Specialist Technologies Reflection

Animation Workshop-

I thoroughly enjoyed the animation workshop we undertook 2nd semester with Carsten. Having never used premiere pro before this was the best place to start. Beforehand all my movie and video editing were made using iMovie and now I will never go back. Premiere Pro has advanced techniques and editing skills that iMovie does not.

Having never made a stop-motion animation film before, I found this task quite difficult. Having to take a photograph with every single movement made the filming process longer, but also made it more precise. I believe this is a great technique for short films as the frame doesn’t move too much and the characters are easily modified.

Stop-motion animation also requires large files. This meant we needed to learn how to control the photos and make sure they retain their order. We were taught a technique that I will never forget as it saves volumes of time. Adobe Bridge can import and rename thousands of photos ensuring they are in order. This makes it a lot easier for us to import onto premiere pro. Before importing to Premiere Pro, I put about 60 photos into files making sure the order stays the same (sequence box checked).

Without learning these techniques throughout class there is no way I would have been able to manage over 350 photos and keep them in order for import. The techniques taught throughout this class were basic but incredibly fundamental to my career. I believe this class will give me the foundation to start building and experimenting with my own movie making projects.

Shape of Things-

Building and shaping things with my hands is what I do within my own projects and what I want to do as part of my profession. I believe Shape of Things was an amazing tool for me to be able to experiment and design using different materials and shapes that aren’t familiar to me.

First off, this class really enabled me to think outside of the box and try to understand and relate to the materials I am using, before I use them. I never worried about the GSM of the paper or the size of the paper/ cardboard I am using. I now know how important this is to my end product and how I can manage costs and supply of the materials I need.

I have never made a 3D geometric shape out of so many materials. We used wood, wire, foam, plastic bags, light and Photoshop. This allowed me to build knowledge and experiment with different materials to ensure the best end product. I believe I would never have used most of these tools without having to experiment with them. A few materials I would use again. This class also helped me to develop time-management within myself. As a contemporary artist, recently I have been creating mobiles and wood models, but I only do this in my spare/free time. Having to source through materials and new projects and materials been thrown at us every week made me really sit down and plan out all my experiments before I executed them. This helped me with drawing plans and measurements.

I believe this class has taught me essentials tools towards my chosen profession and helped me with knowledge about the materials I am using. Shape of Things also ensured that I experiment and expand the materials I am using because shapes can be manipulated, twisted and bent and may look better made from a different substance. It has allowed me to step outside my comfort zone and not be afraid of the unknown.

Specialist Technologies: Geometric Shape

Throughout Specialist Technologies we undertook a range of tasks using multiple materials. The first task was to choose a geometric shape: I chose a diamond.

The first week we were asked to choose a shape and replicate it using paper and/ or cardboard. I chose to use both as these materials are so far from each other. After testing out multiple techniques I found the cardboard was firm enough to hold this complex shape but cello tape wouldn’t be able to hold this down permanently (glue next time).

I also stated to experiment adding tabs and folding the drawn side in so the diamond looked perfect with smooth edges. The paper ones came out great but were weaker than the cardboard.

 

The next task was to create our shape using wood, wire or foam. I chose to use wood and wire, although they both proved to be difficult. At first I tested out bending twigs and sanding wood, but found kebab sticks were the most effective way of receiving a solid outcome. The wood diamonds also look really cool when spinning, they remind me of spin tops. I also made multiple sizes.

The wire diamonds turned out to be the fiddliest. After many attempts at folding, bending and twisting wire into diamond shapes, I have three outcomes. One, a bent 3D model made like the kebab sticks, only less accurate as wire was hard to mould. The second attempt by layering the wire to make it thicker. I did this by twisting multiple strands together then folding. The third is a flat but abstract version of a diamond. This was made by pinning pins to the wall and folding wire around. After creating the outline I added more wire in the middle diagonally to create a 3D effect of a diamond.

The third task was to create/expand our shape using clay or plaster. I chose to use clay as I have only worked with it once before. As there was no mould for a diamond shape I hand made two diamonds.

 

The next weeks task was to expand our shapes and idea’s using light play and space. We were asked to create our shapes using plastic bags. As mine was quite hard to form from a plastic bag I used the kebab stick diamonds as a sort of mould the diamonds harsh points. I then taped the bottom to give it a finished look. As light play needs to be used I thought I’d experiment using lamps and candles. I really enjoy the finished effect as you can see the kebab stick in the centre and it starts to dance and leave shadows on the walls. This excersize really helped me to understand that best idea’s come from experimentation and not to be afraid to step outside the box and use new material.

