still here

Posted by bredoutey on

For a second I thought this thing was gone.  Glad to see it’s still here.  Probably won’t be able to update anything until Spring Break.  I should read the TOS agreement before really posting much but I imagine they’re not as bad with IP as facebook is.

Somehow the middle of january already….

Posted by bredoutey on

No I haven’t forgotten about this site 🙂

I”m a bit torn between updating and changing content along with layout design on here versus doing the same with my site outside of this CCS related one.  iWeb is far easier to use than DreamWeaver, however it’s not nearly as powerful either.  I’m aiming to work on one (maybe both) or the other site on the week we have off this semester.

I feel quite flattered that I was recommended as someone to hire at the SSC as a Digital Fundamentals tutor, but I’m not sure that I can say yes to anything currently 😦  I have to take my schedule apart and be sure that I can say yes without cutting into study time nor my part time work schedule.  Nice runon sentence huh? 😉

My experience with Final Cut and my understanding of file referencing seems to really show.

On the good side of things, I’m no longer dealing with morning rush hour.  New semester, new schedule.

Week 15. The end.

Posted by bredoutey on

I must admit I’m rather puzzled but, seeing how this is due in 15 minutes, I shall remain puzzled.  There is mention of stationary in week 15, but no mention of an ‘artists statement’, yet on week 14 there is mention of an artist statement but I don’t recall it mentioning the stationary as a separate item.  My statement is separate from the background image via dreamweaver because I know the idea was to apply what we learned about formatting to it.

I’m quite happy this class has drawn to a conclusion.  I learned alot but, I feel DreamWeaver is a very bad fit considering our goals in its usage is merely to create an online website featuring our portfolios and generalized information about ourselves (bio, statement, card etc..).

Dreamweaver seems to be much more oriented to commercial web development, not something so dinky as writing a web page with an art gallery and other various simple pages.  I say simple because I’ve seen the code my yahoo.com email uses for it’s inbox, THAT code is not so simple.

I still strongly prefer iWeb from Apple or just a text editor and firefox.  Though the CSS sheet concept is quite empowering and greatly enhances GUI flexibility to a screen design (or graphic design) artist in general.  Some of the intricacies of DreamWeavers file management system are very close to how Maya coordinates plugins such as mentalray and juggles dependency graph issues such as texture filtering through various node structures, along with utilizing shader networks.  Yes procedural concepts such as how Nuke and Houdini work.

DreamWeaver just seems far far too complicated for the scope of this class.  I understand that it’s industry standard for commercial web deployment but, that’s a bit extreme for what we’re doing.  I hate to think that someones birthday party footage was processed through Final Cut Studio when keeping in mind Cold Mountain (the actual film) was edited in too using its proxy system for offline editing.  DreamWeaver almost feels like the same analogy.  iMovie or Movie Maker is the tool you’d use for an amateur shooting a birthday party.

 

If I need the massive power and creative flexibility DreamWeaver has to offer for my own website I will use it.  I don’t feel I need it currently.  I do however know how to use it now 🙂

 

Meanwhile I just realized I’m over by 6 minutes.  Next semester is in a bit of state of flux.  I want to take Foundations Drawing 2 and keep the drawing skills going but, It would be a 5th studio class even if I dropped English to make room.  Currently registered for 3D concepts and techniques, Animation 101, Intro to 3D Computer Grpahics, and English.  Yes 15 credit hours and I’m a commuter, I must be insane to try this 😉  things really would be far easier if I was unemployed but I can’t really do that.  I’m working without the advantages and disadvantags of someone fresh out of highschool.

Perhaps the best approach really is to simply follow the grid path the academic advisor showed and directed me to.  It has me taking Foundations Drawing 2 the first semester of my sophmore year.  Even the EA chair was a little panicked about the prospects of me taking it so late.  Being a transfer student isn’t always all its cracked up to be.  I am pondering the idea of taking English at a community college over the summer and transferring it in that way.  Would be far easier on my schedule.  Time to get this posted.

