Current Topic: Animation on the Web

For my presentation I chose to look into animation on the web. When designing my powerpoint for this presentation I focused mostly on readability and relating my design to my topic. I chose to use fonts that were easy to read and backgrounds that were not distracting.

One of the major decisions that I made was regarding what specifically to research involving animation on the web. The topic is incredibly vague, so I chose to give an overview of the most commonly found sources of animation on the web. The fact that my topic was vague was one of the problems that I faced in this project. Solving it was stressful to me because I basically had to define my topic on my own. I was worried that I had interpreted my topic differently than I was supposed to. I basically had to take a risk in order to overcome this problem by defining what my topic entailed by myself. I think that I was successful in this.

I am proud of the fact that I was ready to present confidently with all of my materials together on the scheduled day of my presentation. I was surprised that I was one of the few people in the class who was actually prepared for my presentation. I felt proud to be prepared.If I had more time I would have looked into each type of web animation in more detail.

Information that I found:

Webster's dictionary defines animation as the creation of artificial moving objects. There are two common types of animation used. The first and most simple of these fomats is GIF format. GIFs are low bandwidth, low technology ways to create animations. CGI animation is the second common form. CGI stands for computer-generated imagery. This is the type of animation seen today in Pixar films. It looks three-dimensional and much more realistic than GIF animation does.

Animation is used for many reasons on the internet. Advertisements are a common source of animation on the web. Pop-ups often feature moving shapes in order to catch the viewer's attention. Ads that are found along the sides and tops of web pages called "banner advertisements" are another place where animations are found frequently. An example of this type of ad is an ad that says "Punch the monkey and yu will win a free ipod!!" These ads are not very credible, but the animation that they feature draw people in so that their attention is grasped.

Virtual worlds are a new animated phenomenon on the internet. These are social networking sites taken to an extreme. People can create "themselves" and interact with other people in an animated world. These sites are a more realistic version of "the sims." Common virtual world sites are "SecondLife," "There.com," Mabinogi.com" and "IMVU." These sites are sometimes criticized because they are expensive to use. "SecondLife" if the most popular of these sites.

Surgical Simulations are another new common way that animation is used on the internet today. When a person is looking into getting surgery, they can order the animated version of their procedure on the internet in order to see what will be done to their body. The imagery used in these simulations is incredibly realistic and allows patients to be more confident about the surgery that they will be getting.

Tools like "Javascript," "Flashplayer," and "Quicktime" are needed in order to view most animations. Internet archives and video sharing sites are used to search for animations along with other forms of video. The most common of these is Youtube, but Hulu is also becoming incredibly popular.

Today, web animation is becoming more and more popular. It is used in games, programs, advertisements, presentations and so much more. Weekly online animated programs were once a cult phenomenon and are now going "mainstream." A creepy but popular example of one of these programs is "Salad Fingers."

Music Poster: CD Release Party!

For the poster assignment the goal of my design was readability from far away, and for the poster to catch the eye of people passing by. Originally this was not my goal. Before I was focused on the artistic aspect of the poster, making the background a complex picture and using red font that was smaller than it should have been. After seeing my poster printed out I made the decision to start from scratch with readability in mind.

To make the poster noticeable and easy to read I decided to use a black background and bright fonts. I decided which information was the most important and made that information the biggest. Other information used was still big enough to read from a distance, but would not be the first thing to catch the viewer's eye.

I found it challenging to keep the poster simple and readable while still incorporating all of the necessary information. To do this I had to prioritize which pieces of information were crucial and what could be left out.

I am proud of the fact that I was able to start over with little time left and successfully finish my poster. It was hard for me to come to terms with the fact that I needed to throw away my old ideas and start over because my original work was insufficient. I am glad that I was able to overcome this and I think that my final project is much better as a result.

If I had more time I would have played more with fonts in order to keep the lettering easy to read, but also to be a little more creative. I also would have found a more conducive image to put on the poster.

Powerpoint Kiosk

In this assignment my goal was to choose a band and to reflect their style in my powerpoint using music, fonts and colors. I chose Kings of Leon for this project because I love their music and knew that I would not get sick of it after listening to it over and over while creating and editing my powerpoint. I chose to use their song "I Want You" as my music file because it has a long non-lyrical introduction that I thought would be easy to loop in my slideshow.

I was pretty challenged overall by this assignment. I had used powerpoint before and found it simple to make the presentation, but when it came time to add sound and create a sound slide I was challenged. In class everything felt unnecessarily rushed, and it was very stressful because I had never done anything in powerpoint with sound so I struggled to keep up. I found myself being confused a lot in class and then looking up instructions on how to do things online when I got out of class.

Online tutorial sites were a big part of my completing this assignment. They were very helpful and allowed me to catch up when I fell behind in class.

I am proud of the fact that I successfully completed this assignment. Because it was such a struggle I was very releived when it was done. I hope that I do something with multiple steps in powerpoint again at some point in my four years in college because it seems like it will be a very useful tool to master for careers.

If I had more time I would have been more creative with text and backgrounds in my powerpoint. My strategy in this project was to do the basics first and then go back after and add detail. If more time was allowed I would have concentrated on these details.