 

The last task was to make our photo’s and shapes look aesthetically pleasing using materials we enjoyed working with. I really enjoyed using plastic bags and wanted to play with the photo above. The task was to create a moving image or expand your idea’s using photography. I decided to use Photoshop. The biggest thing I learnt from this was to experiment with materials and learn to look at things differently. So this is what i’ve applied within the last task. Taking one shape and turning it into a complete different objects. E.g. A bid house, road sign and clock.

 

 

Peggy-Jane Keddy:  Enterprising professional:

ICIB5402- Reflection Assignment.

For the In-class Assignment set out second semester, I was in the Marketing Team. Marketing is something I have always been interested in but have never undertaken and jumped into this category once our project was announced. First off as a team we needed to understand what Marketing actually is. We had one lecture performed from Charlie McDermott that really covered marketing and its values “Market Clutter’. This really helped our team understand what we need to do right from the start.

As a team, so far, we are working well together. Bella was set as project manager, Lucy and I were communications, Drew and Juhi are our research team and Geneva and Charlotte were editing and finalising our content for market/business plans. Having set roles has really helped our team move quickly through this project. We aren’t all looking for the same information and can all stick to separate tasks. I have been working closely with Bella and Drew on coming up with different strategies to market our desired project. A few members of the team haven’t been completely involved so Bella and I are picking up the missed information to help out the rest of our team.

Within the first two weeks Geneva and Charlotte had finalised our market/business plan along with captions so we can add content and idea’s immediately to social media or the website itself. I believe we have been organised and focused, this has allowed us to stay on track and be able to give the appropriate information to the other teams when needed. As communications, I have been vocal with the other groups on what they need from us and what we need from them. This has allowed my team to continue completing task after task and not be held up from other teams.

BaseCamp has really helped my team communicate and share information digitally. It is an online/web database that lets you group and collect files and information for projects/business’. It allows you to share privately and I feel as though this was a valid platform for sharing idea’s and links safely. There is also an APP that links straight to my phone, so if any files, docs or messages are sent I received them straight away. I felt I was communetive with my group on there. I also set up a Facebook group chat for quick ideas, meeting schedules and absences. Bella copy/pasted our conversation to BaseCamp so Chris can see who was involved or not.

Although the branding team aren’t ready for this, we have been making posters/ stickers to post around Unitec. This will increase our chances of having a large customer base, but also lets our fellow peers and community members know what is going on within the area and how they can be involved. I have been really interested in setting up a competition for our followers and have made a sponsorship template to send out to other businesses to see if they will help. I have also set up a simple survey to understand where our target market would be and what they really want from us. This will be left at Tapac (Performing arts/dance/drama centre) for adults to fill in in between classes. Another strategy I have suggested is using chalk and writing our Instagram/Facebook name around Unitec. This is called Urban Marketing and is perfect for a student and art based market.

Overall, I am really enjoying this experience and class, as I will need these skills after leaving Unitec for promoting my own work. My end goal is to work in contemporary/ product design and I feel as though this has given me the tools and guidelines to be able to achieve this once I leave. I have never been paced in a business environment and believe this has given me the confidence to be able to express my ideas and market my work in a productive way.

 

Stop Motion Animation Poster

Stop Motion Animation Final Film

The above is the link to my final stop motion animation film. The format we used was 25 frames per second so approx. 220 frames over-all. My stop motion animation film turned out pretty good. I had fun playing around with speed duration to prolong dramatic scenes and fasten the pace throughout his travels. We were also asked to add colour and audio to the film.

My colour correction is used throughout the film in various ways. I’ve added contrast, lowered saturation and added different tones E.g. Black and white and red in dark or scary parts of the film.

The audio i found was downloadable free from youtube. I used the gunshot sound right towards the end of the film. I dragged the gunshot sound out and softened it towards the end adding some mystery to what happened or who got shot when the screen started to go black.

Progress: Stop Motion Animation

The photo’s above explain the filming process our team under took for the stop motion animation project. We used approx. 3-4 hour period of taking photo’s one by one in order to create a sequence for our film.

I believe this was the hardest part of the task so far as we had to be very precise. We also had problems with our tripod so had to free hand for a few photographs. This meant the photographs weren’t taken in the exact place. I will have to go back and crop to edit these in the future.