It’s nice to have a semester at CCS under my belt.  This school doesn’t fool around.

Week 14

Posted by bredoutey on

Almost at the finish line!  This week we covered mainly creating stationary.  Put the business card and logo into it too.  I redid mine and added blue, want to go with a rather simple design.  I really don’t care for designs where it’s busy and takes the eye a few moments to process.  And for my artist statement:

I enjoy the arts. The raw expression the arts have to offer. The communication of feeling and ideas through art. I have been told I’m quite talented with logic and things of technical nature yet, I never enjoy them. I find them stale and cold, void of creativity. I do however, enjoy using computers and see them as an extension of an artists skillset and talents. I seem to particularly enjoy story telling the most. I have a passion for visual effects and animation. I strongly dislike films that gratuitously use either. I feel visual effects should be used to help tell the story and illustrate the story line, not replace it or be used as filler.

For me it seems to start with an idea of what I want to express or communicate to an audience. What emotion I want to try to convey to them. The feeling, the experience. I’ve always had an interest in computers and the visual presentation of things. So for me visual arts, such as animation and visual effects, seems like a natural fit.

My current work is somewhat on hold becuase of the homework load at CCS. I’ve been slowly working on a 3D render of an alien landscape. It is actually somewhat a prototype to rebuild Multiplicity Perspectives. If the application I’m using doesn’t crash on this rather large render and the visual quality is good, I will proceed with rebuilding it. The original was created and designed in software from over 10 years ago. It is based on a theme from life changing events that occured many years ago. I have had to almost cease all work on it because of the current homework load, I look forward to resuming it perhaps during the summer. I am somewhat challenging technical limits of computer hardware and seeing how accurate the software is in its renderings. How surreal and how much realism can I push into using this software? How in depth I can I learn to use it as an artist?

Week 13

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To my surprise the whole ‘about’ page is actually at the top of the website layout and not setup as the very first post.

None the less.  This week was easier than week 12.  There was far more to go wrong with week 12.  This week I created a logo based on existing artwork I did several years ago and then created a simple business card incoporating it.  I found many links that were broken that I thought were setup correctly, and in the process discovered DreamWeaver likes to hold ones hand while working with it.  I don’t have alot of appreciation for that ‘feature’.  It’s really more a design idea with the GUI.

I have found illustrator a bit challenging to learn compared to photoshop.  For my card I went with a minimalist approach.  I will definitely change it in a few years when I’m a junior or so.

Week 12??

Posted by bredoutey on

Apparently I did not put a blog entry in for week 12.  I thought I had(it would be here if I had done one already).  Learned about linking files and the root versus document path referencing issue.  Kind of messy.  I ended up rebuilding week 12 after it was pointed out that the gallery page wasn’t working correctly.  I also found other broken links and fixed them.  To my almost horror I realized that everything was referencing previous weeks lessons, from say a month ago.

Redid the vector self portrait solely on the pen tool, I feel it looks quite inferior to anything involving a live trace.  Didn’t even use it as a guide this time.

I’m rather surprised how much DreamWeaver wants to hold ones hand on some aspects.  Especially the linking.  It was easier to click and drag icons than it was to manually type in a relative file path.

Wacom Project, who needs a mouse?

Posted by bredoutey on

Did the Wacom Project.  It was rather weird at first to do ‘digital painting’ but the more of I did the more natural it felt.  Photoshop and the graphics tablet seem to be made for eachother.  I can already see how one of these tablets ties into After Effects and Maya among other apps.

What I wasn’t expecting and was surprised by, how incredibly sensitive the tips on the  pen can be.  The Wacoms are far superior in build quality along with performance compared to the previous brand of tablet I’ve used.  Here’s my painting.

Art ‘super hero’ project

Posted by bredoutey on

Finally got it done.  I did it all at once, well almost.  Took several images, some of it from my portfolio and combined it together.  Wanted to do a layered trick effect.  Thus why there are 7 arms.  Took photos of myself in several poses and cut and pasted the arms.  Then added the other artwork.  The idea is to imply working on several pieces at once.