Crit week- 1st-3rd

Overall I was very impressed with the progression that my group has made. There has been significant progression and development in each of their work and I wish them the best of luck for the deadlines. Here is a break down of my group:

Whayne- He has made great improvement, especially with his 3d modelling class. He basically has it all modeled and ready to go. I said that he might need to work on the texturing a bit better as the face that he has put onto the space man's face was quite squint and distorted but thats just nit picking really. I was a little bit concerned with his Screenwriting for digital media as I felt the story lack in any sort of catalyst, good use of characters and a proper structure. But he has a good basis of an idea he just needs to work on it a little bit more. Typography is very easy as because of David Lyons teaching techniques they will most likely have all the typography coursework finished before teaching weeks are over.

Lewis-  Lewis has improved so much. I was so so impressed how well he has worked on his after effects skills. He had only a few media tests done in after effects but they were really great. I have high hopes for him and I'm sure he will get really good grades for his video based coursework. He has followed a lot of online tutorials which has enabled him to do some really cool stuff. But i was a bit concerned that although he is doing well, they are just going to look exactly like an example of the tutorials so hopefully he can put his own style into them. His team project is going well, they all seem to be getting along which is the most important thing of that module really. I was a little bit concerned that he doesn't seem to have that much to do as he is the "graphic designer" or something like that and there is already a character artist and an environment artist so he is a little bit stuck at what to do apart from the name/logo etc just now. But thats for them to sort it out really and for him to stand his ground to get more work or his grade might suffer for it.

Sophie- She has made good progress since week four, in particular her 3d illustration. In week four she had no idea what to do and now she knows what she wants to do and is well on her way to a good coursework submission. Typography, like Whayne is going very good thanks to David Lyons teaching techniques so I have no doubt that she will struggle as if she needed help, David asks everyone how they are doing each week and can ask him. 

All in all I was very impressed with the amount of progress and I wish them luck for the every luring deadlines!

The leaves at night...media tests

So after going out a week or so ago, I noticed when walking home one day the the street light where actually inside the trees that I was filming and the effect that it gave off was beautiful. A dark blue sky, dark yellow leaves and a ray of light beaming onto the immediate leaves giving such a high contrast to the other leaves.

I really loved the contrast and in the second picture the kind of sun like glow even though it was dark, it just shows how lighting can really change how you see things.

Oil and dye- media tests

After my tests with water/oil, it got me thinking about using different liquids with dye, so I whipped out the cooking oil from the cupboard and WOW! honestly, the results I got from this studio session (in my kitchen) was amazing! Basically at first I was just playing around with dropping it in, and because the oil was heavier, it was holding the dye in place here is some videos of the tests starting off...

First of all, pouring in the oil, wow, it was like particle effects that people actually try and make in after effects it was so cool, I think i might try and use this footage in daniels music video as it would be really cool as an effect on top of another video (see a post in the next few days about daniels video)

What was really cool was that when a drop of oil was poured in, little parts came off and floated up and down and it gave like something you would see in a desktop screen saver, it was so aesthetically pleasing, little bubbles of colours floating around.

(video of knife and oil)

Then as the dye kind of settled, I though " hey this is no fun" so I got a knife and started swirling and irritating the dye so it had more movement in it. The results where amazing and I could hear a kind of "swoosh" noise is my head, so I went and sourced a "swoosh" noise and here is the result 

I think it works pretty well, the timing was quite hard to get as I was working in after effects but its still a good attempt.

I then decided to add water and see where that could get me, It was so funky looking, the water sat on top of the dye almost and it gave the video more of a 3d dimensional feeling, there was a foreground of smaller bubbles and a background of large bubbles.

Then I decided to play around with the lightening as it was getting harder to see what I was doing because of the dye

Then things got a little bit messy, not sure if Im happy with the next part, but still- trial and error..

Anyway, I feel this studio session was the best yet, it has really inspired me, keep a look out for more cool stuff to come :D

Out in the park

Well the leaves are just GORGEOUS just now, so I thought I would take advantage of the lovely colours just now and try some movement tests. I have to admit this is actually my second time out filming the trees/leaves as I accidently lost some of my video due to a dodgy card reader so I was pretty annoyed as when I went back to re-film, the leaves/trees weren't as good. But anyway, you do the best of what you have right?

Here are some screen shots of the films(they are so big and take ages to upload)

In these little tests, I wanted to try and capture movement with in nature and kind of how you have this sterotypical image/sound of how leaves/trees sound and look so I mixed it up with some funky trumpet! (also it is only like 6 seconds long but somehow says 30, so dont sit through it all )

Glass and water media tests

Some more media tests here for you. Ive always liked the dye in water idea so I thought I would just give it a go myself! I played around with different colours, Size of glasses, movement (washing machine).

These are just some screenshots of the videos. When I was playing around with the glasses on the washing machine, something AMAZING happened, the glasses started dancing around and moving all over the place, THEN two of them clashed into each other, and it was like a little jingling sound, it was so amazing. I thought " wow this is a really cool way to visualize the sound that a washing machine makes" So I think in the near future, there will be some more tests on washing machines!

Rice and dye media tests

Seeing as last year I put a ton of things on a bass speaker, I wanted to experiment with the things that I used and put them to use in different ways to make up different ways of movement. Seeing as rice was quite a significant item I thought about using it as a way of movement but not in the rice moving, but enabling something else to move through it, this is the results I go, they are pretty cool! But anyway, take a look at this video showing what I'm talking about...

Science says Kandinsky was right – paintings can be heard

I have just found an amazing article about the connection between visuals and sounds. It talks about how when we receive information through the eye and ear that even though they come from different senses the information that is sent to our brain that they are intimately connected so much so that we can define between a  piece of music that goes well to music and one that doesn't go well. Its not just people who are synthesis! This is a really good read and I will probably include it in my essay to built up my case for creating an aesthetic for the eye and ear.

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/media/library/sightandsound