 

Export- Framing the Scape Presentation

Final PDF Framing The Scape

Story Worlds- Eportfolio Writing

Throughout the past couple weeks we have been lucky enough to have 8-10 guest speakers in to help us understand how they frame their practices in order to to develop their creative idea’s. Gina Ferguson was the first guest speaker to really help me to identify how to frame my creative practice. For her, she used to be obsessed with hair, but not the beauty of it. Her aim was to make beautiful things look grotesque in order for us to not take the value of the object but to look at it from the opposite angle. She loved having long hair and thought it was odd that we think of dead fingernails and skin cells as a beauty monument on our own bodies. Her task in her own creative practice was taking the beauty and showing the true and real side in which it sits, mostly being grotesque. ‘I really like idea’s that repulse people,’ she says. Her practice also aspired to me as one project usually leads to the other which is how my best idea’s come out.

Emma Smith a contemporary artist, developed her painting interests from a German book found in her home when she was young. The book ‘Unpainted Paintings’ was a book written all in German, so for Emma not being able to read it was truly engaged by the paintings within. The artists within the book were painting in secrecy, which she thought was so sad as all works were muddy, dark and grotesque. She then as a child went to a Maori carving show. She explained that the beautiful Whaikaro carvings in dim lit rooms struck her. They formed immense beauty and power that she hadn’t experienced before that then lead on to her own sort of dark and empowered paintings in the future.

We also were lucky enough to hear from Documentary Photographer Allan McDonald. Allan started off taking photo’s of absolutely everything. Cars, motorbikes, friends hanging out. Whether or not relevant to him at the time he would take photo’s of everything that caught his eye in order to figure out who he was and what interested him in life. Around that time there were a lot of marches and soldiers walking around protesting against the Vietnam War. He used this to his advantage taking beautiful photographs of protestors and soldiers through New Zealand. These photo’s are politically correct, raw and current to NZ history which helped him to determine his final career of a Documentary Photographer.

Listening to how all these amazing contemporary artists framed their own practice, I wanted to figure out what really determines mine. A lot of my works are prints using water colour and oil paints, and I’m also really getting in to spatial interactions and film photography. Water colouring has been in my family for a number of years. My grandmother was a painter using water and some oil paints in the 40’s. She mainly focused on beaches and naturistic scenes from around where we lived in Owhiro Bay, Wellington. When I was younger I’d always paint with her, instead of sitting there watching for hours, and became really good at it. I really loved the way the water could turn such a harsh colour into the lightest pigment.

Film photography came a bit later. When I was around 10 my Uncle Tim brought a farm in the Wairarapa, Wellington. Every weekend we would head out there to play with the cousins and help with the gardening and animal up keep. My uncle had a old camera lying around that I used to borrow to take photo’s of all us kids hanging out down by the river and playing in the gardens. He used to then develop them throughout the week and we’d all laugh the next weekend.

After a couple months of using his, my mum thought it was time to buy my own. I brought my first Pentax 35mm film camera when I was 11 and have used the same ever since. I have now started to incorporate my photo’s with my paintings. I usually develop the image, scan through to photoshop, which then I take the line work and reprint to paint over. I believe mixing my own natural photos and adding mass amounts of strange colours and thickness using oil and water paints really brings out emotion within the works.

Listening to the guest speakers has really helped me figure out how and why I have come to this area of creative practice and how I can develop my work into more for the future. Before this, I really never understood how my work had come to this place and how much further I can take it.

Reflection:

Throughout this process I’d really focused a lot on patterns and layering and wanted to find artists who sort of did the same. For me, shuffle my verb was a movement, almost like some thing is being unfolded. I found two main artists that I stuck with, both on Pinterest. These two lead me to other artists’ patterns eventually but I started here.

The first was Charles Kalpakian. He made these walls of rectangles that glowed and showed depth and structure using light. They look like they are 3D but his main focus is to outline the shape using dark and light shadowing, making it lost like they are almost shuffling across the page.

The second was Donald Judd. An architecture specialising in creating tight but comforting spaces. His houses/ building are all blocks with big gaps of lighting making the hallways and rooms look a lot bigger than the actually are. He can make a ten foot hallway look 100m long but adding light gaps and angling the square walls around the hallways. His work looked as though it were shuffling to me because the space continually carried on angling and folding over itself.

In the brief we were asked to really focus on positive and negative space, which I’ve really tried to do without my works. Using harsh blacks and clearer whites I was able to show contrast and texture between the two using a range of different mediums. My main mediums were spray paint, collage and layering of patterns. I loved this task as it challenged me to think and use things I would never have used before but also develop my work further and further.