the dangers of this as no idea is garunteed to attract new business and clients may not fully appreciate what has been created for them or they may have an idea for the site that ICAN can see failing. It is then up to them to try to convince the client, in  a professional manner that thier idea will not work for them the way they want and suggest new ideas to produce a succesful project.

Edward’s lecture was interesting if not a little strange, as it involved the entire creative digital media year one sitting in a lecture theatre for an hour watching a pre- recorded lecture

 So we’re finally back! Christmas was fun but a month away from college is far to long.  So semester two begins with a list of new modules for us to stress about for the next few months, multi media authouring which is based around adobe flash cs4, digital imaging which takes an in depth look into photoshop cs4 and working in digital media to name a few.  Working in digital media is what I will be blogging about over the next few weeks but I may mix it up with some other stuff that we are doin as well.

week 2

Working in Digital Media is a follow-up module from Personal and Professional Development which we took part in, in the previous semester.  This module focuses heavily on guest speakers and obtaining  an indepth knowledge of how the digital business world works.

 This week focused on learning styles, how we as individuals learn and take in knowledge. There are many different learning styles and depending on how we learn, this can drastically affect how we interact in the workplace and indeed life.  To find out your personal learning style follow the link below.

http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/

     Our guest speaker this week was Geraldine Gray, a lecturer from the department on Informatics here at ITB.  As stated, her lecture focused on how we all learn, and that we must be aware that although we may learn and take in knowledge in a certain way not everyone will take in information the same way as we do.

There are five categories of learning styles, which are:

1 Channel or Mode Learning

This focus’s on how we absorb inf0rmation. Channel or mode learners can take in information in three differetn ways.

1. Visual

Visual learners learn best from seeing the information laid out before them. They can easily recall information they have just looked over, even if they have just scanned it briefly. However visual learners can have difficulty tackleing problems they have not previously seen or read about and can become easily distracted in busy work environments.

2. Auditory

Auditory learners work best when information has been relayed to them orally i.e they should have no problem sitting through a two hour lecture on a friday morning and taking in everything there is to know about the digital world.  Auditory learners can have problems with timed tests as they tend to read slower than visual learners, they can also become distracted by sudden/loud noises.

3.Kinaesthetic

Kinasthetic learners, learn through a “hands on approach” and can be generally found in the building industry. Kinasthetic learners are also usually very active people who enjoy sports and outdoor lesiure. This type of learning can invariably lead to problems in the classroom as kinasthetic learners sometimes experience difficulty concentrating during long lectures.

2 Cognitive strgenths in learning

Cognitive strgenths in learing focuses on how the brain holds information, once again this is split up into three different styles.

1. Linguistic

     learn through watching others and verbal communication

2. Non-linguistic

   Use images to help themselves learn.

3. Affective

   learn through how they feel when doing something or taking in information.

3 The Myers/Briggs Model

http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp

This is a short test deisgned to give people accurate information on what is the best way for them to study and it is also a small personality test as well.

4 Learning styles

The “Kolb model” focusses on reviewing and re-doing in order to learn.

5 Types of learner behaviour

There are many different types of learing behaviours, I wont list all of them here but the main idea behind this is that we each learn in our own way for example Roy Keane utilises bodily-kinasthetic memory in order to improve his football skills

Well thats it this is the end of the semester . Miss ya Niamh bye!

The final lecture today was about typography . It is a type face with a single alphabet for example arial.

Typography dates back thousands of years to caveman’s drawings on rock walls.  Then the first written letter dating back to 15,000bc originates from the middle east, it uses an alphabet called Phoenician, which oddly contains no vowels. Thanks to the  Greeks adaption of their own alphabet we now have vowels, as most modern alphabets originate from the Greeks one.  This alphabet was latter taken by the romans who added capital letters to it, in order to add more emphasis to certain words.

Uncial script came into play later on this added new dimensions to the lower case letters making them easier to write.  Also in this time parchment was introduced and the reed pen replaced the quill. As the alphabet evolved the romans mixed lower case and upper case letters together this is known as the half uncial alphabet.

The renaissance saw another change to the alphabet.  This humanist alphabet was more open, slender and had taller letters, it also introduced the two cases to each other.

Later gothic became the alphabet of choice, a good example of this period is the book of kells, currently located in trinity college, it uses gothic throughout. Also in this period paper replaced parchment and the first printed paper was created by a german by the name of Gutenburg.

In the labs we gave a presentation of our semiotics assignments explaining why we chose who we chose and why we decided to display them the way we did. We were then given our new assignments, draw ourselves once and then draw ourselves again using letters, numbers and characters.  As I said before I am no artist I really don’t look forward to this.